Mason’s Mowing Services

12/10/2025

11/13/2025

Nonprofits tend to loose 75% of those who join. It’s an average, and you will have some bodies who won’t loose any, and those that retain none. It leads to that law of non profits that says with 100 members only 10 will do all the work.

Mentorship in a nonprofit is much like Ozempic to diabetes. It does stem the loss of members that fall by the wayside after they join, like Ozempic has the side effect of weight loss. It’s a goodd thing. Maybe not the original goal, but a welcome side effect.

Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and professional growth of a mentee.

Mentorship helps to develop a better, more active and more motivated member. That is its purpose, but it does have the side effect of keeping your members active and not dropping out.

Am I my brother’s keeper? (Or sister’s keeper) has been a question that has been around since Cain and Able, and the answer in the nonprofit world is simply, “yes you are.”

Not everyone is cut out to be a mentor. That’s the first thing you need to know, there are toxic people in every group that seem to do their best to drive away new members. It’s not something they do on purpose, it is not that they do not love their sisters and brothers, its mot that they do not love the fraternity or that their heart is black, but they just think they are doing the right thing when they speak, when really they are being very harmful..

Second thing is that Mentors cannot be assigned. It just does not work that way. Just like nobody can say to you that from now on you are going to be someone else’s best friend, so it goes with mentors. It needs to be organic.

The active members of the chapter should form a mentoring team. Each of them should reach out repeatedly to the new member to offer a further explanation of the work. The rest of the story… do not wait for questions, but offer answers to explain this or that further. Let the new member get to know you that way, and organically attach to one of you. That is the way mentor relationships form.

Nobody knows instinctively how to just be a memtor. It’s not a skill you are born with, or one that everyone just knows, it’s a willingness to go find an answer, when the question is hard and the answer is elusive.

These are things that are left out of most mentor programs a severe lack of training in person just normally here is a book go read it and we are good. To be 100% honest, a real mentor relationship should be as educational and rewarding for both of you. It should engage you in long lasting friendships and a renewed in depth understanding of your obligations. It should be that one experience that sums up why you are involved in the first place.

There are other factors to be sure as to why nonprofit nimbers shrink, some we can fix, others we cannot. Death, relocation, illness are all examples of items beyond our scope. But accordingl to exit studies the number one reason why people leave a non profit is that the non profit broke its promise to them. Now this can mean may things. The trouble is that a lot of non profits are secret societies and the general public hate vacuums. It leaves them free to speculate what we are really up to. And others wanting that join in the expectation that we actually engage in such practices.

Another promise that we tend to break in the mind if the exiting member is not following onligations made. In many non profits a ceramony is preformed with an onligation taken. Notmally it’s a serious one and it normally includes having one anothers back and defending their character or reputation or so on. When a new member whitnisses another member talking behind anothers back or critizing them, or “did you see what she was wearing?” Or “wow is he fat”, well…. Like to admit it or not, you broke the promise and you cost the nonprofit the member. ALWAYS before you speak think about what you say and can it be perceived by another as violating the obligation.

Hey if they take it and have to live by it, they expect you to as well.

We can’t get 50 members to show up to a fish fry, the chances are we aren’t taking over the world is truer today more than ever. You can join but it’s not going to rocket you to upper management at work, you aren’t going to become a part of the Bilderbergs, and you are not heading off to the next G7 summit. So the key is make sure with new members that you manage expectations. Satisfaction is a direct result of expectation. If you want a satisfied member manage their expectations. These are also what is concidered to be broken promises and need to be managed.

We are all volunteers at a non profit, weather you are a fire department, or a moose lodge, admonished members tend to vote with their feet. Loose your cool and comment derisively, get angry, or yell, and it’s good bye Charlie (or Christine)

So give this some thought and see where you and your actions may be guiding your non profits. You could be costing us our most valuable member.

11/13/2025

Resolving Conflict

Conflict resolution involves finding a peaceful and mutually agreeable solution to disagreements. It's a process that requires understanding, communication, and a willingness to compromise. Effective conflict resolution can strengthen relationships and promote a more harmonious environment. Meetings in a non profit can give big problems as personal feelings and goals can be injured in shaping it for the future.

When resolving conflict in a meeting, remember the three key questions.

1. What would you suggest? If a person will not budge on the situation at hand, put them on the spot to suggest solutions. Do this to both sides of the argument.

2. What would it take for you to agree? Talk to the disagreeing parties, and make them explain what milestones need to be hit, in order to get to the resolution.

3. Can you live with it? Sometimes one party is just not going to be possible to reach the outcome. In order for one to win the other must loose. And that may be a line they don’t want, to cross, but is it tolerable? And if someone says they can’t live with it, go back to question 1.

11/13/2025

We should surround ourselves with people who care about us….

11/13/2025

I was at a meeting of a nonprofit recently, I had 30% of the group talk to be about pressure and bullying by an advisor sent from the corprate body. Enough of this issue that they are not showing up and no longer doing the job of the office they agreed to do. And the first time you think, well…. Personality conflict. After two people you think, well that’s odd, but still…. Three is the limit and you need to do something about it.

You are looking to save the nonprofit, and it would seem that everyone should be workijg towards the same goal. In this, the person doing this is a former CEO with not enough to do, who was sent to be an advisor to the area. Im not sure about the shortsightedness of this plan, as they were CEO over 20 years ago, and have this mistaken belief that the world is the same as it was then. They also believe that if you just drag the nonprofit back to that era, that the group will prosper. And here is the issues with that:

1. Because Gen X, the Millennials, and Gen z have not joined and supported the nonprofit, the people you are “advising” are the same people from 20 years ago. Now in their 80s they are being pushed beyond their limits. But they are still in there and still trying, and kero in mind they are volunteers.

2. The “advisor” is not working at opposite goals than you who want to save the nonprofit. But they just don’t know how. They are working under the misconception that if it worked once, it will work again. (This method not 100% flawed by the way) reminds me of a great requote from the Report from the Inaugural Brookes Hospitality Leadership Forum.

“You think you understand the situation. What you don’t understand is the situation just changed.”

It’s not the same world as 20 years ago, and even though you have the same faces and names from then, these are not the same people, they have evolved, had to accept their limitations day by day, but still come out and try for the greater good.

So to accept and deal with this, how do you advise the advisor sent from corporate? In addition as a former CEO, probably does not like to be set straight, and is not used to it.

3. People vote with their feet. And one of the issues is non revisiting and restatment of misdion and goals. Your nonprofit has to be reminded of their mission and goals on a regular basis. And if we can keep our eye on the prize, (and by we, I mean everyone) we can all work forward to achieving that missions and goals. And the little stuff falls by the wayside. People voting with their feet means they leave. At some point, this advisor is going to be standing there by herself / himself if some sort of level headed intervention is not accomplished.

4. Most times in a nonprofit there is no HR department to intervene in these matters. There should be a way to deal with these situations, by trained personnel, not influenced by politics of the nonprofit to step in and make this right. Sometimes you will find a grievance committee, but this is really not the right path. You need kindness, and forbearance, and a gentle hand guided by corporate policy to correct the situation, and that needs to be backed unquestionably by the government of the body.

Here is the kicker. The new members from the generations above have zero tolerance for this sort of behavior, certainly when they are there voluntarily. If you want and need those members, you had better do something to fix this and fast.

07/02/2024

As many of you know, I do a bunch of work for Kramer Sheds and I belong to Blue Ridge Cherry Valley Rod and Gun club. I was privileged last year to be privy to a plan by Fred Lipe to move the IDPA shed and construct a shed pad that drained away from the base of the T-111 which is rotting. So this winter while Fred was in Florida I was charged with getting the work done before Fred came back. And I take some pride and pleasure that while Fred is out at Camp Perry before he arrives back today we got it done.

First we constructed a shed pad next to the shed and filled in the lapse in the berm opposite the safe table. That I did right away for safety reasons. This week using sn**ch blocks and winches we moved the shed by jacking up the building and putting it on rollers. Then we put in the 4x4 pressure treated frame to retain the stone and leveled it off. Then backfilled the frame with a sand and stone mix for great drainage. Then we returned the shed back to its original spot perched on now about 5” higher on drainage stone. It was 4 full days of work but the result looks good and will serve the club well for many more years.

04/16/2024

I always say it’s all a matter of perspective. I think you do have a green thumb. The plants should have just tried harder……

02/28/2024

This year we have added paving to our roster of abilities. Reach out if you want an estimate from a company you have come to know and trust.

I used to get so sad when I would loose a stone driveway to a paved one, but now we can offer the same great service to you in asphalt that you have come to know from us in stone!

We also picked up a seal coating unit to provide you with seal coating services. And with the equipment we picked up three more technicians that know paving inside and out. Also our man Tony, that you have come to know and love will be working very heavily with this side of our operation.

So give us a reach out if you want to schedule an estimate to get that blacktop that will make your property that finishing touch!

10/01/2023

And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. ~Haruki Murakami

(Book: Kafka on the Shore https://amzn.to/3tk9Cgf)

(Art: 'The Storm on the Sea of Galilee', 1633 by Rembrandt van Rijn)