From the press release:
Dear Valued Grand View Users,
We’re thrilled to announce that Grand View, your trusted membership management software system, has been purchased by a partnership of four Grand Lodges: the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Grand Lodge of North Carolina, Grand Lodge of California, and Grand Lodge of Minnesota. This acquisition marks a significant milestone in the Grand View journey, and we are excited about the future prospects it brings.
Our vision for Grand View is that it’s owned by the fraternity, ensuring that its mission aligns closely with the values and needs of Masonic organizations. We are delighted to inform you that Brother Jeff Clarke will continue to lead Grand View, and all of its dedicated staff will remain in place, ensuring continuity and stability for our users. Jeff and his team will continue to be your main point of contact.
As we look to the future, Grand View’s immediate goals are to assess and enhance its capabilities to onboard new Masonic organizations seamlessly while continuing to provide robust support to its existing users. Your satisfaction and success are our and Grand View’s top priorities, and we and the Grand View team are committed to making Grand View an even more powerful tool for your membership management needs.
We are also eagerly looking forward to the upcoming Users Conference, where Jeff will share more detailed plans and ideas. This will be a fantastic opportunity to hear directly from you about how we can all work together most effectively moving forward. Additionally, we’ll discuss how other Grand Lodges and Masonic organizations can join the ownership group in the future, expanding our collaborative efforts.
Thank you for your continued trust and support in Grand View. We are excited about this new chapter and are confident that under its new ownership, Grand View will achieve great things.
The first question that comes to mind is whether there will be a beneficial change to the cost being charged to the Grand Lodges that are not part of the ownership consortium. One would hope that this will be at least considered as Grandview is going from being owned by a for-profit (to the best of my understanding) to being owned by four (4) 501(c) non-profits.
ReplyDeleteThe second question is whether the consortium has enough qualified programmers available to efficiently and effectively program new features etc. or whether they will have to seek employee programmers.
From how I understand it, all of the original staff will remain employed
DeleteDo not expect a price cut. Grand View is already underpriced compared to all the other member management systems outside Freemasonry.
DeleteThis seems like an absolutely positive move. I'm pleased to see that they will provide avenues for other GLs to gain ownership as well. Bravo brethren
ReplyDeleteI do wonder however, as more and more GLs begin to claim their ownership, if it will become more difficult to institute changes or implement features on the website. Time will tell!
Over the long term, it could easily devolve into bedlam. As Grand Lodge leadership changes with each year's elections, priorities will inevitably shift as new leaders are installed with their own agendas.
ReplyDeleteCompeting ideas for how GV should function, what features should be changed or added and how feature additions are paid for could become extremely contentious.
Products managed by committee, instead of a motivated founder, seems like a recipe for a bad time. I guess we'll see.
I belong to Lodges in two jurisdictions & have used Grandview in both.
ReplyDeleteSo far, not impressed.
It is fine for address changes. My Secy is happy with it.
Prior to the purchase announcement, what I entered in one did not carryover to the other.
Dates of Lodge Degrees, Officer positions & information regarding appendant Bodies really needs drastic improvement.
The data not carrying over automatically from one system to another system makes perfect sense. Each Grand Lodge is a separate legal entity and owns their data. The Grand Lodges and Masonic orgs in general are very protective of outside actors modifying data in their systems. Each Grand Lodge is as we say a sovereign jurisdiction and thus have separate islands of data. Sync'ing data is one the HARDEST issues in information technologies and is far beyond the scope of a provider like GV.
DeleteThe confusion extends to collateral bodies. In one, my life membership was lost twice, so I again subscribed and became a life member for a third time, albeit in a replacement chapter as the original closed down. In another, after it closed without apparent notice to out of towners, there was no record of membership in the supposed heir. A possible conclusion is that the collapse in membership has been made worse by the inability of record keepers. Brethren, we are in deep trouble and whether Grandview is going to help is problematical.
ReplyDelete