Universe

Hello,

Back in the early 80's I was an active member of DeMolay. To me, it's one of the finest organizations and it had such a significant impact on my life that I always try to spread the word when I meet young men who are of age to join.

I now have a family and in my off-time I like to do online gaming on my pc. Which leads me to a lot of gaming message boards. Every now and then I'll make a post asking if anyone has ever heard of DeMolay.

....I've done this for the past 5-6 years without one reply. When I was in DeMolay, I didn't know too many people who haven't heard of DeMolay in some form or fashion.

In this day and age of information overload, how is it that DeMolay has nearly fallen off the radar? I find it sad to see that the message of DeMolay has somewhat been silenced. I was fortunate enough to be approached to join but maybe in this era it is time to start a mass media campaign?

I don't say all of this to make it sound like I'm insulting the organization. I am truly concerned over how DeMolay has seemed to have fallen purely in an active sense. This is an organization that can make a difference, and does make a difference for the better. I just feel it needs to be at a larger scale.

Or maybe I'm the only one who feels this way?

In comment..t remember as my father would say to me regarding their memberships and conclave numbers were in the thousands..now..come one..today conclaves are a joke. active chapters are about gone. and the DI and EO and masonic bodies arent doing alot to correct the decline..now there are some who are the difference..but all we have to do is look at the membership..and lodges...not just in demolay but are sister organiztions and even the lodges themselves...i agree a larger macro outlook has got to be taken if the order is to survive

WWW.UNIVERSALFREEMASON.COM

remember less than .01% of boys in the United States have been/are DeMolays. 1 million senoir DeMolay's and 18,000 active. that is only .04% of the world population thats not even a single percentage. yet demolays has brought out more leaders than most other organization probaly equal to thata of Boy Scouts which is where in my opinion where most demolays start out. i did, start out in cub scouts but liked DeMolay better. i wish i would have finsihed and gone to Eagle but i would trade my time in DeMolay for all the riches in the world.

I agree with you. I wish Demolay was as big as it use to be. We must fix that. And the only way to do that is to get our name out into the public. The public must know who we are. They must know the truth. Because if they don't know who we are, this might cause fear. We must give them a reason to not be afraid. We must believe in ourselfs and work hard. Who knows, maybe in a few years our numbers can be in an increase. That is what I would love to see.

Brethren,

In the end, EVERYTHING that gets done, gets done at the local level. Chapters are founded there, future DeMolays are recruited there, DeMolays get their Degrees there.

All DI/ISC can do is provide tools and support. State organizations beig closer to the local level can do more to help, but help is all they can do.

But it CAN be done. Four years ago Florida was at it DeMolay low point in maybe 50 to 60 years. From a high of 101 Active Chapters we were down to the teens, and not all of them were really functional.

But, with the right leadership and some careful rebuilding of the State and local organization, we have reached positive membership growth as a State for last year, and have already come close this year. We have opened a half dozen new Chapters, and have half a dozen more in the process.

We are a long, long way from where we once were, but we are moving in the right direction, and we have outgrown those hotels we were using for Conclave for many years, and have to get bigger ones.

It will be a few years before we have 1000 Active DeMolays at our State Conclave and 400 adults with them, as was the case in the late 1960s. [Well, I won't be satisfied, but I'll be happy when we get back to having 1000 Active DeMolays in the State.]

It is like the old saying, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

We've been actively recruiting Senior DeMolays to get cracking and help start or re-start Chapters, and have managed to re-invigorate and excite Grand Lodge to get more local Lodge Masonic support over the state.

We've been strongly committed to going "back to the basics" of DeMolay, although we have activities congenial to todays young men.

Yes, Brothers, it CAN be done, but like Thomas Edison said of something else, "It is 1% Inspiration and 99% Perspiration".

But "If it is to BE, it is up to ME" must be more than a clever catch phrase, or 'the flavor of the month".

And not to throw any rotten fruit, but even in the "Golden Age of the 1960's DeMolay", when I was first approached about joining at age 16 I had NEVER heard of DeMolay before....and that was when we were much bigger. Getting publicity is a continuous problem, because good news sells few newspapers.

Respectfully,

Dale

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dale Dietzman,

very well said and very inspiring...

thanks dad!

Perhaps we do need more publicity. Commercials? Web banners on websites? Radio slots? Would these really help us?

About an hour south of where I live, several lodges put in the money to have commercial time put on several T.V. and radio stations. At popular times when people were generally watching.

The lodges gained about 40 new members in the 2 months following. When inquired about the commercial, most responded with:

"You guys have commercials?" "I saw it once, but it was my friend/brother/dad/coworker that got me excited about it"

Very few used the commercial as a means to want to join. Our publicity needs to come from the mouths of our excited members. WE are the reason that new guys will join, because WE show them how fun our Organization can be and what it can do for them.

Recall if you will the Ceremony of Light:

"Yet each of you as a DeMolay holds within your heart a flame, a beacon to guide you through the darkness. If you can make this light shine upon another, if you can reach into the innermost depths of his soul and set his flame afire, then therein lies the purpose of the Order of DeMolay. And Therein lies your purpose for living."

S&F

You all will be fine , you know why ? Well I will use an adage from say my grandmother "the cream always rises to the top" ...I was DeMolay waaaaay back in the late 70's in British columia Canada it was a small chapter but we had fun , we took part in our community and above all we held fast to the tradition and ritual of DeMolay. Installations took hours , Conclaves were darned fun, and life was good.

Whatever good or bad I have done in my life I will in fact look back at DeMolay as one of the finest and most rewarding facets of my life and believe me boys I have not been any angel along the way. However this IS NOT any reason for you to go out and not follow any of those precepts that are so inspired in their outline and substance. Please just keep the flame burning , believe in each other , involve yourself in your community , present and alternative to all that is contrary to what you are taught and you will all be fine. A light in the dark attracts those out in the cold. Really.