Raised on Monday

[Windrider]

Along with five Brothers, I was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason on Monday night. My sponsor presented me with an engraved pocket watch that says "my name; Master Mason; Brother, Friend; November 2010". It was an overwhelmingly wonderful evening.

Now I'm told there's nothing "free" about Freemasonry from now on. No more free meals and being sent to the front of the line

I'm meeting with a good friend on Saturday to get his petition filled out. Why waste time?

 

[Ashlar2006]

Congrats .

 

[removed12612]

Congrats brother

 

[Laxguy38922]

Congrats brother

 

[Gary]

Congrats brother!

 

[Winter]

Congratulations, Brother! Welcome to the journey!

Five Brothers in one night? Sheesh! What time did you start, what time did you get out of there! lol A MM degree takes a good two hours for us.

 

[Bob Franks]

Congratulations, Brother! Welcome to the journey!

Five Brothers in one night? Sheesh! What time did you start, what time did you get out of there! lol A MM degree takes a good two hours for us.

In NC, we can "Short Form" the first candidate(s), then the last candidate receives the "Full Form," observed by any earlier candidate.
For any degree, we can confer a degree on up to 5 candidates in one day, but no lodge can confer more than one degree per day. No "One-Day Masons," or "All Degree Days," (like I attended in MI in 2009) for us.

S&F

 

[Winter]

Out of curiosity, do any of the Brothers ever feel cheated or short-changed that they didn't recieve the full degree themselves?

Not bashing! lol, just wondering how the new Brothers might feel about the practice.

 

[Bob Franks]

Out of curiosity, do any of the Brothers ever feel cheated or short-changed that they didn't recieve the full degree themselves?

Not bashing! lol, just wondering how the new Brothers might feel about the practice.

I've never had any complaints.

S&F

 

[Gary]

Yep. All because they don't want the sidelines to start squirming. I think they should do separate degrees for each candidate if that's the case.

 

[Bob Franks]

Yep. All because they don't want the sidelines to start squirming. I think they should do separate degrees for each candidate if that's the case.

Golly! When I organized the MMD for the 3 candidates we Raised in October, it was like HERDING CATS to get the degree practices done! Can't imagine it 3 times. [whew!]

S&F

 

[Ashlar2006]

Never heard any complain , as a matter of fact they are glad we saved the youngest , healthiest for last .

 

[Custer148]

Congratulations Brother, now the fun begins.

 

[wolfbrau]

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, welcome to our most ancient and honorable Fraternity!!!

 

[Gary]

Golly! When I organized the MMD for the 3 candidates we Raised in October, it was like HERDING CATS to get the degree practices done! Can't imagine it 3 times. [whew!]

S&F

Nah, they don't complain... but what is understood need not be discussed. I just wish it was feasable to do more than one degree. It could be done on different days. Doing back to back long form would certainly be a long endeavor for those putting it on. Some Lodges (mine included) don't have that luxury though.

I certainly enjoyed my degree, and getting to watch the others (long form). I'm not complaining, I'm just of the opinion that short form is used more often for the sake of time than anything.

 

[Winter]

That's kind of an interesting way to handle multiple candidates.

My Lodge takes a much different approach. We have two meetings a month, with one being a stated communication and the other being a Brother's Night where friends and guests and potential candidates attend. That means only one meeting per month to confer degrees. (we don't do Special Communications)

Potential candidates usualy attend the Brother's nights for months prior to petitioning where we have a full meal and a presentation on many and varied subjects so the membership can get to know them.

On meeting nights when we are confering a degree, we only ever perform one degree for one candidate. That night is all about that candidate and their experience. After the degree, you guessed it, a full festive board. (Which is always held after every meeting, degrees or not.)

Degrees are scheduled months in advance sometimes but that is fime since we take a much slower approach with several months (or a year) between degrees.

It's always interesting to see the different manner that we all work!

 

[BG_TRBL]

Our lodge will do the short form, or compressed degree for multiple candidates for the 1st and 2nd degrees only. We insist on doing the full degree of the sublime degree of a MM for every candidate. We have done 3 3rds before in one night, and that makes for a long night. Luckily, our meetings at that time were on a Friday night, so it wasn't so rough getting out at 11:45pm that night.

 

[Custer148]

I was browsing the minutes of my dad's and grand-dad's home lodge and back in 1932 or 33 there was an entry for a MM degree, they did the long form for 3 brothers -- the degree including each lecture 3 different times that night. Start time 7:00 PM ended at 3:35 AM. This included a break for lunch(?) at 11:45 PM. That would have been brutal. This took place during the early spring before farming started.

 

[Windrider]

Out of curiosity, do any of the Brothers ever feel cheated or short-changed that they didn't recieve the full degree themselves?

Not bashing! lol, just wondering how the new Brothers might feel about the practice.

There were five other men raised with me. I was the fifth. The sixth got the "long form" while the other 5 watched. Personally, I appreciated both sides of it. I didn't feel cheated as I got to watch the full Ritual and got the highlights for myself.

 

[BG_TRBL]

I was browsing the minutes of my dad's and grand-dad's home lodge and back in 1932 or 33 there was an entry for a MM degree, they did the long form for 3 brothers -- the degree including each lecture 3 different times that night. Start time 7:00 PM ended at 3:35 AM. This included a break for lunch(?) at 11:45 PM. That would have been brutal. This took place during the early spring before farming started.

I'm surprised they had a break unless they had more than 5 receiving the degree. Our MM degrees typically last about 1hr 20min each. Not sure if that's the norm, but that would put us out at about 11:30-11:45pm for 3 degrees.