Since February 17th, and the 2004 COGMNA, here are the major site improvements:

1. The addition of several testimonials.  Thank you to all who have written. 
2. Expansion of the Links page.
3. Best Practices section (in development), which compiles ideas from Success Stories and the Discussion Forums to give you an overall strategy to combat a specific problem.  The first two will be How to Raise Dues and How to do Strategic Planning. 
4. Updates to the Success Stories area.  I rearranged the format now that new stories are coming in.  Two favorites of mine are Sherburne Lodge's amazing building program and Libanus Lodge's awesome recruitment turnaround.  Completed the Libanus story on 4-9-04.  Be sure to read them. 
5. Addition of a Random Quote module to the Success Stories and Links pages. 
6. Updated the Standard and EA Initiation Table Lodge Scripts on the Downloads page, correcting some errors.
7. The 2004 SVR Tools for Minnesota and Kansas have been released on their respective pages. 
8. Added an essay on the Quality Movement seen in a few lodges of most jurisdictions.  It's under the Current Masonic News section of the Discussion Forums.
9. Made significant edits to the Intro to Lodge Revitalization essay. 

Since the January 5th, 2004 launch of LodgeBuilder, here are the major site improvements:

1. The Intro to Lodge Revitalization essay has been greatly expanded, to better serve as a jump point for your own revitalization effort.
2. Approximately 25 new “tips“ have been added to the Discussion Forums, to serve as examples for the kind of positive content that I want to present here. When this site is fully mature, my postings will be a small portion of the 'knowledge base'. I hope to attract extensive material from other lodge leaders who have had success with specific events or their own lodge revitalization efforts. We all have a stake in this.
3. Now, all available Forum “Threads“ or subjects are visible, as are all current tips. At launch, some of the moderated threads were hidden from unregistered users. You must still register to post.
4. Several documents relating to Strategic Planning have been added to the Other Downloads page.  I'm a big fan of such planning to help ensure consistency in our lodges year over year, and this example of a lodge planning process is a good way to make a tough job simple.
5. I've created three example printouts from the SVR Tool, edited with comments, to help new users learn how to interpret the results. Find them on the SVR Tool page.
6. The original SVR Tool, available through much of 2003 and posted to this site for the first two weeks of January, has been updated to a preliminary 2004 version. It has improved functionality, like the easy-to-use printable pages, and a lengthy FAQ. It still uses data through 2002, as 2003 data is not yet available. Look for the final 2004 version by the end of February, 2004.
7. I've attempted to clarify as much as possible that LodgeBuilder is a personal effort to support lodge revitalization generally. It [was] not [at this writhing] affiliated with the Grand Lodge of Minnesota (my home jurisdiction), although many Masons from my home state are active participants and users of the resources found here. [ed note: LodgeBuilder is now affiliated with the GL of Minnesota, AF & AM, clearing up any lingering concerns over use of the S&C.]
8. I've also edited the language to make it clear that the vast majority of content here is free. In the case of the single fee-based offering, the SVR Tool, please know that this is a separate consultative endeavor of mine, which I developed at no cost to the Grand Lodge of Minnesota or her constituent lodges. If they like the product, other organizations may wish to use my services to help develop an SVR Tool tailored specifically to them. The reasonable at-cost fees for such work cover the expenses of this website and pay my team of database experts.
9. In working with another state on their SVR Tool, I discovered that Excel 97 users could not input data properly. The “Input Page” normally has a half-dozen fields where users can plug in their own numbers, like Lodge Number, or “suggested COLA percentage” for dues increases, or changes to the potential number of annual demits, stricken members, raisings and affiliates. I lock - protect - the rest of this page to ensure that the sheet functions properly. Due to a limitation of the program, on a protected (locked) page, Excel 97 doesn't allow me to designate specific fields as unlocked, or changeable. Therefore I edited the entire page to allow its own password, “leadership”, which is a workaround to the problem. So be warned, if you unlock the Input Page with that password, you may have difficulty if you mistakenly try to change one of the OTHER fields on the page, and inadvertently erase a formula. In that case you'll have to download the original file again.
10. Added a site tracking function (Extreme Tracking), to allow collection of user statistics. Not personal info, of course. Just info on daily traffic counts, referral pages (for example, did you find the site because of Google, Yahoo, etc., or from some other link) and statistics to help improve the site.
11. Added a link to the Masonic Renewal Committee, which is different from the Masonic Service Association.  Man, there are a lot of Masonic websites out there.

-Thomas Jackson