It's because young men have to muck in with the household chores;
	It's because of the competition from television and the internet;
	It's the result of the post-war bulge working its way out of the system;
	It's because all these new lodges are taking away candidates from the more mature ones;
	It's because young people can't get the time off that they used to have;
	It's because of the strain on the family budget - it costs too much to go to a dinner meeting.

Whatever the reason we need to do all we can to halt the decline in membership. I suggest that the nub of the problem in marketing terms is that we are just not making the product which we have to sell sufficiently attractive to enough people. To a large extent I suspect that the real difficulty is that not enough suitable candidates know anything about Freemasonry, nor how to join, nor what pleasure there is to be found in it. The second problem is that too many are saying after initiation or even some years later "Well, I tried it but it's not for me". 

	We have seen the benefit of openness in the response to our Provincial Open Day. Several lodges have tried their own open days with success. Why not try one? Guidance is available from Provincial Office on how to go about it.
	Some lodges have already tried to encourage brethren to come by ringing them up regularly and asking how they are and can they have the pleasure of their company next week. Believe me, it works - I've experienced it in a lodge outside the Province and after two calls decided it was time I got my skates on and visited the lodge because they obviously wanted my company!
	Does your lodge always lay on a proper programme of entertainment and instruction for the new brethren when they have to be sent out while the lodge works in a higher degree?
	Have you considered experimenting with changing the pattern of the meeting, for example, by having soup and sandwiches rather then a four-course meal, or even a later start, followed up with cheese pickles and beer (or whatever).
	Some lodges get a dinner and speaker laid on for the ladies while the men are in lodge. That Works - ask a Brother in Arkwright Lodge, for example.
	Does your lodge always have an interesting programme especially when there is no actual candidate, or do you just have another "enactment"? You can easily have a surfeit of these. What about a lecture instead?

There are obviously many other possibilities, but these are just a few to be going on with. But whatever happens, inertia is not an option ! What ideas have you tried and what else can YOU suggest ?