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Turning in Proficiency

Bro. A

Registered User
Greetings Brothers,
I would like your thoughts on this...
Two candidates are initiated on the same night. They are assigned an instructor to begin studying their work. Now it's time to turn in proficiency... Do you let them "tag team" in answering the questions or do you have them turn in their own proficiency one at a time?
 

acjohnson53

Registered User
Greetings Brothers,
I would like your thoughts on this...
Two candidates are initiated on the same night. They are assigned an instructor to begin studying their work. Now it's time to turn in proficiency... Do you let them "tag team" in answering the questions or do you have them turn in their own proficiency one at a time?

To keep it short and sweet I prefer the tag team, simply because they have been instructed by their mentor (normally)the Junior Warden...and if they are sharp...


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Bro. A

Registered User
To keep it short and sweet I prefer the tag team, simply because they have been instructed by their mentor (normally)the Junior Warden...and if they are sharp...
Respect your opinion my Brother but I would have to disagree with you. I see it like this... if you're going up for a promotion for work, you have to interview and answer questions on your own in order to get to that next level. It's a test on to see if you are "duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified"


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Schuetz

Registered User
An interesting idea would have one do the questions and the other answer, and then swap and start again. THAT would be some proficiency.

Quentin E. L. Schuetz, M.M.
Shekinah Lodge No. 241 • IL
Murphysboro Lodge No. 498 • IL
 

Bro. A

Registered User
An interesting idea would have one do the questions and the other answer, and then swap and start again. THAT would be some proficiency.

Quentin E. L. Schuetz, M.M.
Shekinah Lodge No. 241 • IL
Murphysboro Lodge No. 498

That would be more suitable my brother.
 

Garth H

Registered User
They have to learn the whole things regardless, as our instructor instructed my partner and I, we didn’t know who was going first until we sat down in that chair and he would then look at whoever was going to get the first question, from there you then have to know what questions you’ll be responsible for, yeah you’re doing “half the work” but you still have to know all the knowledge of the entire proficiency.


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CLewey44

Registered User
Greetings Brothers,
I would like your thoughts on this...
Two candidates are initiated on the same night. They are assigned an instructor to begin studying their work. Now it's time to turn in proficiency... Do you let them "tag team" in answering the questions or do you have them turn in their own proficiency one at a time?

Typically it's one on one, but one of my degrees (EA I believe) was done in that manner. We were very proficient in it and both had to do the 'ftm prm and swr' individually. With that being said, I think it should pretty much always be done one-on-one but the only perk of doing it double time would be if you had two, three or especially four FCs showing up on the same night and then the members having to sit there for an extra 30 mins to an hour listening to the cat lecture. Does that make it acceptable, not really and again, I agree it should be one-on-one.

The biggest issues I see with proficiency/categorical lecture is not the above mentioned but more of the fact that pretty much no matter what, a guys is basically 100% of the time voted proficient. I've never seen anyone get voted down no matter how terrible or painful it was to sit there and listen to. Everyone makes mistakes and should not be expected perfection but I've seen guys get prompted and basically repeat back everything the questioner was saying to then ultimately getting voted as 'proficient'. I guess proficient in parroting. People are afraid to be the bearer of bad news or make a decision that effects others like saying 'you can't progress within the Craft'. It's a tough decision but needs to be done more often. If two guys are up there nailing it like clockwork and making very few to no mistakes, I'd say they are more proficient than the guy that does it by himself and staggers through the entire thing. it's also challenging to get out of a rhythm with it and stay on track. When you learn the whole thing vs. skipping around from question to question, it's can be more difficult in some ways.
 

Warrior1256

Site Benefactor
They have to learn the whole things regardless, as our instructor instructed my partner and I, we didn’t know who was going first until we sat down in that chair and he would then look at whoever was going to get the first question, from there you then have to know what questions you’ll be responsible for, yeah you’re doing “half the work” but you still have to know all the knowledge of the entire proficiency.
Exactly! So even if you "tag team" each candidate still has to memorize the whole proficiency.
 

Bro. A

Registered User
Brothers, I get what both of you are saying but i still don't agree with it. Yes, it's good to have a partner/partners to study with, no issue there. But like i said before, its like going before a board for military promotion. You're in front of a panel and that panel is there to grade/vote on you as an individual to see if you're ready that next level. I mean that's how I look at it. And this is how I feel about it for myself...
Knowing that YOU walked into that room and knocked out that "proficiency" or "board" on your own is a great accomplishment.
But good conversation brothers.
 

chrmc

Registered User
Greetings Brothers,
I would like your thoughts on this...
Two candidates are initiated on the same night. They are assigned an instructor to begin studying their work. Now it's time to turn in proficiency... Do you let them "tag team" in answering the questions or do you have them turn in their own proficiency one at a time?

I doubt that they would necessarily be ready at the same time, but as most people say the lodges would probably do them seperately.

However, interestingly enough, the various exams for Ritual Certificates are usually done "Round Robin" style as far as I know. So it is something that we see. But this is of course very different than a proficiency turn in.
 
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