Hartney Elks Lodge No. 357
Meetings the 2nd & 4th Wednesday of every month
Hartney Elks Lodge No. 357, located in southwestern Manitoba, is a very busy Lodge with a lot of history and a bright future. The Hartney Elks Lodge was instituted in 1952 and the Royal Purple in 1966. The main focus of the Lodge continues to be supporting and promoting our community needs.
Due to the fact that we are so involved in our community we are fortunate to have a very stable and large membership for a small town; Hartney and the immediate surrounding area has a population of approximately 800 people.
We are proud to be the second largest Lodge in Manitoba with 82 members an average age of 47.6 and have an average years of service of 20.7. This is because our membership director and our Lodge have done an excellent job of recruiting younger members who are very active within our Lodge.
Our Lodge recently received recognition for the greatest percentage increase in Lodge membership in Manitoba and our membership director was placed on the rolls of the "25 club" for proposing 25 or more new initiates to our Order. We still have many older members who are involved in the Lodge who are willing to let the younger members of the lodge have more of an active role and do more of the work involved.
This has been important in that the Lodge has been able to progress to where it is today but has not lost touch with the history and the ritual of the Lodge. One of the main reasons we have been successful with membership is because of our focus on fun. We try to have fun in whatever we do, whether is is a Lodge meeting or working at a function; this keeps our members active and interested in the Lodge.
It is unfortunate that the Royal Purple had to hand in their charter in recent years as they were an important part of our Lodge. Our Lodge decided to welcome female members after the Royal Purple handed in their charter, and we are happy to report that we have initiated four lades into the Lodge since this time.
When we look around the community it is easy to see the presence of the Elks Lodge. There are not very many projects that our Lodge hasn't been part of. We are certain that our Lodge can deal with any challenges we are faced with in the years to come and we will work at improving our Lodge and the Order wherever we can.
With the experience and drive of our membership and with continued support of our community we are confident that the Hartney Elks Lodge No. 357 will remain successful in the years to come.