Episode 52. “The Right Stuff” by Bro. Gerald Johnston – Rubicon Masonic Society

Thanks for joining us tonight this is episode 52 of our virtual Masonic education a series entitled 21st century conversations on Freemasonry you’re in for a special treat tonight brother Jerry Johnson of Lexington lodge number one and the Rubicon Masonic Society has prepared this presentation I’ve had the

Pleasure of being a part of and and hearing and receiving this presentation two times now so this will be the third and I I’m confident that you will not be disappointed by any means whatsoever for those of you that are returning visitors to our education we thank you we

Appreciate your continued support and participation for those of you who are with us for the first time thanks for being with us we hope you enjoy tonight and look forward to hopefully coming back again in the future for anyone watching this video online please consider subscribing to our YouTube

Channel and supporting us so that way you never miss a monthly Masonic episode of our virtual education and if you ever have an interest in joining us live you can RSVP there’s no cost Rubicon Masonic society.com RSVP first is usually I want to give a special shout out thanks to the William

O’wear Library research of course the Rubicon Masonic society and Lexington Lodge Number One uh without url’s support we would not be able to make this episode or these shows or this series possible so thank you to all the members of Rubicon and those lodges alongside myself Fortune brother

John bizak Dan Campbell Allen Martin uh we hope you enjoy this evening where’s your brother Alan Martin will you please do the honors of delivering an opening devotion brothers let’s pray grand architect of the universe we ask your blessing this evening as We Gather once more to continue our exploration of Freemasonry

We pray for open minds so that we may be better and able to receive understand and apply new knowledge in such a manner that leads us to become better men and Masons these things we ask in your holy name amen thank you brother s and Friends our virtual Masonic

Education aims to help us to become better men always devoted to our family our faith our brothers and our country may we all come together this evening to learn to subdue our passions to discipline our minds and to improve ourselves through the tools of Freemasonry any opinions expressed

During this virtual education will of course be those of the presenter or the participant they do not necessarily reflect the views of any Lodge or Grand Lodge or the Rubicon Masonic Society by participating with us you do consent to our full disclaimer which can be found at rubiconmasonicsociety.com disclaimer

Quick protocol as usual these are not tiled meetings Masons and non-masons are more than welcome to attend and participate so brothers please be mindful that anything said and discussed this evening should be suitable for Masons of all degrees as well as non-masons of course gentlemanly manners

At all times no alcohol no smoking no eating foul language no discussion of politics or religion in an effort to best assure that this virtual meeting is as enjoyable as possible few recommendations we do appreciate recommended attire for each meeting being coat and Thai please type your name and any appropriate Masonic

Title or location under your video If you’re not a Mason please simply type guest after your name of course please enable your video camera so we can all see you reduce background noise and avoid outside distractions in your environment brother tonight’s guest is brother brothers tonight’s guest is brother

Gerald Johnston and he will be presenting The Right Stuff guarding the West Gates so only the worthy may pass worship brother bizak will you please do the honors of introducing our brother and friend my pleasure thank you brother Gerald Johnson was initiated in Lexington number one in 2013 he was

Raised in 2014. he currently serves as the lodge Marshall he’s assistant secretary music director and is also a long time instructor and our large structure degree program he’s former chair of our large education committee as well he serves on our investigation committees and he’s a member of the

Rubicon Masonic society and serves on our executive committee as well his essay The Right Stuff guarding the West Gates so that only the worthy might pass appears in the recently released transactions of the Masonic approval economic Society he points out that once a candidate passes through the west gate

There’s additional Gates some are less obvious than others through which men who are only worthy of being Freemasons should be allowed to pass brother Jerry the floor is yours thank you brother John and thank you to the Rubicon Masonic Society for allowing me to present tonight

Let me go ahead and share my screen okay can everybody see it yes okay um so good evening Brothers the title of the paper I’m presenting tonight is guarding the West Gates that’s Gates plural with an s um and as Masons we often hear the phrase guard the west gate which alludes

The door that a Canada enters prior to being initiated and instructs the Brethren to ensure to assure that a candidate is worthy and well qualify before admitting him or like the title of the 1983 film about astronauts training to be selected for America’s Nation space program that he has the right stuff

The singular use of the word gate implies there is only one gate and that once passed through membership that Lodge is assured however it is important to understand that there are in fact several games some less obvious than others that the lodge can and should use

To ensure that only men worthy of being Freemasons are allowed to pass through before reviewing those Gates we first need to Define what sort of man we were allow to pass through well this definition may vary a little based on the personality of a particular Lodge it

Does provide a set of core criteria upon which to base the concept of an ideal candidate the first three qualifications are required by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky I must believe in a Supreme Being must be a man at least 18 years of age and you must come under the tongue of a

Good report meaning of course while we’re committed and that’s a pretty low bar to be sure but by doing this Grand Lodge provides a lot of leeway for their support and lodges to determine the best qualifications for membership into the respective Lodge additional qualifications that a lodge

Might want to consider for a candidate that the candidate should be an established man quote unquote that he should have a steady source of income and not be entering into a period transition in his life so examples of appeared in transition be used to enter military service graduating from college

You know do job likely moving imminent birth or child and so on anything that would likely detract from his ability to commit to the work required the candidate should be seeking knowledge and self-improvement and you should be receptive to receiving such from Freemasonry uh he should not consider himself to be quote-unquote the

Smartest man in the room the candidate should be at least somewhat philosophical and of an inquisitive mind a reader or something more than the common and superficial the candidate must get along well with others of differing backgrounds viewpoints political ideologies and religious beliefs which look for more of the mere

Tolerance but rather a man who would be willing to call those who hold such viewpoints and believes a brother the candidate must be a man of good character since he’s required to submit three references on his petition at least in the city of Kentucky those people should be contacted to find out

What they have to say the candidate’s social media should be reviewed to see if there are any posts or images that might contrast or support what the candidate appears to be most lodges conduct a background check which will tell you if the person in question is any criminal convictions

A single DUI from 20 years ago is very different from a string of misdemeanors five years ago the latter is likely to be more relevant a candidate should have a willingness and ability to commit to the work required to complete the Three Degree classes many men like the idea of being a

Freemason but like either the time or the willingness to perform the work required to become one Freemasonry may be right for them but perhaps not right now the candidate should have a level of maturity required to absorb and understand the degrees and studies a candidate should hold a ballot

Interest in Freemasonry and not come seeking business contacts religious salvation or nonsensical occult interest the candidate should have the financial wherewithal to pay annual dues degree fees festive board fees and the occasional contribution to a large charitable cause and the candidate should fit the culture of the lodge not only be suitable for

Freemasonry in general but the lodge in particular so now that we have a model of the ideal candidate for information we can use these criteria as the prospect moves through the gates each gate should sort of act as a filter to separate the wheat from the shaft so it comes the first gate

This is initial contact a prospect has with the lodge now this could be in person uh via email website telephone social media or simply dropping by for dinner for the first time the brother who receives the initial contact should apply a rough filter to see if there is valid interest in

Freemasonry and that the bare minimum criteria are met there’s no need to apply all the aforementioned criteria as these can be applied at subsequent games in addition the man making contact me have yet to see the value of Freemason that the log and the lodge can provide

A lot should review its online presence with a critical eye what impression would it give a Potential Prospect is it kept up to date or is he officer list in calendar from 2015. for additional observance or Heritage observance Lodge does the website give the impression of such the second gate

This gate would be the in-person visits by the prospect to launch dinners social Gatherings perhaps a lunch invitation by one or more of the members at this gate you can begin to form impressions of the Prospect and he of the lodge engage his true interest in The Craft attendance at multiple dinners perhaps

Over several months should be the norm this gives a prospect the opportunity to evaluate the lodge and for the lodge to evaluate the prospect by meeting with as many members as possible over this time period it allows the brothers to put a name to a face

When it comes time to cast a ballot on his petition the questions to consider here are is this man or rather is this a man you would be willing to call a brother and hell will with his brother represent the craft the third gate this would be a more formal plan meeting

Or orientation with one or more prospects prior to them submitting a petition this is not the investigation that comes later this is really an informational session for a prospect to determine if this particular law lodges culture and style of free masonry is right for them and to determine if they have the

Interest and commitment to the degrees in educational program ideally two to four members of The Lodge would be present including officers and instructors prospects should be instructed beforehand to bring a list of questions attending orientations should be required of a prospect before submitting a petition for membership as the

Orientation could be the first real taste of the expectations and level of commitment required so I’m going to expand a deviate from the paper a little bit expand on what the orientation might consist of uh you’d probably want to have it at lodge that on a night that is not a

Stated meeting night just to avoid any kind of interruptions and you definitely want to have the agenda plan in advance and not try to wing it um probably the first thing to get some quick introductions introduce the officers or instructors or Lodge members that are present brief introduction to

Prospects and what you’re wanting to do during orientation you want to sell your Lodge a bit and sell a Sizzle as it were uh before going into the work that the candidates will be undertaking so you could talk about the lodge history its founding did it play A Part historically in the community

Any famous Lodge members that they may have heard of uh you can discuss the events that the launch holds either for charitable work or just for Fellowship outside of the lodge you’ll want to bring up what the culture of the lodge is and its focus is it more charitable work community events education

Um that way you could tell the difference between your Lodge and another and I skipped a slide here we go uh there’s a large dress code you’d want to bring that up you’d also want to talk about what Freemasonry isn’t um so if they’re there they see it as some type of religion

Um if they’re there some kind of occult interest you would want to make sure that’s not the case so you explain it’s not a religion it’s not a charitable organization a little Charity is certainly an aspect of the craft it’s not a political organization business networking group cult and we’re not the Illuminati

Of course you’d want to talk about what Freemasonry is fraternity of like-minded men seeking Brotherhood and self-improvement a philosophical code of life Freemasons must be men of good character and believe in a Supreme Being you might want to take the opportunity to explain operative versus speculative Freemasonry

You’d also want to go through the petitioning process um explain the investigation balloting uh and then when you bring up initiation uh to somebody unfamiliar with Freemasonry they hear the word initiation and they’re going to think maybe back to college days of fraternity so you want to explain that there is no

Hazing that everything is done symbolically and has a deep meaning you want to go through a degree work um you know the stages of Internet Apprentice fellow craft for mastermason and the proficiencies required after each you talk about the proficiency classes how they function um how often the classes may meet the

Work involved in the time required for those classes and you want to cover do’s and degree fees what they need to pay how much and when so that way there’s no unpleasant surprises and during the orientation you want to allow plenty of time for question answers ask prospects what you’re

Looking to get out of Freemasonry hopefully they brought a list of questions to ask but you can um you know talk to each one and find out what they’re really looking for at the fourth gate so they’ve been through orientation um so the next step if they choose to

Proceed would be to petition the Lodge so any petition for membership requires a signature of two Master Masons or members of The Lodge against in the state of Kentucky at least and this is more than a cursory sign-off the brothers who sign a petition are vouching that the man in question would

Be good for Freemasonry in general and their Lodge in particular that they’d be willing to call this man a brother and that he would represent the craft in a favorable light and in order to sign off on a petition one would hope at least one or one or more one-on-one conversations with a

Prospect would be required to determine all that the fifth gate this is the investigation committee any questions regarding a candidate’s suitability for membership can be asked privately during the investigation and of course any information shared is held in the circus confidence a standardized question list should be available to members of the

Investigation committee to ensure that all pertinent questions are asked and the inappropriate questions or not an investigation committee should contact provided references review social media and be informed of the outcome of a background check prior to meeting with the candidate so to kind of expand a bit on um

You know the investigation can make ultimately you want to answer these questions in the affirmative that the candidate believes in this free being the candidate is a good character and of sound mind and is an established man as we mentioned before the candidate is seeking membership in the craft for the right reasons

That he’s suitable for Freemasonry in general and this Lodge for your Lodge in particular that he would represent the craft in a favorable light and that he is the time commitment and maturity to receive the three degrees of masonry and to perform the work required to attainable to attain a suitable proficiency

And that he would be able to meet his financial obligations to the lodge well ideally members voting on a petition in Lodge will have met the candidate during the dinners and social Gatherings and made their own determination many members often rely on their best on the investigation committee’s report before casting their

Wider black ball so this is the final step to determine the suitability of a candidate and it must be undertaken with the utmost diligence which could be asked during the investigation uh committee a meeting with the candidate again you want to have a standardized list of questions I

Think to provide to the committee um explain to the the candidate any information exchange remains confidential and the the outcome is only reported favorable or unfavorable to the volume of the lodge and the most important question to ask is why do they want to be a Freemason and um sometimes the candidate can’t

Fully articulate why they want to be they’re looking for something in their life they’re not quite sure what and this stage they’re not maybe entirely sure what Freemasonry can provide so you want to give them time to talk um but if that is probably I think the most

Important question to ask is why why they want to be a Freemason I make sure they’re coming for the right reasons um and why this Lodge as they visit other lodges and what did they like or not like about those lodges so you want to make sure they’re good for Freebase

Three and a good fit for your Lodge of course have they petitioned another launch which is probably on on the petition itself with the Evernote um you talk about you know family if they have any masons in their family Hobbies or work um ask about personal charitable activities

See if they’ve read any books on Freemasonry or anything online um of course that can be good or bad we’ve got some great introductory books on Freemasonry out there and there’s a lot of stuff that’s not so great especially online so you want to caution here about any misinformation

They might come across and um caution them against any spoilers as far as degree work you want to ask about goals you have set and achieved or any that they fail to achieve ask them why um because he gave you some insight as to maybe a level of commitment that you

Know I give to things in their life and they might translate into how they’re how well they’re committed to Freemasonry you want to see if their spouse is on board with them joining uh you don’t definitely want to create any disharmony at home uh some lodges perform investigations at the candidate’s home

So the spouse is likely going to be present there that’d be a good time to ask um if there’s any concerns with a time commitment involved with Freemasonry with the classes the meetings um other events and if there’s any concerns with the financial requirements you’d want to bring that up during the investigation

Too of course obviously ensure that there is a belief in a supreme being that we don’t want to delve into personal religious beliefs but you do want to confirm that and uh see if there’s any criminal record now the background check will probably tell you if they have a criminal record

Um but if you kind of leave it open-ended if your phrases you know have you had any run-ins with the law that can mean a lot of things anything from a traffic ticket to whatever so might uh see if anything comes up there so the sixth and final gate after the

Investigation the six gig is a Ballot Box a candidate for the three degrees of masonry must be passed by unanimous ballot again in Kentucky uh each brother present voting for the good of The Craft now hopefully by sense but since by this time the candidate will mention several dinners an orientation tonight they’ve

Had two members sinus petition and three more to perform the investigation most of his brothers will have form an opinion and will be able to find the candidate Worthy so in conclusion when fully utilizing these West Gates it should be easier to determine early in the process whether a prospect is

Worthy to receive the three degrees of Masonry there’s nothing to gain by getting a prospect in front of an investigation committee who is not fully committed to the work does not have a grasp of the basics of Freemasonry or is too busy to dedicate a portion of its time to become proficient

In the work required or the same token it is not fair to a candidate to be initiated into Freemasonry only to find out he does not have the time available to dedicate to the work required or that more is expected of him than he is prepared to give

Bringing men to the lodge who are worthy and will qualify and truly prepared to receive Masonic light can only benefit both the craft and the new brothers and that concludes my presentation brother Brian I’ll stop screen sharing I can hand it back to you now perfect perfect

All right let me take back over my screen share all right great uh brother Jerry Thank You For Preparing that presentation obviously uh we were aware coming in that it was a little bit shorter than most presentations in the past but for good reason because we want

To keep this engaging for everyone that is with us tonight we’d like to learn a little bit more about what your processes are for your Lodge or jurisdiction Etc um and although these uh six Gates may seem obvious and perhaps basic um they should not be viewed in any way

Whatsoever as unimportant in fact this is the most important step of the process and this education in this presentation tonight brother Jerry is not only good for our lodges but it’s also great for any man out there that is exploring Freemasonry it might have an interest to to better satisfy his

Initial Curiosities of what this Freemasonry stuff is uh what goes on after I visit a lodge Etc and of course this is not um uh specific to every Lodge in every state and every jurisdiction but it does give a good overview of at least how we

Uh stand to do it so Jerry I have a couple questions um I guess the first question I have for you and if anybody has other questions as well please type your questions in the chat box or you can raise your virtual hand and I’ll call on you

Why did you prepare this this particular topic what was it that that sparked your interest and motivation to prepare the detail of this topic all I got I’ve served on a few investigation committees um in the past where as we were speaking to the candidate it sort of became

Apparent that he wasn’t fully verse and what was required of him um yeah there the the time commitment or financial commitment um and in my opinion it proceeded to the investigation committee prematurely that we needed something between you know just coming to dinner and talking informally with the brothers

Um and we know that’s great they get to know him but there needs to be something more formal that um you know prior to the investigation because they get the investigation you’ve taken the time of the Brothers performing the investigation the candidate himself um only to find out it’s probably not

Going to be a good fit so uh mess will lead to um myself Tim even John bisek Dave crickard coming together and putting uh the idea of the uh the orientation into play and we think that’s really helped by the time they get through the orientation they’re fully aware of

What’s going to be required of them and so that was sort of the idea behind the paper yeah um so when you first joined Lexington laws number one 14 I think it was is that correct uh 2013 is when it’s initiated how has the process changed from when

You first were initiated into our lodge to now you basically overseeing the structure the the education programs Etc how has it changed and how did it get there well it was a gradual process really um when I came into the lodge um probably one of the

The first dinners I attended I was given a petition and um yeah I don’t think that there was an orientation at the time it was simply you know come to a dinner or two you’re given a petition um I think it was a while before it was voted on

Um so it was a uh honestly it was a speedier process uh degree classes themselves weren’t very different from what we do today there were degree classes we had a proficiency um might not have taken the amount of time that we do to Vegas because we we have additional material to cover um

But it was uh as far as getting initiated or getting getting ballot upon it was quite a bit quicker than it is today so what led to the changes in your opinion that we now have um and how are those more important or would you say

Yeah I think we saw some some members come in that you know they they wanted to be Freemasons but they just didn’t have the time they had work uh commitments um they weren’t able to attend a class regularly and even once they were raised um they maybe came for a meeting or two

And then you know stopped attending so I think we really wanted to um make sure that when uh somebody was initiated that they fully understood the culture of the lodge what was expected of them and that they’re going to be an active uh participant in the activities of the lodge in your experience

Um in your experience Jerry what is the knowledge level of a prospect when they first come to launch when they first knock on the door they come orientation they have some discussions on a scale of one to ten ten being obviously Say Master Mason or or at

Least having read a book what what knowledge level do you see that they have had are they completely green and have no idea what Freemasonry is or what is your experience told you no not not what I’ve seen lately anyway um they have you know sometimes they

Have a masonic uh you know family members they are aware of um you know the working Mr Freemasonry that way sometimes they’ve read you know Chris odap’s book um Freemasonry for dummies um some have researched online some have got friends for Freemasons but no I I don’t know that I’ve encountered

Somebody who’s absolutely agreeing has no clue what Freemasonry is but again it that’s probably dealt with um you know we talk about the gays the first gate where the initial context so whether at our lodge it’s um a lot of times the senior Deacon that handles that the initial contact so they’ve

Already talked to him on the phone exchanged emails maybe pointed them to some resources so by the time they actually present themselves to the lodge they have some um you know some background on a Freemasonry why is the the first the first gate initial contact you mentioned website

Um and other things why is that important because obviously there’s probably a lot of lodges that don’t put a whole lot of effort into their online presence um we we of course do at Lexington lodge number one and I’m just curious to know what your thoughts are on why that is

Important and how maybe other lodges could better utilize that as a tool for their first impression well it yeah the website and if you uh you know have a Facebook page social media you’ve got to present the Right image if you’re a more traditional lines you want to make sure

You’ve got pictures of of the officers and coat and tie or whatever but the initial contact is really you know for lack of a better what are you we got the crazy so if somebody’s read uh the latest Dan Brown book and is all about you know things are a little

Longer or whatever you’ve you know that’s the time to get either set them straight or make sure that they don’t show up to the lodge and you know waste everybody’s time um and also give me a brief uh background on what that Lodge does and kind of get

A sense of of how interest are they are they just emailing on a whim and we’ve had those before this hey what’s remissioner all about like you know I’d like more information versus somebody who is honestly interested for the right reasons so that’s really the you know

The first step in determining you know who has some kind of valid interest yeah yeah I want to go down that road a little bit further um so at our lodge we have a website our website is connected to a CRM system a CRM system is a database system where

You can log into it and if somebody fills out a form on your website then the information on that form is inputted into this CRM database uh and David Cricket I’m going to call on you in a minute because I know you are handling a

Lot of that flow right now just to give another perspective of this but we didn’t always use a CRM system out there CRM stands for customer relationship management and any good business should have some form of a CRM or database management for them to manage their their clients and customers and masonry

Should be no different they fill out the form and our first step and our one of our first processes says David is we we sent an email and we try to get on the phone with this person correct because we want to speak to them we don’t want to invite them until after

We’ve at least had a conversation with this this person is that correct David yes brother uh you are correct so we will get an email and it asks us to uh question you know what why are you interested in Freemasonry and and sometimes you’ll get questions they’ll answer the question with

A really odd question and I usually will reach out to uh some I guess uh wise our brothers and say hey what do you think of this uh answer to this very simple question why why are you interested in masonry so uh and they will advise me it’s like yeah

This guy seems uh not a good candidate to go further so uh like Brian was saying so I will end it right there and uh but then do you have the majority of guys or men who will sit there and and you’ll call them and they’ll seem very

Interested and it’s like okay you invite them to dinner they’ll come to dinner and then they’ll uh paper off they’ll go they’ll just drift away I think uh if I would have been quicker I would have had my spreadsheet open just to see how many uh men have gauged our website this year

As and compare that to how many have actually uh requested petitions we only have if I’m thinking correctly we have we’ve had over about over 25 men reach out to us but we’ve only had three of them have actually uh requested petitions and come to come to

Dinner enough you know if they if that and the average I’m noticing is if they come more than two dinners usually they’re more uh interested and will probably request petition but I think I don’t know if I answered your question but that’s where I’ll stop

Right there yeah you did I think what I was trying to to get to is just the fact that we have a system and every loss needs to have a system in place you can’t just wait for emails to come in and email them back with some some your

Personal email for that matter we have large emails and we try to do it correctly we try to treat our presence as if it’s a normal professional business entity which it is uh so you have to have a system in place if you don’t have a system in place then

Put one in place and the way we have one is we have committees or committees uh are in charge of making sure the system is in place and they report to the chair of the committee who then reports to the master and the officers Etc and don’t

Overthink this either you just want to have some form of organization so that way your Lodge can accept interest and then also communicate back to the interest simple pre-screening with a phone call obviously the person on the phone is not um is not taking the responsibility of an investigation investigation committee

Into their own hands it would only be in a situation where maybe someone said they had a felony or something else is where we would not invite them to Lodge based on the answers they’ve given so once the once the conversation takes place and they do seem at least

Interested and can hold a conversation uh then they we invite them to Lodge come in meet face to face have dinner which leads to that next step the in-person visit um would you add anything to that Jerry I would say that the system doesn’t need to be complicated um you know we’ve got

A database back in but if you get as simple as an Excel spreadsheet but I think the main thing is to keep track of who has contacted the lodge and if if they’re um you know their interest isn’t valid for whatever reason um whether it’s you know they’ve got

Some criminal history or you know they they’re looking for something that Freemasonry is going to provide um still keep their name on the list and just note that in case they come back um but yeah just maintain you know who’s contacted the lodge keep days in there

So you can see how current it is and uh you know have uh and make sure there’s follow-up so somebody’s kind of reached out to the lodge with their email phone or whatever you know after uh 30 days you know have a system in place where you you reach out to them

Again and at some point if if they’ve ghosted yeah they haven’t contacted you again just you want to drop them off the list yeah every log is going to be different how they handle that yeah I think we have a three strike Rule and at some

Point we sent a final email that says if if we haven’t heard back from you we’re going to assume you’re not interested that’s fine our door is always open if something changes and then we archive them and then we can always pull out their information again if need be uh

Brother Jerry I don’t know if you can see the chat but uh Piercy Jance put a comment in and says do you do you put the onus on the Seeker or the Potential Prospect to maintain contact uh or do we make a point to to do the follow-up and

I think you may have answered that question a little bit unless you want it yeah and the illness you can follow up with them but the the brother like you call them a Seeker or the the person in chat call them a Seeker that they’re seeking and you know

They found the lodge one time they can find it again uh you don’t want to uh oversell um right so you you want to maintain Dignity of Freemasonry and you don’t want to continue to reach out and look desperate so I would put you know follow

Up as a courtesy but if they’re they haven’t responded after a couple times personally I would just you know uh archive them at that point uh brother Gerald go ahead Chris brother Jerry I want to uh really thank you for this horrific uh presentation that that you’ve made as

You know from the fact I’ve given my talk on guarding the west gate uh uh on on on this series and and my Lodge like yours is very systematic and what we do um it was very interesting to me that how you’re and my clock compliment one another kind of like a

Yin and a Yang my my mind uh was about the process but yours and I am going to to steal from it like crazy as soon as my uh copy of the uh the transactions comes here um your lists are are going to end up in

The in the hands of all the guys on uh the education committee which is who has this uh thing at at our lodge at South Pasadena and it’ll be very useful to us having such a well thought through um checklist of the of the things that you should that you should get into

Um we mostly have people approach us men approach us straight ahead by showing up at our lodge very seldom uh uh do they um allow themselves to be filtered in the way that you’re describing that would be great if if they did but um all the more reason why uh this uh this

Checklist of the things to ask is um is such a a great great tool and and I thank you for it and um on behalf of my Lodge we we thank you for it we will put it into uh into use uh right away thank you brother

Um Jerry can you talk about the in-person visits because that sounds uh and David I’ll get to you in a moment that seems really obvious but we have a system for that as well so when we speak to somebody usually we can we tell them

To when you arrive look for so and so who will give you a tour of the lodge answer your questions so we have a designated person for that step too so could you talk about that briefly yeah I think as far as dinners somebody actually showing up in person

Um you you want to vet them beforehand so I I think dinners should be Invitation Only uh somebody somebody coming in off the street so to speak I guess you’d engage them at the door decide you know ask them a couple questions see if their interest is valid but I think really the

Initial contact should be via phone or email and then you you know you’ve met the person that way see what their interest is and then extend an invitation to dinner or not but yeah the somebody assigned to greet them um maybe show them around the lodge I think it’s a fantastic idea

David do you want to add to that uh so yeah I’m the the designated like uh greeter I guess for the the Lexington Lodge one and it’s really simple we you know it they show up uh give them a tour of the lodge you know try to uh

Take away any of the you know the mystery of the lot the physical Lodge itself you know we show them our lodge room we show them every uh you know the whole Lodge you know uh and there’s no you know try to take away the you know

Just to let him know that hey this is a a a good organization if you’re interested in this is where uh you know transparent as much as you know possible by the the constitution of the of the Grand Lodge so that that’s all I’d have to add

To that but my reason I raised my hand is I sort of wanted to you know uh pull a pin on a grenade and throw it into the room and see how everybody reacts to this but you know we were talking in our lodge about this not too long ago and uh

And uh I said I said I would like to see it in our bylaws where we must do a a home visit because I think uh getting to see somebody in their natural environment you will uh be able to better uh I don’t want to say judge better get a

Feel for how that person is and who they are and how they live so in my opinion uh and I’m going to attempt to do it this year is to get it in a bylaw where like part of Lexington Lodge one you have to visit this person

At home so I sort of pulled that pin just to see if anybody like is like no you shouldn’t do that hopefully people will disagree with me so well let’s I think that’s a great um that’s a great Point let’s open that up when we get to investigation

Committee uh number I’m trying to go through from the top but that’s a great point we’ll definitely come back to that because I have some comments on that as well um does anybody have any questions about step gate one or gate two initial contact what that process looks like in

Person visits what that process looks like any questions or comments or do you do those two steps differently okay hearing on let’s go to the orientation um this is relatively new for our lodge it’s not something we have always done we maybe have started it perhaps a year

Year and a half maybe two years ago um and I think it’s a great it’s a great step it’s a great addition to the process and worship other bizak if you wouldn’t mind I’d love to get your input on the orientation process what was the thought process to to

Implement this step in our processes and what’s working what’s not just your input well the process is really what we should have been doing all along instead of just taking everybody who’s interested in becoming a member and rushing them through the process we have the orientation on the first

Thursday of every month when we have uh candidates to come and be oriented we usually have at least three of our members there uh Jerry and David have been there commonly and we talk to each of the candidates in our library and we tell them about the lodge give them a

Thumbnail schedule the history of the lodge which is significant for for hours since we’re the oldest Lodge in Kentucky uh we give them a tour of the lodge and we talk about the importance of a time commitment which is really the whole Crux of our approach to filtering candidates today

If they don’t have the time why are they there they can always come back if they want to go to a lodge where it takes no time there’s two other lodges in our jurisdiction in our in our County they can go to them or any other Lodge

If they’d like but we emphasize that you you need to consider the fact that we take masonry serious at our lives and we want to have you devote the time necessary to not just be made a member but to be made a Mason and that will require and

We tell them up front a minimum of 24 weeks for each of the degrees and that of course depends on holidays and illness um periods when we’re dark but we don’t have often classes that finish in 24 weeks often they go over but we want that that Canada to know

That’s the commitment we expect and if they get into a class the entire class moves along at the same Pace we don’t leave anybody behind and we don’t accelerate any of the processes I think it keeps some men from coming back because they realize this is not a hobby

This isn’t something you just joined and carry around a membership card and claim to be a mason if they want to do that there’s places they can do it and I believe all the brothers on here know that there’s places that can be done but we choose

Not to do that now Jerry Jerry has a great presentation I think it’s the third time I’ve heard it too and there’s there’s always value to it so thank you for your time to give those perspectives tonight but Jerry is kind of a modest Mason but he’s

Been very instrumental over the years in helping us unfold this process as the culture of our lodge changed and as the culture changed we finally had a core of our most active and engaged members who said we don’t want to make members anymore we want to make Masons

So how do we do that better than we have done in the past so we got away from the idea that raising Masons is some kind of an event it’s a process and we try to explain that at each of the orientation sessions we also look at our primary function is to

Explore Freemasonry and if you didn’t come to our lodge to explore Freemasonry and perhaps you’re not there for the right reason at this point it doesn’t mean later on when your time is freed up and you don’t have as many responsibilities and you you can’t come to lives you can’t participate

In learning about Freemasonry that you can’t come back it’s I believe Jerry said it earlier it just may not be the right time at that moment so I believe the idea behind guarding all the West Gates as it were is the culture of your Lodge because of your culture doesn’t change

And your Lodge doesn’t agree that this is the approach we want it won’t make any difference you’ll continue to bring men in who don’t have time for Masonry and while some lodges may want that for the Revenue stream in the long run we know that the revenue stream while important

Does not sustain itself after about two maybe three years of a man being a Mason if he doesn’t have time for Masonry until we start the process all over again but orientation night is critical um we can thank Jerry and a handful of other brothers who were intimately

Involved in our education program of sustaining that and with the support of the entire officer Corps each year that we do it it gets stronger and the commitment of the culture gets stronger so to just guard the west gate without some sort of official orientation I

Think takes away from the rest of the processes no matter how good it’s applied thank you wish brother it’s great um would you want to add anything to that Jerry well I’ll just say I see a comment um David posted that we we had 50 men I think in 2023

Contact the laws correct me if that’s if I’m reading it correctly David but in three requested petitions so um initially you may say well that’s a pretty low percentage six percent only six percent requested a petition but I meant there are 47 men who had some interest and decided it wasn’t for

Them so um The Lodge you know didn’t waste any time they didn’t waste time pursuing something that wasn’t right for them and the lodge didn’t waste time um you know maybe perhaps getting him all the way to the investigation committee but when you bring and there’s another comment here

Um David brother Doherty from Ohio posted about uh Brothers who’ve been welcomed information about their lodges and who may perhaps not have done their due diligence regarding to Westgate um whether it’s having somebody come through and get the investigation committee and find out that they’re really in fact weren’t right for the

Lodge or a brother who got through the west gate and you know were initiated or passed a telegraph or even raised a mastermation you find out tonight not right for Freemasonry um it’s it’s demoralizing for investigation committee and for large members to get a brother take them through the degree work you get

Instructors um you know spent take time out of their their lives to help teach them the proficiency and then the guy leaves and so it’s not just that you’ve you’ve potentially lost a Mason that’s demoralizing for the members of Lodge the investigation committee the instructors um but that happened and so you know

What happens often enough yeah everybody’s going to sort of lose interest well why should I instruct his candidate he’s probably going to leave anyway so you really want to do the vetting up front um and so when I when a man gets to the investigation committee when he’s initiated you know you’ve done

Your due to due diligence you know he’s right for the craft and circumstances change we’ve had brothers who are initiated passed and raised and they were good officers and then you know their young men life took them elsewhere you know we uh have a brother who announced last

Week that he found a job in Washington DC he’s a young man he’s got a long career ahead of him so you’ve got to accept that’s going to happen too but you really want to do the the work up front to make sure they are going to be

A you know a good contributor to the lodge yeah great great Point Brothers there’s going to be a Sacrifice by following a process as lengthy as this the sacrifices you’re you’re not going to have as many members uh but the upside is you should have better quality

Members and and that is the goal it’s quality over quantity I think we would all 100 agree and I can’t Echo enough what you said Jerry about putting a lot of time and effort to help educate someone and then they disappear um so and the word sell has come up a few times

Uh in this meeting and I don’t think um I don’t think Masons we need to be doing any selling to anybody I think if any selling needs to take place if we’re going to use that term is we need to be sold the candidate the prospect needs to sell

Themselves to us we have nothing to sell we only have value to offer and provide if they want it so we need to reframe our thinking a little bit on on that and that’s not easy to do but I think it’s important to keep that frame of mind

All right let’s move on to the fourth gate petition signers so Jerry this is obvious too but why is why is this an important gate I mean tell me a little bit more about petition signers and also why it’s equally as important if not more important for you

The one that has the pen that actually signs the petition well when you’re you’re signing a petition you’re vouching for that man um it shouldn’t be just and I’ve seen it done where somebody I’ll sign it for you what was your name again um it should be uh it should not be a

Cursory sign off you should be vouching that this is a man who is good for the craft will be a good representative of Freemasonry and I think lodges should probably put um the onus back on the signers uh perhaps use them as mentors so when you sign a man’s petition

Bouncing for him you’re going to follow through it doesn’t end there once he if he gets through the investigation committee once he’s initiated you’re sort of responsible now um and in Kentucky there’s two signers so you’re responsible for those two men guiding him through the crap being his

Mentors ensuring he’s getting out of Freemasonry while he helped to receive um ensuring the lodge is doing its job to educate him in the craft and they may not be the instructors they may be uh you know just they may have known him um well you know maybe a family member

Maybe a friend that they’ve introduced to Freemasonry and um but it doesn’t relieve them of the burden of perhaps being a mentor because it was a masonic Journey into masturbation and Beyond so I think that’s really the level of commitment when you sign a petition that’s what you

Have to be prepared to do good point do we usually offer a petition or do we tell them that when you’re ready for a petition it’s your responsibility to ask or how does that exchange take place I think what we do now um when you start coming to dinners we

Explained a process to them so we’ve had brothers who ask for a petition and I don’t think it’s really not so much heading in the piece of paper you know they can feel like the format your leisure but it’s getting the signatures um we want to make sure that they have

Been through an orientation before anybody signs that because really the orientation is what determines uh what makes sure that they are fully aware of the commitment required um but you know you don’t want to hand them a petition as you walk in the door right

So I think they usually are told at some point when you’re ready you don’t want to ask for a petition you can get one um yeah perhaps before the orientation but we won’t accept it until after the orientation because they make any time to get references or whatever but

Uh you know the signer should be um the petition shouldn’t be signed until after the orientation I’ll save it there my opinion yeah I would agree uh I’m going to Quick pivot for a moment we have two brothers brother Jeremy Patrick and brother Roger Kirk um in a

Few minutes I like to call on each of you so if you could gather just a few thoughts you guys are in our Master Mason class going through it and you’re one of the most recent to have gone through this process or these processes uh would love to get your input on some

Of those items as well so if you wanted to just prepare a few thoughts that would be great to hear uh Jerry what type of questions come up about the financial aspect during the petition process well usually most common question is they understand that there’s dues uh

Whereas what are dues are for a year they don’t ask they’re told um you know we have dues we have degree fees um dues Lexington number one or two 40 a year or 242 I think now um degree fees are I think it’s 35 for EA 125 each for fella crafter

Masturbation really when you break it down those are really nominal I mean the dudes work out to 20 bucks a month um so a lot of times honestly um they’re surprised they’re that low a candidate coming in they in their mind they thought it would be more if they

Haven’t necessarily done research other lodges um but that’s a common question what the dues are um they don’t know enough to ask about degree freeze so we tell them and then when you get through the orientation or the investigation they’re told together certain charitable things the lodge does

They can donate to uh where they you know they team you know it’s the right thing for them to do um so but the main thing is um you know and also as an internet Apprentice even though they’re not able to attend meetings um sitting on the uh the meetings

Themselves the business meetings they’re still required to pay annual dues in Kentucky so um if they’re you know coming into masonry say towards the end of the year they’re going to be hit with the internet Apprentice um you know degree fee and then their Lodge due so

We won’t make them fully aware of that so again there’s no surprises yeah I wanted to ask that because I’m glad you mentioned that the typical response is surprised that the dues are as low as they are really so listen to them yeah brother you all

Need to hear that we need to we need to hear that because that’s important because I I think the the pattern is we are so afraid to raise dues because we’re concerned that it’s going to um everybody’s not going to want to join or everyone’s going to demit and I think that the

Answer to that question right here is being told to us that we’re providing tremendous value and as long as we feel confident in the value we’re providing we need to charge for that for no other reason than the fact that we need to pay our bills so

Um keep that in mind next time you guys discuss your dues at your Lodge that’s just Meyer again my opinion all right let’s jump to the investigation committee so that this is this is great and David I want to get to yours in a second um my investigation committee personally in

2014 I think it was was in my home and I’m not sure I think I might have been one of the last at our lodge to have done the investiga to have had the investigation committee completed in someone’s home Jerry was yours done in your home

Now mine was done at lodge uh just prior to a meeting okay and you know the investigation committee or committees I’ve served on every single one has been at the lodge we haven’t done a single home visit and you know to be frank it was just a matter of convenience to us

Uh sometimes we have more than one investigation in an evening um it’s hard to get you know forming together on an evening and you know try and work around schedules but I agree that um you know home business is something we should start doing again I agree I agree

Uh worst brother Allen uh past master of Robert M Circle how do you all how does this process compare to Robert M circle’s Lodge and how do you handle your investigations there are they at home visits or in in Lodge visits we’ve had in-home visits it’s been some time it’s been years Um they’re typically held in Lodge and as Jerry said prior to a meeting it brought a brought a smile to my face I remember my investigation was prior to a meeting it consisted of two questions I was asked if I believed in God and why I wanted to become a Mason

That was the total extent of the investigation that I had so it I would imagine in a lot of lodges it’s it’s um it’s similar of course not nothing’s 100 percent Lexington lodge number one I think is is a an example for others to to follow as far as

Setting a pathway for potential candidates candidates to enter upon follow and I think it it sets those candidates that actually engage and pursue Free Masonry and it sets them up for Success within our fraternity and I think the others that once they glean the information that is provided

To them up front prior to making them a member that for whatever reason that they choose not to pursue it sometimes it’s personal sometimes it’s Financial sometimes it was exploratory on their part in the first place to see what the craft is all about but I think the the process that

Lexington one has got excels within our local jurisdiction and primarily with my mother Lodge it’s it’s not uncommon to see individuals show up at Fellowship such as brothers real was talking about and it’s not uncommon for those individuals be given a petition at that time meeting so that they can read it

Detonate in our business meeting and it’s just the culture of the lodge and changing that culture is is difficult it’s a it’s a slow slow process worked on it but until the culture identifies that it’s time to change the culture it will it’s just not a change but

I think having that pathway a thought out structured pathway for a candidate from the initial contact all the way through to the ballot box sets the lodge up for success and it sets the candidates up to become successful Masons should they continue to pursue it thank you brother

Cricket were you was your investigation at home or in the in the lodge it was in the lodge if it was at your home would we have had the same outcome oh yeah because he would have got to met my awesome wife and you’ve been like yeah this guy’s awesome

I hope so yes I think you would have good point when my investigation was done my wife was with me as well she sat in on the investigation with me yeah who on here whose investigation did take place in their home does anyone all right would love to hear your

Feedback or your comments on that Jeff would you mind how you doing um you can hear me yes yes okay yeah um John Alvaro uh 122 uh Nova Scotia and our investigations are done in our homes it’s the senior Warden past master and then one other Mason

Will go so three people go to this investigation um those three people will question the candidate for a while the wife is actually invited in for a period of time so that she’s aware of what um uh time constraints and time requirements would be required as well and what she can expect

In the sense of social activities and and that as well to find out if she’s interested in in in participating as part of that um I’ve sat through three of them as the um the the the extra Mason person not not as a senior Warden or past master

I’m right now just going around the chairs now so um but I found when we were there um our biggest difficulty was kind of describing the culture that they would get when they come in I still find that when people um coming into the lodge and our candidates start going through that

Sometimes they’re you know I expected this or I expected that and I think that’s something that when you do that interview and you’re sitting at their home and stuff that probably would be the best time to kind of convey um what they can expect for what they

Put in I mean some people like to sit back and you know sit back in the back bleachers and just kind of watch things go by and they’re really quite happy doing that and not participating others are very much participation people and I think that type of culture should be

Expressed to them as to what will happen to them or what they’ll get when they get into that Lodge and that’s something that I’m trying to work on now I feel like I’m taking these notes like crazy this this is one of the best lectures here for for this type of thing it’s

Really I appreciate being on with this one but trying to get it so that when I do get required to because I get called quite regularly because I have a pretty free schedule with you know self-employed I can go wherever I want to when I want to so I get called to go

To these um you know asked if I want to go Fairly regularly and I go to them I’ve gone through about three of them um I think being able to describe that would really help our lodge in keeping people because if they people come in and they

Don’t really know what they expect or what the culture is and it’s not expressed properly to them they get disappointed they leave it’s not what I expected but if it’s told to them you know if you want to come in come on in and like if you join in

You’ll get a call every other night we’re doing something but if you sit in the back bleachers and just kind of watch it people don’t call you as much you know and we lose basins that way because they come in and they don’t get what they’re looking for so I’m really trying to

Figure out how John albro’s culture could be conveyed during one of those things it’s what I’m working on and uh where we meet uh once a month um we have a a period where somebody can get up and do a lecture and that’s I have to do one of those

This year and that’s what I want to talk about is you know this uh you know I’m starting the west gate the guarding it by creating a good environment so that people come in know what they get and that’s that’s what you guys are talking about tonight

And so like I said I really appreciate this but yeah we go to people’s homes we go over there with three people a pass master a senior Warden and one other person the other person’s there so that they’ll learn so as they when their turn

Comes up as as a senior Warden or past Master they know their their job but find it works really well it tells you a lot about a person when you walk into their home and it does thank you for your comments Jeff appreciate it oh that’s all I got thank you

Any other comments from home investigations I’ll I’ll make one uh brother Brian uh mine was a home investigation but it was uh 60 years ago and I had been a demolay in that chapter in that Lodge for a long long time so I knew most of the people in there but

Um I I so often on this channel here uh uh brag about how well we were doing at um South Pasadena here in Southern California but um this is not such an area to my knowledge um the investigations at our lodge are like a black box nobody does knows even who

The other investigators are and um no nobody nobody really has has any idea other than the master announced that the investigations were favorable on the other hand I’ve been on three investigations and on each of those occasions I have gone to the person’s house now with all of the

Orientation stuff that I’ve described before here um telling them what it’s about and what they’re interested in um isn’t uh isn’t so much the subject matter but particularly having their families there seeing the kind of place they live in experiencing the kind of uh of uh environment where they’re sharing

Their lives with their with their wife their children a roommate on one occasion um boy I think that that that that’s very um informative and gives you such a more experiential uh feel of what’s this person’s life like when they’re not sitting there in the in

In the lodge where uh where I would ordinarily um meet them and uh I um and I’ll also make a quick comment on the thing about people getting through the west gate um people now that are coming men that are coming through now have to go through our classes and things but

Afterwards they don’t really have any compulsion to be all that interested in what this group here and I feel like the purpose of masonry is um and and um that that I think uh votes for our lodge being a a kind of a hybrid probably for a long time we’re

Like 138 years old nothing like the uh the the uh Lexington lodge number one but we’ve been around a long time we’re well established we got almost 300 members and there’s a a big social side and a lot of people come in through that route they get there they get their

Petition from somebody that they are acquainted with primarily through that route um and the only thing we really are doing is we’re putting them through a filter of coming through and being exposed to actual um study and and meditation and history and and all of those kind of things um

So I I I appreciate all the more the way that this discussion is going in terms of uh me thinking about uh things that we need to attend to here in Southern California right thank you Jerry um brother Jerry any other topics or items we missed regarding the investigation committee step

I’d be interested in hearing from the brothers uh whose lodges have a prepared list of questions for for the investigation committee to ask is it sort of ad hoc or do they operate from a you know list of topics to cover during the investigation maybe somebody can put a comment out there um

Feel free to just chime in Brothers so that means everybody has a a list of questions in the script right we’re all super super organized no well if I can let me share with you uh my experience it and my mother Lodge um initially there was no formal list of

Questions it was through education that it was identified that that was probably a good thing to have for an investigation committee to to give them some guidance and Direction on on how to assess and evaluate the suitability for candidates for membership into our craft those questions were developed um I think that um

Or my personal opinion is I think the questions are used most of the time but not all the time and if you’re not consistently using them for their intended purposes I think it has a negative effect on the backside in a lot of regards the membership uh relies heavily upon the recommendation

Of the committee and especially if they have no personal knowledge of the candidate that is seeking admission into the order uh and if the investigative committee has not done their due diligence and then I think it has a negative effect but we do have questions and those things have been developed recently

In the past five years so it uh they’re there but then again I I don’t think it they’re they’re actually adhered to 100 of the time but you know I’m not on all the investigative committees and and I don’t want to talk ill with anybody that’s doing an investigation because I

Assume they’re doing it right but um I do know that uh the committee members don’t meet 100 of the time as a committee or the investigation uh whatever um activity is you’ve prevented them from meeting with the candidate as a committee and some of them have met

Individually and I think if you meet on an individual basis when you’ve been assigned to a committee then you you’d dilute the the overall assessment that can be made on the back end of the initial evaluation but we do have questions but haven’t always had them thank you brother

Yeah I think listen just a standard set of questions if for nothing else than to get the other questions in your mind flowing the purpose is just to understand who it is that you’re speaking to and pre-screen them enough to determine if you feel that they are worthy for your

Um approval with the investigation uh Mario you have a good question it’s kind of a deep question I’m not sure how to answer it personally so Jerry I’m going to kick it over to you how do you inquire about the philosophical interests of a candidate is it in any way

Directed to the exploration done personally by the candidate on the liberal arts and sciences during his life I think the best way to find out about any philosophical interest is just ask open-ended questions um you know what brought your Freemasonry describe your your life experience that brought you to

This point where you’re you’re thinking of petitioning a launch um a question to ask would be what books have you read lately so that would tell you if they have an inquisitive mind if if they’re a reader if it’s something more than um you know superficial you know People magazine or whatever uh

And what books they’ve read on Freemasonry um you know if they’ve read morals and Dogma that might tell you something versus a person who’s read nothing um not that I recommend morals and Dogma for somebody who’s just becoming uh interested in Freemasonry but to give

You an idea of of how deep a die if they’re they’re prepared to do um but yeah I would as many open-ended questions as you can yeah to find out how philosophical they are yeah good point shouldn’t the petition signers be asking these questions of somebody that wants to ask them to that

That asks them to sign their petition I know if I’m asked to sign a petition I say first of all you got to block out a couple hours have lunch with me and we’ll talk about why you want to be amazed and one on one

Um but I I do think that a big part of that should start with the people who are going to sign that petition they’re the ones with the with the key to the West Gates I agree uh there’s a lot of redundancy built in um I tell somebody who’s coming to the

Lodge for the first time you’re going to be asked the same questions over and over um that’s just how it is so the brother signing the petition are going to ask why do you want to join Freemasonry why this Lodge um what are your interests and they’re just general questions work family uh

Hobbies um find out what kind of man they are um when they sit down um and have dinner with the other large members they’re going to ask those same questions too and of course the investigation committee is going to ask them during the investigation so yeah definitely anybody signing a

Petition in order to to you’re vouching form right so are they worthy to join Freemasonry and are they a good fit for the lodge and um you know if they’re a good man and a good fit for Freemasonry but they really want to take part in charitable activities if that’s not the

Focus of your Lodge you should really refer them to another launch I think um you know they’re not going to get what they want to do what if you wanted a Freemasonry out of your Lodge if you’re focused on education um if they’re more into charitable work

Um so I think it’s best at that point to kind of you know say Hey you know you’re you’re this is what our loss is focused on but hey there’s a lot down the road that really gets a lot of charity work you might want to check them out so

Yeah good good point so again I think every launch should have their own set of questions eight to ten you know just have a standard set of questions that each person can begin with and then you know let them go a little bit deeper don’t be afraid to ask well what do you

Mean or can you explain further or what are you referring to you know go deeper into the answer of their question at the end of the day our goal is to make sure that we believe we can trust this person and want to build a relationship with this person

Um you know and I want to add I maybe was going to say this toward more towards the end part but we’re guarding the west gate we’re not locking the west gate I think that’s important to keep in mind also let’s let’s not be so tough in egotistical in our pre-screening process

That we prevent good men from getting in so it’s it’s a part of really just trying to learn about each other it should be you know a mutual enjoyment process to some degree if you think about it and that’s my opinion of course all right let’s jump over to The Ballot

Box and then Roger and Jeremy I’m going to come to you guys here in just a moment um Ballot Box seems pretty obvious Jerry so my thought is um one of the best ways to guard the west gate of course is at The Ballot Box and if you don’t attend Lodge well then

You’re not guarding the west gate very well on evenings when there are ballots so um I think the easiest answer is to make sure you’re participating in your Lodge’s business but what else would you add about The Ballot Box for other lodges or for a lot of times

A lot of times uh people who are you know dropping the lighter black ball they’re depending on the investigation you have done their work which of course they should have um but really as a member of the lodge you should have taken the time to uh sit down with that

Brother at least over dinner because I have to be a formal discussion and get them to him a little bit so you can put a name in the face um you know that’s part of or one of the the westgates I remember is doing their part to make sure

That you know the man’s a good fit for the for Freemasonry and the lodge and um you know they have the right if they feel they’re not a good fit to drop that black ball um regardless of um you know what the investigation committee reports back so um because of that you’ve really

You know if you’re dropping a white ball you’re saying you’re green this is a good man but you have to have some background to say that you can’t just do it on hearsay of the investigation committee so when you see a new brother at the lodge

Try and make a point or not I’m sorry not a new brother a new candidate new brothers as well then uh prospector attending a large dinner take the time to sit down talk in a little bit find out what their interests are in Freemasonry

And that way we can do it comes time to ballot on them you um you know who you’re balloting for yeah good point so brother I like to sit down at tables at stated meetings where there are prospects seated along with a couple more Masons and purposely direct the the

Conversation to just those kind of subjects that you’re talking about Jerry and uh get uh them involved in talking about that sort of thing with the not just myself but other other Masons that are that are in the lodge that’s that’s great if you can uh if you can do it absolutely

Uh brother Jeremy brother Roger um really just wanted to get your take on this process did you go through each of these steps step by step just like this uh were some of these do you guys go through the orientation I can’t recall if that was implemented or not before you guys were

Initiated uh what are your takes on this process is it accurate is it inaccurate can we improve can we change anything uh Jeremy can you go first yeah absolutely uh yeah all of the steps sound very familiar except the orientation uh we did not go through that and I remember

Thinking when I heard that you guys had created the orientation that that would be really good for the new candidates uh after we were getting settled uh for the EA uh degree work and proficiency preparation that was new to me like what I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting

Into and at the time there were six of us and as you know three drop at different points and I can’t help but wonder if that was part of it they they also weren’t aware of what how much time commitment or what the time commitment would look like as far as the

Memorization and the proficiency work uh maybe they did have an idea but I know uh I didn’t and even in the beginning I was skeptical that I’m like how you know this is this sounds really difficult how am I going to do this but uh I just trusted the process and the

Process worked out um so I’m glad that the orientation is there for new members but overall I think I mean I remember when I first uh sent the email and you know Brad Drew uh answered my email and my call and uh invited me to the lodge

And he was very welcoming so all of the other process was was very smooth and well organized and I think it created a good filter because you know he communicated that I needed to come three or more times before petitioning and I think that helps create a process where only people that

Are serious are going to take that next step um and and yeah that’s great great appreciate your feedback that’s that’s great Roger can you hear me brother yes sorry about my lighting there’s a remote here that I can’t find get my light on but um I remember it as Jeremy did we

Did have a q a that I think was very valuable but um you know maybe maybe not so much going through it but but certainly looking back a lodge that’s going to spend a year with you as you guys did with me before even allowing me to knock on the door

Shows how much you value that next person and if you’re going to spend that much time you know obviously the Knights of instruction Jerry this was a fantastic presentation because the breakdown through there I think is uh something that um you know is is very accurate and it’s the second time I’ve

Heard it and I think it it does reflect on where our lives is maybe the orientation is a new Step that uh we didn’t have in the last couple years but we did have a lot of questions and answers and I I did personally feel very

Valued by The Lodge as someone that was interested in masonry because I knew that my time there was was being respected in terms of people willing to sit down and spend extra time make sure it was right that’s great that’s great you know we spoke about

This one at our last class I think about how you guys will be in that position at some point guarding the west gate as well uh should you become officers so great um a few more questions and then we’ll proceed to to wind things up worst

Brother Dan I wanted to get your your input if you don’t mind on a few things and first I want to set it up because a month ago we had the festival in conference and Jerry you were investigated by the William o’ware Lodge of research and that investigation

Probably took 30 to 30 minutes to an hour at least now maybe you guys were just having some fun because you knew each other but that looked like a pretty serious investigation and you’re already a masturbation looking to join William will wear a lot of research so I’m

Curious if you could just give us your perspective of that investigation as already being amazed and then maybe Dan uh uh bring it around full circle to just talk about William o’ware and how that research Lodge handles their processes a little bit yeah well sure uh yeah it was a serious investigation

Um some of the questions asked were the same questions that I was asked when I was petitioning Lexington number one uh why do you want to be a member of William o’ware um but but you know yeah we’re we’re all Brothers uh but um the same questions were asked and some additional questions

Um William aware being a launch of research um but uh um ultimately I was I was accepted so that’s good news hope to attend my first meeting in November yeah great thank you uh Dan just wanted to get a perspective from a research Lodge um obviously to be a member of

The laws of research you must be a Master Mason a good standing in another Lodge but um we have the same level of concerns uh Hey will the individual be a good fit uh can you be a part of the mix and uh and

B is he willing to commit the time to uh to the laws of research we have no interest in uh in adding men who are just going to be a name on the list uh if if someone wants to be a member of the larger research we want to know that

That he’s willing to commit to the process and actually participate in the in the work of the lodge of research uh and since you’ve been kind enough to give me the floor I’m going to talk about the larger research for just a moment if you don’t mind because I think

There’s something that that is relevant to this conversation William aware laws of research has an ongoing project called voices of Freemasonry and we have just wrapped up the seventh edition of that and uh the results of that are available can be seen can be viewed on the uh William

Aware website which is William aware logicresearch.com uh this particular project is a series of 10 question questionnaires and in the most recent Edition that went out one of the questions was how can a lodge best guard its west gate and there are there are two things that occurred in that particular

Questionnaire in that series of responses that I’d like to just bring to the attention of this group this evening uh and I think they’re both very significant and I think they complement what what brother Jerry’s been talking about here um and I will say that um that that this issue of guarding the

Westgate is critical uh it’s certainly one that that should have our complete attention and I commend brother Jerry for such a detailed um approach to uh the the west gate but we had about uh between 45 and 50 men who responded to this particular survey and somewhere between seven to ten of

Those didn’t have any idea what we were talking about when we posed the question how do you best guard the Westgate so we have to be careful uh in taking for granted that people know what we’re talking about when when we use the phrase guard the west gate and when we

Are teaching the importance of screening and vetting men for membership and Freemasonry we need to be sure that that our membership knows in fact what we’re talking about that’s a particularly disturbing fact to me for this reason those questionnaires don’t go to passive members of Freemasonry they go to

Um to the more active and engaged members and if we’ve got a significant number of those men who don’t understand what the phrase guarding the west gate means uh it’s not for us to step back and look at what we are teaching uh in general and across the border

And the other uh the other response that I received came from a man named John Cooper a well-known Freemason a past Grand Master of California noted Masonic author uh who basically made the comment you can’t guard the west gate if you don’t know what Freemasonry is and I think that is uh

Absolutely on point and if we aren’t diligent in teaching what Freemasonry is and as brother Jerry alluded teaching what Freemasonry is not it’s impossible for us to successfully guard the west gate so those are two things that um that are included in the latest edition of voices of Freemasonry there

Are a lot of other responses that you might find interesting particularly with respect regarding the Westgate so that information is out there and available and I think it’s a nice compliment to the presentation that we’ve had this evening thank you thank you brother well for the sake of time let’s begin to

Rack this up Jerry any final comments or thoughts you want to add regarding your presentation I just want to thank everybody again for attending and uh thanks for the opportunity to present excellent thank you brother really enjoyed it as usual well Brothers Let’s proceed to uh close

Out the evening uh next month our presenter will be worship brother Alan Martin and his presentation topic will be the continued decline of American Freemasonry cause and effect uh worst brother Allen would you give us maybe a 60-second soapbox pitch about what we can expect next month would you mind oh absolutely

Um I’m gonna present my perspective on what I believe to be the um fundamental uh influential cause the that spearheaded the decline of Freemasonry over the past six decades and we’ll discuss again Guardian the west gate Jerry excellent presentation tonight I will give eight uh seven to eight reasons uh well I believe

Freemasonry will continue to decline um over the next seven years and well into the 2030s I’ve also give an opposing um six to seven maybe eight reasons why the fraternity will continue to survive even though we will realize a significant decline over the next seven years and what the fraternity will will look

Like after that decline seems to um remove those that are uninterested in in our membership roles so it will be about errors of the past how they’ve influenced what we’re doing today and how what we’re doing today will continue to lead to further decline of our fraternity

Great look forward to it very much that meeting again is October 23rd Monday 7 PM Eastern uh for those of you that were able to join us we recently had a festival board and Conference and there’s been many requests for the photos of that event and you can go to rubiconmasonic

Society.com photos and on that page you’ll be able to click a link to take you to the photos of the festive board and just wanted to get the input of uh one of our brothers Jeremiah beaver I believe that was your first festive board just any any thoughts about it you

Want to share can you hear me yes um hi uh Jeremiah Bieber newly raised Master Mason Broad Ripple number 643 in Indianapolis Indiana um it was excellent I I didn’t know I didn’t know anybody there but I knew I’ve watched the Rubicon a lot of these

Lectures on YouTube so this is my first live one um but then I heard about it and I’m really interested in especially Indiana Masonic history and of course um brother Hodapp and Dwight Smith and um you know just the caliber of speakers there I was something I was oh I have to

Have to go to this and I did and it was it was wonderful it was um informative and you shed a lot of light on on author some some offers authors that were being discussed I was well aware of some I had no idea who they were um

But I really got a lot out of it I appreciate the attention and attention to detail and effort that went into it and the audio and video visual elements in production um yeah it was excellent oh and thank you for having um uh books thanks for having the books there to buy

Because a lot of that well transactions was brand new so I grabbed that and um um the kind of uh you know fancy edition of um of brother hammers observing the craft things like that so I I uh spent spent a little bit too much money but that was okay and um

Yes it was excellent and wonderful and I’ll I’ll be there next year thank you it was great to meet you great to see you look forward to next year and on that note for anybody that wasn’t able to attend we did uh record the production we are working on uh an

Edited piece of that uh for sale and we will let you know when that is completed also the transactions as were just mentioned are finally available they’re out available for purchase you can go to Amazon and search Rubicon transactions or you can go to rubiconmasonic society.com transactions and we’ll get

You the link there as well uh buy a bunch of copies because all of it goes to Rubicon which is a non-profit organization works for the biz act would you give a brief um a snippet about our friends the Philadelphia Society please Society was founded in 1928 and today

It’s an international Masonic research society and the oldest independent Masonic research Society in North America it was started to serve the needs of those who saw a deeper insight into our history our rituals and symbols as well as just spreading Masonic light you can learn more about fidelate these

By following the link that’s on the screen and I’ll post that link uh this evening before we sign off and if you have any questions please get in touch with me thank you thank you first brother uh Brother David Cricket will you have VHS copies absolutely not uh and on that topic

Uh if you do want to spend more money with Rubicon we will happily accept it again it goes to our non-profit organization the Masonic table is a documentary uh go check it out if you haven’t already and those Circle discs are available as well if you need one

And if you are feeling charitable as well uh please feel free to donate Rubicon Masonic society.com donate comments from anyone on the floor before we proceed to close I’ll make one Jerry thank you outstanding really appreciate your time uh every time I hear this presentation I

Get something else out of it so this is extremely important topic thank you thank you brother and worship brother Chaplin would you please do the honors of delivering a closing devotion yeah absolutely Grant architect of the universe as we now prepare to close our time together this evening we pray that you will

And do us with the competency of your Divine wisdom that we may be better and able to conduct Our Lives as just an upright animations we asked you got our thoughts and actions fortifying every moral virtue within us grantiness of the necessary strength and wisdom and courage as we Endeavor to

Work for your great purposes through masonry these things we ask in your holy name amen promoted me to be Brothers thank you all for joining us meeting is uh not September 25th 2023 it’s October 23rd 7 P.M Eastern Time RSVP at rubiconmasonic society.com RSVP no need to resign up or RSVP if

You’re already on the list you’ll get a link brothers thanks for uh recharging my batteries once a month with Freemasonry and I hope that the Rubicon Masonic Society continues to recharge yours so appreciate what you do for our great fraternity have a great night we’ll see you soon

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