Grand Lodge per capita and annual returns: a guide for the Secretary and Treasurer

Once a year every Lodge settles two accounts with its Grand Lodge. One is about people: the annual return, which reports who joined, who left and who is on the roll. The other is about money: the per capita, an amount paid for each of those members. They are prepared by different officers, but they rest on the same list — and when the Secretary and the Treasurer work from different lists, both come out wrong.

The rules — the rate, the counting date, who is exempt, the deadline — are set by your Grand Lodge’s code or constitutions. This guide explains how the pieces fit, so you know what to look for in yours.

What per capita is

Per capita is the amount a Lodge pays its Grand Lodge each year for every member on its roll. It funds the Grand Lodge’s work, and in many American jurisdictions it comes with further per-member assessments — for a Masonic home, a charity or a building fund. In England and Wales the equivalent is the Grand Lodge and Provincial dues paid for each subscribing member.

Two things make it different from the Lodge’s own dues. It is owed by the Lodge, not by the brother, so the Lodge pays it even for members who have not paid their dues yet. And it is counted on a date, so a brother who demitted the day after the counting date may still be on the bill.

Who counts

Your code decides, but these are the categories to check:

• Regular members on the roll on the counting date — always counted.
• Life members: in some jurisdictions the Grand Lodge collects their per capita from a life membership fund; in others the Lodge still pays it.
• Honorary members: often exempt, but not everywhere.
• Long-service members (for example, 50-year members): some Grand Lodges exempt them.
• Suspended brethren: usually not counted once the suspension is recorded — which makes the date of the record matter.
• Plural members who belong to more than one Lodge: rules differ on which Lodge pays.

A worked example

The figures below are an illustration — use your own Grand Lodge’s rate and rules.

At an example rate of $35 per member, the Lodge owes 82 × $35 = $2,870. If its dues are $120 a year and ten brethren are still unpaid when the per capita falls due, the Lodge advances their share from its own funds — one more reason the dues rate needs a margin above the per capita.

The annual return

The annual return is the Secretary’s account of the year’s membership. Most follow the same arithmetic: members at the start of the year, plus gains, minus losses, equals members at the end.

• Gains: brethren raised (or initiated, depending on when your Grand Lodge counts them), affiliations and reinstatements.
• Losses: deaths, demits, suspensions for non-payment of dues and expulsions.

Each change needs its date. A return that says “two deaths” without the dates, or that records a suspension the Lodge never voted on, will not match the Grand Lodge’s records — and the per capita bill is built on those records.

Keeping the roll and the Grand Lodge in step

1. Record every change when it happens, not in December: the date of a death, the night a demit was granted, the meeting at which a suspension was voted.
2. Use one roll for both officers. The Treasurer bills from the same list the Secretary reports from.
3. Reconcile before the counting date. Compare the Lodge roll with the Grand Lodge’s records and settle the differences before the bill is issued, not after.
4. Follow the arrears procedure on time. A brother who should have been suspended months ago is still a brother the Lodge pays for.
5. Keep the year’s papers together: the return, the per capita payment and the receipts from the Grand Lodge.

A simple calendar

• Months before the counting date: chase arrears and act on the code’s deadlines.
• Just before it: check the roll against the Grand Lodge’s records.
• On the counting date: freeze the list — that is the number you pay on.
• By the deadline: file the return and pay the per capita and assessments.

Where software helps

In Oriente 33 the Secretary and the Treasurer work from the same roll. The Treasurer bills annual dues to the members who owe them — honorary and life members stay out of billing — issues each brother’s dues card when he pays, and sees the Grand Lodge per capita owed for the active members. See the treasury features, read the guide to the Treasurer’s duties or the Secretary’s duties, and when a brother falls behind, the guide to managing dues delinquency.