Symbol: International Order of Odd Fellows
The other day I was driving through the countryside and saw this sign in the “middle of nowhere”… It said “Odd Fellows Hall Church of Christ”. A church had, at one time, started in an “Odd Fellows Hall” in what once was a thriving community.
I’m not going to talk about churches, I’m interested in “Odd Fellows”.
As a college student, the now university I attended was situated in a town dating back to before the Civil War. In the second story of one of the buildings was an “Odd Fellows Hall” . I never knew what that was then but it’s strategic position above the main street in town produced images in my mind of self-proclaimed weird people spying out on passersby from behind a curtain!
The sign yesterday caused me to ask… just who were these “Odd Fellows”?
Long before there was a “Welfare State” with unemployment insurance, medical insurance, life insurance, survivor’ s benefits, credit unions, etc. there were “guilds”. These professional associations of craftsmen formed when there was a critical mass of tradesmen in a particular field. They protected the “arts” or “secrets” associated with their trade craft. They committed to support one another in hard times and promote their mutual prosperity as much as possible. They demanded that members maintain professional and moral standards so that their class of worker maintained a good reputation. If one had more work than he could manage, he helped others in the guild stay busy earning a living. When one passed away or was going hungry, the others would help out – it was their sworn duty.
Everyone saw the benefit of joining such an association. Who wouldn’t want other honest, hard working people “watching their back” as the case may be? Before widely available insurance, there were few other options for protecting oneself and his family from the financial devastation of illness, injury and premature death.
And as you’ll recall, many in that early era were either farmers or self-employed. There were few employees per se or other unions.
There was just one hitch. In many smaller towns or outlying areas, there may be only one craftsman in a particular field. You can’t have a “guild” by yourself!
So in these areas an “Odd” assortment of trades were represented by the society. ”Odd” meant that there was not a single trade reflected in the society. It wasn’t a commentary on the relative “strangeness” of the participants’ personalities! In fact, the truth of the matter was much different. ”Odd Fellows” were required to prove their morality and uprightness before joining… and maintain it.
While there’s much more to their history, the point I want to draw is about how people from different occupations came together to provide support that we today consider to be something that only the “government” can provide.
But even the “government” employment offices tell people to seek work through their connections and network. One of the first pieces of business in such societies was to ask if any present needed work or knew of work!
My point in this history lesson is to ask entrepreneurs (or even employees) what human relationships they are building to truly support others in business and life.
What strikes me about fraternal groups like this is that they were not just “networking groups” like one sees at the Chamber of Commerce. These were people who actually carried out commitments to each other that go far beyond “networking” and backed it up with dues and other contributions.
It would be great if groups that served these same purposes re-emerged in our society so that entrepreneurs could actually support one another in practice, instead of just through empty handshaking!
If entrepreneurs are concerned about “too much government” … the way forward is to encourage people to band together to produce the private safety nets and social networks the government claims won’t exist without them!
Let me know if you have such a support group!
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