Latest / Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries / Episode 63. Futurity (ft. Chuck Brust)

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Episode 63. Futurity (ft. Chuck Brust) · Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries

0:00
Thanks again for joining us.
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It's another episode of Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries.
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Our guest today is someone we have been looking forward to hosting.
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Chuck Brust is joining us in studio today, who currently serves as the Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota.
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He grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota and migrated to Rochester in 1996.
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Professionally, he's an enterprise IT architect with Mayo Clinic.
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Can't wait to hear more about that.
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And he has a long history with our Masonic fraternity, going back to his early days with DMLA as a youth and later as an advisor.
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When he's not working or pursuing Masonic interests, he loves to hunt and fish, and he is a passionate fan of multiple Chicago sports teams.
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Chuck, welcome.
0:44
Thanks, Reid.
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Happy to be here.
0:46
I'll forget to bring this up later if we don't cover that.
0:49
Now, multiple Chicago sports teams, how did that come to be?
0:52
Well, you have to understand that my dad's family is It was originally from Southern Iowa, so the Cubs, the Bears, that was what was available to them and, uh, that family history kind of pulled all the way through.
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WGN was huge, back in the day.
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You could get it everywhere.
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Baseball every afternoon, got to be there.
1:13
That makes sense.
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So what about Chicago Blackhawks, NHL?
1:17
If I was a hockey fan, sure.
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I have never followed hockey, The way their season's the last couple, it's rebuilding time.
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It's not any time to jump on, on that bandwagon, but I've already learned something about you.
1:29
I did not know of your, uh, fondness for the Chicago market.
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How does that go with our local Vikings and Packers?
1:36
Well, considering how the, the Bears have done over the last several seasons, nobody seems to care.
1:42
Probably more of a sympathy factor in that aspect.
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So tell us more about your migrating.
1:49
I like how you said that too.
1:50
So you moved to Rochester in 1996.
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What does it mean to be an enterprise IT architect with the Mayo Clinic?
1:57
Sure.
1:57
So those two things go hand in hand.
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I came to Rochester in the late 90s specifically to start at Mayo.
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Started out there working on the, uh, on the server side of the house.
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Always been an IT guy.
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So dealing with Windows servers for 18, 20 years.
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And then moved into the enterprise architecture space, when I was dealing with the servers, that was a very hands on, uh, on call, get a call at three a.
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m.
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kind of a job that gets old over time.
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Uh, my current gig is much more along the lines of strategy and, uh.
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roadmaps, where are we headed in the future?
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What are our standards for the entire company?
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Uh, software wise, hardware wise, things of that nature.
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So I get to see a lot of the new things that are going on.
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some of the stuff that's happening with our new.
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Construction in Rochester will tie directly into some of the work that I'm doing kind of hospital room of the future kind of things, robotics, things of that nature.
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Well, obviously medicine is evolving at a rapid speed.
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How does the I.
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T.
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side of the house keep up with that?
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It's tough sometimes to be able to.
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Make sure that the providers have all of the information that they need at their fingertips for the right patient at the right time in the right location.
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There's a lot of challenges around that and that is really a lot of what I'm focusing on with some of this new work that we're doing to be able to have instantaneous lab results, be able to have all of that right up on the, on the wall in the hospital room for the patient and the provider is going to be a huge step forward.
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it's difficult to get our heads around what a massive operation Mayo is at large.
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Can you give us a little more perspective on the size and scope of, of the several layers?
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Sure.
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So, just really rough numbers.
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Mayo's got about 80, 000, full time employees across the multiple locations.
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Uh, major hospitals in Rochester, in Phoenix, and in Jacksonville, Florida, along with a lot of hospitals in the upper Midwest, uh, Mankato, La Crosse, Eau Claire, et cetera, plus a bunch of smaller clinical spaces in some of the small towns.
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So the practice really does run the gamut of anything from a two person facility in Lake Crystal all the way through the million, tens of millions of square feet of space in the Rochester downtown core.
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So you have a front row seat essentially on the IT side that has to keep up with the bedside care in that almost instantaneous result that is absolutely fascinating.
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Are you basically saying that lab work that, radiology results could be almost immediately or the same day for someone to be displayed and discussed at the bedside?
5:03
Oh, absolutely.
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That's exactly it.
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Speed of care.
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can make a huge difference in the outcome for the patient.
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To be able to say the patient that's presenting in the ER is having a stroke within a small number of minutes versus having to wait for two hours for some sort of lab results to come back.
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It can make all the difference in the world, it can be literally life or death.
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And while I don't have any expertise on the medical side of that, being able to look at the systems that we're running and ensure that those results can be moved as quickly as possible is paramount to providing that IT piece of the care that's being done.
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You really do have an interesting position to be working parallel with medical researchers and what is trying to be accomplished on that side that how I'm going to ask a stupid question.
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How stressful is that?
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It, uh, it has its moments, certainly, to be able to have a conversation with a provider who's looking for a particular function and, maybe we have it, maybe we don't, to be able to be able and go out and build that with them is a great way to do a partnership.
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Sometimes there are conflicts in how we can accomplish that, whether that's financial, whether that's timing, whether that's Uh, we just don't have the technical capability to provide what they need today.
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Uh, those are harder conversations and we try and keep things on the level and make sure that we get them as best result in the end as we possibly can, but we're not perfect.
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How often have you been asked to develop something that feels impossible?
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Maybe it's just the threshold is far out of reach in the short term.
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I would say we're doing a lot of that right now with a lot of the artificial intelligence work that's going on.
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A ton of Stuff going on that space that is dealing with how can we take?
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millions or or billions in some cases of records of data to learn from that and, be able to provide advice for the physicians and the nurses and, and all of those people.
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Medicine has moved so quickly that it's difficult for any provider to keep up with all of the new advances that are coming out on a day by day basis.
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Whether that's new pharmaceuticals, whether that's new procedures, whatever it is, to be able to then allow the technology to help in that space and perhaps suggest, go look at this new process or this new med that just came out that might be a good fit.
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You're leaving all of the decisions in the hands of the provider in the end, but you're adding on.
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You're augmenting what their knowledge in their head is by the technology as well.
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Those sorts of things are new enough that it's difficult to have them out there today, but we're working on them very closely.
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And the impetus to get that out there, the benefit to patient outcomes in the end is potentially huge.
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So we're pushing on that very hard.
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A few months ago, we interviewed Dr.
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Douglas Yee from the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota.
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And he shared some interesting evolutions of that care at the bedside that had really not existed before, say, the 90s or the early 2000s.
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And he touched on some technology aspects that are really revolutionizing cancer research.
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I want to ask how much is AI helping in terms of not just the records and consolidating those things, but are you able to take.
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um, Several aspects of research and of knowledge that's scattered all over the place and combine it and really get from that hypothetical to a theory.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And I can I can give you a couple examples that might help the listeners out.
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We've got one where we have.
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And utilizing MRI images of brains.
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Uh, some of these are known to have some sort of a tumor in them.
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Some of them are known not to.
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And we take that and use those images to train this AI model, to what does brain cancer look like in an image.
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We've gotten to a point in some of that research today where the computer can much more readily and certainly much faster identify those tumors versus a human doing it and in general can identify those images in Spaces where it might not be visible to the human eye.
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It's so early on that we're able to have much earlier interventions.
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Similarly, I, I'm aware of some, uh, AI work being done with ECG images, or excuse me, ECG traces, where that heart rhythm can show small changes in that, will show that, uh, there may be changes in other bodily systems.
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That can be diagnosed just from that ECG.
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So we're seeing a ton of advancement in that space really quickly that is directly clinically applicable.
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It's fascinating and sounds stressful for you when you describe the level of responsibility and the role that you have with Mayo Clinic.
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And obviously in addition to all that you do in your career, you spend a significant amount of time within the Masonic Fraternity.
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Currently.
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Uh, the junior grand warden for the grand lodge.
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How are things going in general?
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We could go into so many different avenues of your Masonic involvement, but how has it been so far in serving in the grand line?
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I've loved it so far and I expect that that'll continue.
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You know, big picture.
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I've had an opportunity to really get out and visit a lot of lodges, have conversations with a lot of the brothers.
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And certainly.
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We have concerns within the fraternity.
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There are lodges that are having some trouble.
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Uh, we try and get out there and help them out as best as we can.
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Give advice.
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We recognize that those lodges have to go through and implement the advice.
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Whichever parts of it they want to take themselves.
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So there's work to be done within the lodges.
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We want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to succeed in the end.
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So those sorts of interactions have been great.
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As far as I'm concerned.
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We're also doing a lot of planning going forward.
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as you may be aware, we're running up on the 175th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota.
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Yes, 2028.
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Tell us more about that.
11:49
Yeah, yeah.
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So, yeah.
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Uh, lots of things going on, lots of planning going on, certainly, uh, are looking forward to celebratory, uh, events, uh, perhaps, uh, a large gala that involves as many of our brothers around the state as we can, the ability to, uh, get together and to celebrate a significant milestone like that is going to be wonderful.
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We have a couple other things that are major events that will go along and be tied into that.
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we have the opportunity to host the conference of grandmasters in 2028 here in Minneapolis.
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It'll be here.
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Yeah, right here in Minneapolis.
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So, uh, we'll have grandmasters and, and Grand Lodge officers from across the U.
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S., Canada, Mexico, and generally there's, uh, South American lodges that come and are represented as well.
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So, wonderful opportunity for a great gathering right here in Minneapolis in 2028.
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That's excellent.
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I don't want to forget to ask, with that Conference of Grandmasters and also the Grand Secretaries Gather, were some of our members who aren't familiar with, they've heard of the Conference of Grandmasters, or from, perhaps even for newer Masons, what goes on at that gathering?
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Yeah.
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So.
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So, the Conference Grandmasters and Conference Grand Secretaries is an opportunity for Grand Lodge officers to get together, to compare notes, to talk about things that perhaps are a new program within their Grand Lodge, things that they've had success with, uh, perhaps compare some notes on things that maybe aren't going as well and try and find some new solutions.
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So, one of the things that we, uh, that we talked about this year.
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So, uh, in the discussion was how one day to masonry, you know, all three degrees in a day type festivals are being done in different jurisdictions across the country.
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And we picked up some new thoughts on how we might implement some of that in our own one day festival that we do every January, uh, in the future.
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being able to have better education, better mentoring for our community.
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brothers that go through and get their degrees through that one day festival, uh, has been a concern that we've been talking about for a while to make sure that they get everything that they need out of the experience, and we picked up some great new information, uh, that Wisconsin and that Ohio are using, uh, for their versions of that particular event, and I think we'll see some of that happen, uh, going forward.
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That's great to know is the one day is a successful event in perhaps equally important to a one day candidate that goes through the traditional long form that we have more resources to guide them after they have become a master Mason and a voting member of their lodge.
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What's next?
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What are my options for attending for visiting other lodges or getting involved in a committee?
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a lot of that institutional knowledge Well, maybe that's been a little bit lost over the years and it'd be exciting to be refining that and providing some really strong Resources for our members.
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Yeah, absolutely and we combine that with the work that we're doing before a petition ever comes in to try and make sure that the man is bonded to the fraternity and And that he's got a good, pool of resources in his own lodge.
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I think those two things together are going to continue to improve our success in, in, in getting guys, uh, really involved in the fraternity and retaining them over the long haul.
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I couldn't agree more.
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And as we look at a 175th anniversary in 2028 of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota, we've been around a long time.
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perhaps something we can hang our hat on as far as a longevity is that we are an organization that is apolitical, non sectarian.
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We are open to someone who embraces our core values of friendship and personal developments and community, giving back to the greater good being that desire.
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There is a really strong desire for that in our world right now.
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How do we capitalize on that for those who may not be familiar with what we've set out to do with, we call them in Freemasonry, the tenets of our profession or those, or those core values of brotherly love, relief, and truth.
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Absolutely, and we're always looking for good men who believe in those sorts of values.
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What I would say to you, to answer your question, Reid, is we need to, as members of the fraternity, continue to go out and Seek those men out in a one by one basis.
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Look for that man that you interact with at work, in your neighborhood, uh, at your church.
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Whatever the venue may be, and have a conversation with him.
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We've always I've gone down the road of saying that masonry does not go out and recruit memberships, but that does not mean that we shouldn't be having a conversation one on one.
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There's no prohibition to asking someone, why aren't you a mason yet?
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why haven't you ever thought about the fraternity and, and would you like to know more?
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Similarly, anyone that is not currently a brother of the fraternity is welcome to reach out via be a free mason.
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org, uh, via someone that they know.
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We can't.
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We can't any of those paths are open to you and we can have a conversation about is this the right fit for you.
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It's not necessarily an invitation, hey, you should join, but what questions do you have about my involvement in my Masonic Lodge?
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How much interest have you had in what we do in the community?
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Nine times out of ten, that conversation results in someone saying, well, I didn't know I could.
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I didn't, I thought I had to check more boxes of having a family connection and none of those things are, are accurate, but there's still a big disconnect even from our own members who are under this old misperception that we can't have that curiosity conversation.
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We're not out handing out leaflets saying, join us.
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But if to your point, if, if we know someone.
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who embraces the things we just talked about.
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That is definitely the onus is on all of us to to do that.
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Correct?
18:07
Absolutely.
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We need to get away from that old attitude where men felt that it was purely secret.
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Couldn't talk about anything.
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Couldn't talk about the fact that they remember and couldn't go ask their best friend in the world to be.
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Involved if they had a desire that it just doesn't make sense and as the society has moved forward For some reason that old thought has just continued to stick and we've got to get past it Most definitely my own father didn't join because my grandfather who was a past master of his lodge of that old school mentality This is several generations ago was waiting on my dad to say Hey, tell me more and it never happened and as a result it just fizzled out and unfortunately my dad never, my dad broke the chain of several generations of being Masons and it was how unfortunate of that Time and again within my role as a regional director, I have conversations with, well, men of all ages between 25 and you name it, and the desire to make quality friends, to have a path of personal development.
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Striving to become that best version or better version of oneself and the community piece is So highly sought right now in this world that has so much divisiveness so much screen time It is very refreshing and uplifting to hear the feedback especially from some of these younger guys that are just tired of doom scrolling and They're tired of being isolated in their apartment or at home.
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They really want to get out and connect as friends in an authentic way, human to human, face to face.
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That's not to say we abandon technology, Freemasonry offers a uniquely analog experience within this digital world that we live.
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Absolutely.
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I can go back to and think about my own experience and I was fortunate I was able to join when I was very young.
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I was initiated when I was 20 years old and that for me came from my DMLA background having Participated in DeMolay and having those relationships with the masons that I did when I was in high school.
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I knew right off I needed to continue my journey, come into the fraternity.
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The timing certainly was different then.
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We didn't have the social media aspects and some of those things.
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It was Well, 1992 to throw my age out there, so, uh, you're still young to me, Chuck, but then the young guys look at us and say, Oh, please go on.
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But to have those relationships with a variety of men of, of all ages, even just as DMLA advisors for me, widened my view within the fraternity and within society to be able to say These are men that are doing the right thing.
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These are guys that really understand where our values are and where society could be headed if we come together and I had to be part of it.
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how far back does the Masonic connection go with parents, grandparents?
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Is this a multi generational tradition in your family?
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No, no, I had no link to the fraternity, it was one of those things.
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I was Um, I was a theater teacher.
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Always involved in the theater productions in junior high and high school, and I saw one of my buddies with what I later learned to be a D Malay ritual studying his lines during study hall.
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Uh, just one day at school, and I asked him.
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What's that?
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What do you got there?
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It looks like a script.
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You know, just a small book looks like a theater script, and that was my introduction.
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It was not long before I was a member of the chapter back at home and That's where things started for me.
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It's not amazing to think of what a subtle moment that was.
22:17
Oh yeah.
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And how it's affected in a positive way the rest of your life.
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It has.
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All the way until, till now.
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you mentioned earlier about the friendship, started alluding to the brotherhood.
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It made me think about the relationships that we make along the way.
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you and I are similar in age, as I look back on the Masonic experience of, Of having mentors that I didn't know they were my mentor in the moment.
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Maybe it was that unintentional, we were just chatting.
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Maybe I was venting about a job or the job search or things happening while I was in my 20s and 30s.
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And never appreciated as much in that moment, Ken Hill and Jim Burlingame, some of these guys of having a passing conversation, the listening they did, they didn't necessarily have the answer to life's problems, but listen, provided a perspective and context.
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Looking back, there was 10, 20 years of just some of the most meaningful friendships and life advice that I personally have ever known.
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If you had to identify one singular, most impactful aspect of being a member, of the fraternity, of being a Freemason, what would that be?
23:38
Boy, that's a, that's a tough one to knock it down to just one.
23:41
for me, it's, it's really what you just said.
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It's about those mentorship type relationships.
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Whether that's I had, uh, a man that was sitting as the Grand Master of South Dakota when I was at DMLA.
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He was one of the advisors of the chapter.
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Did I know that at the time?
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No, no idea, but the life experience that he brought and the Advice that he would give and frankly the gentle nudge that he gave me to step up and say You might want to run for this leadership position.
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I think you'd be really good at it was life changing for me And I've had the great fortune to have several brothers like that over the years where it was good and timely advice, whispered at the right time and focusing my efforts in a particular way that has gotten me to where I am today.
24:42
Another story of a subtlety too.
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You didn't know he was a, whatever his title was in the moment, but that he stepped up and said, Hey, That little, that little nudge, you should consider doing that.
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it concerns me that we missed that opportunity, especially with some of our younger members who are either on a trajectory of development, or who need a little confidence boost.
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All those future leaders are all around us, and sometimes I'm afraid we assume that, well, I assume that you will tell the young man next to it.
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There's so much power and impact in putting an arm around that brother and saying, you did great, and I think you should try even more to strive for this next level of leadership, or of taking on a community engagement project, or heading up a committee.
25:31
Absolutely true.
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The, the capabilities that our brothers have, uh, they may not recognize them yet, especially some of the newer members or some of the younger guys that are around, but these brothers have a lot to give to the craft.
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And to society in general, and we need to be very explicit about supporting that for every one of them to be able to, as you said, just take them aside and say, Hey, I think you could do this.
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Would you be willing to step up and have this opportunity, or the other side of it is and we tend to not be so great at this at times too.
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Recognition of, hey, you did a great job on this thing that you did well done.
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I really appreciate everything that you did to put effort into it.
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Community engagement is a very highly sought after aspect of the Masonic experience, and I'm very excited about how many of our younger or newer Masons have asked how can I get more involved with Masonic charities?
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How can our Lodge better support and be aware of the things happening?
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At the university with the Masonic Cancer Center, the Masonic Children's Hospital.
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Some very exciting endeavors occurring, literally right in our backyard, that are impacting the world.
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And to see these young men stepping up and saying, how can we help promote that along with other, other aspects of meaningful community engagement is, is really.
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Huge.
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And these brothers have so much to give, and their experiences to date have been different than you or I were at that point in our lives.
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Let's utilize those experiences to continue to make progress in society.
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We are an organization very much steeped in history.
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and learning from history and also evolving as we move forward.
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I saw a great quote out of the, it was actually from the Northern light from a Walt Wheeler, who's the sovereign grand commander of the Northern jurisdiction.
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And he said more or less that we as Freemasons must adapt and enhance our approach to ensure that our storied organization remains relevant in the future.
27:55
What do you see as our long term vision moving ahead and looking long term into the future?
28:02
It's a great question, and it's interesting, going back to the conversation a little while ago, I told you I was just at the conference of grandmasters.
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Well, Walt was one of the presenters there, and we had exactly this conversation.
28:15
In one of those sessions.
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So the timing is perfect.
28:17
Oh, good.
28:18
I had no idea.
28:19
Yeah, we, uh, we really had a, a great conversation about really trying to be explicit about bringing communications, bringing, the technology in the lodges up to modern day, uh, we see certainly.
28:38
Lodges that have fallen behind in the way that they do their communications.
28:43
Perhaps they still are doing only a paper newsletter That goes out to their membership.
28:50
We need to look at other options now Does that mean that we should kill that paper newsletter for?
28:57
Everybody including the guys that maybe don't have email or that sort of thing.
29:01
No We need to be conscious of our membership and that we ensure that everyone gets the information that they need to have, but we also need to recognize that today's 25 year old is unlikely to, uh.
29:18
They're going to want to deal with something that they got a piece of paper in the mail.
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Do they even rather have it on their phone?
29:24
The 25 year olds even check their mail.
29:26
That's an excellent question.
29:27
Probably not other than for bills, right?
29:31
So being able to embrace some of those technological changes while at the same time retaining our core values is really what we need to look at.
29:41
The conversation when we were in Myrtle Beach really went to the concern around innovations in the craft.
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What does that mean for someone who isn't unfamiliar?
29:53
Yeah.
29:54
So, uh, any, any sorts of changes.
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And the way that it's been framed in some cases is we shouldn't change the ritual.
30:03
Uh, we should not change the core values.
30:05
We should not change the Things like that.
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But, if we look at the historical record, other than the core values, Every one of those other things has been changed at different times in the past.
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We've changed our ritual.
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We've changed even the modes of recognition, at different points in the past in order to better serve those that were members of the fraternity.
30:28
And this really isn't any different in my mind to be able to Take our technological edge and move that forward to better serve those in the fraternity Is only going to benefit us in the long run now.
30:43
Do I see us?
30:45
having Things like a virtual lodge where we're putting on degree work Through the the zoom session.
30:52
No, not at any point in the future.
30:54
Uh, there's there's too much that goes along with The learning process that needs to be face to face, person to person.
31:04
But, we certainly should be taking advantage for communications, for education, other things of that nature that aren't esoteric by nature.
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And being able to broaden our impact to our brothers and to society as a whole through some of those technological changes.
31:24
Part of the technological change is ensuring that we are preserving our history.
31:30
We started to touch on the historical aspect and it seems that Masons are very much.
31:35
Students of history to some extent, Tell us more about the project that you've embarked upon that ensures that we are archiving and keeping and maintaining our history alive with those resources to ensure whether that is it going to be digital all the way through, or please tell us more.
31:52
Yeah, great question.
31:53
Thanks, Reed.
31:54
Uh, the Scanning Project, or what I'll call the Scanning Project, just for brevity here, Lodge Digitization and Preservation Project, I think is the official title that we have gone with, in any case, uh, is an effort that we are undertaking, uh, as a partnership between the Grand Lodge of Minnesota and Minnesota Masonic Charities, uh, specifically the museum, to Take digital records of minutes books of interesting correspondence of photos Anything that a lodge might have that has any sort of a historic value We recognize that there have certainly been situations where floods fires Other sorts of disasters have destroyed records in different lodges we further understand that Old minutes books mostly were handwritten, uh, the paper is starting to degrade, the iron ink is starting to fade.
32:52
There's late 1850s, early 1860s minutes books that it's very difficult to even be able to get enough light on them to be able to read it at this point.
33:03
And those early histories are hugely important, not only for those that are members of the craft, but for historians in general.
33:11
There's all sorts of tie ins to important figures in Minnesota as a state that were also We want to be able to preserve the legacy of our brothers within the craft, and we want to be able to ensure that all of that legacy is preserved over time.
33:27
So, we're embarking on a project where we are digitizing those records.
33:33
We've got several overhead scanners and laptops and really a whole kit of gear that we can take out to any lodge.
33:43
And have some of our brothers teach those local brothers how to do the work.
33:49
those brothers are able to take every one of their minute books, every one of their pieces of interesting correspondence, and scan them so that they've got a digital record of that.
34:01
I take one example here.
34:04
the lodge in Mankato, uh, Mankato Lodge number 12, has correspondence that was written from members of that lodge back to the lodge while these brothers were off fighting in World War I.
34:17
They've got these on display, uh, and it's, you know, it's, it's One guy talking to the brothers of his lodge in letter form about what's going on in his life while he's over in Germany, France, etc, fighting in World War I.
34:33
And I would hate to have anything happen to those original documents, of course, but at least if we can get them scanned, we've got A record of them.
34:44
We know what they were that we know what they looked like and we can preserve the originals more appropriately Uh as well, we're going through both, you know, the digitization certainly but also Ensuring that we're appropriate, uh better archival practices are being handled acid free boxes sealing against water, things like that are being done with this project as well in order to help the lodges hold on to the physical media at the same time.
35:14
Preserving it in a way you just described, but also now we'll be able to share it.
35:18
We can internally distribute something like that.
35:21
What it sounds like there's so many timeless pieces.
35:24
Within the archives that many have never seen or are literally unaware of that's exactly right And as we move forward the intent here is things like minutes.
35:35
We'll be able to have a searchable PDF where for example Trinity Lodge in Duluth we took a hundred years worth of their minutes There's all happened to be typewritten, so we didn't have to worry about, uh, translating old calligraphy and that kind of thing.
35:54
But you said a hundred years, a hundred years of minutes we've able, we would be able to then.
35:59
Take all hundred years and with a few keystrokes search for every instance of Denfield who was one of our past grandmasters and who was a member of the lodge up there and find every spot in That hundred years where that name was mentioned in a few seconds two questions.
36:19
How long does the scanning take?
36:21
And is this new technology?
36:23
Are you bringing something into the scanning project that is maybe more than what in my mind is an old school way of doing this task?
36:31
It is, it is a little bit newer, uh, technology.
36:34
Yes.
36:34
So when we did our So this is our initial test up at Trinity Lodge.
36:39
We went through on 1, 500 pages of minutes in the span of somewhere between three and four hours.
36:49
So it's really quite quick.
36:51
The way that the technology works is the scanner is an overhead type setup.
36:57
So you've got an open book, the opens minutes books.
37:01
It'll take both.
37:02
Um, and it'll scan all the pages facing pages at the same time and as quickly as you can turn the page and click the button.
37:09
It'll take that scan.
37:11
If the book happens to be open where it's bent and has a curve in it or anything like that, it'll flatten it out automatically in the image and be able to just move on and flip through as quickly as you can turn the pages safely.
37:27
You covered in just a handful of hours when that particular case now the technology is obviously way beyond what it once was that said, how many volunteers would be helpful in something like this?
37:39
Are you looking for some to step up maybe with a little more affinity for history?
37:44
Who would want to be a part of this?
37:45
Yeah, so on the committee right now, we've got four of us that are, that are deep into it.
37:51
Um, we would absolutely love a few more helpers, especially as we're starting to get out and get this equipment distributed around the state because we need to A, ensure that our committee members.
38:06
Um, and, uh, can operate the scanners.
38:09
And I will say it's not tough.
38:10
It's not difficult by any means.
38:12
I know that me as a technologist, I can say that sometimes, and maybe it's not as true as others.
38:17
You read my mind.
38:19
However, I've been told by those that aren't tech folks, uh, that, no, it's pretty easy.
38:24
yes, I would love to have additional volunteers.
38:28
When we go out to the lodge, really, it's a matter of Usually two or three guys is all we need from that local lodge, somebody to meet, you know, usually the secretary that has access to all the records and a couple of willing volunteers that are able to do the physical parts of the work.
38:45
The only concern that crosses my mind is that if someone like me was involved in that, it would be so easy to stop scanning and read either the minutes or the book that's being looked at if it's something like the Centennium book, it would require a bit of focus and look through the book later, right?
39:01
Absolutely true.
39:02
I found myself doing exactly that.
39:05
And the nice thing about it is once we've gone through the project.
39:10
You've got that digitally forever, so you can go back and take as much time to read through that later on as you want, and that's what I've got to keep reminding myself as I flip through these because there's always something interesting.
39:21
But this will be in PDF form and then can be shared, distributed as appropriate if someone was interested or that by that search function is Exactly, exactly.
39:30
To be able to go through and.
39:32
Now, as I said, find all instances of someone's name or, uh, look for when a particular event happened and find all of the, the related minutes to it in a flash of a second is for historians, for educators, for anybody that's interested in, in the history of the lodge.
39:52
Really gonna be a huge step forward.
39:54
We are recording today just a few weeks away from our annual communication, which will be in April.
40:00
Will there be more information on this available when we gather in Wake Park?
40:05
There will.
40:06
So we will have a short promo video that we'll show, uh, and that will be available out to the lodges through their district representatives as well.
40:16
couple of minutes.
40:17
We just shot that the other day, and I think that will be.
40:20
Uh, great for a high level overview, but, uh, for those that want to take a deeper dive, we will also have a breakout session, at Grand Lodge where we'll do some demo, we'll do some walkthrough and we'll teach you how this really works and, and how you can engage with the program going forward.
40:39
And if any brothers listening have an interest in getting involved in this, I'm going to refer them to reach out to me at the Grand Lodge office and I'll get your information shared with Chuck and the committee and put you to work.
40:50
Sounds great.
40:51
Love to have more.
40:52
What else does a year hold for you?
40:53
Like we said, the annual communication is just a few weeks away, which gives me a twinge of nerves with all that still needs to be done ahead of that, but what else is on the calendar for you personally and Masonically?
41:04
you and me both, it's going to be an interesting time over the next few weeks in this run up to the session, making sure we've got everything finalized and prepared, ready to go.
41:12
Beyond that, for me, I am hoping to get out to a lot of lodges here right away in the spring.
41:19
I've had the wonderful opportunity to deal with some lodges in the Southwest over this last year.
41:25
I'll have Northwest lodges in the next term.
41:28
tradition prevailing, assuming I get elected in, in April, uh, so I'm looking forward to that.
41:34
Uh, perhaps I can haul the fishing boat along and, and do a little fishing during the day when I'm between meetings, uh, if I'm going to be up north for a few days.
41:43
So I would hope so.
41:44
Yeah.
41:44
Short summer.
41:45
Exactly.
41:46
Exactly.
41:47
And looking forward to that a little bit, uh, beyond that, I've got some personal travel coming up.
41:52
I've got a, a long.
41:53
I hope trip to Portugal coming up, my mother and I have a goal of doing the Caminos de Santiago walk, so we'll be, uh, we're planning to walk from Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain, which is about 175 miles in the span of two weeks.
42:13
No kidding.
42:14
Yeah, yeah, should be fun.
42:16
That's one word, fun.
42:18
What's the, what's the kind of temperatures are we looking at for that?
42:21
It's.
42:22
It's Spain and Portugal in summer, so 90s, 80s to 90s.
42:27
Yeah, you are a man of adventure.
42:29
There's no doubt about it.
42:30
That's a far cry from sitting in a fishing boat in northern Minnesota.
42:34
Well, Chuck Brust, it's been great sitting down with you today, learning more about your career, your upbringing, what led you to join Freemasonry.
42:44
And we'd be remiss if we didn't say.
42:46
thank you for the time that you have contributed and continue to do so towards the Masonic family in general.
42:53
Happy to do it.
42:53
If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't be here, Reid, so thank you for the time today.
42:58
Chuck Bruss is the Junior Grand Warden for the Grand Lodge of Minnesota.
43:02
Thank you for being here.
43:03
We look forward to seeing you at the annual communication in April.
43:06
My name is Reed Endersby.
43:07
This has been another episode of Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries.