Speaker 1: 0:10

you've reached the internet's home for all things masonry. Join on the level podcast as we plumb the depths of our ancient craft and try to unlock the mysteries, dispel the fallacies and utilize the teachings of freemasonry to unlock the greatness within each of us.

Speaker 2: 0:32

I have you now, let's go.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Hi, ladies, children. Thank you, children. That was nice.

Speaker 2: 1:05

I saw the post on the level page, see, that's what you get for giving me access to the Facebook page Because you have another profile picture. I was gonna throw up, not throw up, but we're live streaming, by the way. Yeah, we are live streaming.

Speaker 1: 1:22

Jasmine Gerbic.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Jasmine Gerbicic is that how you pronounce that? The man, the myth, the legend. He is my favorite bosnian. Yeah, so jasmine is um, jasmine's got fire in his blood and I absolutely love it because we're so similar in how we view a lot of things. Um, it's just that he's got like the muscular density to be a little more aggressive about it um yes and I don't have that yet. I'm working on it.

Speaker 1: 1:46

I'm working on it you've got the attitude and I, I would argue the attitude can go further than the muscles I've, I've got the attitude, um yeah, but you know, jasmine's just just stacked.

Speaker 2: 1:57

He's a savage. We got worse for ryan on here, um you know on the live chat. So from what lodge? Lakelandland Lodge 91. All three of you are from Lakeland Lodge. Yep yep, so Lakeland Lodge represent.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Wow, how many people do we have here? I don't know if you know this yet about Matt, but you're going to want to, like, put a lock on your charter. He has a habit of having charters, yes, so you want to keep yours far from him, please please bring her to lodges. Oh my goodness spend my time and money on them and they will be pulled away forever exactly, exactly so.

Speaker 2: 2:35

Uh, chris, I'm sure we're going to get into it at some point, but the the fans are dying to know. Uh, you had a trial yesterday, so could, could you give us a 30,000 foot view? What are the results? What are we?

Speaker 1: 2:46

thinking. I would say my advice to you is don't get into a Masonic trial. If you can avoid it, don't get into one. That would be my advice. It doesn't end well for anybody and yeah, I see why. There was a lot of interesting things that happened in the trial. The end result was my trial committee found me guilty and they gave me the penalty of written reprimand.

Speaker 2: 3:15

My goodness, you got a reprimand when others have been expelled.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Yes, Well, we'll see. We'll see. That was what the trial committee has given me.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Right.

Speaker 1: 3:28

And everyone was celebrating that as a win. We'll see. That's all I got. I'm still a Mason today, and I didn't think I would be so it's a good day for me. I'm almost as happy as you are, although probably not. You seem extremely happy today.

Speaker 2: 3:42

I'm extremely happy today, although probably not, you seem extremely happy today.

Speaker 1: 3:44

I'm extremely happy today. Oh, I'm very happy today. I've never seen you this happy.

Speaker 2: 3:47

It's a disturbing thing. Give me a little time today, when justice is doled out, especially whenever you've had people and this has nothing to do with Freemasonry, by the way but whenever you have people who have spoken out against you so adamantly and vehemently against you, and then all of a sudden some big scandal of theirs come out. Oh, it's so good and I'm like if you'd have listened to me two years ago, we wouldn't have had this problem, my guy so for the record you're.

Speaker 1: 4:16

You're not talking about anything that happened in masonry. There's nothing masonic whatsoever, because you said it right after my trial and I just want to be clear. No, you're talking about your own stuff, separate from my stuff.

Speaker 2: 4:29

I am talking. So here's what I've learned and here's what I don't like. So I'm a big fan of justice. So whenever justice is doled out, it's like, oh, it's so sweet when it happens because I try so hard and I know a lot of us do but I try so hard to be straight edge, to be upright in all my interactions with man and masons. I mean it's I really try my best to be an honest person and I realized a liar would say that exact same thing. They would. But, and they do, you know, I I try my best to be, you know again, up front with everybody, and even still like I'll take the back seat on something if it's what's good for the whole, uh, as my archetype would dictate. You know, we had that, we had that uh episode a few weeks ago, so our last week. So, but when something happens and justice comes out and justice is served, oh it's a beautiful thing for me it is.

Speaker 1: 5:19

It's such a beautiful thing to see justice happening oh, it's delicious I do want to say I, although I can't really give any specifics about my, I do want to say that my co-counsels that in the trial room with me were most worthful. Glenn bishop and right verse will joke to ladies oh and um, I lost my wallet, like I was telling you before we started recording right. I was literally destitute and desperate and Glenn not only helped me in my trial, he drove me to the airport personally. He gave up lunch with a lot of people that wanted to have lunch with him, because he wanted to make sure I got on that plane. He stopped to get cash so that I could eat, because he knew I hadn't eaten in an entire day because I had no money. So he gave me cash. He drove me to the airport. Glenn Bishop is a hero.

Speaker 1: 6:13

What a good man, right my goodness, personally, he took me right up to the door and made sure I walked in. He followed up with me to make sure I went to TSA. Okay, because that was a whole fiasco. So Glenn Bishop is the man.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Man alive, shout out to most worshiping.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Glenn.

Speaker 2: 6:29

Bishop, good man, good man, good Mason.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Now, today, the topic of the podcast is the top 10 things you need to fix before bringing New Brothers into your lives. Yes, because everyone thinks the problem is we need more members. Right, we need more members, we need more members. And you'll hear some people say we need active members or we need, like, good members. Um, I'm, what we want to talk about today is, let's roll it back a little. We, we do all need members in one way, shape or form right, but realistically like, in order to keep those guys and to not tarnish the fraternity's reputation to people that come into the fraternity. What? What are the top 10 things you can do to prepare your, your lodge and yourself to receive those new nations?

Speaker 2: 7:19

don't let dummies through the west gate. It's super simple. It's so, so easy. So I've said this on the podcast before and he just put it in the live chat as well. But Worshipful Jasmine has a phrase and I love this phrase. I absolutely love it. We were doing an investigation on two NPD brothers and the thing that came out of some of those conversations is Worshipful Jasmine goes we don't need more members of the lodge, we have plenty of those. We have over 200 members at Lakeland 91, but we need our masons. This lodge is headed in a particular direction, and this particular direction is that we are building the lodge. We need people that are working. Worshipful Ryan, he's in the chat as well. Worshipful Ryan came out and said look, many hands make for light work. We don't need more mason. We don't need more ring knockers. That is not what we need. What we need are masons, and I full-heartedly agree with that.

Speaker 1: 8:13

That bears the question what is a mason? Ooh, what is a mason? I think we could probably do a whole podcast on what is a mason.

Speaker 2: 8:23

We probably could.

Speaker 1: 8:25

You know, a lot of Masons probably can't even agree on a definition of that, which is crazy. Crazy to think about that.

Speaker 2: 8:38

So I would argue, and I agree with you. We could probably do a whole episode on this, but I would argue a person who is a Mason is one who actively implements the teachings. If you actively implement the teachings, you're not sitting on the sidelines, you're not just standing up being a disruptor. If you're actively implementing the teachings of masonry and you're using all of your working tools, then that's going to compel you and I'm the same way in church as well. If you are a follower of Christ, it is going to compel you to do certain things. If you are a Mason who is implementing the teachings of Masonry, it's going to compel you to do certain things. If you do not do those things, you didn't implement the teachings properly, right?

Speaker 1: 9:17

I used to say that a lot about toxic masculinity. There's no such thing as toxic masculinity. If it's toxic, it's not masculine.

Speaker 2: 9:24

Yep, that is a statement. I will die on that hill, yeah yeah, there's no such thing as toxic masculinity, but there is such a thing as the absence of masculinity, and that's where you see problems. Isn't that the opposite of that femininity? No, I wouldn't say femininity is the opposite of masculinity. But if you but having masculinity or masculine nature, um, you know, being uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Uh, being more, um mature in how you handle, you know conflict and how you handle situations.

Speaker 2: 9:59

Uh, yeah, sorry, like as a man being more mature, yeah being a little more stoic, being able to implement those things that, in my opinion, would be the presence of masculinity. If you don't have those features, then a male failed you somewhere along in your life.

Speaker 1: 10:18

We do have a comment from Jasmine A mason. Definition of a mason is that to to him it's at least trying his best, being active in lodge, making grounds for future masons to have an active lodge. I agree, I can get on board with that, I agree. The key thing there for me is, um, what really differentiates us, at the end of the day, from the profane man is that we are actively trying to do better. But a lot of masons have the same issues that the profane world has. A lot of them, do you know they do. But what makes us different is we tolerate because we have to assume that they're trying to do better, and that makes things a little more unbearable, like you can put up with it, because you know they just struggle, they just fell down, but you know they're trying to do better. Yeah, and I think when we treat each other that way, it makes our interactions a little easier.

Speaker 2: 11:12

Well, and again, that's if they are implementing those teachings and lessons.

Speaker 1: 11:16

So that's because otherwise you're just protein. You just right. You just got a name because you paid your dues right you're not're not a real Mason. Otherwise, if you're a mino, you're a Mason in name always.

Speaker 2: 11:27

Yeah, you're a mino, you're a mino. Yeah, that's better. Yeah, you're a mino, you're a mino yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:36

So, either way, yeah, so if you're going to go into Masonry and you have the intention of I'm just going to be the same insufferable prick that I've always been, don't go into masonry, you know, if you, if you're going to do that, you're going to get to go into any social circle, I don't care what it is. It could be one of the critter clubs, it could be a church, it could be, I don't care what it is. But if your thought process going into it as a man is, oh, I'm just going to go into this and I'm going to achieve, you know, being able to wear a ring. You know that the green lanterns ring here. Yeah, if you're my power uh yeah yeah I'm gonna.

Speaker 2: 12:06

I'm gonna put a sticker on my car, I'm gonna get the license plate, like all those things. You're not a mason, bro. I'm sorry, I hate to say it, but you're not. I mean being a mason, um, that, yeah. So what would you call describe a card carrying member is the question that jasmine just came up with your members are called ring knockers.

Speaker 2: 12:24

So ring knockers are the types of masons that they aren't being active in the lodge, they aren't working on themselves, they're not trying to chip away at the edges to be of better use. They are people that want to display the square and compasses and that's all they want.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Let me tell you I have brought hundreds of men into this fraternity over the years. Yeah, maybe one of the few things I'm good at in life is actually advertising and bringing men in, and everyone I personally signed for and brought in I made sure to explain to them that we are working men in Freemasonry and the work we do is improving ourselves, and that is hard work to do. You will be sweating your ass off in the quarry if you're working hard as a Mason. Amen. It's not easy work to try to change yourself for the better. Yep, a lot of pain for you. It's all for you, because you have reflexes. You have defenses. You built up in your life reactionary defenses to things that you have to change and you have to admit there's something wrong with you which is something nobody wants to do. Nobody wants to see their own flaws and you know identify issues. You have because you spent your whole life trying to make yourself believe everyone else has the problem it's not you.

Speaker 2: 13:43

So I, I have a. I have a different take on this and um, I've told my wife this before, um, and she's like matt, you realize how ungodly arrogant that sounds right. And I'm like, yes, I do, um, but it's me, so what else do you expect? Uh, so one of the things that I love is I love being proved wrong. I, I love it, I absolutely love it, because I'm just now one step closer to being that guy you can't correct. I'm just one step closer, right.

Speaker 2: 14:10

So it's proven that I'm wrong in something and I cannot speak confidently on it. And here's the thing I typically don't speak on something unless I'm very confident on it. I might get a couple of the data points wrong. So when we went over the fourth turning, like, I messed up a couple of the. I messed up president's name, um, whenever we went over the, the christian uh, the top 10 things that christians have issues with I messed up um, something the jews, uh, the jews call god adonai, um, instead of, you know, yahweh. So a lot of different names. Yeah, they had so many different names. So, either way, it's like fine, if you going to find something wrong with me, or find something wrong that I did good. Please correct me, because now I'm just one step closer to being that grumpy old guy you can't say anything to.

Speaker 1: 14:52

And, to be honest with you, like it's like anything else, the more you practice that, the better you get at it. It gets easier and easier to say, oh, I was wrong, my bad, and move on.

Speaker 2: 15:02

Yeah, oh I was oh, I was wrong, my bad, and move on. Yeah, oh, I was wrong. Oh, thank you for telling me that. I'm actually really grateful for that. Move on, yeah. And then, of course, my favorite thing is especially whenever we're going over ritual. If somebody's like, no mad, it's actually this. And I'm like, actually it's not, because I'm really good at junior deacon. Um, it's actually this. Oh, I'm sorry, I told you the wrong information. Yeah, yeah, you did. And there are so many things. And, brothers, look, here's my thought process on this. I'm going to let Chris speak for himself, but if one of these data points offends you, you might want to consider that one a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Yeah, exactly that's exactly what we just talked about. If you get offended by any one of these 10 things, you haven't learned the lessons of masonry. You shouldn't be mad at us. You should be looking at yourself.

Speaker 2: 15:49

Because again, it does sound arrogant.

Speaker 1: 15:50

I just said it and it does sound arrogant, doesn't it?

Speaker 2: 15:53

It does, it does. But, chris, what is it that we have said time and time again on this podcast is we're supposed to be chiseling away at all of these. Be chiseling away at all of these, I, if you're, if you're upset, um, we're worshipful ride. Just narrowing it down to only 10 is impressive, I agree um well, if you're impressed, just hold we can. We're gonna keep impressing yeah, uh, either that or we're gonna keep really uh disappointing you all. Uh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:24

You should know better. We are always disappointing. You Keep coming back, so you're going for punishment.

Speaker 2: 16:29

Yeah and again. Brothers, I want to be clear on this Whenever we go over these 10 points, if you get offended by one of these points, I'm just going to go ahead and give the boomer of apology of I'm sorry that you're offended. I love it, I'm a master at it. So, having said that, the thing is, whenever we have situations in Lodge, specifically amongst Brother Masons, if we have some sort of a conflict, so, let's say, one of these data points here today offend you, this conversation should be able to be had with guard fully lowered Because, at the end of the day, we're all Masons and we're not trying trying to cause damage to each other, we're not trying to be jerks to one another. We're trying to help sharpen each other. We're trying to chisel away at that stone, so that way we are of a better fit.

Speaker 1: 17:13

um so, again, that's hard to do, that's that's another thing that's hard to do is we oh I'm, I'm just gonna say it, and he typed it we build, build each other up. That's right. You know, it's easy to give somebody a compliment. What's hard to do, if you really care about somebody, is to tell them you think they just made a mistake. Tell them you think they might be about to make a mistake. That's hard to do. People don't want to make someone mad. They don't want to come off as an argumentative guy. They don't want to be a jerk. But you know, if you really care about someone, that's how you help build them up. You tell them they're making a mistake, you give them wise counsel, you whisper in their ear and give them good guidance and hopefully they won't make the mistake.

Speaker 2: 17:57

Yeah, yeah. And again, I mean and it also goes back to how you handle the conversation we covered this on the last podcast, where you've got to have some of these conversations slow and easy, because if you end up speeding up the conversation, given who your audience is, if you speed up the conversation to a point they're going to miss something, it's going to turn into confusion and then it's going to translate directly into anger. So it's best to have these conversations slow, quiet, calm, relaxed, relaxed again. Whenever I get in a conflict with anybody, my eyebrows don't even change direction. The most animated I ever get is on these podcasts. You'll see me get animated, especially today. Uh, you're gonna see me get animated. Um, you're having a good day.

Speaker 1: 18:38

I'm having a great day oh, that's such a good day uh, let's do this 10 things you need to fix before bringing brothers into the lodge. All right, the first thing, the first thing that you've got to fix, is your lodge politics. Now, I don't know if you have a problem with this in your lodge. If you don't, you will. If you don't think you will, you have it's. It's been a problem, it's going to be a problem as different people joined, people work together.

Speaker 2: 19:08

A lot of politics is going to be an issue, well, well, let's let's define lodge politics, because it could be defined as okay, we're talking republican democrat, we're talking clicks, as if we would in high school.

Speaker 1: 19:19

What are we talking about whenever we say lodge politics, lots politics means the inability for people to act like masons in a group set. Anytime that you're not acting like masons in a group set, you have let lodge politics enter the lodge.

Speaker 2: 19:33

I love it. So this could be, if I'm hearing you right, this could be something as simple as hey, we have an idea that we want to do and somebody stands up from the corner and says we tried that 20 years ago.

Speaker 1: 19:44

It didn't work so it's politics, yeah, that's lodge politics now you gotta be aware of the politics of your lot. Oh so there's a group of people that are gonna just shoot down every idea because it's already been tried and like how do I politically now have to deal with that group of people?

Speaker 2: 19:59

you mean it could be something as simple as just increasing lodge dues. Is that what you're talking about?

Speaker 1: 20:05

That is definitely going to bring out some heat. You will never see as many men come to a lodge meeting as the meeting where you're going to raise the dues. They will all come to lodge for that one. I've been there in two lodges when they raised the dues and those are the most contentious meetings I have ever been in. So lodge politics is not necessarily a bad thing, because you do have different kinds of people we talked about before turning right. Yeah, different communication styles. So there is always going to be disagreements, different viewpoints. That's not bad. But in how you communicate with each other, that is the politics of the watch. So politics doesn't mean it's a dirty word or something bad.

Speaker 1: 20:47

But you need to fix your Lodge politics because if they are bad and you bring a new Mason into it, that is the quickest way for them. Because understand this, when you bring a new Mason into the Lodge, that is the whole three-masonry to that person for an extended amount of time. They have to go through their catechisms, their three degrees, at least six months. We've talked about this and after they become a master Mason they're probably not going to get highly involved in the rest of your district right away. They're going to be that patch of dirt. That building is all they know about Freemasonry, so you need to be real careful about what you're teaching them masonry is.

Speaker 1: 21:26

And if your politics are bad, meaning you have cliques of people that don't like each other, or if your officers segregate themselves from everybody else at dinner and sit together apart from everybody else these are all examples of the way politics can go wrong in a lot, and it's our opinion that the first thing you need to fix is those. If you look seriously, look around, think about it and identify if you have issues with bad and large politics, and if you do, you need to sit in a state of meeting and have a conversation as a group to determine what you can do to fix that together as brothers, so just for kicks and giggles.

Speaker 2: 22:06

Let's kind of unpackage that a little bit, because I've obviously seen lodge politics at the particular lodge level. You know, with Turkey Creek. I've seen a little bit over at Lakeland 91. It was a big ordeal but it really wasn't that serious. But how does that look at a particular lodge level to have that conversation? Because obviously in the lodge people are going to get heated. You're probably going to have some guy that stands up and he's going to get a little too emotional. Um, you've been the master of a lodge, I have not. So unpackage that for us a little bit, yeah I'll give you a great example.

Speaker 1: 22:39

It starts at the top 100. This cannot start at the bottom. It it must start at the top. So the master is the one that needs to drive the change. Okay, as the master of the lodge from my limited experience at that, I had a. I'll tell you an example. I had requested if there were anything we could do with our neighbor lodge that we have a fairly bad relationship with. It's not good, and we're only like a mile and a half apart, so that's not good. It's ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 23:08

Kind of bad history. You spent years and years right, so this isn't something I'm going to fix in my year, sure. So I thought we could take a step, let's do something together. And my lot voted to do something with that lot. And the day that that thing happened, it was me and like two or three other people that showed up and I was so committed to this that they wanted to make it a regular weekly thing or a monthly thing. And I said, yeah, let's do it. And every time it happened, one less person from my lot would show up. It just kept dwindling, but it was so important to me I kept showing up and you know they were getting upset at me for my lodge not showing up. I'm kind of upset at my lodge.

Speaker 1: 23:55

So I had a stated meeting and the education for the meeting was if we as a lodge commit to do something, we need to do it or don't commit to it. It's that simple. Yeah, if you're in lodge that night and you raised your hand because you wanted to do something, that means you need to go do that thing. You can't commit the lodge to something and then not participate in it. Come on, man.

Speaker 1: 24:19

And so I admitted like, look, I wanted this to happen really bad, and I should have let it go, and I see that we weren't committed to it. But we need to have a conversation as a lot about what we commit ourselves to. Let's not just vote for things because it sounds good. Let's think about if I raise my hand, can I make it that day? Will I be free that day? And if I'm not, I shouldn't raise my hand. Yeah Right, that's kind of to me how I like to deal with a lot of politics Put it out in the open, don't put the blame, don't start pointing the finger. Obviously, this is our problem, this is something we got to talk about together, and when you put it in that kind of a framework, it's a little bit easier to address things without.

Speaker 2: 24:59

So you just brought up a really good point and we've talked about it in our officers chat. So you just brought up a really good point and we've talked about it in our officers chat and, Ryan, you've already heard this before. But so we were talking about how that it needs to be a lodge thing. It can't be a singular individual thing. So, for example, we went and visited another lodge. Our entire officer line went and visited another lodge. Their ritual and opening and closing was so bad it was terrible. I don't think anybody got it. You know, got their role 100% correct.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Who was the one? Just name the people. I'm not going to do that at all.

Speaker 2: 25:30

No. So either way, yeah, so we go there, we see it. It was just absolutely terrible. And so I had mentioned to Ryan. I said, hey, what if we were to invite that lodge to our training nights, specifically this one guy who really kind of botched his role? And then of course I'm seeing ritual happen throughout the rest of it and I'm like, hey, guys, maybe we should invite the entire lodge and not just that one guy.

Speaker 2: 25:58

That wasn't me being ugly or being mean or anything like that, but you know, whenever we see an issue in a lodge or you know even more broad spectrum, 30,000 foot view and you see something bad happen in masonry, what's typically said is it's that whole lodge, not that one person, it's that whole lodge has this issue, or masonry as a whole has this issue. We never really whittle it down to the one individual person that has the issue. It's representative of the craft as a whole. So I totally agree with what you said is this has to be a we thing, it has to be an us thing, it's not a me thing, it's a craft at whole thing.

Speaker 1: 26:37

So I'll give you one piece of advice that did work for me and it might work for you. We were using electronic trust reports, so if you use one of those, you have a list of emails for all of your members. We said a google doc. It was a google form and it was a questionnaire about what is the reason you don't come to watch oh, I bet you got like maybe 10 percent of them you identify.

Speaker 1: 27:01

That is a negative thought about freemasonry in your head. Like we ask those kind of questions to every member of our lodge, we made it anonymous so we don't know who said what the thing is. If you just rely on the officers, you have a very limited history of the lodge, very limited experience in the lodge in most cases. But when you put it out to everybody now these might be members that have been there in your lodge for 40, 50 years. You're going to get some interesting answers.

Speaker 1: 27:31

You know you've got to take some help with a grain of salt, but when you start to see patterns, this is a clear identifier that you have some issues with your lodge that you need to get addressed. So that's one way that worked for me.

Speaker 2: 27:45

It identified things that we need to fix. So Jasmine just commented and yeah, brothers, definitely if you're a past master or you're someone who is a master of a lodge and you have some stuff to add to the conversation here, put them in the chat. We're happy to read them. So Jasmine just sent back or sent in. Let me share what I found.

Speaker 2: 28:03

I am a very good listener and through the years I heard the same issues over and over again we don't do anything together as a lodge, we don't go anywhere, we don't do charities. We did all those things and then yet the same people were present None of those that were complaining. So, for context, what he's talking about is about lodge visits and I could be wrong on this. I um is is about lodge visits and and I I could be wrong on this I'm still relatively new to uh lakeland lodge 91, but I'm like jasmine, I just listen to people. You know everybody tells uncle matt everything. So we have, uh, some of the guys who were wanting to see things done. Actually, this happened recently in a meeting where one of the uh brothers, who a past master, who really doesn't do a tremendous amount even though he is very knowledgeable and he's very effective, he doesn't really do a whole heck of a lot. And so he stood up and said well, what if we had the lodge pay for this thing to be done? And jasmine was, I mean, up right behind him and he said good, I hope you contribute your own money to that and that way it doesn't come out of the lodge coffers.

Speaker 2: 29:02

Um, something I agree about, because in lodges across the state and across the country I'm sure you're going to have those that are doing financially incredibly well, like a friend of ours in another state. His lodge has a larger bankroll than what their grand lodge does, and that's an awesome feature to have, and that's just that's an awesome feature to have. But you have the opposite, I would argue, is the more, the more present situation or the more reality for other lodges that their bank account isn't doing that well and so they still have the Worshipful Master's meal you know, for whenever he's installed they still have that come out of the lodge. Any sort of lodge upgrades or anything like that, it still comes out of the lodge. But yet whenever you talk about lodge, you know dues increase to try to make up for some of that financial deficit.

Speaker 2: 29:52

Everybody comes out of the woodwork and says, no, yeah, of course you know it's like okay, guys, you need to pick a lane here. Either, you know, because you don't have unlimited funds in a lodge, we need to find a way to gain more money, and it's either going to be by fundraising, which we do, uh, or it's going to be by lodge due increases, um. So those are going to kind of be the the. The big sticking points that you're going to see is, again, everybody's going to come out of the woodwork, but yeah, um we hope that helps with the first one.

Speaker 1: 30:16

You got to fix your life politics. You know what we're talking about. Yeah, take the effort to try to identify what you don't know. Try to fix what you can.

Speaker 1: 30:25

At least try to take some steps to making it better before you bring in new people Right? Number two and I know you'll agree with me on this one you got to fix the lodge building. Yes, you don't want to bring people into a building that smells like butt and toenails. Okay, there shouldn't be mold on the ceiling and in the walls, Like. I understand that not a lot of lodges have a lot of money. I understand that. So you might not be able to get a new roof or a remodel done on your kitchen. I get that. But you can clean it up right. You can make it smell nice. You can put a fresh coat of paint on things. You can pay some attention to your life Building. Keep it clean outside.

Speaker 2: 31:14

Make it seem like you really care about this building and, honestly, some of the things are so simple and I realize we're dealing with some generational differences here. So whenever we're talking about upgrading the lodge, it could be something as simple as lights. It could be something as simple as okay, we need to clean the carpet in our lodge room. That's one thing that we're talking about doing. Next is cleaning our carpet. I've got something that can clean carpet. That's going to be a Saturday worth of work and some fans. That's about it. You know so-.

Speaker 1: 31:40

There are very cheap, almost free things you can do to fix up your lodge without money and all it takes is your attention and your focus. Right, you guys need to sit and talk about what can we get done before we start bringing members in to make our lodge better. And, of course, maybe you have an awesome lodge and it needs no work and congratulations. If that's the case, just don't listen to us.

Speaker 2: 32:03

This is meant for everybody else, the 99% that are in a lodge that has something that needs work done to it, which even still, we even talked about that over at Turkey Creek and I know I bring up Turkey Creek a lot, but it's my home. I mean, you know now, of course, lakeland 91 is my home, those are my boys, but you know, that was the place that I was raised. And one of the things that got me about Turkey Creek this drove me nuts, oh, it drove me crazy Is there were people that will leave in their own personal clothes at the lodge. You have a closet at home, use it. You don't need to leave your personal clothes at the lodge.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Or there's this, or if they're doing that like identify a space for that. That's like you know everybody.

Speaker 2: 32:40

No, keep your nasty, ratty clothes at home. You disgusting filthy animals.

Speaker 1: 32:45

See why launch charters get pulled.

Speaker 2: 32:49

You see but honestly, I mean, we had that over at Turkey Creek where it's like you know, we had Plant City, york right there we had, and they had all their stuff. We had an Eastern Star there and they had all their stuff. So it's like we had to get rid of a lot of the junk that they weren't using and I'm like get rid of it. It's okay to part with a few things. It's okay yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:08

Lodge cleanup days go far. Do it once a quarter at least. Yeah, you know, make breakfast for the guys that show up to do lodge cleanup, like give them a reason to be there, take photos, let the people love to be, to get a little phrase. They come and put them online. Everybody's working hard in the lodge. Tag them. Be like hey, these are all the brothers that showed up to help today. Yeah, it costs nothing. Really, the only currency we have to trade in our fraternity is Pat on the Back, so you should use it more often.

Speaker 2: 33:41

Well, time, I mean. You hear people that are high performers. They talk about how their currency at some point in their life is time. I could be spending my time with my family. I could be spending my time in my usual vocation personal money into name it, upgrading the lights. Okay, so we have like this giant, like gosh, it's probably like almost a four foot by four foot Ashlar, uh, that's right. Whenever you walk in the front door at Lakeland Lodge, uh, but up around it, uh, there's, there's lights that are up there, or there are lights that are up there that are all starting to go out and they flicker and all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 2: 34:21

It's like, okay, if I take a thousand dollars, my personal money, and I put it in just an upgrade in the lights, one, I, I'm the type of person that I don't need any praise for that. Right, I know that I did that. I know that I did something good. That's all I really care about. I'm moving the entire organization forward. That's what I want. But it goes a long way. Just the word Thank you. The word thank you goes a heck of a long way, especially like that recognition that you were talking about. We, as men, we need shockingly little. I don't need somebody to sit there and sing my praises every time we're at Lodge, but a simple thank you goes a long way. Just acknowledging that that burden was handled and taken care of and carried by somebody Nailed it.

Speaker 1: 35:01

So fix your Lodge politics, fix lodge building. Be seen, basically not for you. Number three, and this is an important one, your lodge needs to have a five-year plan. Could?

Speaker 2: 35:15

I argue for an eight-year plan A minimum of five-year plan.

Speaker 1: 35:21

There's some problems with this because in Freemasonry things change fast. People leave in the middle of the year, hurricanes come and destroy things. Lawsuits can happen to your lodge if someone falls. There are things you can't plan for that are going to derail your plan, but you're guaranteed to fail if you don't have a plan.

Speaker 1: 35:43

So make a minimum five-year plan. And I'm not talking about the officers. Sit in a room over pizza and make a plan for the next five years of your lodge. I'm talking about pull your entire lodge, ask them to show up to open meetings. You need to get the buy-in of your lodge on the direction that you're going to go in.

Speaker 1: 36:03

And what's important for you to fix over the next five years and here's another argument that you're going to get with the five-year plan is well, I'm going to be master of my lodge and I want it to be my year. I want to focus on things that are important to me. You have no business being the master of a lodge. If you think that way Personally, that's how I feel it's not your year. You're the master of the lodge.

Speaker 1: 36:25

If you think that way, personally, that's how I feel it's not your year. You're the master of the lodge for the year, but it's not your year. It's the lodge's year. You just happen to be presiding over it. So you know so many people that I've worked with as officers in the line spend so much time planning for the things they're going to do in their year. You should be doing those things while you're junior deacon, when you're the senior deacon, when you're the junior ward, get them done. Help that master, get it done, because when it's your year, you should just be sitting there chilling and doing whatever the launch wants to be done that year.

Speaker 2: 37:03

I'm going to slightly disagree, yeah let's do it.

Speaker 1: 37:06

Here we go and doing whatever the launch wants to be done that year.

Speaker 2: 37:07

I'm going to slightly disagree and this may be a point of ignorance on my part, to be fair, because I have not been a worshipful master. So let me give you some context. The context being is and we've talked about it here on the show before is that whenever I joined Lakeland 91, before I ever joined Lakeland 91, actually I hadn't even filled out a petition yet I was talking to Jasmine about the line, the line over at Lakeland, and one of the things that he mentioned is that the entire line has the exact same mentality and whoever is sitting in the East is actively setting things up for whoever the next year is and the subsequent years. One of the things that I really liked about what that Jasmine had said and Ryan's of the same mentality is that, oh, whenever the junior deacon gets to the east, it'll be in this position, or whenever the senior deacon gets here, it'll be in this place.

Speaker 2: 37:57

So I'm of the opinion that your job as worshipful master isn't necessarily to sit back and just relax. You should be delegating things you know and setting things up for all right. What does the senior warden want in his year? What can I do in order to get it to where it's easier for him to do those things, or what's the junior warden want two years from now? What is the junior warden going to want to do in his year? And so that way we can set it up, so that way it's an easier process for him to get that done.

Speaker 1: 38:26

So here's my counter to your argument Do it. If the junior deacon has something he wants done in his year, why? Why can't it be done right now? Why does it need to be done in?

Speaker 2: 38:37

his year. So the only thing that I could see that would stop the junior deacon from doing that Is one, if you don't have enough buy-in From the craft, or two, if you don't have the funding for it.

Speaker 1: 38:48

Both things that you can fix, from the junior eating chair, how you stand up in open lodge and you make the case of the craft, why it's important to get it done.

Speaker 2: 38:57

And you, you call for a vote to do it. So so for, for example, one of the things that I hope to start talking about probably in the next couple of months I'm going to start talking to Lakeland about it is the grand lodge reimbursement program. We do pretty decent with our recruitment right now. You know, of course, as I've told you before, we make them come to a certain amount of meals and come and speak to us and get to know us a little bit before we ever hand you a petition, and that does a lot of good of weeding out. That does a lot of good of weeding out the people who aren't very serious about it. That does a lot of good at weeding out the people who aren't very serious about it.

Speaker 2: 39:35

You know I'm not saying that every lodge should do that, but the Grand Lodge Reimbursement Program is going to be something that's going to be an interesting conversation because we've never done it before. Lakeland really hasn't had a need to do it before. So could we? Yeah, we absolutely could. I could stand up from the west, from the junior deacon chair, and say, hey, the way, I think we should absolutely do this thing. The grand lodge reimbursement program. Here's a quick, quick presentation on it, um, but it's going to be the hiccup of the buy-in from the rest of the craft, especially those older brothers who don't understand the way that internet advertising works.

Speaker 1: 40:02

Yeah, um you know, no lodge in the state should be using any kind of a marketing program or bringing in members until you address some of these problems. Uh, because all you're doing is hurting the reputation of the fraternity of those guys you bring into your problems. So, um, I have a lot to say about bringing in members because I've done it for so long, but I'm not going to because we're focused on what you got to do before you start bringing members into your lives, right? So here's a good one, and I'm only bringing this up because I've seen it in multiple lodges that started bringing members a little too early I think it, I think we got this issue okay.

Speaker 1: 40:41

consider how you're going to identify and treat visitors to your life, because it might have been a while it might have been a while, um before you started receiving them. So one of the things that became an issue and actually got me angry when I was master is I I personally like to do my interviews and things with new masons on the weekend, not during, because I'm too busy to sit with them. I can't. As an officer, no matter what chair I was in, I never had two minutes to eat. I was always running around, doing stuff makes sense. There's no way I could sit there and talk to somebody, so I would often ask for somebody else to help me.

Speaker 1: 41:20

If somebody came on a stated meeting night, it sounds like you have a better way of handling than we did, but when they would come to the stated meetings, nobody would know who they were and they would largely be left alone, because most guys, when they go to the meetings, that's the only time they get with their buddies and their friends and they want to catch up and tell jokes and be with their friends, and so naturally, as humans, that's what we gravitate to is spending time with the people we know we like to feel part of a group and you know those new people get left alone sometimes, and so when this was happening more than once, I actually told the craft we need to figure out a fix, because this cannot be how we operate.

Speaker 1: 42:04

We cannot let a man sit by himself when there's so many of us here. So what the craft decided to do was buy colored plates. If a new guy was here, he ate his dinner with a green plate, and we all agreed if we see a man in that lodge with a green plate, you will go say hello to him and shake his hand before the meeting starts.

Speaker 1: 42:26

I like that. So there are easy and I didn't come up with that right. It was an issue that came up and it made me mad, so we brought it up to the craft and they decided on a solution and they implemented that solution that worked. I like that a lot. Those are things you don't think about before you start bringing guys in, but those are issues that will come up.

Speaker 2: 42:46

So what I'm hearing is that you need your most extroverted and talkative person in order to go just hang out with that guy.

Speaker 1: 42:54

It sounds like this was Jasmine. Jasmine said appoint someone to spend time with that candidate for the night, and I think that's probably what most people do, and it's probably a good idea for one person to be responsible for making sure that he's not alone. For me, it was a group thing, like we needed to all be in on this. I needed to make sure we all we everyone complains about not having members. So when they come, you need to treat them like a brother. You need to make them feel welcome and this is their home.

Speaker 2: 43:25

This is what could be their home. So what do you? What do you name that? I mean? Is it it like the steward of socializing? Is it the talkative Tyler? We need some names for this. That's what we need.

Speaker 1: 43:35

We did have a welcome committee and there were three people who were in charge of welcoming everyone that came into the lobby Everyone, whether they were a member or not a member Because we felt like the whole vibe of a meeting gets set the minute you walk in. You know it's like cheers. When the guys walked into cheers and they're all over, go, no, all right. It's like, oh wow, this is my place, these are my people.

Speaker 2: 43:58

You already are in a good mood. I'm not trying to say that you just dated yourself with that reference, but I appreciate it. You know what I'm talking about. I know what you're talking about yeah yeah, good yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:09

I mean it's important when somebody walks in, that somebody's there to make them feel welcome and like they're wanted.

Speaker 2: 44:17

So we've had a couple of guys come in for dinners recently. One of the things that I noticed some of the brothers doing and I actually did it with one of the guys who came in I took the guy around and just started showing him stuff. I was like, hey, because hanging on the walls at our lodge, obviously we have all the past masters up on the wall. Uh, we've got george washington up by the door, uh, by the west door. Um, so you, we've got a whole lot of historical things that are laid out around our lodge that you could just literally take 15, 20 minutes and walk them around the lodge and give them the history not only of masonry, but you can give them the history of your particular lodge, which I think would really do well, of course, tell them how active you are in the community. But yeah, to Jasmine's point and to your point, making them feel welcomed. Nobody wants to go to a lodge or go to a church or anywhere, and just feel like they're the outcast right.

Speaker 1: 45:11

Um, it's already nerve-wracking enough to walk into a place like a freemason lodge when you don't know what's going on, and heard their secrets and you know, and then they all act different. It's like, no, you want something.

Speaker 2: 45:22

You want to feel like, oh, these are good people, I like these people like I feel good about being here I felt like they like me, we we had I think it was our first meeting of the year, so it was Ryan's first meeting in the East. We had gosh, probably 30, 35 brothers in lodge that night and it was great. I mean, you walked in and we had a couple people from Turkey Creek who showed up as well and it was their first time at that lodge. Dude, there were guys playing chess in the front area, in the lobby. People were just sitting around talking, you know, just chewing the fat and you know, talking about how their days and weeks have gone and what they're doing in their lodge and all this other stuff. That's the kind of environment you want to be in. I mean, you're joining a fraternity, so you want to feel like this is a welcoming group of men, so that way I can become part of this group and hopefully that camaraderie remains there.

Speaker 1: 46:14

But definitely consider how you're going to treat these people, because every lodge is different. Your lodge likes to have them come to multiple dinners. I think you said Yep, for us, we like to personally interview them for an hour with no distractions, and be able to ask them questions and let them ask us questions. We call the uh, we call them an orientation and we had an agenda for what we were. They needed to understand the history of Freemasonry and the history of our lodge and where we're trying to go and, uh, what they can expect if they were to come here. And we would also like to talk about the other lodges around us that they might want to check out, because every lodge has a different culture all right.

Speaker 2: 46:53

Number five plan ahead for support, catechism, mentoring, recruit some past masters for this. I have a particular sticking point with this um because one thing I will say positive about lakeland 91, again, I'm going to sing their praises for a long time. They have that support system in it. I mean it is there, it is ready to go, they've got all the people for the roles and they're really good at what they do. I mean the whole reason I found out that you don't cross in front of between the altar and the east, the whole reason. I learned that was from watching this podcast on the level.

Speaker 2: 47:32

Whenever you guys yeah, when you guys did an episode on lodge etiquette, I was like, oh crap. Well, as a fellow craft, I now know that I'm not supposed to cross in lodge, I'm not supposed to cross between the altar and the east. I had no clue. And then, of course, whenever we went to another lodge, there were some I don't know if they were EA or fellow crafts, but you know he went to go walk there and I stopped him and I was like, hey, buddy, like no, you don't, you don't walk in front of, in front of the East, like that. He's like, why not. I said it's bad etiquette, you know. So we didn't have that support system in place. Then fast forward and now we do have that support system in place and I absolutely love it.

Speaker 2: 48:07

The only argument that I would give to the catechism aspect and I think we've talked about it before is if you have one brother who's teaching you catechism the entire time, you only have exposure to that one brother. I would make an argument that your catechism instructor needs to be different brothers for each degree so that way the candidate and then the brother they're initiated has more exposure to people in the craft and has that one-on-one time. So if you're not getting that and if you could have multiple people do your catechism training, it lightens the burden on the catechism instructor and also gives that brother more exposure to more people within the craft.

Speaker 1: 48:46

Well, I think that's a good idea. We are in a jurisdiction that in our rules in the state of florida it says that you should have the same catechism instructor and the same mentor for the candidate through all three degrees and that they must be different people. So your catechism guy can't be your mentor. Um, and I know that other lodges are doing that. There's one in my district that literally has a board and they have an EA catechism guy and a fellow craft catechism guy and they have colored dots for who the jamming is with and they track it. So hey, rules are made to be broken, right?

Speaker 1: 49:23

I'm not advocating for breaking the rules. I would never do that. However, if you're in a jurisdiction that says you should do it a certain way, be careful to try to do it that way or change it. You know even better, change it, make it better, like, submit legislation to make it the way you think it should be and let the brothers vote on it, and then that's how you can change the entire jurisdiction for the better. We we flashed up some comments while you were talking from I'm sorry, I'm not bad I didn't see you're good they were.

Speaker 1: 49:51

They were, uh, from members on the live stream. We just were joined by duane, who is the past master sauce. Hey brother, yeah, so we got some celebrities now all right, not that, uh, patrick wasn't patrick. Uh, I'm not sure who patrick is, but he said a lot of lodges are struggling with dad business instructors because a lot of lodges are struggling With cataclysm instructors because A lot of brothers aren't encouraged to teach After they're made a master of mason. They're pushed to appendant bodies.

Speaker 2: 50:19

Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 1: 50:20

Here's a very good point. Yeah, this is why, matt, when he said Number five, he said Think about recruiting those past masters. Oh, this is Patrick Tessier, past minister of Worms Lodge number 36. All right, yeah, patrick's good brother Out of Apopka, my brother.

Speaker 1: 50:37

Welcome. Yeah, the reason that we're saying you might want to recruit the past masters is because there's two reasons. One, they have the knowledge and the history to pass that on to somebody. And two, they want to be asked to do something. They want to feel needed and important. And these jobs the catechism instructors and the mentors are critically important to the lodge functions and future. So it's a perfect fit for a past master. If you have any that you can reach out to. This is a way to get them involved. This is a way to ask them to help their lodge again and it's a way for them to stay connected to the future of the lodge. As they bring these brothers in, they have a vested interest in seeing them go through the officer life and being their mentors throughout, and so I think the past masters is the first place to go If you're going to start recruiting for these things Now.

Speaker 1: 51:36

The other argument is put them to work right away. Put them to work when they become a master mason. Give them a job, give me something to do. And so you know I don't personally feel like the job the new master mason should be doing is mentoring new master masons Personally, job that a new master mason should be doing is mentoring new master masons. Personally, I don't believe that there's too much other stuff around the lodge that they could be doing. Uh, uh, if you have no other choice, you got to do what you got to do, man, you got to do make it work for you. But we were advocating to go to those past masters first. Personally, if you can't, it's really easy to just ignore a request in the trestle board. It's real hard, when somebody calls you up and asks for help, to say no.

Speaker 2: 52:14

And, honestly, you gave me some phenomenal advice that actually paid off really well and I saw very good dividends off of your advice. So your advice was is that whenever I became, I want those dividends. Man, you're going to get a cut of a lodge that no longer exists, so so, either way, what your advice was is yeah, go ahead and start getting into catechism training, because what that's going to do is it's now going to build your guys. Those guys are going to feel like they're loyal to you. So if you want to see the lodge culture change, all the new people you bring in, just have them around those positive influences. So let's say you do have a troublemaker in the Lodge, I probably wouldn't assign them to catechism training.

Speaker 1: 52:59

No, or a Lodge mentor program. Like we said, the new Master Mason's world is so small it's that Lodge and it's their catechism instructor, the mentor. That's their whole world for like six months probably, and those you know. What I was told is if you sign for somebody to join the lodge, if you're a top line signer, you should be prepared to be that brother's mentor through the three degrees and that's the best mentor is the guy that brought you in. In my opinion, that should be the first place you go to when you're looking for a new mentor. You sign this petition, you're going to be his mentor.

Speaker 2: 53:35

Well, and even still, let's talk about this from a, because we're all men here, but let's talk about this from a little bit of an emotional aspect. The emotional aspect is is, if I am a brand new brother Now, not all men are this way Okay, so I'm not. I'm not speaking in totalities here, um, but what I would recommend is you need to give that master Mason time to fall in love with the craft. You've got to give them that time. Now I jumped into the deep end of the pool. I'm not recommending that everybody do that, um. You know we've talked about it here before on the show that my history and my career as a master Mason right now has been packed so with some of the stuff that I've been through, it's like no, it's.

Speaker 1: 54:19

It's been pretty interesting and he's been in a life when the charter was pulled in the meeting and I was in a trial trial.

Speaker 2: 54:28

Yeah, I was a testimony in a trial not for you.

Speaker 1: 54:30

You were there as a witness yeah so.

Speaker 2: 54:33

So keep in mind, brothers, especially you new master masons or you fellow crafts or ea and you're listening to this, my masonic career is not going to mirror a lot of people's masonic careers. I don't know how I got here, um, but I am so. So, having said that, you need to give that brother time to fall in love with the craft and the teachings and to build that camaraderie and build those relationships with those people that are in your lodge, because, at the end of the day, for example, ryan Ryan's here in the live chat. Ryan is one of those guys. If he were to call me right now and say, matt, I'm broke down on the side of the road, I need you to come get me, bro, I'm there, let's do it. Or Jasmine were to call me and say, hey, I need help with XYZ thing, you've got it, I'm there. I know that I have a certain amount of loyalty to those people.

Speaker 2: 55:14

You've got to give the young master mason time in order for him to build that. Because, at the end of the day, if you take a brand new person, if you take a brand new Christian, you take a brand new politician, you take a brand new master mason and you just heat everything down upon them. Oh, you're here now. Great, this means you can do all these things. You're going to run that person off. He's going to get burnt out very quickly. You've got to give them time to build up an affinity for the craft before you start putting things on them 100 percent duane.

Speaker 1: 55:42

Uh, past master's thoughts said say it live for those in the back. Spend a good solid year plus getting your foundation, if not, you'll not gain anything.

Speaker 2: 55:52

Yeah, and even still some of it has to be that they have to, they have to learn, uh, the words for ritual. You know, I, I did a crash study on junior deacon. Whenever I became junior deacon, I was told as a fellow craft that I was going to be the junior deacon the next year. Um, so, yeah, so, and I told you, it's like after we would get done with fellow craft catechism, I would, I would be practicing for junior deacon, you know. So that's how fast it happened.

Speaker 1: 56:16

I'm in our desperation that we rush our new guys through everything because you need them. We're desperate for help. So you go from being a fellow craft to being told you're going to be the junior deacon, meaning you skip two years of chairs already. They're telling you this as your fellow craft to being told you're going to be the junior dean, meaning you've skipped two years of chairs already. They're telling you this as your fellow craft. That is a sign of trouble and a lot. You need to be able to ideally allow those guys to acclimate.

Speaker 1: 56:43

Because what happens is it's a very structured thing going through your catechism, right, you have regular meetings, you meet the same people, you know what's going to happen. You're going to do some work, you're going to be proud, you're going to be happy, you're going to be upset when you fail, but you're going to be learning in a very structured way, and then it all goes away one day. Hey, you're a master mason now Good luck. And what do you do like? You start getting hit by pendant bodies. You go to these stated meetings where it's not at all what you thought it was going to be. You're learning this really cool old english stuff that's so esoteric. Every day, every week or often, you're practicing and memorizing and now you're sitting in a room where people aren't acting masonically, potentially, or they're arguing about, like the fish, and you're like what? This is it, this is what I did all that work for it's a huge culture shock.

Speaker 2: 57:36

Which, by the way, brothers, we need to have a conversation. Fish fries are not the answer to everything. I'm sorry, but they aren't. We've got to come up with something else. I'm sorry, but the fish fries had their day. They were great in the 70s and 80s. Sorry, but the fish fries had their day. They were great in the 70s and 80s. It's time You're talking 40 years later.

Speaker 1: 57:54

It's time. Patrick just gave an example. He said he was I think he's talking about himself raised November 19th. Installed junior deacon December 27th, four years to the east and two years secretary.

Speaker 2: 58:11

Yeah, and he put up a really great point of not all brothers can do this and we should afford them the time to enjoy and learn from the craft the. I think where my journey as a master Mason has been a little bit of an anomaly is just how stubborn I am. I'm very stubborn, I'm very hardheaded. Uh, this shouldn't surprise anybody who knows me personally, but because I knew this organization was in a place where it absolutely needs heavy hitters, it needs workers, it needs people that are going to put in the time and effort, I wasn't opposed to that. So I did a lot of my learning of the craft while I was also working in the craft. Again, my journey should not mirror everybody's journey.

Speaker 1: 58:57

Nobody's journey should be exactly the same. Yeah, what so we're?

Speaker 2: 58:59

we're gonna burn through a couple here because short on time, but say number six.

Speaker 1: 59:02

This is an easy one. Make sure you have an updated and solid mentoring plan. It is required by the Grand Lodge of Florida and I believe other jurisdictions also have certain requirements that their new members get educated. In the state of Florida you're supposed to stand up at their degree and their mentor is supposed to say for the record for the secretary that this brother was mentored according to the Grand Lodge guidebooks whatever guidebooks he went over with them. So it's in the minutes of the meeting the night that they get their degree. I know a lot of lodges aren't doing this.

Speaker 1: 59:33

The mentoring plan in most jurisdictions is set by grand lodge. It gives you the guidelines that you need to cover. Be honest with you, I've done it. You can do it in very short amount of time. You have a lot of time left over with these people where you have a lot more freedom to give them mentoring. And it should cover lodge etiquette. They should be learning that from their mentor, not from a podcast. Their mentor should be teaching them. When you stand up to talk, you wait to be acknowledged, right? Some important things that you see nobody pays attention to in a lodge. Let's educate them from the start, so they know how it works. How many times have you seen your brother stand up and just start talking? But so many times right. Or somebody sitting starts talking while somebody standing is talking. All right, if I'm being honest, that that's annoying.

Speaker 2: 1:00:22

That is super annoying. It's like I'm trying to hear what's going on and meanwhile we've got this line of guys that are sitting in the north and they're all just chatterboxes, and it's like guys come on Like I'm trying to hear what's going on and you guys are over there talking because why you don't have your hearing aids turned up, so, and then it just gets louder and louder and louder and it's like come on.

Speaker 1: 1:00:42

Patrick is making the point that mentoring and the Lodge system of mentoring are two totally different things.

Speaker 2: 1:00:49

Oh, let's dive into that, Cause I'm actually not familiar with that.

Speaker 1: 1:00:52

So um, the lodge system, the grand lodge system of mentoring, is actually specific books that you're supposed to cover with them and it has multiple choice quizzes so you can see if they learn anything from the education that grand lodge wants them to have. But I believe what Patrick's saying is that true mentoring isn't that it's having conversations about where are you at in your life, like what do you hope to get out of this? Let me help you learn. The ins and outs of this is where they really need help. I think that, based on knowing you now as a guy, you can help in this way. The lodge could use your help, like that's what a real mentor is, whereas the lot grandma's system of mentoring by that mentor is just going over what grandma just said we have to or let's let's even dive into it a little bit further, cause hearing you say that, let's say you have a brother who has a real bad issue with controlling his anger.

Speaker 2: 1:01:48

You know, that's one of the things that we learned about. First is circumscribing your passions, or keeping your passions within due bound, so it's like all right if you've got a problem with your anger. That's where you need to apply the hammer the most. You've got to chisel away at that and really work at that.

Speaker 1: 1:02:04

Dwayne Marshall says. I get grumpy every time I say this, but we rush brothers to the degrees because they can regurgitate words from one degree to the next with no real understanding. We are cheating them of a good Masonic experience. That's true, and we used to call that raising empty masons. Oh, because they could repeat some words. They got the degree and they went on to the next one, but they were empty. They didn't even know what it was to be an inner apprentice yet because they didn't get real mentoring. You know, and you don't want to raise empty masons. In my spiritual system it took a year and a day between degrees so the ritual learning can settle in and I had a better understanding. Slowing it down is really important and you know what? It's really hard. Um, uh, matt's generation or below. When they come into your lodge they don't want to go slow, they want to go fast. They're so used to consuming so much information so fast that that's just how they live their lives and it's a kind of culture shock for them to see how slow.

Speaker 2: 1:03:04

Masonry moves, yeah, and honestly, worshipful Patrick just commented. One thing I always tell EAs is that just because you chip off a part of your rough ashlar doesn't mean it can't reappear. So the working tools should be a part of our everyday lives. One thousand percent. Yes. Oh, my goodness, I cannot tell you how many masons I've seen where it's like. I've talked about it before here on the podcast where it like. I've seen situations happen in lodge where none of our working tools were being used.

Speaker 2: 1:03:33

In that conversation, I wholeheartedly agree with that statement of look, you have to constantly be reapplying these lessons and chipping away. So, for example and I've talked about it here I have a three-year-old daughter. When you have a kid, the dynamics around your house change and so, yeah, our temper is going to get a little more shortened because you're stressed out or you're not sleeping as much, or whatever the case might be. Yes, that's absolutely going to happen. I need to revisit that lesson now on being able to keep my passions within due bounds, because, no matter how frustrated I may get, it's not going to be good for anybody or anything if I just pop off. That's not going to be good for anybody or anything if I just pop off. That's not going to help anybody. It's not going to do good for anyone or anything.

Speaker 1: 1:04:14

So those tools are everywhere in your lodge when you go on the lot. Most lodges have them everywhere on the walls.

Speaker 2: 1:04:22

They should be speaking to you.

Speaker 1: 1:04:23

Yeah, so listen.

Speaker 2: 1:04:24

And, honestly, my dad gave me a gift as a young man and not like a tangible gift and these are the best kinds of it's wisdom and the wisdom that he gave me, and he was so pissed off at me one day. So I work at the family business and I came in one day and something had happened at home and I came here to work and I was just ticked and so I was miserable to be around all day. My dad looked at me with a straight face and he said, son, and I said, yes, sir, he goes. I'm going to go ahead and give you some advice. When you come in here and you punch that time clock, you didn't have a bad day at home. Nothing happened, absolutely nothing happened. He goes. Whenever you come here and you punch that time clock, your last name isn't even stone anymore. He goes you are just another employee here at this business and what that?

Speaker 2: 1:05:08

What I took from that is I have this ability, and I'm not saying it's a good one, but it is an ability of if I have something that is bothering me or a topic, that topic stays in that box and it goes on a shelf until I pull that box back down, running through my head at all times. Yeah, am I planning things? Am I thinking through things? Sure, but if I'm mad at somebody at work, I do not take that home to my wife and kid. If I'm mad at somebody here at work or if I've had a bad interaction with my wife and kid, you know and I'm just stressed out because you know, let's face it, life gets in the way I'm not going to take that to lodge and just be insufferable to the brothers at the lodge. No, they didn't do anything at home. It was my kid talking to me about Spider-Man for the fifth time today. That's what got me right. Yeah, I'm kidding, by the way, spider-man with your kid, always with Spider-Man, but either way, no, so I have the ability to be able to put everything in its category in its box, and I only address it whenever I pull that box down. We've got to be the same thing at lodge.

Speaker 2: 1:06:07

Whenever you walk through that door at lodge and you're in your lobby, or you walk through that west door in order to get into the lodge room, check your bs at the door. That was the phrase my dad said. He goes, son, check your bullshit at the door. Because? So, because at the end of the day, it's not the brother's fault that you've had a bad day at work. It's not the brother's fault that you've got stresses bad day at work. It's not the brother's fault that you've got stresses at home. It's not their fault. Yeah, you can talk through those things. I mean we've had situations at our lodge where we stayed after the lodge for an hour, two hours, just talking about what's happening personal in our lives, and that's okay, there's room for that. But I'm not going to bring that contention into the lodge room. That is wrong with me as a man and a Mason wrong with me as a man and a mason?

Speaker 1: 1:06:47

It's tough, it's hard to do, but the more you do it, the better you get at it. And if you don't even try, you're never going to improve. So get busy being a mason. Agreed Number seven.

Speaker 2: 1:06:58

This is an easy one.

Speaker 1: 1:07:00

Get the craft ready for new blood. Okay, it's important to talk about the fact that you're going to be actively bringing in new members, because new members bring new ideas and the last thing you want is for new ideas to get shut down. Worshipful.

Speaker 2: 1:07:16

Chris, did you just say the word new in my fraternity? How dare you.

Speaker 1: 1:07:21

Hi, yeah, nothing new. Nothing new can ever happen in the lot, nothing.

Speaker 2: 1:07:29

We have to do. We have to do everything the same way we did it in 1963. That was a good year.

Speaker 1: 1:07:38

I mean, really, dude, you need to talk about. Hey look, people are going to be coming in here. They're new. They might have ideas that we've already done. Let's be sensitive to that. They don't know. Okay, it's encouraging new ideas. This is supposed to be like uh, you ever? I don't know if you ever done improv or anything, but it's it. It's yes, and that's a great idea and we have tried it before. But what if we did this like let's make it a yes in environment for the new guys. Let's not shut them down, let's not say no, let's not say it's a dumb idea. Maybe let's educate them on the past? Sure, but let's talk about things we could try differently, like make it a positive experience for them.

Speaker 2: 1:08:16

So I run everything through what I call a SWOT analysis. That's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So let's say we have Grand Lodge reimbursement program, or let's say we have updating the lodge whatever the case may be, anything that's brought in front of us or anything that's brought in front of me in life, you know whoever decided they wanted to bring up lodge fundraising right. So, for example, one of the things that we're having right now is we're doing a charity fundraiser with the local baseball team, the strengths being is that it's going to, you know, it's going to bring in more money to the lodge, the weaknesses being that we're not going to have a whole lot of people sign up for it. The opportunities are that we can teach more people about masonry and that we're not these weird people that have an obsession with goats I'm sorry, but we aren't and the threats being who are we going to get to do the work that's ultimately going to be? The threat is all right, we need to have more people do these things, okay good, good feedback.

Speaker 1: 1:09:12

Number eight we already talked about, so this one we can just rough fast make a plan to identify the roles for the process of bringing in new members um that looks like the worshipful master standing up from the east and saying get to work, son, yeah, or the secretary. Yeah or the secretary like the, the roles, who. Who is going to call these people? Who's going to meet with these people? Who's going to be responsible for these different things, like? Figure it out before you start bringing the people in and brothers.

Speaker 2: 1:09:42

Honestly, it can't be the same three to five people every single time. I'm sorry, but we need to have more people who are working, who are putting in the effort. If you've got an investigation committee, it can't be the same three guys over and over again. We've got to have people who are willing to stand up and do a little bit of work. If you're one of those sideline people, one of the easiest things you can do is investigations. It's one of the easiest things you can do Investigations, interviews, whatever the case might be. It's super simple.

Speaker 1: 1:10:08

I'm a marketing guy, so I always told everybody in my line, whether they were above or below me, everyone wants to be part of the winning team. So when there's a perception that you're winning, you're going to get all kinds of people that want to help out. It's really hard when people have the perception that you're just starting something out or it's not working. Nobody's going to help you, right? Nobody. So you need to put forth the image that you're winning. This is great. We got a new guy last week. Everybody Get him excited about it, feel like you're winning, and that's how you get people to volunteer. You make them feel like they're going to be part of the winning team, and they will. They will join, yeah team and they will.

Speaker 2: 1:10:52

They will join. Yeah, momentum is the thing that fixes problems, and I think what part of that is a big part of what you just said is is creating a lodge vision in five years and this goes back to what you said earlier. One of your earlier points is in five years. Here's where it's going to be all right, we need as many people as we can so that way we can achieve whatever that goal is now and that that might even look like. You've got, I don't know, five or six brothers that they are just your heavy hitters man. They, they are your guys, but you got to get other brothers involved. So, creating that very clear vision, being very clear and transparent about the vision, uh, transparency cures a lot of ailments, um so, uh, that would be my argument. Yeah, yeah, that goes a long way.

Speaker 1: 1:11:31

So, so, that would be my argument. Currency, yeah yeah, that goes a long way.

Speaker 2: 1:11:35

So that would be my argument is creating that lodge vision. Hey, here's where it's going to be. In five, who can we plug into what role?

Speaker 1: 1:11:44

Number nine use Facebook to generate leads. Sorry that you don't. You're not on Facebook. I'm sorry that you don't understand Facebook, but there are people there. People that need Masonry in their life are there. They just don't know we exist. They don't even know that it's a thing anymore. This generation may never even have heard of Freemason. It's to that point now have heard of Freemason. It's to that point now, and so you know we can put the message out there that resonates with this generation of people.

Speaker 1: 1:12:16

I'm not talking about the bald ones. Their generation of people. These are people that have grown up in a very sterilized world. They don't live. I'm not talking about you bald ones.

Speaker 1: 1:12:29

I'm talking about the generation of people have grown up where they're getting curated lives online of people, only the best moments, only the best looking pictures of the ones that are online right, um, it's not real life and these people are desperate for real in their lives, and that's what freemasonry is supposed to be about real connecting. What is it in my heart that's important to me, like how do I grow as a person? They need and want that bad, and we have it. We have what they need. They just need to know about it.

Speaker 1: 1:13:01

So I'm sorry, the shriners at the parade aren't cutting it for this generation. They think it's silly, they don't understand what it's about, right? So you gotta you meet people where they're at, and right now that's where the world is. They live online, so we need to be where they are. You fish, you fish where the fish are Not where you like to go, but where the fish are, wearing a fishing shirt. Actually, that's just what I like to say. Get used to the fact that in the future, it's only going to become more internet heavy.

Speaker 2: 1:13:33

Yeah, I was over at I'll go ahead and name drop this one. I was over at Brandon Lodge and one of the things they talked about is they had an event at Brandon Lodge and they sent an invite out to all the news channels, all the local news affiliates, and nobody showed up from the local news affiliates Society, and I hate saying this society doesn't care about Freemasonry anymore, unless it's the bad stuff about Freemasonry. That's the only thing they care about is they want to tear down something that is good, that is honorable. That's what they want to do. So maybe, instead of inviting your local news affiliate to a special event that you're having, maybe you go live. You go live on Facebook, instagram, tiktok, whatever it is, because you're going to get more viewers that are actually interested in whatever you're saying, rather than just hearing about it on the 10 o'clock news.

Speaker 1: 1:14:25

I joined the fraternity because I saw a random documentary about freemasonry and it wasn't the mysteries of freemasonry unlocked, it wasn't that. It was a documentary about like real people right, it was like guys and their individual lives and like what they've gotten out of freemasonry and I'm like, whoa, this is what I need in my life. I need to learn how to have relationships with other dudes and like I need to be better at documentary. It was exactly where I was at the time and it was giving me the message. I needed time to get me to walk into a lodge and, like you said, kids are on their phone and if you live stream, they're going to see it, friends are going to see it and they're going to see like wow, are going to see it. And, uh, they're going to see like wow, they're having fun. Wow, this looks normal. Like well, this kind of one part of this. Everyone wants to be part of the winning team.

Speaker 2: 1:15:18

It looks like they're having I don't want to miss that and honestly and I hate saying it like this, but you're in advertising and marketing, so you know exactly what I'm going to be, what I'm going to say you're not putting out your dirty laundry on social media. No, instead, you're doing like a 10 second clip with, like happy music behind it.

Speaker 2: 1:15:34

And you know, oh, look at these cool things that we're doing. That's what you're putting out there for advertising. But you know, this problem is not exclusive to lodges. Some of the most successful preachers I have ever seen they put out these little TikTok and Instagram reels of you know 30 seconds of their message, you know, and they take their hardest hitting point in the message and they put that as that is their TikTok or their reel in order to bring more people in to hear the entire message. We can copy that very easily, very, very easily.

Speaker 1: 1:16:04

Yeah, I mean you got to know how to work a phone or log in Facebook to do that. But you know we can teach you those things, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:16:12

So, lastly, number 10, we need to, there needs to be some structure to this Schedule meetings, hold orientations and, most importantly, close the deal. So when I say close the deal, you need to ask them are you interested in joining the fraternity or would you like a petition? They don't know to ask you this. Generally people don't know and they expect you to take charge of leading the process and as basins, we feel uncomfortable asking that question. So this is why we're sharing it. You are going to have to ask if they want to join. Yeah, they don't know that they need to ask. Yeah, that it's better if they ask. They just don't know. And so at some point you're going to have to ask them if they're interested in joining, if they would like a petition.

Speaker 2: 1:17:05

Well, and if I'm not mistaken and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think we're the only organization that puts that entire burden on the candidate, right, right? Because even if you consider from, like a Christianity perspective, it's like you know, no, we still ask. You know, hey, would you like to be baptized or would you like to join our church? You know that is still asked by the people in the institution, versus with candidates, you know, there's this stigma that, oh, no, you can't ask someone if they want to become a Mason. No, you kind of can you know, and it's written into our law. It's written into our law now that you can ask them. But you're also dealing with the generation chris, that there was a generation of masons that they would not allow anybody to join unless they asked three times. Right, they had to ask three times. I totally disagree with that. It's like no, if I'm already told no once, then all right, the answer is no and that's all there is to it. That's it.

Speaker 1: 1:18:00

I don't think I would've done well with that either.

Speaker 2: 1:18:03

No, I would've.

Speaker 1: 1:18:04

I don't want anything that sucks.

Speaker 2: 1:18:06

Yeah, it's like what do you mean? The answer's no. You had me come to six dinners and get to know all these people. For me to ask and then be told no, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 1:18:15

You're talking about the 40s and 50s, like it was a very different time, right? But the elders. It's swollen and they don't need members, so they're being very picky at this point.

Speaker 2: 1:18:27

Right, the thing is, the elders in our craft right now experienced that, and because they experienced that as young Masons, no, that is now the standard. No, it is no longer the standard. Times change. I'm sorry, but we don't use full paper ads in the Sunday Times anymore.

Speaker 1: 1:18:48

We do advertising campaigns, or we don't do billboards anymore. We do advertising campaigns, so the world's different. If you become a committeeman for public relations and publicity today, the Grand Lodge of Florida is going to send you a little pamphlet about how to make sure you get in the newspaper and on your local radio. That's what they think we should be doing.

Speaker 2: 1:19:06

Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:19:06

They're way behind the times.

Speaker 2: 1:19:09

Do you want to know something very interesting, since you talked about radio? I have a truck that I've now owned this truck for going on two years. I have never once in that truck turned on an FM station, not one time. I literally everything. There's no conservative talk on fm, why would you be there? Well, even am, I don't care I, I just I don't listen to radio anymore. You don't listen to am either. No, I don't listen to am or fm radio. All I listen to is spotify playlists and podcasts. That's it, yeah, and that's that. That's the generation of mason that you going to have to deal with. That's right.

Speaker 1: 1:19:42

Exactly, and you know, I think that this is one of the things, the biggest changes I've seen in society. This is unrelated, totally, but we've talked about this. When I was growing up, there was like four channels and every one of those four channels at night told the same news stories. So when you went out into the day the next day, we all shared the same ecosystem. We were all hearing the same news. We were all on the same page. And today, like you said, you're listening to spotify all day. Other people are listening to audiobooks or podcasts. People are getting their news not from television, professional journalism. Usually it's from social media or podcasters or influencers. That's where they're getting their news. Or, you know, like, Bill Maher has a kind of news-related show, or the Daily Show is kind of a news-related comedy, but their news, like this is where people get news today. So when you walk out of your house, your neighbors, you have no idea what information they're getting, where they're getting the information from, what they believe about the world that's happening today.

Speaker 1: 1:20:49

It could be completely different than you which, which, and, and that's a big shift in society oh, it's on the same page to we're all living in different worlds.

Speaker 2: 1:20:58

It is a huge, huge shift, and you know what. To even bring up a point more local to you and I you and I get our news from two very different locations and we've talked about this a couple of times and it's so funny. My wife stopped me the other day. She was like hey, I have a question for you. And I was like yeah, what's up. She's like does Chris hate you? And I was like what do you mean? Does Chris hate me? Like no, like we're brothers, we're good, like you know we're like. We could literally be going back and forth at each other on Facebook and then also texting each other something totally different.

Speaker 1: 1:21:28

Oh, absolutely, it's almost every time.

Speaker 2: 1:21:33

Which is hilarious, but that actually accentuates your point that you and I find our news at two very different locations, and so we view the world from two very different perspectives, and that's okay.

Speaker 1: 1:21:42

It is totally okay that we have those viewpoints and I think that politics in particular is automatically assumed that you're yelling when you're talking.

Speaker 2: 1:21:52

Especially in writing. Well, it's that, and it's also that it's a binary. So it's a binary. It is either you're with me or against me. No, chris finds his information from one source, I find my information from another source, and then we talk about it.

Speaker 1: 1:22:08

Always, when you bring a point, you have a link and I try to do the same. And if I don't have time to do research and provide you with that in the debate, I'll just tell you I'm too busy to have this debate right now. But I haven't come back to this.

Speaker 2: 1:22:21

Yeah, debate. I'll just tell you I'm too busy to have this debate right now, but I haven't even come back to this. I saw that last week, we both like to be informed.

Speaker 1: 1:22:27

I want to get information outside of my bowl Again.

Speaker 2: 1:22:31

I don't have to be right at these things, because if I'm proven wrong on something, I'm only one step closer to being that grumpy old man that says get off my lawn.

Speaker 1: 1:22:38

I know everything.

Speaker 2: 1:22:39

I am so close.

Speaker 1: 1:22:40

So that's it, guys. Schedule meetings for us. We would do it on a Sunday. It was like an exorcism. We had an old priest and a young priest. We had two guys with very different perspectives that would talk to a new candidate for an hour. We had an agenda. We would go over the history of Freemasonry, the history of Freemasonry, the history of our lodge, what it's like to be a Freemason today. Then we'd turn it to them and what do you do for a living? What is your background? What brought you here today? What do you expect to get out of Freemasonry? And we'd have that back and forth and we would end it with a tour of the lodge room. And every time you have an hour-long conversation about the history of Freemasonry, freemasonry today and we brought them into the lodge room. You could feel how awestruck they were, and that's from a guy who had a pink lodge. It still worked.

Speaker 2: 1:23:32

You got to keep in mind who your audience is. I cannot accentuate this enough. You got to keep in mind who your audience is us enough. You got to keep in mind who your audience is. If you're dealing with a potential candidate or you're dealing with an EA or you're dealing with a fellow craft, specifically that candidate and that EA, they are drinking through a fire hose. Okay, you cannot just throw a whole bunch of stuff at them and expect for it to stick. First thing, it's not going to. You've got to revisit some of those lessons like lodge etiquette, like, okay, what's the person who sits in the South called? That's the junior warden, right. Or who's the person who sits over there by the senior warden? That's not the junior deacon, it's your marshal, right.

Speaker 2: 1:24:05

There's just little things you know in our ritual that so many people just don't have. We had some brothers that visited from a lodge up North I think it was like Zephyr Hills or Dade City or something like that. They visited and had no idea, and so it was like no guys like you know, hey, here's exactly how you do it. And I had to literally go through and re-show them the Dugard and signs for all three degrees and saying no, this is how you do it right. This is all the position for your hands in the EA degree, the position for your hands in the fellow craft. You know our positioning of hands and how we do things all have meaning. Every single thing we do have meaning. So do it right and then revisit that with them multiple times. That way it sticks that is another thing.

Speaker 1: 1:24:47

That is an outward way that you can show you care about your fraternity. Do guard and sign done. Yeah, when you watch people ballot and you're like, wait, was that guy just swatting in a fly or did he do that, did he do like, what did he just do? Yeah, you know, sometimes it's like wow, do you even care? Like this is a way you can show that you care. You can do that properly. Even if it's such a simple thing as saluting around the time of I'm not giving away ritual stuff, you know what I'm talking about. Do it properly, slowly, just fine. It shows people that you care about the fraternities.

Speaker 2: 1:25:30

Here's your difference in the two my first time in a ballot. Of course I did the salute and I did it wrong, just because I didn't know. I had absolutely no idea. Fast forward, we're at Laken Lodge and we had a night where we had to go through five votes. That was a long night, had those nights. It was such a long night. So we ended up having to go through like five or six ballots in one night. So again, it was a long, long meeting.

Speaker 2: 1:26:02

One of the newer Master Masons at our lodge he had just been raised in December. He didn't know. You know there was a lot of things that he didn't know about balloting. That's the first time he'd ever seen it. So I kid you not. I think we were on the second ballot. I saw him mess up the first one and the visitors that we had they, you know, all scoffed at it. So I pulled that brother aside and I said hey, brother, here's how you're supposed to do it and here's why you're doing it. So again, and that was just while the rest of the line was up there balloting, I just pulled him to the side during lodge. Hey, here's what you do and here's why you're doing it. He got it. He never messed it up again Nice.

Speaker 1: 1:26:45

So again, it's your job, go talk to him, go help him out um, and not in a condescending way. And, hey brother, would you like some? Would you like some tips or some help with that?

Speaker 2: 1:26:56

uh, I know you did a little difference there's actually, there's an old um, uh acapella song. Uh, so actually there's an old acapella song, so it's. It's. They're a religious singing group and it's all the good things that nobody did and it's. You know, well, I'm too busy. So I tell everybody well, the work's got to get done by somebody, you know. So that's, that's kind of the whole mindset. And again, that's a group from the eighties. We're not facing anything new. These group from the 80s, we're not facing anything new. These are all the same things, over and over again, that these institutions have seen for decades. So, okay, be the change you want to see in the lodge.

Speaker 1: 1:27:26

I love it Does anybody on our live stream have anything they'd like to share about. Outside of these 10 things you need to do to prepare your lodge before you bring in members.

Speaker 2: 1:27:37

I'm seeing we still have four in the live stream, so we'll give them a second to write out if they want to. Jasmine just said not a lot. So again, be the change you want to see in the lodge. Don't be ashamed to throw a couple of dollars of your own money into something that needs to get done around the lodge. If you have jewels and aprons that need to be updated, that's going to cost. If they order it from official Masonic stores, I mean that's going to be a $500 to $800 ordeal. Or you can take $20, $30, $40, $50 and just kind of throw at it over time and still be able to update your stuff. If you want a catechism instructor or a lodge mentor, be that guy, especially if you're a past master. I mean it can't be all on the young guys. At the end of the day, we need the wisdom of that older generation of past masters in order to be able to pass that along to the younger generation of Masons. I do have something I'll share.

Speaker 1: 1:28:31

You know, masonry is not just inside the lodge room. Masonry is for your life, your life, and uh, I, like, have always thought of it in that the rules we have that are so specific for the lodge are like training wheels for a child learning how to ride it. But we need to be taught how to do this stuff properly. And so if you're going to treat your brother with a proper decorum inside a lodge room, in a conversation or even a heated debate, there's no reason you can't do that with your coworker at your job too. There's no reason that you can't do it with somebody who has a different political opinion than you online.

Speaker 1: 1:29:14

You need to take those training wheels off and go out into the world and be an SA Mason, because the only way most people are ever going to experience Freemasonry is one-on-one with a Freemason in the wild, and that means you represent the entire preaching fraternity to that person. And the way you conduct yourself, the way they see you when no one else is looking, how you act, what you do for people, how you sacrifice, how you receive criticism All of that stuff to them is oh, how do Freemasons do this? How does a Freemason act? You literally are Freemasoning those people in the world. And so why don't you be a good representative of the fraternity if you love it?

Speaker 2: 1:29:58

And that also includes if you have the square encompasses on the back of your vehicle.

Speaker 2: 1:30:02

Don't be cutting off people in traffic, don't pull a mask on out and threaten them to get out your way, or yeah, I mean it's so. Actually a funny story about that is um, I was driving through I think it was in atlanta I see, uh, there's a um I think it was an f-150 or something like that and you know he was being nice to everybody in traffic and everything. So I pulled up in front of him so he could see the square encompasses on the back of my truck and I saw his past master logo on the back of his. So it's like I just rolled down the window, waved at him, he and I sat there and like played tag back and forth Like we were like creating openings in traffic and everything for each other. So that was just kind of the day.

Speaker 2: 1:30:36

If that guy would have had a past master symbol on the back of his truck and then he's acting like a jerk, or if I've got the square encompasses on the back of my truck and I'm driving like a jerk, that's going to reflect poorly on masonry. So, to your point, you're 100 correct. And even still, there was a, a guy at my church and I've talked about him here on the podcast before. He's actually a member of, uh, corinthian lodge um, which is like probably 30 minutes from here. So it was so cool.

Speaker 2: 1:31:00

The reason why I asked you are where's 30 minutes from here? Yeah Well, the 30 minutes from central Florida. It's in Polk County. So, yeah, we got the festival going right now. So I'm seeing like all the traffic and everything like outside my office window. Right yeah, strawberry festival, I love it. So, but either way, there was a reason why there's a brother at my church that I asked him specifically if he knew anything about the Masons and then he gave me the grip and it's like he just carried himself differently.

Speaker 2: 1:31:29

And so I picked up on that and I was like hey, um, what's your opinion on the Masons? And that's whenever he shook my hand and I was like it's fine. Yeah, so which, even still, I'm actually really looking forward to going back to that church now. Now I can go back to that church. That's a whole other topic for a different scenario, but yeah me in the wild.

Speaker 1: 1:31:48

I was my landlord team to talk about a problem with the lease, the building I was leasing for work, yeah, and he shook my hand and it was just too close. I was like, huh, that's very similar to like a Freemason handshake and he showed me his ring. I was like, oh shit, he's a member of So-and-So Lodge and I'm like that's my lodge, like he was a member of my lodge.

Speaker 2: 1:32:14

And then why have I never seen you before?

Speaker 1: 1:32:16

Let me tell you I had a great relationship with him after that. So here's the thing why are you treating your brother special? We're all members of the same human fraternity, right? We have the same almighty parents, we agree, and we're supposed to aid support and protect each other.

Speaker 2: 1:32:34

And again, all these conversations that you guys are going to have in your lodge. You should be able to have these conversations with guard fully lowered. You shouldn't be in a defensive mindset if you're going into talking about a topic at lodge and if you're one of those brothers that you feel yourself getting emotionally compromised in that conversation, disengage.

Speaker 1: 1:32:53

Yeah, cool as that.

Speaker 2: 1:32:55

It's so easy just to take a step back. All right, brothers, I'm done for now. I may jump in later, but that's okay. That is totally okay. That is a person who is showing restraint and self-control and I respect that a lot more Me too.

Speaker 1: 1:33:08

That means you're being a Mason, and that's what we are all trying to do. Dang right, that's awesome, this fraternity With that. We appreciate you guys hanging out so long with us. I hope you got something out of this for your watch. If you did make sure you tell me how awesome you are, if you didn't make sure you tell Matt how much you hate us yeah, definitely tell me.

Speaker 2: 1:33:29

my email is Chris on the level podcastcom no, you didn't.

Speaker 1: 1:33:35

No, you didn't. You can catch us on any social media platform, leave a public comment or privately message us. Yeah, it is Chris on the level podcast. No, we don't, we'll see. You can catch us on any social media platform leave a public comment or privately message us. Yeah, it is Chris. On the Level Podcast. No, we don't. We'll see you next time. For now, on the Level Podcast is out.

Speaker 2: 1:33:49

Out you.