Bringing DeMolay Thread back to life

Robert Birtch

DeMolay/Freemason
I do this for great justice, to bring back the DeMolay Thread. DeMolay is still alive, we just need to scream loud enough to be heard. So count this thread as my scream. I talk about DeMolay all the time, and every time, I'm usually made fun of because the name is French. The people in my town have a very dim view of anything relating to France, given that they think the only things in Frace are gays and cowards, so naturally they think the name of the order is the name of some gay, scared, dead, French dude. I was going to hyperlink to some unflattering definitions for Demolay on urbandictionary.com, but it seems that the unflattering definitions were removed.but when once I had brought it up, the guys I brought it up to didn't take it very seriously, so when they went to urbandictionary.com to look up Demolay, they were going there with the sole intent of mocking me, not to find information, which I found rather insulting.
 

Ironhawg

Member
I was a member of DeMolay in the early to late 70s. At the time it seemed to me to be a growing and vibrant organization. I moved the summer before my senior year in high school and did not reconnect with DeMolay. I began thinking about DeMolay about the same time I began considering petitioning the lodge. My memories of DeMolay are very positive. It had a huge impact on my life. I was truly shocked to see how far membership in DeMolay has fallen across the country.
I don't know what the answer to saving DeMolay is, but I believe it is worth saving. My lodge is looking at possibly sponsoring a chapter. I hope more Masons will investigate DeMolay and consider helping t his very worthwhile organization.
 

Robert Birtch

DeMolay/Freemason
I was a member of DeMolay in the early to late 70s. At the time it seemed to me to be a growing and vibrant organization. I moved the summer before my senior year in high school and did not reconnect with DeMolay. I began thinking about DeMolay about the same time I began considering petitioning the lodge. My memories of DeMolay are very positive. It had a huge impact on my life. I was truly shocked to see how far membership in DeMolay has fallen across the country.
I don't know what the answer to saving DeMolay is, but I believe it is worth saving. My lodge is looking at possibly sponsoring a chapter. I hope more Masons will investigate DeMolay and consider helping t his very worthwhile organization.
Thank you, my brother. Demolay IS worth saving. In my home Lodge, they have tried many times to get a Chapter started, but sadly it seems like the support is just not there.
 

Ironhawg

Member
Thank you, my brother. Demolay IS worth saving. In my home Lodge, they have tried many times to get a Chapter started, but sadly it seems like the support is just not there.
I am a little concerned about the effort to bring a chapter to our lodge. First, I don't think anyone understands how much time and effort sponsoring a chapter will take. It worries me that we will sponsor a chapter but not get the needed support. Second, our lodge membership is getting older. I am concerned the older members may not support sponsoring a DeMolay chapter. Third, we are not exactly a rich lodge and there will be a considerable expense in sponsoring. We are having a Saturday training day soon to get some of our questions and concerns addressed by DeMolay.
 

PatrickWilliams

I could tell you ...
I am a little concerned about the effort to bring a chapter to our lodge. First, I don't think anyone understands how much time and effort sponsoring a chapter will take. It worries me that we will sponsor a chapter but not get the needed support. Second, our lodge membership is getting older. I am concerned the older members may not support sponsoring a DeMolay chapter. Third, we are not exactly a rich lodge and there will be a considerable expense in sponsoring. We are having a Saturday training day soon to get some of our questions and concerns addressed by DeMolay.
Let us know how the meeting goes! Now, for the advertisement: my little Lodge sponsors a DeMolay chapter. It has paid off for us, in spades! I can think of at least a dozen members who either were DeMolay, are DeMolay (not yet 21!), or joined the Lodge because their sons were DeMolay and they were impressed. Even a poor Lodge can sponsor a DeMolay chapter - contact DeMolay International and they will have one of the regional reps get in touch with you!
 
We sponsored a chapter about 2, maybe 3 years ago, after about 20 years without. Still small, but building, and a great bunch of boys.{They also make great kitchen and wait staff, and work on the cheap :)}
 

Robert Birtch

DeMolay/Freemason
My chapter has thrown down a challenge to the men of Minerva Lodge in Miamisburg, to a bowling game. We'll show 'em what we can do!
 

Robert Birtch

DeMolay/Freemason
I think one of the things that I've noticed about DeMolay is that we just don't have the notoriety and resources that Freemasonry has. Another thing is that, with the changes in the way "normal" society does things, DeMolay just doesn't seem very relevant:( . I mean, Freemasonry has Dan Brown, and a slew of conspiracy theories that while painting them in a negative light, have actually been positive for membership. Compared to that, nobody has any idea what DeMolay is. I have once worn a DeMolay shirt to school, and I was teased because they though I belonged to a "Devil-Cult". I calmly gave them the facts, and still I was teased. I don't much like that when ever someone first discovers the existence of something, their immediate reaction is fear. :/I still wear my DeMolay shirts, and stopped caring what "they" said.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
Well , kids can be silly and immature , even seniors in high school who should know better , so i would not think much about that .

I was in FFA (Future Farmers of America) and we were all teased relentlessly for that . Most all of us in it were hard working farm boys and proud of it so we didn't let it bother us , the ones doing the teasing were kids from the suburbs and wouldn't have known a hard days work if it jumped up and bit them on the butt . If they had to do the work we did when we got home from school before we could relax and have fun , they would have been crying the blues .
 

Robert Birtch

DeMolay/Freemason
Yeah, but still. If DeMolay had the kind of notoriety and press attention that Freemasonry gets, along with the resources, DeMolay could be very popular.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
I know in my area it may stem from the reason that there is just not that many of them . I know long time Master Masons who do not know much or anything at all about DeMolay .

The only thing I can think to do is for DeMoaly to get their name out there . Have them go to Lodges who do not have Demolay and give a talk about it , and maybe the Master Masons can get their own sons to join . I am not now nor have ever had anything to do with Demolay , but after I visited the Lodge who allows the Demolay to meet in their lodge , I talked to my neighbor boys about it and some of them became members .

It is a lack of knowledge , from Masons and non-Masons alike . As the old saying goes , "out of sight , out of mind" and we just do not give them any thought in most of our lodges in my area because there is only one Chapter (or whatever you call it) in my district .
 

johnj1582

New Member
I think Ashlar's got a good point. Perhaps if a small group of DeMolays were to go around and put on presentations for different lodges, we might be able to wrangle a few new chapters or at least adult volunteers and petitioners out of it.

Maybe a presentation with the Ceremony of Light or with the Flower Talk would be a good start.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
I borrowed (at the the time) a presentation on VHS that I let my friend's sons watch that helped out a lot in their making a decision to join . I really borrowed it for myself because I knew nothing about the DeMolay and wanted to learn more , but it really turned those young men on to it .

But you are right John , they need to get out there and talk to the lodges and OES Chapters and spread the word . I was serious about what I said before , many Masons know nothing about them , except that they send out a letter once year asking us to buy ad space in their magazine/program (whatever it is) and this is what the Masons in my lodge know of them , a youth group wanting money once a year . If they came out and told us about their goals , what they do and what they are all about it may just generate some buzz .
 

Steev

New Member
In my experience DeMolay needs one thing more than anything else: Advisors who insist that the chapter be operated for the benefit of the members. In my DeMolay Chapter in Ohio in the 1970's we had some good advisors bust most wanted the DeMolay chapter and its activities to be clones of the more boring sort of adult organizations. Where I live now, there is a thriving and growing chapter, and it survived the 70's, 80's, 90's and, er, "oughts," because the advisors realized that the way to success was by having a club that would be interesting to teen boys.

This chapter, like all the better DeMolay chapters I've ever seen, is well and responsibly run, routinely turns out young men whose parents are proud of them, and (Masons take note) typically does ritual much better (MUCH BETTER) than your typical masonic lodge.
 

Ironhawg

Member
We had our advisor training last Saturday. It was well worth the time and effort to me. I was disappointed that we had nine people sign up and only four showed. It looks like we are on the way to re-establishing a DeMolay chapter after about a thirty year absence.
 
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