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Interested in Brothers thoughts on opening membership to 18 year olds.

Symthrell

Symthrell

Registered User
I have heard that some states (perhaps the number is 36) allow men as young as 18 to petition to join the Masons. I would be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this and if your lodge has had any 18 year olds petition did they progress through and stay or how has their participation rate been?

I know when I was 18 I was only interested in two things, dating women and partying! Join the Masons would have been the last thing on my mind!

Thoughts??
 
Ripcord22A

Ripcord22A

Site Benefactor
My home jurisdiction allows 18. Don't know any one who joined at 18 but I don't see a problem with it. It would mainly be DeMolays and Lewis' that would join that early


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CLewey44

CLewey44

Registered User
I don't see any problem with it except the fact that I would be hard-pressed to find an 18 year old 'kid' ready and able to take that on. But, if they can afford it,commit themselves to the learning and stay focused, so mote it be. We let guys sign up to join the military at 17 or 18. Masonry, as much as I love it, is nowhere near as serious an endeavor as enlisting in the military.
 
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David612

Registered User
Here in Australia 18 is the age of adulthood so you can drink, marry, fight for your country, vote and join freemasonry.
For me personally I didn’t look into masonry until a decade later however I do regret not getting into it earlier but I didn’t follow the standard young guy drinking, clubbing and womanising path, no judgment of course but that just wasn’t me.
 
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David Duke

Premium Member
In Texas 18 is allowed and I have no problem with that but would like to give share what I have observed.

First remember that I am working from my feeble memory! In the past 10 years we have had approximately 10-15 candidates under the age of 20 of those I think only 3-4 have made it to MM status and none are active at this time. All of these young men are fine individuals (including the ones who are not MM) I just personally feel that men of this age have too many things happening in their lives to commit the time necessary. Hopefully as they get older they will return.

As a comparison those 30+ are showing about a 65%-75% completion rate and are remaining somewhat active.


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goomba

goomba

Neo-Antient
Site Benefactor
In either 2014 or 2015 this came up in Alabama and was voted down. I spoke on the grand lodge floor in favor of lowering the age. The majority of the people (obviously) were not in favor of it and the first speaker said basically when he was 18 we wasn't ready and he would have tarnished the fraternities name.

When I spoke I started with "When I was 18 I joined the US Army. When I was 19 I married my wife and we are still together today. I am aware some some are not ready to become Freemasons at 18. However, some are.

Regardless of this the fact is over 30 grand lodges in the Untied States have the age to join at 18. Has their lodges and grand lodges been harmed by allowing adults to become members? Our concerns have already been addressed and we should lower our age."

I still stand believe that today.
 
Matt L

Matt L

Site Benefactor
I raised two 18 year olds as Master. One was my son, who asked me for a petition right after his Birthday party. He is currently the Junior Deacon of his lodge, a plural member of another closer to his university. He is also a lecture card holder. The 2nd is a L/CPL in the Marine Corps stationed in California. We keep in touch. He can't do much, because we (TN) are still clandestine in California. My feeling is, if you're old enough to fight and die for your country, you should be able to petition for membership. Let the investigating committee decide if the person is mature enough.
 
CLewey44

CLewey44

Registered User
Matt L said:
I raised two 18 year olds as Master. One was my son, who asked me for a petition right after his Birthday party. He is currently the Junior Deacon of his lodge, a plural member of another closer to his university. He is also a lecture card holder. The 2nd is a L/CPL in the Marine Corps stationed in California. We keep in touch. He can't do much, because we (TN) are still clandestine in California. My feeling is, if you're old enough to fight and die for your country, you should be able to petition for membership. Let the investigating committee decide if the person is mature enough.
Click to expand...

Is this in regards to some GLs not recognizing others based on decisions made to not allow gay guys or something like that? Sorry off subject but just curious.
 
MarkR

MarkR

Premium Member
We've initiated a few under 21. We're a university town, and they were students. They remained active while at school at about the same rate as other new members, but after graduation they moved away. I know that a couple have remained active, but don't know about all of them. In fact, I was contacted by one just the other day who's currently living overseas, but wanted to know how to go about getting reinstated (NPD) for when he comes back, and to be able to visit lodges where he is now.
 
Bloke

Bloke

Premium Member
MarkR said:
We've initiated a few under 21. We're a university town, and they were students. They remained active while at school at about the same rate as other new members, but after graduation they moved away. I know that a couple have remained active, but don't know about all of them. In fact, I was contacted by one just the other day who's currently living overseas, but wanted to know how to go about getting reinstated (NPD) for when he comes back, and to be able to visit lodges where he is now.
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Where is he ?
 
Warrior1256

Warrior1256

Site Benefactor
Ripcord22A said:
My home jurisdiction allows 18. Don't know any one who joined at 18 but I don't see a problem with it. It would mainly be DeMolays and Lewis' that would join that early
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CLewey44 said:
I don't see any problem with it accept the fact that I would be hard-pressed to find an 18 year old 'kid' ready and able to take that on. But, if they can afford it,commit themselves to the learning and stay focused, so mote it be.
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Agreed.
goomba said:
Regardless of this the fact is over 30 grand lodges in the Untied States have the age to join at 18. Has their lodges and grand lodges been harmed by allowing adults to become members? Our concerns have already been addressed and we should lower our age."
Click to expand...
Agreed!

GL of Kentucky membership is 18.
 
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