A reflection on "Dad" Land by "Dad" Ricarte Abejuela III

A Reflection on "Dad" Land by "Dad" Ricarte Abejuela III

"To become big, we must be big" -- Dad Frank S. Land

In commemoration of Frank S. Land Day, I would like to focus on this important quote of Dad Land. As a brief background, this important piece of advice from Dad Land came on the heels of a meeting conducted in Mother Chapter several months after the Order was founded in 1919 when membership began to grow from the initial nine boys to thirty one. Membership continued to grow and the boys feared that they were growing into "too large a Club", thus someone proposed that membership should be limited to only seventy five (75). During the official meeting, the motion was quickly received, moved, seconded, and adopted. It was only then that Dad Land stood up to speak and admonished the boys that they were being selfish and that if DeMolay was good for one boy, it must be good for all the eligible boys. It was then that he reminded all that "to become big, they must be big." The motion was automatically rescinded and DeMolay was permitted to grow and develop. Today, a century hence, the Order of DeMolay is present in at least 25 countries and territories worldwide, and counting.

Based on the current membership statistics from DeMolay International, there are (as of today) currently 15,362 active members in 552 active chapters under the jurisdiction of DeMolay International. This does not count the members and chapters in the four other independent jurisdictions of DeMolay: Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the Philippines. However, also based on the statistics coming from DeMolay International, there are also a total of 138 chapters that are recently inactive and a whopping 4,003 chapters who have forfeited their charters due to loss of membership! Yes, you saw that right: four thousand and three lost chapters! Furthermore, for 2019, there is an estimated negative growth due to the new members coming in are fewer than those that the Order will lose due to reaching the age of majority. A net loss in membership growth, at our centennial year at that!

This brings me now to briefly discuss the duty of every member of the Order. We are taught that our first duty is to get involved; to jump in with both feet and to share the DeMolay experience with other deserving young men. The importance of recruitment cannot be ignored since the Order of DeMolay's active membership is limited to young men who fall within the age range of 12-21 years old. Thus, we must keep recruiting new members to replace those who move on and who have exchanged the crown of youth with the crown of manhood. That is why it has always been a goal that every DeMolay should recruit at least two new members - one for replacement, and one for growth - within the first year of your membership. (emphasis mine)

We must not rest on our laurels but continue to heed Dad Land's important words: to introduce DeMolay to other worthy boys, and continue to become big. Despite all the challenges we currently face with our society, the Order will continue to thrive as long as we believe that we have something worthwhile to contribute to today's young men. And believe me, we do. Let us not only be proud to be members of this wonderful Order but we should strive to pass membership to our friends. Let’s go out and continue to recruit worthy young men!

I end this short essay paraphrasing the wise words from the Ceremony of Light: that each of us as a DeMolay, holds within our hearts a flame, a beacon to guide us through the darkness. We should not only make this light shine upon another, but we must endeavor to reach into the innermost depths of his soul and set his flame afire, for therein lies the purpose of the Order of DeMolay. and therein lies our purpose for living.

Best fraternal regards, "Dad" Ricarte Abejuela III

Frank S. Land Day is Tomorrow!

Frank S. Land Day is Tomorrow!

 
Sixty years ago, "Dad" Frank Sherman Land died. DeMolay Chapters around the world are planning observances and events in honor of this amazing man. At the age of 28 his bold vision gave rise to the youth serving organization we all know and love.

As a reminder this is an obligatory day for our chapters to obeserve and we would love to hear what you are doing to honor the memory of "Dad" Land!

Across the world, Chevaliers will break bread together and rededicate themselves to three fold purpose of DeMolay, Love of God, Love of Home and Love of Country.

I am excited to see that there are at least three planned observances in our Great State:
Yahnundasis Court on 11/8/2019
Metro Region Court of Chevaliers on 11/8/2019
Hudson Valley Court of Chevaliers on 11/10/2019
Others will be doing observances individually to honor their obligations.

If you do not have a court near you and are interested in forming one let us know.  At a minimum we are asking that you have 10 Chevaliers who are willing to commit to being part of the court and supporting its mission!

We would love to see pictures and photos, feel free to send them into me at pwbrusoe@gmail.com and we'll get them posted.



In addition, we are asking each court to file a report with New York DeMolay on their actions and activities.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I34GKHg-IeYl2ml2m0K6VUw60NVSIO3e

7th Cardinal Virtue Alert or Go Vote Young Man!

When the 7th Preceptor explains the virtue of patriotism, he speaks about the value of good citizenship and how every day we can be good patriots.Brothers, November 5th 2019 is a great day to be a good citizen! 

Today across the Great State of New York polls are open from 6AM to 9PM to allow voters to cast their ballots.  Many of these elections are for offices at the municipal and county level which have a huge impact on your daily lives while others are for the judiciary which has long lasting impacts on our lives.

If you are not registered to vote and you otherwise meet the qualifications to vote, please take the time today to register to vote. You can find the directions here:  https://www.elections.ny.gov/VotingRegister.html If you are too young to legally vote, take some time today to ask an older person why they voted and why voting is important to them.  Please do not ask them who they voted for or support, that is impolite. As a reminder: there is no place in DeMolay for partisan politics. 

For all of us, take time today to read the 7th Cardinal Virtue and think about how it speaks to you and how you can live it. If you're an active DeMolay and you don't have a printed version of the ritual, let us know. We'll get you one.

I want to share three other ideas with you briefly:

1. DeMolay prepares you for good citizenship by allowing you to vote:  Political Scientists have shown that the more often you do something the more small d democratic you become. For many young people the only time they vote is in the yearly school elections. In DeMolay we vote on something every month, be it spending money, ordering pizzas, or doing a social event. Each time you vote in your chapter you are building up what is termed as "social capital." So yes, today you are voting between ordering pepperoni on your pizza or pineapple, but in a few short years you will be voting on who occupies the governor's mansion in our majestic Capital of Albany.

2. September 1971 was history setting for DeMolay!

In September 1971, Active DeMolays were able to vote in public elections for the first time in history. For over half of DeMolay's history DeMolays were too young to vote. On July 1, 1971 when North Carolina ratified the 26th Amendment 18 year olds could now vote: "The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age."  As a point of pride,  the Speaker of the House at the time was Senior DeMolay Carl Albert from Oklahoma.  Though the next time you see brothers from Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, or Utah ask them why their state never ratified the amendment. 

3. The DeMolay Ritual has Changed! You have probably heard "The DeMolay Ritual is the same as it has been since 1919." That's not accurate there have been a number of changes through the years. One of them relates to how we talk about patriotism. We used to say of the blessings that we *will* enjoy, it was modified to its current version to speak of the blessing which we *now* enjoy. Think about all of the great blessings we enjoy living in the United States and our Great State of New York. Excelsior!

New MATOC non-voting appointments

DeMolay International groups jurisdictions into Regions for administrative ease.

Our Great State of New York, is grouped with the Great State of New Jersey, the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Great State of Delaware, The Great State of Maryland including the federal colony, and the Great Commonwealth of Virginia. Collectively the form Region II. When I was a youth we used to say "Region II: Second to None." As an adult, we know that's still true.

Our Region hosts an annual ritual tournament called the Mid-Atlantic Tournament of Champions and is supervised by a board of directors consisting of Active DeMolays and advisors.  In our jurisdiction Brother Gavin J. of Ridge Council serves as our youth voting rep and "Dad" Craig Riha serves as our adult voting representative. I want to thank them for all of the hard work they have been doing.

MATOC also allows non-voting members to advise, guide, but not to vote.  Using that option, I have designated State Master Councilor Altman, Deputy State Master Councilor Jordan as non-voting youth reps, and "Dad" Perry, "Dad" Schoonmaker and "Dad" Hurkala as non-voting members.

I hope and trust they will ensure the MATOC Tournament Director is doing his job correctly, but also learning about how MATOC works and making sure it is the best ritual tournament it can be.

“How did failure contribute to my success?".... and help me win $1,500

Did the headline capture your attention? 

Have some thoughts on it?

Can you write 250-350 words on it?

Each year, the Grand Lodge of New York sponsors an essay contest for graduating high school seniors and this year's theme is "How did failure contribute to my success?"
You can read the full information here:
https://nymasons.org/site/masonic-youth-contest-and-awards/


I did ask RW Br. Cary Cohn and our Masonic Youth are part of the extended family and the sponsoring body of your Chapter can act as the sponsor of the essay.

The prizes range from $1,500 for first place down to $100 for 10th place. This means each word you write is worth between $4.28 to 3.5 cents depending on how you place.

I would love to see a DeMolay or Sweetheart win this year's contest!

Thank you to RW Br. Cohn and his committee, the Fifth Manhattan District Endowment Fund, Inc. for sponsoring it, and of course our amazing Grand Lodge!

Working Groups

Working Groups

As we look at what we do in New York DeMolay, we want to take stock of where we are going and where we are heading.  To help in this process, I am pleased to announce the creation of several different working groups spearheaded by advisors that will be addressing a number of different issues. 

Ritual Working Group: I have asked “Dad” Riha, Director of Ritual, and our assistant directors of ritual “Dad” Perry, “Dad” Schoonmaker, and “Dad” Hurkala to work with three appointees of our State Master Councilor to look at the state of our ritual program, examine ways we can make it better and develop a standardized obligation card policy for our state. 

Alumni Working Group: I have asked “Dad” Bob Siebold, Director of Alumni Affairs to form a group to look at the state of our alumni program and ways we can better engage and involve our alumni.

Parental and Family Engagement Working Group: I have asked “Mom” Celentano to spearhead and form a parental and family engagement working group. This will help us see how we can better engage with our parents and families of our DeMolays.

Medical and Safety Working Group: I have asked  “Dad” Truebger, “Dad” Stephen Romano,  “Dad” Michael Leonard, and “Dad” Nicholas Portera to think through medical releases and safety issues and come back to us with best practices. 

Bullying Prevention Working Group:  I have asked “Dad” Justin Cook to form up a group to look at issues related to bullying and how we can make sure we are leading in the prevention of bullying.

Sweetheart Working Group:  I have asked “Mom” Stephanie Cook to form a working group looking at how DeMolay can best serve the young ladies who are involved with our program.

I look forward to what these working groups will produce and sharing the fruits of their labors with you.  In the future as we look at other parts of our programs we will be adding other working groups! 

New Staff Appointments

 As I have shared with many of you our goal is to provide a program where young men and young women feel empowered to run activities and programs that embrace the DeMolay values while being fun and enjoyable to the youth of today, yet at the same time are challenged to grow their skill sets through the mentorship and support of caring adult volunteers.
 To do this New York DeMolay will

i.                    Create a culture where the young men and ladies are actively listened to and consulted at every level of the organization

ii.                    Provide leadership and training opportunities for young men, young ladies and their adult mentors to grow their skillsets 

III.                    Grow both the number of young men involved in the program and the number of chapters.

IV.                    Strengthen our existing chapters and programs. 

V.                    Grow our advisor ranks by reaching out to our alumni and finding places that we can engage them where they find value and meaning behind their work

VI               Promote the programs and activities of DeMolay International 

VII                  Partner actively with our Grand Lodge promoting applicable programs of the Grand Master and the Grand Lodge

VIII Partner actively with our sisters in Rainbow and Triangle

These are some pretty high goals, but luckily we have the talent and resources in the Empire State to make it happen.  From time to time I am going to announce the appointments of new staff as well as some new roles for existing staff.

Director of Parent and Family Engagement:  “Mom” Maura Celentano. Family involvement in DeMolay is critical to what we do. “Mom” Celentano is an active DeMolay advisor, and the proud mom of two of the hardest working DeMolays I knew, Michael and David. She has also done an OMGAMAZING job with the hospitality suite every year. 

We want to make sure that parents and family are welcomed, involved and informed about DeMolay.  Many years ago in a state far far away from here, I was sitting in a diner with a couple of other state officers and our advisor. We were rocking our DeMolay polos and the waitress said “DeMolay what’s that?” We gave her the information and she said “Oh, is that like sponsored by the Masons? I think my son belongs to that.” Later, it turns out the son was a councilor for the local chapter, but she never knew what they were doing or where they were going.  Let's make sure that doesn’t happen in our state.

Director of Higher Education and Career Opportunity: “Dad” Brad DeSantos. “Dad” DeSantos is a senior DeMolay from Colonial Chapter, and a past Hudson Valley Division Councilor and one of the hardest working educators I know. He has been honored with the Chevalier and the Legion of Honor. He graduated from the College of St. Rose and Johns Hopkins University. 

Our goal in DeMolay is to prepare youth for the future.  For some youth this means attending university or college. For other youth this means learning a trade, while there are some youth that do not know what they want to do yet. Regardless of what field you wish to enter we want to support your goals and make this happen. “Dad” DeSantos will be a resource for young men who may need help looking at colleges or applying to colleges, or looking for an alumni resource for a person who is in a field of interest, or pushing and promoting Masonic scholarship programs.

Director of Winterfest: “Dad” Eric Evarts. “Dad” Evarts is a Past State Master Councilor of Connecticut DeMolay, and an Honorary Member of the Supreme Council.  Winterfest is a big event for us and we are thinking through some ideas on how to make it different this year.  The plans and ideas are large enough that we want to make sure we are not taking people away from their other responsibilities. 

Director of Communications: “Dad” Anthony Cucci. We need to share and communicate ideas with people. “Dad” Cucci has extensive experience in communications and communication strategy.

Assistant State Chapter Advisors: “Dad” Tom Perry and “Dad” Peter Stokke Jr. have agreed to take on the role of Assistant State Chapter Advisors.  Both are Past State Master Councilors and have been there and “walked the walk” and “talked the talk.” They have already been helping our State Chapter Dad/Advisor “Dad” Jeph Dais.

Assistant Directors of Ritual: “Dad” Tom Perry, “Dad” Jack Schoonmaker and “Dad” Phillip Hurkala. Our ritual is an important part of the DeMolay experience. Our state is far too vast to be able to expect one person to do it all.  Looking at the best practices of not only our Grand Lodge but all of our concordant bodies, each has a Grand Lecturer and AGLs to help them, so we are adding Assistant Directors of Ritual.  These three advisors are resources for your chapter ritual advisor as well as traveling around and helping to coach and improve ritual.  Ritual is a journey and it needs to be a fun and exciting one. I am excited about this trio. “Dad” Perry and “Dad” Hurkala have a background in education that will help with learning and both were talented ritualists as active DeMolays. “Dad” Hurkala has competed several times at MATOC, winning at the Champion Level and is now a certified MATOC judge. “Dad” Schoonmaker has the experience of working with a chapter. All three of them, together with “Dad” Riha will form a potent ritual group. 

Director of the DASH (DeMolay Access to Sustainable Haberdashery) Program:  We are bringing a clothes closet to New York DeMolay and I am glad to share that “Mom” Anne Draves has agreed to spearhead this.

I want to thank each and every one of these adults for stepping forward and assuming new roles. 

In time we will be announcing other new appointments including a Director of Membership.  As always if you have ideas or suggestions please do not hesitate to let me know.