About Me
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, or IOOF, is a fraternal organization head quartered in the North Carolina that has more than a million members in at least forty countries throughout the world. Our members meet in "lodges", as is typical of members of other fraternities, which are the basic units of the order. A lodge may be an actual meeting place or building used by Odd Fellows to meet in, but it is also a local chapter of the order. A lodge has to have at least five initiated Odd Fellows as members, but they usually have many more than that. It all depends on how many have joined through the years, how many have stayed on as active members and how actively a lodge recruits new members to itself. While we may meet in lodges and our members will usually have paid due to and attend meetings at only one lodge the majority of the time, all Odd Fellows are brothers to each other no matter where they hail from, and they are obliged to treat each other as such even if they have not met before. To join Odd Fellows is to join an entire order, not just one particular lodge.Odd Fellows, as people, have traditionally come from all walks of life. While we have had doctors, lawyers, politicians and other prominent community figures as brothers, Odd Fellowship has had a way of attracting people from many diverse backgrounds and those from many trades as it's member base. (Our founder, Thomas Wildey, was a coach maker by trade. His partner in establishing Odd Fellowship in America was a professional entertainer.) This history has served to make us a "down to earth" group of people and or organization free of any pretentiousness. But no matter what a brother's economic status, race or station in life may be, we all regard each other as equal in true brotherhood. No one Odd Fellow is more of a brother than any other Odd Fellow.An Odd Fellow should be:* A sober minded person not given to illicit drugs or excessive drinking.
* Tolerant of faiths and beliefs other than his own.
* Loyal to his country.
* A believer in a Supreme Being, Creator of the Universe.
* Honest and known for his integrity in all his affairs.All Odd Fellows must be grateful to your Creator, faithful to your country and fraternal to your fellow man.Odd Fellowship is about many things. It is about community service, loyalty to one's brothers, learning important lessons about Friendship, Love and Truth, and sharing the fraternal experience. It is about the positive changes that occur in a person when they feel the air of unity wherever Odd Fellows gather. It is about putting aside political and religious differences, and working with others from different walks of life to improve the world. It is about always striving to be a person of virtue who seeks to grow in our order's three main ideals: Friendship, Love, and Truth.
