Universe

It was brought up in another discussion that DeMolay needs to find a niche in the current world in order to survive. My question is

What niche is their for DeMolay?

Fraternally,

I believe that the niche for DeMolay is the same as it has been for a while. It is the nice little area where we do the two things I proposed in the last thread that I ended up taking a little heat in:

1. We make young men better.
2. We make better young men great.

This might not be what you want to hear, but I do believe that the message that we as DeMolays started back many years still holds true. Through ritual, brotherhood, and the exchange of leadership we can change many young men.

There have been debates on the need for ritual, but I feel that we need a solid basis for our education in the brotherhood. We need to live and learn by example, and those examples come from the ritual first.

Brotherhood gives us the second example for our education. We need to show true brotherhood to all our members, no matter age or capability.

Leadership is a two-way street. Many look at leadership and consider it a tool for their personal gain. We don't see the need in practicing the leadershuip qualities of being willing to follow as well as the willingness to step forward when called.

However you look at it, I stand by DeMolay's underlying message of our seven precepts. Watering down the message, lowering our standards for membership, and becoming more of a social club will change DeMolay into something else, and I don't want my son to go through something that doesn't reflect good values, good morals, and good brotherhood.


Tom Mason

This is not a suggestion that we change DeMolay. I would never want to do that! I agree with both of your points to the max. But I ask this

How stingy should we be on who can join? Do we let anyone join in the hope that we can change their life in a positive way? Or do we only let in the mainstream guys who are upright and responsible citizens?

Fraternally,

Just an observation, but not all of our members come in as mainstream, upright and responsible citizens now. What we hope is that they learn from our teachings to be both upright and responsible and go out into the world as great representatvives of our organization. Mainstream well that is another story. Some of the best DeMolays I have ever known were a little less than mainstream in the way they dressed and talked but good DeMolays none the less.

I agree with the point thqt we should be letting more in. We are in the business of pointing in a direction and moving poeple toward a goal. In order to do this, we need to be initially receptive to a wide range of potential prospects. To look at this from the masonic side, in our lodges we take candidates in to "make men good". We do not look for the rich, influencial, or well dressed as a starting point. We look to those who are of legal age, of good character, and having recommendation. We don't usually take the five speeding tickets, divorce, or other things that can happen to someone in consideration unless it shows us a continual lack of moral character. Within that small frame of expectations, we then make them better through our ritual, brotherhood and leadership.

I don't think we need to look for our next State Master Councilor as a candidate. We need to make our candidates material to be our next SMC.

There are points that we need not go past. I could go for taking someone who has been in trouble once or twice and try to help shape a better future for them. A twelve year old killer in the state youth system would go beyond what I could endorse personally, but someone with a few busted windows and the willingness to turn around would not bother me, if they had the recommendation of the chapter.

My worry is that we do not water down the message or expectations that we want our finished product to look like. Once we do that, then it will be impossible to go back to a higher tradition.

Tom Mason

I agree that we do not need to "water down" DeMolay but saying making young men better is not a "hip" way of selling DeMolay. The product known as DeMolay has its niche but I think we have not marketed ourselves very well.
I think that it would be advisable for DI to sit down with some people that know a thing or two about Marketing and DeMolay and put together a new, 2005 plan to market DeMolay to the general public. There are plenty of young men who otherwise be eligible to join DeMolay but because of our weak marketing they have not join DeMolay.

Adam

Does anyone have any ideas on how to Market DeMolay in such a way that it would attract the young men in our niche to it???

What methods, words, icons do we use???

Craig.....

What is our "niche"?

Adam Pierce got it exactly right, DI needs to get its stuff together as far as marketing goes. Generally speaking, nobody knows what DeMolay is. For all of the good civic work that goes on there should be a bombardment of press releases instead of "experts and enthusiasts" sitting around scratching their heads and wondering why membership is down. I'm sure that there are plenty of senior demolays and or masons who are in public relations, marketing, advertising, etc that could help DeMolay repair its image. If not an independent firm could be brought in to save DeMolay from itself. The fact is that DI's staff is over worked and can't do a national or international marketing campaign by itself, nor should it if its unqualified.
Take for instance the radio PSA campaign WI sponsored a couple of years ago. Celebrities, real celebrities, were paid to do public service announcements to promote DeMolay. DI has a mass quantity of these that have never been distributed and are collecting dust while our membership dwindles. Great marketing on that one guys.
DeMolay currently relies on word of mouth marketing and does a poor job of it. "The best is yet to be, DeMolay!" What is that? Nobody talks like that, its the least catchiest catch phrase I've ever heard. DeMolay needs something memorable. The website needs to be improved as this is the internet age. Some states and chapters have better websites than DI. Getting back to word of mouth marketing, there is so much published information on the subject that we simply ignore. Leadership conferences should emphasize this being it seems to be the best idea we've got. There should be seminars that have real word of mouth marketers giving speeches and tips.
What is DeMolay's niche? Poor marketing and lack of diversity pitched at above average citizens. Marketing on an national level needs to be diverse so as to capture regional themes. If DeMolay is going to go after certain demographics it deems to be "good citizens" in niche marketing then it should do it. If we are going to try to get large scale membership growth we shouldn't niche market. Clearly given how small our current niche is, niche marketing isn't the answer.
Being from a metropolitan area and having graduated a couple of years ago I know for a fact that there are more good young men who are qualified to be good demolays in my greater metro community than there are active demolays in the united states right now. The answer to getting demolay back to where it once was is simply multimedia marketing.

Harsh but true, Adam. I agree.

Sincerely,

Guys,

We can all blame DI if we want to, but the successful marketing of DeMolay has almost always been on the local level. Good Luck if you expect anything otherwise. The most any such campaign can do is raise general awareness of DeMolay, and only among those who are paying attention.

Just as with any group, it is most often a case of someone joining because (1) he had developed the desire to join and (2) someone asked him to.

Now the desire to join MAY only develop AFTER he has been asked, especially if he is unaware of DeMolay BEFORE being asked. So it will usually be necessary to ask more than once, but not in a pushy or irritating way. Those who have said no three times, probably aren't going to change their answer later.

Occasionally someone will already be interested before they are approached, if they had a Father who was a DeMolay, for example, and who has told them how much fun it was. But this is the exception, not the rule. I can think of perhaps three case in my own 30+ years of DeMolay involvment.

Often someone will be approached, decline to join, then develop the interest as they hear more and more about DeMolay, as I did.

But usually they will not take the initiative to "get a Petition" on their own. They need to be approached again, after 3 months, and/or six months.

No one joins because of marketing slogans. Never. They join because they decide that DeMolay sounds like fun, waiting to be had. They find out that it is that, and a lot more, after they join, usually, or from a well run Prospect Party or Buddy Night.

But all the advertising in the world will not close the sale unless the perception that they will enjoy being a DeMolay is a major part of the mix.

The original approach may be in person, by letter, or, today, by e-mail, but the follow up(s) should always be direct, either in person, or by phone if need be.

It is still the idea of doing "fun things with your friends" that sells DeMolay, just as it sold the Original Nine.

No, DeMolay isn't "For Everyone", but if we are "for" only for 0.01% of the elligable young mne, and we go get them, we'll never have a lack of membership problem.

Fraternally,

Dale

Our niche is our history, tradition and our deeds.

Our foremost landmark is our Masonic history and ancestry. Being a youth organization having roots in the Masonic fraternity, DeMolay assures itself of an everlasting stewardship by the Masonic organization. This I suppose is a fact that we must openly proclaim and be proud of. Being a Masonic youth group and part of the universal Masonic family sets us well in a unique position apart from the rest of other youth fraternities and organizations. A reality that we must consider more as an advantage than a disadvantage.

Second is our tradition. Since our Order's founding in 1919 our tradition has been immortalized by our system of rituals and ceremonies unaltered and shared by hundreds and thousands young men all over the world. Our rituals is the only tradition that maintains our uniqueness and mystique. A tradition that forestalls our Order from being reduced as a mere "social-fun-club" that encourages nothing but the debauchery of youth. Our system of rituals is a tradition that ties us all globally in a fraternal bond. DeMolays might not share the same "fun" to enjoy, but all DeMolays share and are binded together by the same obligations and tradition of rituals.

Lastly, our deeds is what defines us. Our rituals and ceremonies would remain empty words and gestures if it is not translated in concrete actions. Action speaks louder than words. No amount of fancy slogans, marketing strategies or advert gimmicks can outdo the impressions you get from your deeds. If we maintain to be only a "lets-party-all-night" club and do nothing about how a young man's time can be spent in a more worthwhile endeavor than partying, then we'll just end up having the same faces for a long time. Then we ran out of party gimmicks. Then we ran out of members.

We lose membership because of our own doing and not because we lack marketing strategies. Problems on membership recruitment reflects our internal incapacity and not by any external or imagined cause. Good PR and adverts are only external mechanisms that helps answer this problem. Absence of one is not a reason why we can't recruit. Even if we got good PR if our Chapter doesn't have the capacity to sustain membership we still face the same problem of membership.

But then again, DeMolay is not a commodity or a merchandise. We don't vie for marketability in the market where hundreds of thousands of other youth organizations and fraternities are in a mad scramble to win over prospective members. Sustainability of our Order lies not in the quantity of recruits but on the quality of membership.

We are a Fraternity, a fraternity of young men dedicated to God, love of country and everlasting comradeship. We don't build young men to be future leaders. We don't wait for the future to come before young men become leaders. We are young leaders building our future today. That is our invitation, an invitation with a promise.

To be a DeMolay by precept and example - that is our niche.

J.:B.:M.:

Jacobus,

All I can truly say is that is an exellent post!

Sincerely,

The DeMolay Chapter I started with quickly dropped to only 2 members after high school graduation. The only thing that worked for us was:
Making a List of Prospects,
Visitations to the Prospects,
Advance scheduling of Initiations.
After two and half years we built up to 90 members with 30 members participating in the chapter.

I really wish I read this post before I made mine. My suggestion is to "reinvent" the way to find prospective members. Large U.S. corporations reinvent their mission statement or organization in some way or another almost every five years, and I feel that DeMolay is long overdue for this. I don't mean redefine the core values, or water something down.

I guess what I'm driving at is in an intense media society, I feel it is high time to start up a marketing campaign that would appeal to today's youth vs. slogans that have been rehashed for over 50 years.

DeMolay is a great organziation and I find it to be a bit depressing to see how its mission and activity have seemed to have decreased.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good work and glorify your Father who is in Heaven."

Gentleman...For you reading this..Iam applying for the position for the director of Operation for DI...and i have those very concerns that each of you stated...let me first say..demolay competes with everything that highschools have for its students from athletics to band..parents dont have the time as much to be running around driving them everywhere....One of my marketing ideas for those who are looking for a nicht is not changing the underlying principle of demolay..but directly bringing demolay clubs into the schools. Giving them school spirit to thier own demolay clubs. which in turn give to thier chapter...the name demolay will then be a main group in school..this is something im very hopefull about that i can impliment..the possiblity for growth are the same and higher then in the 50's..the specifics to this are so lengthy it would be hard to put them all down on here..and i hope that DI hires me to get this off the grond..any questions of this do ask....and let me here from you...let your mind wonder, because it keeps me awake most nights and i cant sleep. The clubs and activities that can be utilized and bringing together the jocks, intellects and average students together can bring us to be a force again in developing what the teachers complain abouot students these days..shawn jordan.

Craig:

Maybe we can advertise more truthfully in our development of a niche. I remember hearing words like "world's largest youth fraternity" or "2nd only to Boy Scouts in members"; while true in a Clintonian sort of way, the fact is we are not some huge group, but instead a small group that has produced an enormous amount of noteworthy leaders.

Why not advertise while we are a group with only a few thousand members, we have a impressive track record of members going on to be lawyers, educators, ministers, politicans,and business men. Tell people we have produced X Govenors, Congressmen, Senators, House Speakers & even a President. If your chapter is old enough, give names of Senior members that are local leaders or that have reached noteworthy success --- it's not that hard because it is true 'DeMolay produces men of accomplishment.'

recently loyalty chapter in manila, philippines undertook a project that involved the 32 public schools of the city. the young men of the chapter called it MANILA MATH IDOL 2008, a math competition for the four year levels. the members had several tarpaulins printed and distributed to the schools. to get the project going, they contacted the vice-mayor of the city and involved him as the major sponsor. permission was secured from the superintendent of the education department - manila. the department then issued memos to the 32 schools. the name of the chapter and the order suddenly became a byword in the 19 schools that participated. the principals and students became aware of the order and its purposes (the members had the CEREMONY OF LIGHT performed and showed a video). all participating schools are clamoring for another competition next year.

that project drew the attention of several young men. some have expressed their interest to join. however, 90% of the country is catholic. and here, the catholic antipathy to masonry and its appendant bodies still holds sawy. of those who said they wanted to join, several backed out because their parents were horrified that their sons were joining a masonically-sponsored group.

even our offer for one school to hold their graduation exercises at the grand lodge of the philippines was given the thanks-but-we'll-manage response when the parents learned of the venue.

this is the problem here in the philippines. naturally, the members reacted negatively. after all, they have put so much effort into the project (cash prizes, trophies, medals, the works!). all these went for naught because of the negative perception the filipinos have regarding the Order.

how negative? very. ironic because it was the masons who worked for all that the filipinos now enjoy. all the heroes of the revolt against spain, of the resistance against japanese occupation, of the fight for autonomy from the americans were masons - all except two. and yet the masons are still viewed with suspicion and distrust.

nonetheless, the members are pushing through with their efforts to be more visible in the community, to undertake more projects that will benefit the city.

there i go again, i rambled.

Good Thread!

Self examination is a good thing. Back in the 80's we had very similar discussions in our Chapter, League (District) and Jurisdiction. The questions brought up here should be asked by everyone, at some point, who is concerned with DeMolay, its' lessons and continuing existence.

Both Adam and Dale made very good points, but I see no logical reason why both of these ideas could not, if coordinated and combined, work in a synergistic way. The result could potentially bring a boom to DeMolay membership.