Latest / The Masonic Roundtable - Freemasonry Today for Today's Freemasons / The Masonic Roundtable - 0565 - The Critical First Year

Transcript

The Masonic Roundtable - 0565 - The Critical First Year · The Masonic Roundtable - Freemasonry Today for Today's Freemasons

• 0:09
  Speaker: Hello and welcome back to the Masonic Roundtable, a weekly
• 0:12
  Speaker: program where Masons from around the world get together to talk
• 0:15
  Speaker: about Masonic news and opinions in a friendly and social manner.
• 0:18
  Speaker: As a reminder, the thoughts and opinions opinions expressed here
• 0:22
  Speaker: are solely the opinions of the participants and do not
• 0:25
  Speaker: represent any Grand Lodge statements or positions.
• 0:27
  Speaker: Make sure you keep your conversations open for the
• 0:29
  Speaker: public and all the level.
• 0:32
  Speaker: Also to interact with us, send questions and comments to the
• 0:34
  Speaker: Facebook page or on the chat running alongside this video,
• 0:38
  Speaker: and your chat may even appear up on the show.
• 0:40
  Speaker: So if you can't catch us live, catch us in the replay or in
• 0:44
  Speaker: your favorite podcast app.
• 0:46
  Speaker: You know me, John Rupert, past master of the Patriot Lodge
• 0:49
  Speaker: number nineteen fifty seven in an undisclosed location.
• 0:53
  Speaker: That's right.
• 0:55
  Speaker: And in a disclosed location.
• 0:58
  Speaker: We also have Josef Martinez.
• 1:02
  Speaker: What's up Broseph?
• 1:03
  Speaker: Thanks for pulling me up.
• 1:05
  Speaker: When I have a big old slug and drink in my hand.
• 1:07
  Speaker: Hello, Joe Martinez in the usual location.
• 1:11
  Speaker: Let's see.
• 1:11
  Speaker: Uh, pass.
• 1:12
  Speaker: Master of Manasseh Lodge number
• 1:13
  Speaker: one eighty two in Manassas,
• 1:15
  Speaker: Virginia.
• 1:16
  Speaker: And, uh, yeah, as always, super glad to be here.
• 1:19
  Speaker: Super, super duper.
• 1:23
  Speaker: Last but not least for tonight, Robert Johnson.
• 1:25
  Speaker: Hello and good evening.
• 1:26
  Speaker: How are you?
• 1:27
  Speaker: What's up?
• 1:30
  Speaker: Uh, Robert Johnson, past master, Waukegan, seventy eight and
• 1:35
  Speaker: eleven eighty three, secretary of a bunch of stuff, host of the
• 1:38
  Speaker: whiskey new podcast and, uh, uh, hanging out with these TMR guys.
• 1:46
  Speaker: Let's do it.
• 1:47
  Speaker: Let's do it.
• 1:48
  Speaker: Awesome.
• 1:49
  Speaker: Well, as always, we like to kick
• 1:51
  Speaker: things off with a special thank
• 1:52
  Speaker: you to the patrons who support
• 1:53
  Speaker: the show.
• 1:54
  Speaker: You guys are amazing.
• 1:55
  Speaker: You keep the hosting down and the tech refreshed.
• 1:59
  Speaker: So we appreciate you.
• 2:01
  Speaker: If you want to support the show, head over to patreon dot com
• 2:03
  Speaker: slash the Masonic Roundtable, and that'll keep this free
• 2:06
  Speaker: Masonic education around for many years to come.
• 2:09
  Speaker: Tyler says, thanks.
• 2:12
  Speaker: Thanks, patrons.
• 2:14
  Speaker: Nice.
• 2:16
  Speaker: Oh, I didn't know we were giving out toys today.
• 2:19
  Speaker: I look, I got one.
• 2:21
  Speaker: Don't, don't.
• 2:22
  Speaker: Oh. We should just do one episode of just Show and Tell
• 2:28
  Speaker: around Joe's office.
• 2:30
  Speaker: Dude, it would take three hours just to get through.
• 2:32
  Speaker: Like you don't even know what's behind the camera.
• 2:35
  Speaker: There's so much long form content.
• 2:36
  Speaker: Yes, yes.
• 2:38
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 2:39
  Speaker: And if people have haven't been to Joe's office, you should know
• 2:44
  Speaker: that like everything you see on the right side of your screen
• 2:47
  Speaker: between the skulls, that's like, it's like holidays.
• 2:56
  Speaker: It's like holidays.
• 2:58
  Speaker: Like he it like it revolves.
• 3:00
  Speaker: Like one time I was there and he
• 3:02
  Speaker: had like four hundred Green
• 3:04
  Speaker: Lanterns.
• 3:05
  Speaker: Another time it was like thirty seven Supermans nice.
• 3:10
  Speaker: We do change it up by mood.
• 3:12
  Speaker: Um, by season of life, you know, as one does, you said, uh,
• 3:18
  Speaker: between the skulls.
• 3:19
  Speaker: I thought like we should do like
• 3:21
  Speaker: an interview format, like
• 3:23
  Speaker: between two ferns, but I like
• 3:26
  Speaker: that.
• 3:26
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 3:26
  Speaker: Let's do it.
• 3:28
  Speaker: Trademark it before somebody steals it between two skulls.
• 3:32
  Speaker: Um, let's see, another thing that we like to do at this time
• 3:37
  Speaker: of the show is everyone's favorite part, especially Joe's,
• 3:41
  Speaker: which you guessed it.
• 3:42
  Speaker: That's right.
• 3:44
  Speaker: It's tarot card.
• 3:47
  Speaker: Tarot card of the week.
• 3:58
  Speaker: And yay!
• 3:58
  Speaker: My turn for a change.
• 3:59
  Speaker: So we are doing.
• 4:00
  Speaker: Oh, okay.
• 4:01
  Speaker: Cool.
• 4:01
  Speaker: Totally grabbed one off the off the shelf, the just unopened
• 4:07
  Speaker: today Fallout tarot deck.
• 4:10
  Speaker: Yeah, cracked it open before the show.
• 4:13
  Speaker: And, uh, yeah, it's based on the video games.
• 4:16
  Speaker: So if you're a fan of the show, that kind of thing, it may look
• 4:20
  Speaker: a little different.
• 4:22
  Speaker: Um, the choices that they use for the Arcana are pretty cool.
• 4:26
  Speaker: Um, so we'll see what we got here.
• 4:29
  Speaker: We have got the Queen of steel.
• 4:34
  Speaker: So that is the Queen of swords.
• 4:37
  Speaker: Oh, nice.
• 4:38
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:40
  Speaker: So there you go.
• 4:41
  Speaker: I like the Queen of swords.
• 4:43
  Speaker: Um, right.
• 4:44
  Speaker: Swords being an intellect queen being like your motherly figure.
• 4:48
  Speaker: Right.
• 4:48
  Speaker: So, uh, think about your.
• 4:53
  Speaker: Intelligent matron.
• 4:56
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:57
  Speaker: Independent also.
• 4:58
  Speaker: Independent woman.
• 5:00
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:00
  Speaker: Direct communication.
• 5:02
  Speaker: Um.
• 5:03
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 5:04
  Speaker: Level headed.
• 5:05
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:07
  Speaker: Definitely not me.
• 5:10
  Speaker: I am none of those things.
• 5:11
  Speaker: Yes.
• 5:12
  Speaker: Yes.
• 5:13
  Speaker: So picture Joe and whatever Joe would do, like George Costanza,
• 5:17
  Speaker: do the opposite.
• 5:18
  Speaker: Yes, yes.
• 5:19
  Speaker: Costanza.
• 5:20
  Speaker: And that would be the Queen of swords.
• 5:23
  Speaker: Spot on.
• 5:24
  Speaker: So, being level headed and rational.
• 5:27
  Speaker: Tonight we're going to talk about what the first critical
• 5:31
  Speaker: year is of a new master Mason.
• 5:35
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 5:35
  Speaker: All right, so this topic I
• 5:37
  Speaker: scrounged up for a couple
• 5:38
  Speaker: reasons.
• 5:39
  Speaker: Uh, the first, um, you know, I've done lots of research on
• 5:44
  Speaker: customer engagement and retention and Masonic retention
• 5:48
  Speaker: as well, and also have a little over a year long.
• 5:54
  Speaker: Mason.
• 5:54
  Speaker: My family.
• 5:55
  Speaker: Dad.
• 5:55
  Speaker: Um, dad.
• 5:56
  Speaker: Just, uh, not only crossed the year mark sometime this year,
• 6:00
  Speaker: but also, um, joined the Scottish Rite, so I had the
• 6:04
  Speaker: chance to interview him a little bit before the show and ask him,
• 6:09
  Speaker: what would you do different?
• 6:12
  Speaker: So tonight we're going to talk about that first critical year.
• 6:15
  Speaker: If you can get them to start getting engaged after their
• 6:18
  Speaker: master Mason degree, you know, you only have their attention
• 6:22
  Speaker: for a short period of time.
• 6:24
  Speaker: And it's critical that we find
• 6:27
  Speaker: out how to engage, how to get
• 6:28
  Speaker: people involved and grow
• 6:31
  Speaker: masonically.
• 6:32
  Speaker: So they become a mason and a
• 6:33
  Speaker: brother for a very, very long
• 6:35
  Speaker: time.
• 6:36
  Speaker: I'll also caveat this to say
• 6:37
  Speaker: like, I've had some bad
• 6:38
  Speaker: experiences too.
• 6:39
  Speaker: Um, I'll never forget that I
• 6:41
  Speaker: brought a guy in and he lasted
• 6:44
  Speaker: four meetings.
• 6:46
  Speaker: His entered apprentice degree, his Fellowcraft degree, his
• 6:49
  Speaker: master Mason degree, and when he came to his first meeting after
• 6:52
  Speaker: the master Mason degree.
• 6:54
  Speaker: Um, I was there.
• 6:58
  Speaker: Sadly, they all they talked about was bills.
• 7:00
  Speaker: They didn't have any education lined up.
• 7:01
  Speaker: And he said, this is a waste of
• 7:02
  Speaker: my time and never showed up
• 7:04
  Speaker: again.
• 7:05
  Speaker: Can't blame them, can't blame.
• 7:08
  Speaker: Um, so we're going to try and avoid that.
• 7:10
  Speaker: We're going to talk about some
• 7:11
  Speaker: things that are critical for
• 7:13
  Speaker: first year.
• 7:14
  Speaker: Mason.
• 7:14
  Speaker: Anything else.
• 7:15
  Speaker: Any other thoughts that you guys
• 7:16
  Speaker: have to set things up for
• 7:18
  Speaker: tonight?
• 7:19
  Speaker: Anything you were thinking about as you were doing research?
• 7:21
  Speaker: I was thinking about because I know you have done probably the
• 7:24
  Speaker: most extensive research when it comes to retention and stuff.
• 7:28
  Speaker: And I was actually going to ask
• 7:29
  Speaker: you, and I'm putting you on the
• 7:29
  Speaker: spot.
• 7:30
  Speaker: And I apologize because we didn't have time beforehand.
• 7:32
  Speaker: Um, how much when you did all
• 7:35
  Speaker: that membership statistic
• 7:36
  Speaker: research talked about that first
• 7:38
  Speaker: year?
• 7:38
  Speaker: Like, did you ask questions about that first year and stuff?
• 7:41
  Speaker: Great question.
• 7:42
  Speaker: So yeah, I do know explicitly
• 7:44
  Speaker: when I did the twenty sixteen
• 7:46
  Speaker: Masonic survey, so a whole
• 7:48
  Speaker: decade ago.
• 7:49
  Speaker: It's time for a refresh.
• 7:50
  Speaker: Time for a freshie.
• 7:51
  Speaker: One question was about, um, joining independent body.
• 7:56
  Speaker: Okay.
• 7:57
  Speaker: And with data, it actually did support that.
• 8:00
  Speaker: Waiting a year was just right.
• 8:02
  Speaker: People felt the most satisfied after joining Appendant body.
• 8:05
  Speaker: After a year, they didn't feel too rushed or too late a year
• 8:09
  Speaker: was that sweet spot.
• 8:11
  Speaker: In fact, I learned recently with
• 8:13
  Speaker: dad that in Maryland, you're
• 8:15
  Speaker: forbidden from joining an
• 8:17
  Speaker: appendant body for a year after
• 8:19
  Speaker: you're raising.
• 8:20
  Speaker: That's interesting.
• 8:21
  Speaker: Colorado has that on the books, like it's in the code, but
• 8:26
  Speaker: nobody follows it, I guess.
• 8:30
  Speaker: Um, and this is like I confirmed, um, he's like, he's
• 8:37
  Speaker: usually really informed.
• 8:38
  Speaker: So Patrick Day was, was telling
• 8:40
  Speaker: me, I said, hey man, I found
• 8:41
  Speaker: this in, in your constitution
• 8:43
  Speaker: bylaws.
• 8:45
  Speaker: Like, is that is that legit?
• 8:46
  Speaker: Man, you guys have some nuts.
• 8:48
  Speaker: And he goes, oh yeah, it's still there, but like, nobody follows
• 8:52
  Speaker: it or something.
• 8:53
  Speaker: So. It's like a Tuesday rule implemented on Monday.
• 9:00
  Speaker: Gone by Tuesday, right?
• 9:02
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 9:02
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 9:04
  Speaker: MM. Interesting.
• 9:07
  Speaker: Um the other thought that comes to mind too, just talking
• 9:10
  Speaker: membership statistics is um, I didn't track because I was
• 9:16
  Speaker: actually talking to active members or getting survey data
• 9:20
  Speaker: from active members.
• 9:21
  Speaker: And I didn't have really access
• 9:23
  Speaker: to, you know, Grandview or Maury
• 9:26
  Speaker: or anything like that to, um,
• 9:28
  Speaker: see length of, of, um, a
• 9:32
  Speaker: brother's tenure.
• 9:33
  Speaker: But I did talk with, uh, s Brent Morris and, um, specifically, he
• 9:39
  Speaker: had the data for drop off rates for Scottish rite Masons of the
• 9:44
  Speaker: southern jurisdiction And for them it was exactly three years.
• 9:50
  Speaker: You get about a fifty sixty percent drop off rate.
• 9:55
  Speaker: Why three years?
• 9:57
  Speaker: Because they joined the first year they get.
• 10:00
  Speaker: And they've already paid their dues for the first year, right?
• 10:02
  Speaker: Then they get the dues notice the second year, and then they
• 10:04
  Speaker: finally get kicked off the rolls the third year, right?
• 10:08
  Speaker: So that's when that drop off rate tends to occur.
• 10:11
  Speaker: Um, so, you know, not much
• 10:14
  Speaker: really to choose from as far as
• 10:15
  Speaker: like, what could you have done
• 10:17
  Speaker: that first year to keep them
• 10:19
  Speaker: active?
• 10:19
  Speaker: It's really kind of hard to show the correlation there, but we'll
• 10:21
  Speaker: talk a lot about some correlation as well.
• 10:24
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:25
  Speaker: Robert, what are your thoughts
• 10:26
  Speaker: too on why the first year is so
• 10:28
  Speaker: critical?
• 10:30
  Speaker: It's just it's what sets it up for expectation.
• 10:35
  Speaker: Um, so much I think Chris
• 10:40
  Speaker: Hodapp, you know, he had this
• 10:40
  Speaker: article and he said it a million
• 10:42
  Speaker: times in different blog posts
• 10:44
  Speaker: and talks.
• 10:45
  Speaker: You know, the the most important
• 10:46
  Speaker: meeting isn't the master Mason
• 10:48
  Speaker: degree.
• 10:48
  Speaker: It's the meeting after he gets the master Mason degree.
• 10:51
  Speaker: And I think I agree with that somewhat.
• 10:55
  Speaker: Um, but I also feel like, uh,
• 11:02
  Speaker: setting the bar and expectations
• 11:05
  Speaker: in a, in a realistic way from
• 11:08
  Speaker: the start is something that is
• 11:12
  Speaker: very critical.
• 11:13
  Speaker: Uh, especially I think a lot of times we want to go.
• 11:19
  Speaker: Hey, bro, this is going to be really cool.
• 11:21
  Speaker: I'm super stoked that you're joining the lodge also, um,
• 11:26
  Speaker: like, I know we talk a lot about a cool stuff, but this lodge
• 11:30
  Speaker: you're joining that I'm a part of kind of doesn't really do a
• 11:33
  Speaker: lot of that.
• 11:34
  Speaker: So right then you have then all
• 11:38
  Speaker: of a sudden you're like
• 11:38
  Speaker: undercutting the experience
• 11:40
  Speaker: already, but maybe for the best,
• 11:43
  Speaker: because maybe that that
• 11:46
  Speaker: experience, he's not willing to
• 11:48
  Speaker: put up with that as like, maybe
• 11:50
  Speaker: we were.
• 11:51
  Speaker: Um, so that first year, you
• 11:55
  Speaker: know, do what you promised, um,
• 11:59
  Speaker: be there.
• 12:00
  Speaker: Um, yeah, I, I've, I've got a brother, a member of, uh, of
• 12:06
  Speaker: Waukegan seventy eight who has, I just sent him his forty
• 12:11
  Speaker: fortieth year Masonic birthday card thing from the, from the
• 12:15
  Speaker: lodge and his son joined, uh, just last year.
• 12:20
  Speaker: And his son, like, you have to have a little bit of oomph, a
• 12:25
  Speaker: little bit of get up and go.
• 12:27
  Speaker: Otherwise, I, I think you can't
• 12:29
  Speaker: drag somebody through
• 12:30
  Speaker: Freemasonry.
• 12:31
  Speaker: Like they got to have some, some initiative, some initiative.
• 12:36
  Speaker: And so my good friend Mike all
• 12:39
  Speaker: the way back from high school,
• 12:40
  Speaker: right?
• 12:42
  Speaker: He's a master mason now.
• 12:44
  Speaker: And it just literally got a text an hour ago that said it was a
• 12:50
  Speaker: picture of a past master, Jean gross, who's like, not I think
• 12:53
  Speaker: he's maybe thirty, maybe, uh, Mike, who's my age, forty four.
• 13:00
  Speaker: And they went to see the All American Rejects in Milwaukee,
• 13:03
  Speaker: and they're there together.
• 13:03
  Speaker: And I got a picture of them like they selfie.
• 13:06
  Speaker: So I brought me and Mike's dad brought him in, but he's not
• 13:13
  Speaker: like tied to us, you know, like, oh, I, I gotta go with Joe so
• 13:18
  Speaker: that I got somebody right.
• 13:22
  Speaker: Like they have to have a little bit of, uh, get up and go.
• 13:27
  Speaker: Anyway, setting expectations
• 13:29
  Speaker: that all that to say that I
• 13:30
  Speaker: guess.
• 13:31
  Speaker: Sorry.
• 13:32
  Speaker: Well, I think that one in
• 13:34
  Speaker: particular, and I know we want
• 13:35
  Speaker: to get into a list of, of to
• 13:37
  Speaker: do's and not to do's your first
• 13:38
  Speaker: year, but I struggle with that
• 13:40
  Speaker: one a little bit because there's
• 13:43
  Speaker: there's two kinds of lodges
• 13:44
  Speaker: there.
• 13:44
  Speaker: There's lodges that I mean, we could talk about my lodge.
• 13:48
  Speaker: Um, for years we had a
• 13:50
  Speaker: consistent theme of doing things
• 13:52
  Speaker: for about a good six or seven
• 13:54
  Speaker: years, right?
• 13:54
  Speaker: Like we kept the theme moving forward and everybody kind of
• 13:57
  Speaker: sort of, hey, this is the kind of lodge we want to be.
• 13:59
  Speaker: And then you get new masters and
• 14:01
  Speaker: things and that kind of changes
• 14:02
  Speaker: and stuff.
• 14:03
  Speaker: So you've got these lodges that
• 14:04
  Speaker: have a consistent culture that
• 14:07
  Speaker: spans people, which is great,
• 14:09
  Speaker: right?
• 14:09
  Speaker: So like, hey, this is the type of masonry I want.
• 14:11
  Speaker: I know to go to this lodge.
• 14:13
  Speaker: Um, but then you have those lodges that every year it's
• 14:16
  Speaker: something new and different and it may cater to some and it may
• 14:20
  Speaker: not cater to others.
• 14:21
  Speaker: So for that new mason, it's
• 14:22
  Speaker: really a crapshoot of what lodge
• 14:24
  Speaker: they're joining.
• 14:24
  Speaker: Are they joining a lodge that,
• 14:26
  Speaker: hey, we're a super education
• 14:27
  Speaker: focused lodge or we're super
• 14:28
  Speaker: social lodge or we're a super
• 14:30
  Speaker: historical lodge.
• 14:31
  Speaker: We go visit historical sites all day long or, you know, they have
• 14:34
  Speaker: a certain theme that survives people versus one that flip
• 14:39
  Speaker: flops all the time because that can that can play into it too.
• 14:42
  Speaker: You know, you're, you're talking about culture.
• 14:45
  Speaker: And like, I think you, for instance, you've had a
• 14:52
  Speaker: tremendous influence on the culture of your lodge.
• 14:55
  Speaker: And it's like maybe people who
• 14:58
  Speaker: forgot how good a peanut butter
• 14:59
  Speaker: and jelly is, like have tasted
• 15:02
  Speaker: it again.
• 15:02
  Speaker: And they're like, oh yeah, this is great.
• 15:04
  Speaker: Let's keep this going.
• 15:05
  Speaker: You know, they forgot some of the stuff that you used to do
• 15:08
  Speaker: maybe before Joe's time, Joe comes back and he's energized
• 15:14
  Speaker: and he wants to do cool stuff.
• 15:15
  Speaker: And, and it's proven right
• 15:18
  Speaker: because guys join, they stick
• 15:19
  Speaker: around.
• 15:20
  Speaker: They they come to the meetings.
• 15:22
  Speaker: You got, uh.
• 15:24
  Speaker: Henry.
• 15:24
  Speaker: Right?
• 15:24
  Speaker: Like, this is cool stuff.
• 15:27
  Speaker: These guys that we know who, uh,
• 15:31
  Speaker: are just loving the craft when
• 15:33
  Speaker: it, when it's firing on the
• 15:35
  Speaker: cylinders that, that they're all
• 15:37
  Speaker: about.
• 15:39
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 15:42
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 15:42
  Speaker: I also want to do before we get
• 15:44
  Speaker: into the dos and don'ts, um, set
• 15:46
  Speaker: things up as well for retention,
• 15:50
  Speaker: right.
• 15:50
  Speaker: In the sense of we did an episode about a year, maybe two
• 15:54
  Speaker: years ago at this point called the Masonic Factory and thinking
• 15:59
  Speaker: in terms of, you know, guys coming in, how do you get keep
• 16:02
  Speaker: and grow those, those guys?
• 16:05
  Speaker: And, um, have you guys heard of Bar Rescue, the TV show?
• 16:10
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 16:11
  Speaker: Right.
• 16:11
  Speaker: Jon Taffer and he comes in and he, you know, saves the day and
• 16:15
  Speaker: helps to make bring up failing restaurants and bars.
• 16:20
  Speaker: And he had a really cool
• 16:21
  Speaker: interview on the Gary Vee Show
• 16:22
  Speaker: where he was talking about, um,
• 16:25
  Speaker: what he would do for a brand new
• 16:27
  Speaker: restaurant and how they're
• 16:28
  Speaker: trying to get and keep customers
• 16:30
  Speaker: right.
• 16:30
  Speaker: So if you get a customer in the door, one thing he recommends to
• 16:34
  Speaker: try is, give them a red napkin.
• 16:39
  Speaker: And that way, if they know it's their first time here.
• 16:42
  Speaker: Uh, now everybody, all the wait staff knows because there's a
• 16:45
  Speaker: red napkin there that they're a first time visitor.
• 16:48
  Speaker: Okay.
• 16:48
  Speaker: So what they're doing is they're trying to give the best
• 16:50
  Speaker: experience for this person to make sure that, you know, they
• 16:55
  Speaker: don't just walk out and leave a bad Yelp review, right?
• 16:58
  Speaker: And, um, but it doesn't stop
• 17:00
  Speaker: there because what they found
• 17:02
  Speaker: out with data, because that made
• 17:04
  Speaker: me happy, um, is that they
• 17:06
  Speaker: actually want to cater for three
• 17:09
  Speaker: visits.
• 17:11
  Speaker: Because statistically, if you can get a person coming back
• 17:15
  Speaker: three times, then there's a seventy percent chance that
• 17:20
  Speaker: there'll be a customer for life.
• 17:24
  Speaker: That's it.
• 17:24
  Speaker: So you're only catering to three visits.
• 17:26
  Speaker: And so what you do is you kind of do all these different things
• 17:29
  Speaker: like, oh, you know, the manager will come because they know it's
• 17:31
  Speaker: a new customer with a red napkin and you say, hey, how was how
• 17:35
  Speaker: was your rib dinner?
• 17:36
  Speaker: It was great.
• 17:37
  Speaker: Hey, have you tried our chicken?
• 17:38
  Speaker: Well, no, I haven't tried the chicken yet.
• 17:40
  Speaker: Well, here, tell you what.
• 17:40
  Speaker: Here's a hand signed, um, coupon from from me, the manager, to
• 17:45
  Speaker: get five dollars off a chicken.
• 17:47
  Speaker: So that gets them to come back the second time.
• 17:49
  Speaker: And then they come back, they enjoy their chicken.
• 17:51
  Speaker: Hey, have you had our cheesecake?
• 17:52
  Speaker: No. Here's a coupon.
• 17:53
  Speaker: Another hand signed coupon for a
• 17:55
  Speaker: free cheesecake that gets them
• 17:56
  Speaker: coming back.
• 17:57
  Speaker: And then they've built that habit up right.
• 18:00
  Speaker: Then it becomes a psychological okay, now I'm getting a great
• 18:05
  Speaker: experience here, right.
• 18:07
  Speaker: And we should be doing this for masonry as well, right?
• 18:11
  Speaker: That and not in the sense of
• 18:13
  Speaker: manipulation or trying to, you
• 18:14
  Speaker: know, trick brothers into coming
• 18:16
  Speaker: to lodge.
• 18:16
  Speaker: But again, we have to consider, you know, like, like my friend
• 18:21
  Speaker: bring him in.
• 18:22
  Speaker: And his very first meeting was a bust and never saw him again.
• 18:27
  Speaker: Right.
• 18:27
  Speaker: He had a horrible experience.
• 18:29
  Speaker: So good luck getting him come back second, third, fourth time.
• 18:33
  Speaker: I don't think I don't think it's trickery.
• 18:35
  Speaker: Like I, I get the analogy, but I
• 18:37
  Speaker: mean it's yeah, at its bare
• 18:39
  Speaker: essence, those are you're
• 18:41
  Speaker: incentivizing people to get your
• 18:44
  Speaker: service right.
• 18:45
  Speaker: And, and we've talked about for years, how do we incentivize
• 18:48
  Speaker: Masons to want to do masonry.
• 18:50
  Speaker: So so it really is no different.
• 18:52
  Speaker: I mean, yeah, you're not getting a free chicken dinner.
• 18:54
  Speaker: Um, or you might and it's terrible, but um comes with a
• 18:58
  Speaker: big old wet side of green beans, but um, soggy, soggy number ten
• 19:04
  Speaker: can of green beans.
• 19:05
  Speaker: But the purpose is the same, right?
• 19:08
  Speaker: We want to incentivize people to
• 19:10
  Speaker: come to something that gives
• 19:12
  Speaker: them value.
• 19:13
  Speaker: Right?
• 19:14
  Speaker: And I think that's what it gets down to.
• 19:16
  Speaker: Yep.
• 19:17
  Speaker: Well said.
• 19:19
  Speaker: Anyway, I want to bring that up
• 19:20
  Speaker: because that's, that's really
• 19:22
  Speaker: what a lot of the things we're
• 19:23
  Speaker: going to talk about tonight, the
• 19:24
  Speaker: do's and don'ts for the critical
• 19:26
  Speaker: first year is to really help
• 19:27
  Speaker: incentivize, fix the things that
• 19:29
  Speaker: are broken, But not just not
• 19:32
  Speaker: just fix things that are broken,
• 19:34
  Speaker: but actually make a good
• 19:35
  Speaker: experience instead of just an
• 19:37
  Speaker: okay experience.
• 19:40
  Speaker: So talking to the most Okayest Mason in the world.
• 19:43
  Speaker: Joe, what's our first thing that we should be doing the next?
• 19:49
  Speaker: Jesus.
• 19:50
  Speaker: Um, I got one and, and I don't
• 19:53
  Speaker: know how often people do it, but
• 19:55
  Speaker: I think we care so much about
• 19:59
  Speaker: the night of a brother's
• 20:00
  Speaker: raising.
• 20:01
  Speaker: Right.
• 20:01
  Speaker: The most important night of his Masonic career.
• 20:04
  Speaker: Um, what do we do right after that?
• 20:06
  Speaker: Um, who calls them the next day?
• 20:08
  Speaker: Who says, hey, man, how was everything?
• 20:11
  Speaker: Tell us about your experience.
• 20:12
  Speaker: Right.
• 20:12
  Speaker: We put so much enormous effort into the degree.
• 20:15
  Speaker: But what happens when he wakes up that next morning?
• 20:18
  Speaker: Right?
• 20:18
  Speaker: Who reaches out to him?
• 20:19
  Speaker: Does he know who to call next?
• 20:21
  Speaker: Does anybody is anybody there to explain to him right after it
• 20:24
  Speaker: happens, when it's fresh, what he just experienced and get his
• 20:27
  Speaker: feedback on it?
• 20:27
  Speaker: Like, how often do we do that?
• 20:29
  Speaker: You know, sometimes we wait for the next meeting or the next
• 20:31
  Speaker: time they show up at Lodge.
• 20:32
  Speaker: But I would say reach out to
• 20:35
  Speaker: that brother immediately after
• 20:36
  Speaker: it happens.
• 20:37
  Speaker: Call him the next day, take him out for a coffee, you know, and,
• 20:39
  Speaker: and, you know, at least pretend to be interested, you know, in
• 20:43
  Speaker: something more than just bringing in a new member.
• 20:46
  Speaker: You know what I mean?
• 20:47
  Speaker: You invested.
• 20:48
  Speaker: We invest all this time and
• 20:49
  Speaker: energy into the actual process
• 20:52
  Speaker: of initiation.
• 20:53
  Speaker: And then once it's done, we kind of leave them off to their own
• 20:56
  Speaker: devices, you know what I mean?
• 20:57
  Speaker: A lot of times.
• 20:58
  Speaker: So, you know, put some put some time back into the, the follow
• 21:01
  Speaker: up, you know, you know, give him a kiss after you make sweet,
• 21:05
  Speaker: sweet love, you know, essentially it, it's, it's so
• 21:09
  Speaker: cool to hear you say that.
• 21:11
  Speaker: Call me the next morning.
• 21:13
  Speaker: One of the things, one of the things that I will tell somebody
• 21:18
  Speaker: who were investigating is like, listen, uh, as the secretary of
• 21:26
  Speaker: this lodge Through this process, I'm going to text you.
• 21:31
  Speaker: I'm going to call you.
• 21:33
  Speaker: And that shouldn't weird you out.
• 21:36
  Speaker: Uh, you should just pick up the phone or text back.
• 21:40
  Speaker: Uh, don't leave me on read.
• 21:41
  Speaker: Uh, because that's not a cool
• 21:43
  Speaker: thing to do, blah, blah, blah,
• 21:44
  Speaker: blah, blah.
• 21:45
  Speaker: But we set an expectation of like responsible communication
• 21:51
  Speaker: and to say, uh, it's not like you're joining a club at work
• 22:00
  Speaker: where you're only going to converse with these people at
• 22:01
  Speaker: work and they better not call your cell phone.
• 22:05
  Speaker: Uh, guess what?
• 22:07
  Speaker: One hundred percent agree with Joe.
• 22:09
  Speaker: Um, I'm like, after a guy got
• 22:13
  Speaker: like one time after a dude, uh,
• 22:15
  Speaker: we, we read his petition and
• 22:17
  Speaker: after they, uh, elected him to
• 22:19
  Speaker: receive degrees, I texted him
• 22:21
  Speaker: right away.
• 22:21
  Speaker: I was like, my brother.
• 22:23
  Speaker: I've got excellent news.
• 22:24
  Speaker: We're in the meeting.
• 22:25
  Speaker: They just voted you in.
• 22:27
  Speaker: Congratulations.
• 22:29
  Speaker: And he's like, oh, thanks so much.
• 22:31
  Speaker: And then like five other dudes
• 22:32
  Speaker: in the lodge all said, congrats,
• 22:34
  Speaker: man.
• 22:34
  Speaker: Like text it.
• 22:35
  Speaker: You know, there's a little bit of that.
• 22:38
  Speaker: And I think, uh, it's kind of, it's kind of putting our money
• 22:43
  Speaker: where our mouth is.
• 22:44
  Speaker: Right?
• 22:45
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 22:48
  Speaker: So yeah, I love that, Joe.
• 22:51
  Speaker: Nice.
• 22:51
  Speaker: Okay.
• 22:52
  Speaker: How about you, Robert?
• 22:53
  Speaker: What's another do or don't the critical first year.
• 22:57
  Speaker: Uh, I would emphasize something
• 23:00
  Speaker: that is is probably on
• 23:01
  Speaker: everybody's plate.
• 23:02
  Speaker: Um, and I know this might sound
• 23:04
  Speaker: contradictory to what I said
• 23:06
  Speaker: moments ago when I was talking
• 23:07
  Speaker: about, uh, having a little bit
• 23:09
  Speaker: of get up and go for the
• 23:10
  Speaker: brother.
• 23:12
  Speaker: However, uh, the Masonic travel, I think, uh, and I've seen it
• 23:21
  Speaker: picked up pick up over the years where an entered apprentice will
• 23:26
  Speaker: get his degree.
• 23:27
  Speaker: And then somebody from the lodge goes, hey, such and such lodge
• 23:32
  Speaker: is doing another first degree the week after next.
• 23:36
  Speaker: Can I pick you up and take you
• 23:39
  Speaker: and the guys usually like, uh,
• 23:41
  Speaker: okay, awesome.
• 23:43
  Speaker: Um, so they kind of need a travel buddy.
• 23:46
  Speaker: Uh, in Illinois, it's usually, uh, we have to let them know
• 23:51
  Speaker: that you should have a liaison or somebody should call ahead
• 23:55
  Speaker: for you kind of things.
• 23:56
  Speaker: Because listen, even if they're, um, non codependent type people,
• 24:03
  Speaker: um, it's nerve wracking to show up somewhere where you don't
• 24:08
  Speaker: know if they do things exactly the same way.
• 24:11
  Speaker: Or I remember the first time I
• 24:13
  Speaker: went to another lodge, it was a
• 24:15
  Speaker: doozy.
• 24:15
  Speaker: I went from an Illinois lodge,
• 24:16
  Speaker: my own lodge, and the first time
• 24:17
  Speaker: I visited any other lodge was in
• 24:20
  Speaker: California for a master Mason
• 24:22
  Speaker: degree.
• 24:22
  Speaker: Oh, wow.
• 24:24
  Speaker: And I didn't know what to do.
• 24:27
  Speaker: The guy's like, do you have a DOS card?
• 24:28
  Speaker: I was like, oh no, no, I don't.
• 24:33
  Speaker: And, you know, we went back and forth and they said, well, what
• 24:38
  Speaker: can you do?
• 24:38
  Speaker: Right.
• 24:38
  Speaker: And I think I've said it before,
• 24:40
  Speaker: I started reciting the senior
• 24:41
  Speaker: deacon lecture.
• 24:42
  Speaker: And, and they were like, oh
• 24:43
  Speaker: yeah, nobody's going to memorize
• 24:45
  Speaker: that.
• 24:46
  Speaker: Right.
• 24:47
  Speaker: You're you're good.
• 24:48
  Speaker: But I got lucky.
• 24:49
  Speaker: So travel, travel, travel and have a travel buddy.
• 24:53
  Speaker: Um, if somebody offers to, to take you to a meeting, uh, go.
• 24:58
  Speaker: They're not a stranger in a white van offering you candy.
• 25:02
  Speaker: Uh, these are your brothers.
• 25:03
  Speaker: Just go.
• 25:04
  Speaker: And, um, if you feel like you're
• 25:07
  Speaker: a little bit intimidated by the
• 25:10
  Speaker: idea of, of spending time with
• 25:13
  Speaker: somebody you don't know, and
• 25:14
  Speaker: you're scared of the small talk
• 25:15
  Speaker: and all of that kind of thing, I
• 25:18
  Speaker: get it.
• 25:18
  Speaker: That's legitimate social fear.
• 25:21
  Speaker: Sometimes we have.
• 25:24
  Speaker: But do the old retail trick.
• 25:26
  Speaker: Instead of saying, Oh God, just say, oh, good, right.
• 25:30
  Speaker: And do it and go, I get to.
• 25:32
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 25:32
  Speaker: You get to go.
• 25:34
  Speaker: Yep.
• 25:34
  Speaker: And take advantage of it.
• 25:36
  Speaker: Um, it traveling is like the human, the human is still, uh,
• 25:46
  Speaker: sort of competitive in that.
• 25:49
  Speaker: Like if we weren't, we wouldn't care about money, right?
• 25:51
  Speaker: We want to have money, we want to buy the nice things.
• 25:54
  Speaker: And there's, there's connections to, you know, doing better or,
• 25:59
  Speaker: you know, you know, I, you know, you have these CEOs who are
• 26:03
  Speaker: like, you know, whatever, but maybe they're super excited
• 26:07
  Speaker: because they are at the top of the pyramid, right?
• 26:10
  Speaker: There's all this, this talk
• 26:12
  Speaker: about how much you can, uh,
• 26:16
  Speaker: like.
• 26:19
  Speaker: You know what?
• 26:20
  Speaker: I'll come back to it.
• 26:20
  Speaker: But anyway.
• 26:21
  Speaker: Sorry.
• 26:22
  Speaker: Visit.
• 26:23
  Speaker: Visit lodges.
• 26:24
  Speaker: Yeah, I want to pull that thread.
• 26:25
  Speaker: That was literally on my list.
• 26:26
  Speaker: Like get them traveling early,
• 26:28
  Speaker: travel and, and, you know, one
• 26:30
  Speaker: of the things that, that I
• 26:31
  Speaker: loved, um, about doing the
• 26:34
  Speaker: degrees for people is that I
• 26:36
  Speaker: would make it like we had stated
• 26:37
  Speaker: meetings.
• 26:37
  Speaker: And I loved when people came and I invited people and I made
• 26:41
  Speaker: sure, you know, I made sure there were ninety five
• 26:44
  Speaker: invitations in their inbox.
• 26:45
  Speaker: You all got them.
• 26:46
  Speaker: RJ got them even though he doesn't live anywhere near me,
• 26:48
  Speaker: but he got twenty five invitations a month just to make
• 26:51
  Speaker: sure he saw them.
• 26:52
  Speaker: Um, but especially for degrees, I would go out of my way to make
• 26:56
  Speaker: sure that folks from other lodges came and visited because
• 26:58
  Speaker: I loved a packed room.
• 27:01
  Speaker: When a person's going through their various degrees, you know
• 27:05
  Speaker: what I mean?
• 27:06
  Speaker: A packed room feels so much better than a room of eight guys
• 27:08
  Speaker: in it, you know what I mean?
• 27:09
  Speaker: It's just it's got a different vibe to it.
• 27:10
  Speaker: But I specifically remember
• 27:12
  Speaker: numerous occasions where we
• 27:13
  Speaker: would do a master Mason degree
• 27:15
  Speaker: and you got brothers from other
• 27:17
  Speaker: lodges.
• 27:17
  Speaker: They could be a lodge ten minutes away or two hours away.
• 27:20
  Speaker: The first thing they would do is, hey, why don't you come
• 27:22
  Speaker: visit my lodge?
• 27:23
  Speaker: Hey, why don't you come, come to lodge with me in a week or two
• 27:25
  Speaker: or something like that.
• 27:26
  Speaker: And they get all those
• 27:27
  Speaker: invitations and it becomes
• 27:29
  Speaker: something organic.
• 27:30
  Speaker: Right.
• 27:30
  Speaker: But I think the biggest takeaway is, especially when they're a
• 27:33
  Speaker: new mason, is you have to show them that their lodge is not the
• 27:38
  Speaker: end all and be all in masonry, good, bad or indifferent.
• 27:40
  Speaker: You know what I mean?
• 27:41
  Speaker: Um, but if you're still, if you and everybody here knows people
• 27:45
  Speaker: who their idea of masonry is the same fifteen guys that they've
• 27:49
  Speaker: grown up in masonry with and they've never expanded that
• 27:51
  Speaker: circle, you know, or if they did, it came much, much later
• 27:55
  Speaker: and they've wasted decades on.
• 27:57
  Speaker: Have you ever, you know, have you ever done this thing right
• 28:01
  Speaker: where you got a new master Mason in the lodge and you got a bunch
• 28:06
  Speaker: of guys in your lodge, and, you know, a bunch of those guys
• 28:09
  Speaker: haven't traveled, um, their their home lodge guys, that's
• 28:13
  Speaker: what they do.
• 28:13
  Speaker: They haven't traveled.
• 28:14
  Speaker: Maybe they've gone to other lodge once or twice, and I'll
• 28:19
  Speaker: stand in front of the lodge and I'll say things like,
• 28:22
  Speaker: congratulations on your master Mason degree, yada yada yada.
• 28:27
  Speaker: I'm going to give you two things.
• 28:29
  Speaker: And that is number one, I'll
• 28:30
  Speaker: tell you, read the tender
• 28:31
  Speaker: manuals.
• 28:33
  Speaker: If you read these three super
• 28:35
  Speaker: short, less than thirty page
• 28:37
  Speaker: books, you will know more than
• 28:41
  Speaker: most of the people in this
• 28:42
  Speaker: fraternity.
• 28:44
  Speaker: Okay?
• 28:45
  Speaker: Number two, if you travel to a
• 28:49
  Speaker: few lodges over the next couple
• 28:51
  Speaker: of months, likely you will be
• 28:55
  Speaker: more Masonic experience
• 28:58
  Speaker: traveled.
• 29:00
  Speaker: Yeah, than people who have been in for forty or fifty years.
• 29:02
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 29:03
  Speaker: Um, and that's nothing against those people, but that was the
• 29:06
  Speaker: culture at the time.
• 29:08
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 29:10
  Speaker: We have so many opportunities as
• 29:13
  Speaker: Masons And we don't go for it,
• 29:18
  Speaker: right?
• 29:18
  Speaker: It's like I've got an annual
• 29:20
  Speaker: pass to Six Flags, but I never
• 29:21
  Speaker: go.
• 29:22
  Speaker: Why not?
• 29:25
  Speaker: Why are you going to go to this?
• 29:26
  Speaker: Why are you going to keep going to Six Flags and just go on the
• 29:28
  Speaker: one roller coaster?
• 29:28
  Speaker: You get all of them.
• 29:32
  Speaker: You have teenagers, right?
• 29:34
  Speaker: I do, that's why you don't go.
• 29:36
  Speaker: So. It's true story.
• 29:40
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 29:41
  Speaker: No, I think I think to your
• 29:42
  Speaker: point and not to beat this one
• 29:43
  Speaker: to death, but and it sounds so
• 29:45
  Speaker: cliche, right?
• 29:46
  Speaker: Like traveling is one of the rights you have as a master
• 29:49
  Speaker: Mason, but it's so damn true.
• 29:51
  Speaker: You know what I mean?
• 29:51
  Speaker: And and for those, for those brothers who don't do it,
• 29:55
  Speaker: whether they've only been in for a year, they've been in for
• 29:57
  Speaker: thirty, they're missing out on so much masonry.
• 30:01
  Speaker: Like it's hard to describe.
• 30:02
  Speaker: So off my soapbox.
• 30:05
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 30:06
  Speaker: So, you know, I'll kind of
• 30:07
  Speaker: expand on that a little bit for
• 30:09
  Speaker: my next item, which is to
• 30:13
  Speaker: actually expose this new brother
• 30:17
  Speaker: to the family of Freemasonry,
• 30:20
  Speaker: right?
• 30:21
  Speaker: So yeah, they've done all this work.
• 30:23
  Speaker: They've been hyper focused on Blue Lodge, right?
• 30:26
  Speaker: And yeah, they know they've heard of these other rights and
• 30:29
  Speaker: stuff, but they're like not worried about that right now.
• 30:32
  Speaker: I got to get through this catechism.
• 30:34
  Speaker: They get their third degree, but
• 30:35
  Speaker: now the world's our oyster,
• 30:37
  Speaker: right?
• 30:37
  Speaker: Their, their whole Masonic path is ahead of them.
• 30:41
  Speaker: And they don't know what they don't know.
• 30:44
  Speaker: They barely got through the catechism.
• 30:45
  Speaker: Right.
• 30:46
  Speaker: They're still trying to figure out what that means.
• 30:48
  Speaker: And we know, obviously the big one that is unsaid, but we're
• 30:53
  Speaker: all thinking it is like, let's just keep doing more mentorship
• 30:56
  Speaker: after the third degree.
• 30:57
  Speaker: But, um, part of that should include, you know, having, you
• 31:02
  Speaker: know, kind of these, uh, appendant body knights, right?
• 31:06
  Speaker: Or, or something of that effect
• 31:07
  Speaker: where the brother can kind of
• 31:10
  Speaker: get a taste, can understand, can
• 31:12
  Speaker: kind of feel it out while
• 31:14
  Speaker: they're getting ready for their
• 31:15
  Speaker: first year.
• 31:16
  Speaker: So, you know, do your time, you know, return your catechisms,
• 31:19
  Speaker: whatever you need to do, but then they'll be more informed
• 31:23
  Speaker: when it's time to take that next step in masonry.
• 31:26
  Speaker: And so, um, without that, right, they're going to be asking just
• 31:30
  Speaker: the brothers they know, or the brothers they trust or their
• 31:33
  Speaker: mentor, which is limited.
• 31:35
  Speaker: Um, but you know, they may not know what they don't know.
• 31:38
  Speaker: And so it's part of the job's role and the worshipful master's
• 31:43
  Speaker: role, as well as the mentors role to, you know, now lay out
• 31:47
  Speaker: the Masonic buffet and say, here you go, here's here's what's
• 31:51
  Speaker: ahead of you.
• 31:52
  Speaker: Yeah, I really like that.
• 31:53
  Speaker: And I think it's that's what you said is better than the most of
• 31:58
  Speaker: the times that people experience joining a dependent body because
• 32:01
  Speaker: it's usually one of two ways.
• 32:03
  Speaker: It's you ask a brother and you get a very, very, very
• 32:07
  Speaker: subjective opinion about which like, hey, should I join York
• 32:10
  Speaker: Rite or Scottish right.
• 32:11
  Speaker: And brother X may say Scottish right.
• 32:13
  Speaker: Sucks.
• 32:13
  Speaker: You need to go York right all the way.
• 32:15
  Speaker: Or you know, you get you know, you get the um.
• 32:18
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 32:19
  Speaker: The very evangelical brother who's like Scottish, right?
• 32:22
  Speaker: No, that's for crazy people.
• 32:23
  Speaker: Like if you love Jesus, join the York.
• 32:24
  Speaker: Right.
• 32:25
  Speaker: You know, you get that whole
• 32:26
  Speaker: diatribe or the opposite of the
• 32:28
  Speaker: Shriners.
• 32:29
  Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
• 32:30
  Speaker: Or you get a very subjective opinion basically from the first
• 32:34
  Speaker: person you ask.
• 32:35
  Speaker: And that's usually what you go with, you know what I mean?
• 32:37
  Speaker: You know, like, hey, I'm a new Mason.
• 32:39
  Speaker: I asked John, hey, what should I join first?
• 32:41
  Speaker: He'll give me his opinion.
• 32:42
  Speaker: It may not be for me, but I'm going to trust John because he's
• 32:45
  Speaker: the one I went through.
• 32:46
  Speaker: So yeah, I really like your idea
• 32:47
  Speaker: of exposing people to the
• 32:49
  Speaker: smorgasbord and telling them
• 32:51
  Speaker: what it's all about and giving
• 32:53
  Speaker: them all the options up front,
• 32:54
  Speaker: you know, because I don't think
• 32:56
  Speaker: people join appendant bodies
• 32:57
  Speaker: that way.
• 32:58
  Speaker: It's the first one who thinks the closet is usually the one
• 33:01
  Speaker: that wins, you know?
• 33:03
  Speaker: Yeah, that's a really good point.
• 33:05
  Speaker: I don't know, right?
• 33:06
  Speaker: I mean, uh, the first one to sink their claws in.
• 33:10
  Speaker: I think in my neck of the woods, it's not so much that doesn't
• 33:16
  Speaker: happen too often.
• 33:18
  Speaker: I literally get guys that just
• 33:20
  Speaker: ask, what's up with the Scottish
• 33:23
  Speaker: Rite?
• 33:23
  Speaker: What's up with the York Rite?
• 33:25
  Speaker: I've always loved this idea of Knights Templar.
• 33:27
  Speaker: How do I do that?
• 33:28
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 33:29
  Speaker: Um, what's the difference?
• 33:31
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 33:32
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 33:32
  Speaker: And so there's, there's clear expectations, but there
• 33:36
  Speaker: definitely is poaching, right.
• 33:38
  Speaker: Like we wouldn't have this silly trope of a master mason standing
• 33:48
  Speaker: before the lodge his first time.
• 33:50
  Speaker: And then six dudes from across the way.
• 33:54
  Speaker: The same guys, mind you, who are
• 33:56
  Speaker: like, buy raffle tickets right
• 33:58
  Speaker: now.
• 33:59
  Speaker: They're like pushing petitions, right?
• 34:02
  Speaker: Um, the dude hasn't even
• 34:05
  Speaker: discovered the community and the
• 34:08
  Speaker: culture and the like at home,
• 34:13
  Speaker: uh, like work that there that
• 34:18
  Speaker: exists.
• 34:19
  Speaker: So yeah, uh, that's all.
• 34:24
  Speaker: All right.
• 34:24
  Speaker: What's the next one?
• 34:25
  Speaker: Who's got another good one?
• 34:27
  Speaker: Are we going round robin?
• 34:29
  Speaker: Um, back to you, Joe.
• 34:31
  Speaker: Okay, fine.
• 34:32
  Speaker: Um, I'd say my next one.
• 34:35
  Speaker: This is the most obvious one of.
• 34:37
  Speaker: Introduce them to Masonic education early in the process.
• 34:41
  Speaker: Right.
• 34:41
  Speaker: Get them exposed to it and let them know that this is something
• 34:45
  Speaker: that they should expect.
• 34:46
  Speaker: Something they can ask their lodge for.
• 34:48
  Speaker: And again, we talked about all the different types of lodges
• 34:51
  Speaker: that people join.
• 34:52
  Speaker: And you know, brother X will
• 34:53
  Speaker: join a specific lodge and maybe
• 34:56
  Speaker: that's not their thing, but
• 34:57
  Speaker: maybe that's why they got
• 34:58
  Speaker: interested in masonry in the
• 34:59
  Speaker: first place.
• 35:00
  Speaker: So, um, introduce them to education early and allow them
• 35:04
  Speaker: the ability to champion for it.
• 35:06
  Speaker: Like, hey, I want more Masonic
• 35:07
  Speaker: education or I want education
• 35:09
  Speaker: about this.
• 35:10
  Speaker: And I know when we talk about
• 35:11
  Speaker: education for lodges and we've
• 35:14
  Speaker: all talked about this, um,
• 35:17
  Speaker: catechism, right?
• 35:18
  Speaker: That's all they know.
• 35:19
  Speaker: They know about actual education.
• 35:23
  Speaker: Uh, but, you know, I think people either still have that
• 35:27
  Speaker: all or nothing mentality, right?
• 35:28
  Speaker: Either it's going to be a eighty
• 35:30
  Speaker: minute lecture, um, or ten
• 35:33
  Speaker: minutes reading out of a short
• 35:35
  Speaker: talk bulletin.
• 35:35
  Speaker: Right.
• 35:35
  Speaker: And there's never anything in between.
• 35:37
  Speaker: And that's the way that lots of lodges do that.
• 35:40
  Speaker: But you know, we live in a Ted talk era, you know what I mean?
• 35:45
  Speaker: So it's okay for lodges to have twenty, twenty five minute
• 35:48
  Speaker: presentations or have a discussion topic or things like
• 35:50
  Speaker: that, but get them to be a champion for themselves to ask
• 35:53
  Speaker: for more Masonic education.
• 35:55
  Speaker: You know, um, I think if it
• 35:58
  Speaker: comes from a grassroots
• 36:00
  Speaker: campaign, you know, it's got a
• 36:02
  Speaker: lot more legs, especially in a
• 36:03
  Speaker: lodge makeup, you know what I
• 36:05
  Speaker: mean?
• 36:05
  Speaker: So but get them wanting Masonic education early.
• 36:08
  Speaker: And I think a lot of guys that
• 36:10
  Speaker: come in today, they do want
• 36:12
  Speaker: that, right?
• 36:12
  Speaker: They're not joining for the social reasons or, you know,
• 36:16
  Speaker: they really want terrible dinners once a month.
• 36:18
  Speaker: Um, you know, they're joining
• 36:19
  Speaker: because they're looking for
• 36:20
  Speaker: something.
• 36:20
  Speaker: Um, so let them champion that
• 36:22
  Speaker: and just offer them Masonic
• 36:24
  Speaker: education early, even when
• 36:25
  Speaker: they're going through the
• 36:26
  Speaker: degrees.
• 36:26
  Speaker: Um, and then after the degrees
• 36:28
  Speaker: that they continue to ask for
• 36:30
  Speaker: it.
• 36:32
  Speaker: So I know that was an easy one, but just toss that softball up
• 36:36
  Speaker: in the air.
• 36:40
  Speaker: Cool.
• 36:40
  Speaker: Robert.
• 36:42
  Speaker: I agree with Joe on that point.
• 36:44
  Speaker: Um, I think just to concur, the
• 36:49
  Speaker: idea is that, um, we're often
• 36:53
  Speaker: talking like Illinois has
• 36:54
  Speaker: something called the contender
• 36:56
  Speaker: program.
• 36:57
  Speaker: There's the contender, which is the mentor, there's the attendee
• 37:00
  Speaker: who is the, the candidate, and the intended program that we
• 37:05
  Speaker: have is set up very interesting.
• 37:07
  Speaker: It sort of blends these two core concepts together.
• 37:11
  Speaker: And that is the concept of, uh, the, the mentor and the
• 37:15
  Speaker: catechism coach are together.
• 37:17
  Speaker: Um, and that's not always the greatest thing.
• 37:20
  Speaker: You might not have a way to, uh, somebody who does both of those
• 37:25
  Speaker: things very well.
• 37:26
  Speaker: So many times there are great ritualists.
• 37:29
  Speaker: Um, and those guys would end up
• 37:31
  Speaker: being your say your, um, your
• 37:34
  Speaker: catechism coach, uh, the guy who
• 37:36
  Speaker: teaches you the words, but it's
• 37:38
  Speaker: important, I think, to set that
• 37:40
  Speaker: standard, as Joe said, that
• 37:42
  Speaker: Masonic education is part of
• 37:44
  Speaker: this.
• 37:44
  Speaker: You should expect it.
• 37:46
  Speaker: And a lodge that doesn't do it is not the norm.
• 37:50
  Speaker: And if you set that standard, I think that's huge.
• 37:54
  Speaker: Um, as for my own piece, I would just say, uh, lodge mechanics
• 38:00
  Speaker: and maybe something you could call the kitchen degree.
• 38:05
  Speaker: And what I mean by that is, uh, it's not the glamour of the
• 38:11
  Speaker: Masonic education and the suits and the cigars and the whiskey
• 38:14
  Speaker: and the philosophy and, and, and cosplaying as these gentlemen.
• 38:18
  Speaker: Right.
• 38:20
  Speaker: There's something to the idea of having a guy.
• 38:27
  Speaker: Know the social cues, know when to say, how can I help?
• 38:34
  Speaker: Know when to roll the sleeves up.
• 38:36
  Speaker: Go in the kitchen, scrub pots.
• 38:39
  Speaker: Help the junior warden out, uh, set up tables.
• 38:44
  Speaker: This is a lot of the time where
• 38:46
  Speaker: close fraternal bonds get
• 38:49
  Speaker: forged.
• 38:51
  Speaker: Um, it is like.
• 38:54
  Speaker: And it's not like this misery
• 38:55
  Speaker: loves company or anything like
• 38:57
  Speaker: that.
• 38:57
  Speaker: It's like Greg not said about, uh, Boy Scouts.
• 39:00
  Speaker: We're not teaching guys how to
• 39:02
  Speaker: be better dudes by teaching them
• 39:04
  Speaker: knots.
• 39:05
  Speaker: It's about the conversations
• 39:06
  Speaker: we're having while we're tying
• 39:08
  Speaker: knots.
• 39:09
  Speaker: And it's the same thing in the Masonic kitchen, right?
• 39:12
  Speaker: Or, um, you know, understanding lodge budgets and balloting
• 39:18
  Speaker: protocols and, and maybe even getting them involved in, in
• 39:23
  Speaker: parliamentary procedures that, you know, if they have an
• 39:26
  Speaker: interest in that sort of thing.
• 39:28
  Speaker: Um, but they got to be involved.
• 39:31
  Speaker: Uh, they got to be in the trenches too.
• 39:33
  Speaker: It can't just be this.
• 39:35
  Speaker: Oh, uh, these guys all set up.
• 39:38
  Speaker: Uh, they set the meeting up for
• 39:39
  Speaker: success, and I just get to come
• 39:41
  Speaker: and come to the party and leave
• 39:42
  Speaker: before cleanup.
• 39:44
  Speaker: No, you should know that.
• 39:48
  Speaker: I mean, maybe after those first few degrees, right?
• 39:50
  Speaker: Like, no big deal, right?
• 39:51
  Speaker: Like, nobody's going to hold you to anything.
• 39:53
  Speaker: But when you start coming to lodge during that first year,
• 39:56
  Speaker: establish, establish yourself as somebody who's ready to help.
• 40:01
  Speaker: Um, and that will go so far.
• 40:05
  Speaker: Uh, guys will depend on you.
• 40:07
  Speaker: They'll know they can count on you.
• 40:08
  Speaker: They know they can trust you.
• 40:10
  Speaker: You'll have conversations, you'll make quick friends, um,
• 40:13
  Speaker: even closer than the like we're brothers, make no mistake.
• 40:17
  Speaker: But, uh, there's, there's a
• 40:22
  Speaker: deeper connection that, that you
• 40:23
  Speaker: can make.
• 40:23
  Speaker: I think if, if you get your hands dirty.
• 40:30
  Speaker: So I have an interesting one.
• 40:31
  Speaker: Again, I interviewed my dad
• 40:34
  Speaker: recently and like a couple hours
• 40:37
  Speaker: ago and he said, well, I asked
• 40:41
  Speaker: him the question a different
• 40:42
  Speaker: way.
• 40:42
  Speaker: I said, what did you wish you
• 40:43
  Speaker: had had in that in that first
• 40:46
  Speaker: year?
• 40:46
  Speaker: Right.
• 40:47
  Speaker: Coming back, if you were to
• 40:48
  Speaker: start over again, what would you
• 40:49
  Speaker: do different?
• 40:51
  Speaker: And he says, well, one thing
• 40:53
  Speaker: that would be nice is a
• 40:55
  Speaker: refresher, right?
• 40:57
  Speaker: Because again, he's racing to get to the finish line.
• 41:01
  Speaker: And we all we all know of the,
• 41:03
  Speaker: uh, the attention drop off where
• 41:06
  Speaker: like, congratulations, you're a
• 41:07
  Speaker: master Mason.
• 41:08
  Speaker: Now go.
• 41:08
  Speaker: You're on your own.
• 41:09
  Speaker: Bye.
• 41:10
  Speaker: We're on to the next guy because
• 41:11
  Speaker: we got more catechisms to do and
• 41:15
  Speaker: you know, right, wrong or
• 41:16
  Speaker: indifferent.
• 41:17
  Speaker: We we leave a lot to the new
• 41:19
  Speaker: master Mason to discover on his
• 41:21
  Speaker: own.
• 41:22
  Speaker: And part of that comes through
• 41:24
  Speaker: stumbling through signs, modes
• 41:27
  Speaker: of recognition.
• 41:28
  Speaker: Right.
• 41:28
  Speaker: All the stuff.
• 41:29
  Speaker: What do I do with my hands?
• 41:30
  Speaker: Right.
• 41:30
  Speaker: And so he says, I wish that there had maybe been some sort
• 41:34
  Speaker: of a refresher class, um, just maybe once a year, just to kind
• 41:39
  Speaker: of like bring some, some dudes back and see what's different.
• 41:43
  Speaker: And I actually told him a story.
• 41:45
  Speaker: I remember one time my mother lodge, they did what they called
• 41:51
  Speaker: a rusty nail rusty nail degree.
• 41:54
  Speaker: That's right.
• 41:56
  Speaker: And they didn't do it quite
• 41:58
  Speaker: often, but I thought it was a
• 41:59
  Speaker: great idea.
• 42:00
  Speaker: Where um, what's a rusty nail degree?
• 42:02
  Speaker: It was basically a safe space.
• 42:06
  Speaker: That's, um, you call up dudes who haven't been to lodge in a
• 42:09
  Speaker: long time and say, hey, if you're not attending Lodge
• 42:13
  Speaker: because you're kind of embarrassed, you forgot what,
• 42:16
  Speaker: what the words are and what what to do with your hands.
• 42:19
  Speaker: Come on over.
• 42:20
  Speaker: We'll have some food and we'll, we'll cover it all again for you
• 42:24
  Speaker: because we know you're good because you're on the books.
• 42:26
  Speaker: So come on back.
• 42:28
  Speaker: We'll we'll walk through it with you and do a refresher.
• 42:31
  Speaker: So that way we'll remove that stigma.
• 42:33
  Speaker: We'll make it comfortable and you'll be good to go.
• 42:38
  Speaker: Can I, can I steal some of your your air time there for this?
• 42:41
  Speaker: So I, uh, I guess in Virginia
• 42:45
  Speaker: they call it the rusty nail
• 42:46
  Speaker: degree.
• 42:46
  Speaker: Um, and I'm sure in other places they call it other things, but,
• 42:49
  Speaker: um, I went back through.
• 42:51
  Speaker: There you go.
• 42:51
  Speaker: Rusty nail degree, my man Jimmy,
• 42:53
  Speaker: um, I went through, um, back
• 42:59
  Speaker: when I cared, uh, me and the
• 43:01
  Speaker: secretary went back through
• 43:02
  Speaker: minutes going back into the
• 43:03
  Speaker: nineteen seventies, you know,
• 43:04
  Speaker: just to pull people's dates and
• 43:06
  Speaker: information and fifty years of
• 43:08
  Speaker: paper, you know, and then that's
• 43:09
  Speaker: when we started talking about
• 43:10
  Speaker: digitizing.
• 43:10
  Speaker: So kudos to Alex Powers.
• 43:12
  Speaker: Um, but we started to go into
• 43:15
  Speaker: the early two thousand, in the
• 43:16
  Speaker: late nineties, and we were
• 43:17
  Speaker: finding flyers for rusty nail
• 43:21
  Speaker: degrees.
• 43:22
  Speaker: Um, and they were like a big to do like, hey, come down for
• 43:25
  Speaker: dinner, come down here.
• 43:26
  Speaker: And they were invitations that were sent to brothers that they
• 43:28
  Speaker: hadn't seen in a while.
• 43:29
  Speaker: So it was like a big event.
• 43:30
  Speaker: It wasn't like a, hey, let's just cobble some stuff together
• 43:33
  Speaker: and do it.
• 43:34
  Speaker: It was, it was a really big event.
• 43:36
  Speaker: And it looks like they did it annually.
• 43:38
  Speaker: Um, and they would call up brothers that they hadn't seen
• 43:40
  Speaker: in a while and they would make it all about them, you know,
• 43:43
  Speaker: like a big, big meal.
• 43:45
  Speaker: It wasn't like pizza and stuff like that.
• 43:46
  Speaker: It was like a stated dinner meal.
• 43:48
  Speaker: And then they would all go into the lodge room and they would
• 43:51
  Speaker: exactly that, you know, go over the new guards and the signs and
• 43:54
  Speaker: the grips and the words and answer all of their questions
• 43:56
  Speaker: and stuff like that.
• 43:57
  Speaker: But it was like a big to do.
• 43:59
  Speaker: And you got a formal invitation
• 44:01
  Speaker: to it, you know, so kind of made
• 44:02
  Speaker: them feel special, I would
• 44:03
  Speaker: imagine.
• 44:04
  Speaker: But yeah, it's not something.
• 44:05
  Speaker: And then we looked, I think the last time we had done it was
• 44:07
  Speaker: like two thousand and six or two thousand and seven.
• 44:09
  Speaker: Oh man.
• 44:09
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:10
  Speaker: And brother Maddox, he says they they do one every September.
• 44:15
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 44:16
  Speaker: Back to school night.
• 44:19
  Speaker: Uh, that makes sense.
• 44:19
  Speaker: And that's an easy thing.
• 44:22
  Speaker: And if you don't think, if you don't think that guys are out
• 44:26
  Speaker: there in your neck of the woods that maybe forgot.
• 44:29
  Speaker: Oh, how could you forget?
• 44:32
  Speaker: Let me tell you something.
• 44:34
  Speaker: I had a guy, um, well, first of
• 44:38
  Speaker: all, I had a dude once come out
• 44:40
  Speaker: for a fifty year pin
• 44:41
  Speaker: presentation.
• 44:42
  Speaker: Could not believe he actually came out.
• 44:45
  Speaker: Never even heard of him.
• 44:46
  Speaker: Saw his face before.
• 44:48
  Speaker: But I've been sending them dues cards for a bazillion years.
• 44:51
  Speaker: Guy always paid his dues, never came to lodge.
• 44:54
  Speaker: He showed up for this fifty year
• 44:55
  Speaker: thing and he came in and he
• 44:57
  Speaker: goes, oh, where's Robert
• 44:58
  Speaker: Johnson?
• 44:59
  Speaker: And they pointed me out and I said, hey, what's going on?
• 45:02
  Speaker: And he said, hey, I got this letter from you as a secretary.
• 45:06
  Speaker: I don't know what to do.
• 45:07
  Speaker: And I said, oh, man, uh, tell me
• 45:11
  Speaker: what you tell me what you need
• 45:12
  Speaker: to know.
• 45:14
  Speaker: I had to take him in the ante room, show him all the things.
• 45:21
  Speaker: And he's like, oh, yeah, okay.
• 45:23
  Speaker: And he was so stoked.
• 45:24
  Speaker: And he that just made him feel
• 45:26
  Speaker: so comfortable coming into the
• 45:27
  Speaker: meeting.
• 45:27
  Speaker: Like it.
• 45:31
  Speaker: You could feel that he was just so proud to come back.
• 45:35
  Speaker: Another guy hadn't been to Lodge
• 45:37
  Speaker: in twenty years, switched over
• 45:39
  Speaker: to Waukegan seventy eight
• 45:40
  Speaker: because this other lodge didn't
• 45:41
  Speaker: send him anything for twenty
• 45:42
  Speaker: years.
• 45:43
  Speaker: And he said, you know, screw those guys or whatever.
• 45:46
  Speaker: Um, and so he came to our lodge
• 45:51
  Speaker: and it was kind of the same
• 45:52
  Speaker: thing.
• 45:53
  Speaker: He immediately wanted to jump in the officer line, too.
• 45:55
  Speaker: He was like, oh yeah, let me help out.
• 45:57
  Speaker: Where can I help?
• 45:58
  Speaker: Can I be a steward?
• 45:59
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 45:59
  Speaker: Cool.
• 46:00
  Speaker: Um, and he's in line now, but
• 46:02
  Speaker: the first thing that he did was
• 46:03
  Speaker: he was like, can I get a little
• 46:06
  Speaker: refresher?
• 46:07
  Speaker: No problem.
• 46:09
  Speaker: Gotcha.
• 46:09
  Speaker: No problem.
• 46:10
  Speaker: We got you, brother.
• 46:12
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 46:15
  Speaker: I wish we did something like that.
• 46:17
  Speaker: Like we should do more stuff
• 46:18
  Speaker: like that as a district, I
• 46:19
  Speaker: think.
• 46:20
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 46:22
  Speaker: All right.
• 46:22
  Speaker: Joe, do you have any don'ts?
• 46:25
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 46:26
  Speaker: Um, yeah.
• 46:27
  Speaker: I mean, you touched on it earlier.
• 46:28
  Speaker: The big don't is, uh.
• 46:30
  Speaker: And I've seen it happen.
• 46:31
  Speaker: I've seen it happen just as recently as last month.
• 46:34
  Speaker: Don't pepper your new master
• 46:36
  Speaker: masons with petitions to other
• 46:39
  Speaker: crap.
• 46:41
  Speaker: Um, you know, you talked about that sweet spot being a year.
• 46:45
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 46:45
  Speaker: And we can all, you know, we can all sit here and nod.
• 46:48
  Speaker: Yes, John, you're absolutely right.
• 46:50
  Speaker: And you know, but you walk out
• 46:51
  Speaker: of the room and somebody like is
• 46:52
  Speaker: taking a Scottish Rite petition
• 46:53
  Speaker: out of their pocket, or it's
• 46:54
  Speaker: taking a Shriner petition out of
• 46:55
  Speaker: their pocket, or, hey, join the
• 46:57
  Speaker: Royal Arch.
• 46:57
  Speaker: That's the next step in masonry.
• 46:59
  Speaker: You know, like the night as
• 47:01
  Speaker: you're signing their Bible and
• 47:02
  Speaker: you're taking pictures and
• 47:03
  Speaker: you're having cookies and cake,
• 47:05
  Speaker: people are handing them
• 47:06
  Speaker: petitions.
• 47:06
  Speaker: Stop it.
• 47:07
  Speaker: It's annoying.
• 47:09
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 47:09
  Speaker: There's no benefit to them for that.
• 47:12
  Speaker: There's benefit for you and your
• 47:13
  Speaker: body, but there's no benefit for
• 47:15
  Speaker: that member.
• 47:16
  Speaker: Let them enjoy being a Blue Lodge mason for a little bit and
• 47:19
  Speaker: let them, like you said, experience all the things that
• 47:22
  Speaker: come with it, you know, and make it a worthwhile experience.
• 47:24
  Speaker: So stop handing out petitions.
• 47:26
  Speaker: I know it's very anti allergy to say that, but stop.
• 47:32
  Speaker: We've only got a few years left though, so we gotta we gotta
• 47:35
  Speaker: pull up those numbers.
• 47:36
  Speaker: It's all one big appendant body, you know, with girls in it.
• 47:44
  Speaker: Together Scottish Rite and Eastern Star.
• 47:48
  Speaker: Scottish star.
• 47:49
  Speaker: Ooh!
• 47:52
  Speaker: Robert.
• 47:53
  Speaker: Uh, do you have a do or don't?
• 47:56
  Speaker: I think I could say adieu.
• 48:00
  Speaker: Maybe you didn't give me that choice, you jerk.
• 48:04
  Speaker: Nope.
• 48:04
  Speaker: Okay.
• 48:04
  Speaker: All right, all right, all right.
• 48:05
  Speaker: You know what?
• 48:06
  Speaker: Let's go with the.
• 48:07
  Speaker: Do not.
• 48:08
  Speaker: Okay.
• 48:08
  Speaker: Um, Joe took the big one, which.
• 48:11
  Speaker: Yep.
• 48:11
  Speaker: Totally agree with that.
• 48:13
  Speaker: Um, but.
• 48:19
  Speaker: Sometimes you have to vote with your feet, right?
• 48:22
  Speaker: You got to go where the opportunity and the stuff is.
• 48:25
  Speaker: But ideally, like that's pretty rare that like you're going to
• 48:30
  Speaker: get this thing out of Scottish rite that you're not going to
• 48:33
  Speaker: get out of the Blue Lodge.
• 48:34
  Speaker: Um, especially in that first year.
• 48:38
  Speaker: So things I wouldn't do, um, I would say, um.
• 48:48
  Speaker: Don't.
• 48:52
  Speaker: Don't jump in the officer line right away.
• 48:56
  Speaker: Like, if they if they ask you to
• 48:58
  Speaker: do that, um, have a conversation
• 49:02
  Speaker: with your, like, if you're a
• 49:03
  Speaker: mentor, you should have this
• 49:06
  Speaker: conversation where you say,
• 49:08
  Speaker: listen, all blue lodges need
• 49:13
  Speaker: guys.
• 49:13
  Speaker: It's pretty rare that they don't.
• 49:17
  Speaker: So if somebody approaches you
• 49:19
  Speaker: and says, do you want to get in
• 49:21
  Speaker: line?
• 49:22
  Speaker: If you've got the time to do that and you really want to do
• 49:25
  Speaker: it, go for it.
• 49:27
  Speaker: But know that we're humans and people will judge you if you
• 49:32
  Speaker: commit and don't show.
• 49:34
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 49:35
  Speaker: So please don't do that because you're, you're shooting yourself
• 49:37
  Speaker: in the foot and you're shooting the lodge in the foot.
• 49:40
  Speaker: Number two, if you don't want to or you just want to step back
• 49:44
  Speaker: and watch for a year.
• 49:46
  Speaker: Do that to know how like set this bar so that he knows he can
• 49:53
  Speaker: say politely, I have to decline.
• 49:56
  Speaker: You know, work is, you know, I'm, I'm on the I'm writing all
• 49:59
  Speaker: these new chapters in my life right now, and work's taken off
• 50:02
  Speaker: and I'm going places.
• 50:03
  Speaker: And, you know, I might not be able to pick up dinner on a, on
• 50:08
  Speaker: a Friday night, you know, or a night for the lodge.
• 50:11
  Speaker: Um, I might not be able to run
• 50:13
  Speaker: the lodge or memorize all the
• 50:15
  Speaker: ritual required by sitting in a
• 50:17
  Speaker: warden's chair.
• 50:19
  Speaker: And then all of a sudden, one
• 50:20
  Speaker: night, the the master can't make
• 50:21
  Speaker: it.
• 50:21
  Speaker: And now I gotta open the lodge, right?
• 50:23
  Speaker: So there's all of these things that can happen and, um.
• 50:27
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 50:27
  Speaker: Know how to say, uh, thanks, but I can't do that yet.
• 50:32
  Speaker: Or. Thanks for thinking of me.
• 50:34
  Speaker: I just I don't feel comfortable with that yet.
• 50:37
  Speaker: And if they go, oh, don't worry, we'll help you through.
• 50:40
  Speaker: It's okay to push back.
• 50:42
  Speaker: It's okay to push back.
• 50:44
  Speaker: So don't be afraid to say no.
• 50:47
  Speaker: It's the no means no. That's
• 50:50
  Speaker: right.
• 50:50
  Speaker: No means no. Um.
• 50:52
  Speaker: Have another good one, too.
• 50:54
  Speaker: Um, my dad recently got a job in in his lodge.
• 51:00
  Speaker: You're like, okay, congratulations.
• 51:02
  Speaker: You're doing this now.
• 51:03
  Speaker: And he's like, uh, okay.
• 51:05
  Speaker: So he he's not as prepared, but
• 51:08
  Speaker: neither was I. And when I think
• 51:10
  Speaker: about the different jobs that I
• 51:11
  Speaker: was given, someone said, hey,
• 51:12
  Speaker: congratulations.
• 51:13
  Speaker: We'd love to nominate you, uh, for, um, uh, steward.
• 51:18
  Speaker: Okay.
• 51:18
  Speaker: I've never I can barely cook for myself, and I'm not gonna.
• 51:21
  Speaker: I guess I'm gonna learn how to cook for thirty guys now.
• 51:24
  Speaker: Um, but the, the do is for that first year, give brothers a job.
• 51:32
  Speaker: But the caveat is you should do one that's tailored to their
• 51:38
  Speaker: talents and abilities.
• 51:40
  Speaker: Right.
• 51:41
  Speaker: There's some guys that are just
• 51:42
  Speaker: great to be the greeters, and
• 51:43
  Speaker: there's some guys that are great
• 51:44
  Speaker: to be ritualists and there's
• 51:45
  Speaker: some guys that are great, you
• 51:47
  Speaker: know, to clean things and set
• 51:49
  Speaker: things up.
• 51:50
  Speaker: So you have to find out what that is.
• 51:52
  Speaker: And a bonus track to that is see
• 51:56
  Speaker: if you can find a way to make it
• 51:58
  Speaker: challenging, right.
• 52:01
  Speaker: Or something that they need to stretch themselves a little bit
• 52:03
  Speaker: for as well, because they're going to put some pride of
• 52:06
  Speaker: ownership in that, right?
• 52:07
  Speaker: If it's hard, we all know psychologically, if it's hard to
• 52:10
  Speaker: accomplish, we have more sense of pride and achievement when we
• 52:13
  Speaker: get there, right?
• 52:15
  Speaker: So it's like, hey, we've noticed
• 52:17
  Speaker: that you're really good with the
• 52:18
  Speaker: ritual.
• 52:19
  Speaker: Do you mind learning this part?
• 52:21
  Speaker: Do you mind learning the funeral service?
• 52:23
  Speaker: You know, I don't know.
• 52:24
  Speaker: I never thought about that.
• 52:25
  Speaker: Great.
• 52:25
  Speaker: Let's try that.
• 52:26
  Speaker: And, you know, give them that opportunity in a safe space to
• 52:30
  Speaker: kind of stumble on it, right?
• 52:31
  Speaker: Don't don't just put them right out.
• 52:33
  Speaker: Someone, someone in the chat
• 52:35
  Speaker: said, hey, first thing you
• 52:36
  Speaker: should do, make sure they know
• 52:37
  Speaker: how to introduce the grand
• 52:38
  Speaker: master.
• 52:40
  Speaker: No no no no no. Don't do that.
• 52:42
  Speaker: Don't put your right under the bus.
• 52:45
  Speaker: Um. But give them a job.
• 52:47
  Speaker: Right.
• 52:48
  Speaker: And that helps with retention.
• 52:49
  Speaker: It helps with feel of feeling included.
• 52:53
  Speaker: And and again, we'll make people feel like they've accomplished
• 52:56
  Speaker: something even in their first year, however big or however
• 52:59
  Speaker: small that might be.
• 53:03
  Speaker: Cool.
• 53:03
  Speaker: All right.
• 53:04
  Speaker: Uh, let's do speed round.
• 53:06
  Speaker: Last.
• 53:07
  Speaker: Last one.
• 53:07
  Speaker: Speed round.
• 53:08
  Speaker: Joe, what you got?
• 53:10
  Speaker: Um. Speed round.
• 53:12
  Speaker: Do involve your family, you
• 53:15
  Speaker: know, talk to your wife, talk to
• 53:18
  Speaker: your husband, talk to your
• 53:19
  Speaker: significant other.
• 53:20
  Speaker: Tell them what you're doing.
• 53:22
  Speaker: Tell them what the expectations are.
• 53:24
  Speaker: Tell them what you're looking to get out of it.
• 53:25
  Speaker: You know, don't make it a don't
• 53:27
  Speaker: make it a one person event
• 53:28
  Speaker: because you're going to suck up
• 53:30
  Speaker: a lot of your family time by
• 53:32
  Speaker: doing masonry.
• 53:32
  Speaker: So make sure that they have those expectations, make sure
• 53:35
  Speaker: they understand them.
• 53:37
  Speaker: Um, so you don't have problems one year, two year, five years
• 53:39
  Speaker: down the road.
• 53:40
  Speaker: Um, encourage your spouse to
• 53:44
  Speaker: learn more about it just as much
• 53:46
  Speaker: as you are, um, and get them
• 53:48
  Speaker: invested in it because, um, I
• 53:49
  Speaker: can tell you right now, I would
• 53:50
  Speaker: not have survived all the years
• 53:52
  Speaker: doing the crap I had to do if I
• 53:54
  Speaker: did not have the support of my
• 53:56
  Speaker: spouse.
• 53:58
  Speaker: There you go.
• 53:59
  Speaker: Boom.
• 53:59
  Speaker: Not quite speed round, but you know, that was speedy.
• 54:03
  Speaker: Joe talks.
• 54:04
  Speaker: Okay.
• 54:05
  Speaker: Robert, go!
• 54:08
  Speaker: Uh, number one, don't turn into a bling, Mason.
• 54:14
  Speaker: Overnight.
• 54:15
  Speaker: Uh, you just got your master Mason degree.
• 54:17
  Speaker: You went on Amazon dot com.
• 54:18
  Speaker: You bought a ten karat gold ring, uh, a bunch of car decals,
• 54:22
  Speaker: five T-shirts, and a custom apron, you know, by week two.
• 54:27
  Speaker: Don't do that.
• 54:29
  Speaker: Uh, there's something to earning those things as you move along.
• 54:35
  Speaker: You'll get those things in time.
• 54:37
  Speaker: You don't need to go out and get
• 54:38
  Speaker: the whole like, I'm a brand new
• 54:39
  Speaker: mason pack.
• 54:40
  Speaker: It's okay.
• 54:42
  Speaker: It's okay.
• 54:43
  Speaker: Take your time.
• 54:44
  Speaker: Keep it low key early on.
• 54:46
  Speaker: Uh, you know, let your character show that you're a mason before
• 54:49
  Speaker: your bumper sticker.
• 54:50
  Speaker: Maybe, you know.
• 54:51
  Speaker: Ooh.
• 54:51
  Speaker: That's deep.
• 54:53
  Speaker: Can't beat that one.
• 54:55
  Speaker: Um, but I'll try.
• 54:56
  Speaker: So what I was going to do for my last speed round one.
• 55:00
  Speaker: Like education.
• 55:03
  Speaker: Be the mentor, continue the
• 55:04
  Speaker: mentorship on into the, you
• 55:09
  Speaker: know, that first year had lots
• 55:11
  Speaker: of good comments in the chat
• 55:12
  Speaker: about, you know, the top line
• 55:14
  Speaker: signers, right?
• 55:15
  Speaker: They, they vouch for you to join those, those two guys should be
• 55:19
  Speaker: there, you know, carrying you through, uh, the rest of your
• 55:23
  Speaker: Masonic journey as well.
• 55:25
  Speaker: Right.
• 55:25
  Speaker: So make sure that they know you know what to do next.
• 55:30
  Speaker: Joe looks amazed.
• 55:32
  Speaker: Be the mentor until you can be the change.
• 55:35
  Speaker: Wow.
• 55:36
  Speaker: It's full circle.
• 55:39
  Speaker: Right in your eyeball.
• 55:41
  Speaker: Cool, cool.
• 55:42
  Speaker: Good stuff, good stuff.
• 55:43
  Speaker: Um, man, so many good, good things in the chat, but we don't
• 55:47
  Speaker: have time for it tonight.
• 55:47
  Speaker: So I'm going to hand it to Joe for final thoughts.
• 55:51
  Speaker: Oh, okay.
• 55:52
  Speaker: Cool.
• 55:52
  Speaker: Um, yeah.
• 55:53
  Speaker: No, this is a great episode.
• 55:54
  Speaker: I love that.
• 55:55
  Speaker: Um, yeah.
• 55:56
  Speaker: So we spend again, I'm gonna
• 55:57
  Speaker: start just the way we started
• 55:58
  Speaker: the show.
• 55:59
  Speaker: We spend a lot of time asking
• 56:03
  Speaker: how we get men interested in
• 56:05
  Speaker: masonry, right?
• 56:06
  Speaker: But maybe the better question I think could be what do we do
• 56:09
  Speaker: with that interest once they become a member?
• 56:11
  Speaker: Right.
• 56:12
  Speaker: So we, we, we spend all our time and energy and effort in
• 56:16
  Speaker: creating the sense of wonder around initiation, right?
• 56:20
  Speaker: The degrees create all this curiosity and interest and, and
• 56:24
  Speaker: amazement in the craft itself.
• 56:27
  Speaker: But none of these things that we
• 56:28
  Speaker: do create a sense of belonging,
• 56:30
  Speaker: right?
• 56:30
  Speaker: And that's what happens afterwards.
• 56:31
  Speaker: And I think that's what tonight, some of the things we were
• 56:34
  Speaker: talking about, you know, that sense of belonging happens when
• 56:37
  Speaker: a brother calls him and asks him for coffee when someone saves
• 56:41
  Speaker: him a seat at the dinner table.
• 56:44
  Speaker: You know, when you're having
• 56:44
  Speaker: soggy green beans, when he gets
• 56:46
  Speaker: invited to travel, instead of
• 56:48
  Speaker: being told that he can write,
• 56:49
  Speaker: hey, we got a spot in the car
• 56:51
  Speaker: for you.
• 56:51
  Speaker: We're here for you.
• 56:52
  Speaker: When someone explains the symbolism, instead of telling
• 56:55
  Speaker: him, hey, read this book.
• 56:56
  Speaker: Or maybe you'll understand it someday.
• 56:58
  Speaker: Um, when he's given something meaningful to do.
• 57:01
  Speaker: Like you said, when men that he barely knew a year ago start to
• 57:07
  Speaker: become actual friends.
• 57:08
  Speaker: Right?
• 57:08
  Speaker: And I think ideally that's when something changes, right?
• 57:12
  Speaker: That's when he stops saying, I'm going to the lodge and I'm going
• 57:15
  Speaker: to my lodge.
• 57:16
  Speaker: Right.
• 57:16
  Speaker: So that's, I think that's what we're trying to accomplish in
• 57:19
  Speaker: that first year.
• 57:20
  Speaker: And I hope that many people do be the change, be the change.
• 57:26
  Speaker: Twenty forty.
• 57:30
  Speaker: How about you, Robert?
• 57:33
  Speaker: Uh, as a mentor for whoever,
• 57:39
  Speaker: even if you're not the mentor,
• 57:40
  Speaker: maybe you're just having some
• 57:43
  Speaker: time with the person at a dinner
• 57:47
  Speaker: table.
• 57:47
  Speaker: Um, I think it's really important, uh, for our new
• 57:52
  Speaker: master masons to be well informed and build confidence,
• 57:58
  Speaker: uh, so that they can, they can do masonry without feeling like
• 58:04
  Speaker: they're the third wheel.
• 58:07
  Speaker: Um, so, but the caveat to that, the flip to that is also just
• 58:11
  Speaker: because you're a brand new master Mason, doesn't mean you
• 58:13
  Speaker: should hop on TikTok and start a TikTok and explode on TikTok.
• 58:17
  Speaker: Like that's, that's not that shouldn't be your goal.
• 58:20
  Speaker: Um, I will say that the, the part of that, that I'm that I'm
• 58:26
  Speaker: driving at here is as a mentor, you should be able to disclose
• 58:31
  Speaker: to your brand new master Mason e a fellow craft whatever what
• 58:37
  Speaker: they are allowed to talk about and not talk about.
• 58:41
  Speaker: Um, personally, I wanted to
• 58:44
  Speaker: share so much about my
• 58:45
  Speaker: experience with people, but I
• 58:47
  Speaker: felt so uncomfortable doing it
• 58:50
  Speaker: initially because I didn't know
• 58:51
  Speaker: what I was allowed to say or
• 58:53
  Speaker: not.
• 58:53
  Speaker: And believe it or not, obligations still mean something
• 58:57
  Speaker: to some of us.
• 58:59
  Speaker: And so, you know, to some people, I mean, not Masons, but
• 59:03
  Speaker: to some people.
• 59:04
  Speaker: And I wanted to make sure I wasn't breaking my word.
• 59:07
  Speaker: Right.
• 59:07
  Speaker: I wanted to make sure that I wasn't talking to somebody about
• 59:12
  Speaker: something I wasn't supposed to.
• 59:14
  Speaker: Uh, so like, have that
• 59:16
  Speaker: conversation be able to that way
• 59:19
  Speaker: you enable them to share their
• 59:21
  Speaker: excitement.
• 59:22
  Speaker: Um, anyway, that's, that's about all I'd have.
• 59:26
  Speaker: Uh, I just thought this, this conversation was a lot of fun.
• 59:30
  Speaker: Tons of great stuff in the chat.
• 59:32
  Speaker: Uh, shy real estate guy, Brian Maddox.
• 59:34
  Speaker: Incredible dudes.
• 59:36
  Speaker: Thank you guys for for piping up in there.
• 59:39
  Speaker: Um, yeah, that's good stuff.
• 59:41
  Speaker: Thanks, guys.
• 59:43
  Speaker: Great.
• 59:44
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 59:45
  Speaker: And, uh, I think, you know, highlighting some of those guys
• 59:47
  Speaker: or a lot, a lot of the folks in the chat, um, are also thought
• 59:51
  Speaker: leaders in masonry as well.
• 59:52
  Speaker: So listen, listen to what they have to say.
• 59:56
  Speaker: And yeah, the last thing I was
• 59:57
  Speaker: going to say is, man, wouldn't
• 59:59
  Speaker: it be nice because we know that
• 1:00:00
  Speaker: there's this, this drop off, um,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker: of attention to a newly made
• 1:00:05
  Speaker: master Mason.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker: And wouldn't it be nice if you
• 1:00:09
  Speaker: took these ideas, put them in a
• 1:00:11
  Speaker: checklist.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker: Right.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker: Put them in a calendar format.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker: That's like, here's what you
• 1:00:14
  Speaker: should be doing the first year,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker: right?
• 1:00:16
  Speaker: I mean, pick one, pick one a month, one of these ideas a
• 1:00:18
  Speaker: month, and then just start dripping these things out.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker: So that way there's constant engagement that there's some
• 1:00:24
  Speaker: sort of a repeatable process, as it were, to to make sure we're
• 1:00:29
  Speaker: not missing anything or dropping the ball on these things that we
• 1:00:32
  Speaker: all know are common sense.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker: But common sense is hard when you're trying to plan your year,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker: run through the lodge, get candidates through the degrees.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker: And, you know, often we we drop the ball.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker: And so man, it would be even
• 1:00:46
  Speaker: better if you're on a Grand
• 1:00:48
  Speaker: Lodge education committee and
• 1:00:50
  Speaker: make this part of, uh, you know,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker: some sort of recommended
• 1:00:54
  Speaker: guidelines to, to do for that
• 1:00:56
  Speaker: first year, because that would
• 1:00:57
  Speaker: be one way that we could, you
• 1:01:00
  Speaker: know, improve the experience,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker: improve retention and, you know,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker: just improve the fraternity as
• 1:01:06
  Speaker: well.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker: And it's, it's all about making sure that critical first year is
• 1:01:11
  Speaker: a good one.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker: So with that, I want to thank
• 1:01:14
  Speaker: you all very much for watching
• 1:01:15
  Speaker: and keep searching for more
• 1:01:16
  Speaker: life.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker: Have a good night.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker: Wow.