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Age 18?

How many believe the age 18 is good for the fraternity if so why?


  • Total voters
    60

ddreader

Premium Member
Premium Member
We need good quality men. Who will finish, and stay active at lodge. Men who will take the time to learn the work. learn the lessons. Teach it to new members proficiently. and love masonry for what it truly means. How do you pick them out of the crowd. I wish to god i could tell you. Age has nothing to do with it. Some men join out of curiosity, some because they think it will profit them in there business affairs. or get them aide in distress. others are interested in our mysteries, or want titles, and distinction that masonry confers. Very few care for our masonic philosophies, or care to learn about its ancient symbols. How are we suppose to know if our petitioner falls into one of these categories? You think he is going to give you that information during his investigation? All we can do, is hope that we can open his eyes. Show him the beauties of masonry, hope that he gets it, and stays to share it with the rest of the world. We need quality men, of all ages, shape, sizes, and colors if we are going to survive. We need to join as brothers, and come up with good solid solutions to this problem. This forum reaches world wide. some change is going to have to happen, what that is i wish i could tell you. we need to take a step back, and look at what is best for masonry. Maybe our own personal opinions do not always serve the greater Good of what we are trying to accomplish. I HAVE HAD HEAD STRONG OPINIONS ON ISSUES IN THE PAST, THAT UPON FURTHER REFLECTION, HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO DO WHAT IS BEST FOR THE OVERALL GOOD OF THE LODGE, AND MASONRY. We can fix this problem. We have to, in a few years a lot of us will be the old timers. What will our legacy be? What condition will we leave our fraternity in?
 

cemab4y

Premium Member
The GL of KY lowered the age to 18, several years back. It has had no discernable impact on the quality or quality of new applicants. I am personally 100% in favor of it.
 

davidterrell80

Past Master
Premium Member
I would have appreciated being able to take my son to a lodge in his college town, introduce him around and give him some folks he could rely on, in his separation from me. We did not, at the time, and we may have lost a good man to the Craft. Time will tell.

I've helped two good young men become brothers. They are both worth it.

D
 

Goatrider

Registered User
I vote for 18. Look at me, master mason just turned in petition for OES then headed towards becoming a Templar. I will not be quitting anytime soon, in fact I will be attempting to receive my A cert. by august
 

Benton

Premium Member
Yeah, I think the age 18 is fine. If an individual petitioner isn't mature enough at that age to become a member, the investigative committee should be responsible enough to let the brotherhood know that. I know I've met younger Masons who, while seemingly good people, maybe weren't quite mature enough for it. But then again, I bet there are men much older who never mature.

Maturity is relative. It often has little to do with age. Guard the West Gate with prudence. Don't assume one arbitrary age or another is enough.
 

tom268

Registered User
I think, it is a matter of perspective and no less, the demography. I'm sure, if there would be hordes of young men, knocking on our doors, the GL would lower the age to 18.

On the other hand, an 18 year old man, who looses his interest in masonry, because he is not initiated immediately, was not ripe for that decision in the first place. Interested men have constant contact to the lodge for a minimum of a year anyways, before even getting an application. If that is not OK with the young man, he is better off, joining some club.
 

Beathard

Premium Member
Is the one year minimum a masonic law in Germany?

It definately isn't in Texas. If it were it would definately lower the number of EA degrees we do, but would probably increase longevity in the fraternity.
 

tom268

Registered User
No, it is not a law, but a widely common tradition. We try to know those men at best be could, before letting them into our temple. For example, we topped our intake of new brothers at 5 per year. We have more interested men waiting, but we also want to integrate the new brother into our family. You can't do this on a conveyor belt-like ratio. It takes months, to get a new brother into feeling at home, and also the old brothers, don't feel at home any more, when they cannot remember all the new names to all the new faces.

Lodgelife is much more family style here. Many lodges split up long before they reach 100 members, not because there is struggle, but because the lodge evening begins to turn too anonymous. Strong lodges have 50-80 members here.
 

Beathard

Premium Member
Wow! A lodge with 50 members in Texas would be endangered. It's just not enough members to get things going well with Texas work and our average members activity level.
 

tom268

Registered User
My lodge as 71 members, including 3 EAs and 8 FCs at the moment, and at degree meetings we have an attendance of 28-35 of them. We need 9 officers to do the initiation or passing/raising. I'm not sure, where you need the masses of people. Actually, I always asked me, why so many US lodges look so hard on membership numbers. A few days ago, I read in a masonic newsletter, that a GM said, the membership topic is the top priority of the lodges ...... well, I always thought, masonry would be the top priority. *ggg*

But without pun, why do you need so many members? I can understand, that cities with cathedral-like lodge buildings need a lot of income. On the other hand, some lodges even get income by owning such buildings. But the cost of buildings in more rural areas is much cheaper in the US then in Germany. Many lodge buildings in saw on pictures, are quite ordinary (no offence intended, I mean as ordinary as ours). The large palace and cathedral ike masonic homes seem to be as rare as here, so that can't be the need for membership.

The level of attendance cannot be countered by more and faster initiations. We made the experiance, that more intense ritual experiances creates a stronger bond among the brethren. Stronger than any cameradery in the social rooms can get.
 
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Dave in Waco

Premium Member
The level of attendance cannot be countered by more and faster initiations. We made the experiance, that more intense ritual experiances creates a stronger bond among the brethren. Stronger than any cameradery in the social rooms can get.


In Texas this year, the GM's message follows this line of thinking somewhat. He has put forth, "quality, not quanity", which I have to agree with. In Texas, about 10% attendence is average. The lodges that excede that are lodges that have usually embraced some form of what you stated above. I have always used in my arguements against watering down the ritual, that anything worth having is worth working for. In which if you ask any Master Mason who conferred their Master's degree, regardless if it was done last night or 70+ years ago, they can all tell you. They can also tell you who they learned their work from as well. So in keeping with the GM's message, I would rather have 50 members and have 25 guys at meetings then 500 members and that same 25 at meetings.
 

Hndrx

Premium Member
In my opinion, I've known some pretty mature 18 year olds. Some of which were more mature than some 40 year olds that I have known. I believe each candidate should be evaluated on an individual basis.
 

Beathard

Premium Member
Once again I agree. My son is 18. Looking at him, I wish I had started a few years earlier. Man, he picks up the work quickly. He is already workign in degrees and is sitting for his "B" certificate on April 16th. There are not many men of any age that are more active. I have another 18 year old I am teaching the work to and he is doing fine. We are about to initite another. If these three men are representative of the quality of 18 year olds out there, I believe that we might lose committment with age. By the way, we have not recommended the fraternity to more 18 year olds than we have accepted. Once you or the invetigation commity gets to know the applicants it is pretty easy to tell if they are ready. They are also very willing to wait a while if the committee says they need to come back when older.
 

Gerald.Harris

Premium Member
Premium Member
You took the words out of my mouth. You would surely get a push on membership, but that is short sighted. On the long run, you just increase the number of those who quit.

I am not certain that your statement is correct. Another brother has mentioned that it would be intresting for the Grand Lodge to conduct a study on this subject. I have seen several men under the age od 21 who have joined Texas lodges in the last two years, and I can not recall a single one, who has not completed his studies. I also want to say that each of the sub 21 year old brothers I have come in contact with seem to have a good grip on maturity, perhaps our investigation committies are doing a good job in this area.
I agree that a study on this subject would be intresting.
 

Benton

Premium Member
I will say, I can't think of any local under 21 brothers who haven't completed their studies off the top of my head. Interesting point.
 

Beathard

Premium Member
My 18 yr old son was raised in February. He now has a C certificate and is working on his B. He has visited 14 lodges, several on his own. He is also a member of the OES. I don't know of many over 21 men that are more active. I don't think you can automatically assume a higher drop out for men under 21.
 
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