Mentorship: How the Craft Builds Its Future

🎙️ Episode 3 – Mentorship: How the Craft Builds Its Future

Mentorship is often discussed in Freemasonry, but rarely examined as the living system that sustains the Craft across generations.

In this episode of The Masonic Heartbeat, Trevor Eliott and Keven Kidder explore how mentorship shapes the Masonic journey. From the first questions a new Mason asks to the responsibilities of leadership in the East.

Joining the conversation is Eric Einarson of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Senior Warden of Patricia Lodge No. 91 and former DeMolay, who brings a unique dual perspective on mentorship as both a mentee and mentor. Eric shares how structured leadership development in DeMolay helped form the foundation of his Masonic experience, and how mentorship continues to guide him as he prepares for future leadership.

The discussion explores how mentorship operates not only as a formal process, but as a culture of presence, encouragement, and continuity. Through personal stories and practical insights, the conversation highlights how mentorship strengthens lodges, supports members during times of transition, and ensures that knowledge, values, and purpose are passed forward.

Mentorship is not simply about instruction. It is about connection, responsibility, and the intentional development of future leaders.

The future of the Craft depends on what we invest in each other today.

🔹 Why mentorship is essential to member retention
 🔹 How early experiences shape long-term engagement
 🔹 The connection between mentorship and leadership development
 🔹 Lessons from DeMolay’s leadership model
 🔹 How lodges can build stronger mentorship cultures

Because when mentorship is strong, the heartbeat continues. 🔥

If this conversation resonated with you, share it with a Brother who needs to hear it.

And if you haven’t already, be sure to follow The Masonic Heartbeat so you don’t miss future episodes.

You can also learn more and connect with us at www.mrfancyfez.ca.

Email Trevor at trevor@mrfancyfez.ca.

Email Keven at shrinerkevenk@gmail.com

Because the future of Freemasonry isn’t something we inherit.
 It’s something we build—together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome to the Heartbeat Podcast. Conversation about the future of Freemasonry. I'm Trevor Elliott, Kevin Ketter. Let's talk about how the Heartbeat craft draw. Welcome back to the Masonic Heartbeat Podcast, the podcast where we explore how Freemasonry can remain strength and deeply meaningful for the next generation of Masons. Each episode we focus on the forces that keep the fraternity alive, not just structurally, but culturally, relationally, and personally. We talk about the things that make a man want to come back. Not because he has to, but because something inside him feels deeply connected. Because when the heartbeat is strong, everything else becomes possible. I'm Trevor Elliott. I'm Kevin Cuter. And I'm Eric Anderson. It's great to be back here, our third episode. In our first episode, we talked about why good men quietly drift away. Then in our last episode, number two, we explored the critical importance of the first 90 days of a Mason's journey. But today we focus on something that sits right at the center of both of those conversations. Mentorship. And today we are ecstatic that we have our first guest, and he is a perfect guest for our mentorship episode. So today we're joined by a brother who brings a thoughtful and highly relevant perspective on mentorship within Freemasonry. Eric Einerson's journey reflects how mentorship shapes leadership over time. As a former DMLA, Eric experienced early guidance grounded in character, service, and personal growth. Lessons that connect to influence how he approaches the craft today. Eric currently serves the DMLA as an advisor and helps preserve the stories and traditions that shape future leaders. Within craft masonry itself, Eric is currently serving as the senior warden of Patricia Lodge here in Ebenton, Alberta, Canada, and is being mentored towards the role of worshipful master following the recent and difficult loss of his lodge's worshipful master. That places Eric in a unique position, receiving mentorship while also providing mentorship himself. A powerful reminder that leadership in Freemasonry is not simply inherited, it's cultivated. Eric, welcome to the Masonic Heartbeat.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

It is an absolute pleasure to be here. I'm super excited to be on the show with you.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Tell us a little bit about your journey here. I'm sure that there's some bits that I might have overlooked. Is there something that you wanted to highlight right now that would help our listeners know more about you?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So there's actually a funny story about how I got involved with the Masonic family. I recently actually found out that my great-great-grandfather on my mom's side was a Mason in Ontario, but since then I've had no Masonic family, and so my connection to Masonry and how I got involved actually came from a friend of mine back in 2011. He had been convinced to join D M Live from a friend of his. He joined the chapter, and after his it was either his first or second meeting, realized that it just wasn't what he wanted to do. But he thought about it and was like, I think my buddy Eric would like this. So in February of 2011, I was initiated into Ebington Chapter, and I kid you not, the next meeting he demitted. And so it was very much a trial by fire, but I look back on it and I realized that him choosing to stick around as long as he did to get me involved has had one of the biggest impacts on my life that at the time I had no ability to realize how huge that choice of his to stick around that long would have made for me. Since then, I served as a local leader for Ebmonton Chapter in 2015. In 2016, I took over a role as the provincial master counselor or jurisdictional master counselor for DMLA Alberta, where I worked and was some creating some connections across Western Canada and actually the Pacific Northwest for the states, just building a community for DMLA. Since then, I aged out in 2019 and in 2022 got involved with the Board of Directors of DMLA Canada, where I've been working as the communications director, and then most recently was elected into the vice president or deputy grandmaster role for the Supreme Council there. That same year was also very important for me as the year I was initiated into Masonry. On February 22, 2022, or Tuesday as I like to call it, I was initiated into Patricia Lodge. And it has been really an incredible experience for me. My my first meeting I ever attended, they spent about an hour having a debate about lawnmowers. And I had to sit there and think to myself, oh boy, what did I get myself into? But I am so glad to be in Patricia Lodge because every single man in that room has taken such a big step in mentoring me. I've been surrounded by people that have an investment in me being the best quality person I can be. And I could talk for hours about all of the men and the impacts that they have made in my life in the four short years that I've been a Mason.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

And I'm sure you could do a TED talk on those lawnmowers now. Unfortunately, yes. So now this is the part of the podcast. We call it a checking a pulse, where we talk about something that's happened recently in our lodges or within the broader Masonic fraternity. And for me, I'm going to talk about an advertising opportunity that the Shriners here locally have become involved with, which is with our junior hockey team here in Ebington, the Ebenton Oil Kings. And bring them up because I was watching the game six today of their series, and luckily they did they won in overtime, so we got the game seven tomorrow night. But this is the first year that the Auschmal Schritters have been involved with them, and it's been a fantastic opportunity to say the least, because our name is getting out into the public into spaces that have families and children, and that it's becoming more of a household name, and for many years that was struggling. Oh, you guys are still around, or that they had some very positive conversations with that. I'm very happy that we got involved with that this year. So that is that's my pulse check. And uh, Kevin, how about yourself? Anything interesting happened this week?

SPEAKER_03 8:22

This nothing interesting in that aspect. I'm gonna talk a little bit about the brotherhood that I experienced this week. We have a noble, his family was going through some things here, and just a matter of a couple phone calls, we were able to reach out to him and let them know that we were there for him and his family, and they won't have to go through whatever they were going through by themselves. And that's one thing that I love about not just the masons and the shriners, but collectively, you know, there's something there, we're there for you no matter what. That's the second time that in the last month I've experienced that. Another example is when we were going over to our association meeting over there in Wyoming. We had a bus issue, and one call later, half hour later, we had another bus lined up because of the brotherhood and that connections that we have. So that's my connection this week.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah, that's fantastic, Kevin. Something that I've really come to appreciate is that our fraternity, we're all brothers, but we're more than just lodge buddies, right? We're brothers when it matters. When shit hits the fan, if you will, you know that we're there for each other, and that's a prime example of how our fraternity works. So thank you for sharing that, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Eric, you're so I think the one that jumps to mind for this past week in particular actually was we just came back from Weekend Without Titles here in Alberta. It's an annual event hosted in Red Deer. This was the fourth iteration of it, where we bring together members from across Alberta and especially focus on education and brotherhood. We get rid of a lot of the stodgy titles and focus on the important part of Masonry. There was a number of fantastic sessions, educational sessions that were put on. I really tried to focus on, actually, funny enough, with the topic of this presentation, the mentorship and the culture sessions for lodges. Just because I think that's such an important thing that we focus on. And one of the lines that really stuck out to me in one of the educational sessions was that we spend so much time focusing on the ritual and the floor work and the stuff within the meeting, and we leave things like the festive board and the mentorship as secondary. We expect that they'll just come with time or that somebody will handle them. We make a deliberate choice that everything within the meeting is planned, but everything else is laissez faire, and it's a little ironic. And I think that's something that, you know, especially this week, I've been spending a lot of time chewing on is that idea and how we can do better with that in Patricia Lodge.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah, that's fantastic. I know I was talking about the weekend without titles a little bit on our last episode, but I'm glad to hear that another one of our Masonic friends enjoyed the weekend as much as I did. So let's go into the heartbeat framework and remind those who who may have been joining us for the first time that this podcast is built around what we call the EMVP framework. That's energy, mentorship, visibility, and purpose. These are the four chambers of the Masonic Heartbeat. When these four elements are strong, lodges thrive. When one weakens, the entire system feels it. Mentorship is particularly powerful because it connects all four. Energy grows when someone notices you. Visibility increases when someone shows you what's possible. Purpose develops when someone trusts you with responsibility. Mentorship is how Freemasonry transfers not just knowledge, but confidence, identity, and belonging. This reflects the broader goal of strengthening engagement and long-term connection across the Masonic journey, a central theme of this podcast. As we mentioned, we are so excited to have you on the show, Eric. You are our first guest. Welcome. And we want to get to know more about you and how mentorship has played in your Masonic journey through multiple stages of your journey. As we mentioned, that you a lot of your early Masonic days were structured by a mentorship through the DMLA when you started developing a leadership, and today that you're growing as an advisor to the DMLA here in Ebenton, Alberta, Canada. And yeah, we just want to know more about your journey. So, Eric, when you look back on your Masonic journey, when did you first realize that mentorship was shaping your experience in a meaningful way?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I think back on it, and it would have been somewhere around about 2014 or so. I think there is so much of my like early life where uh you're just a little bit dazzled by everything going on around you. And actually, it was the first time that one of them took the time to just have a conversation with me and to ask me to be involved with something that he was working on. You know, at 14 years old, you see these guys that are 18 and you're like, wow, these guys are so mature and cool. I look back on it now and it was funny because at the time it felt super special that I was getting asked to help with something. I look back on it and I realized that he could have chose to do that entirely himself. Like it was well within what he could have just done if he wanted to, but he took the time to to include me and that made me feel special. Like I said, it's well these the age gap is four years, but it feels like this is like an older brother or like a powerful figure that's choosing to like take some time for you, and it was that was really cool. He put me in a position where I was able to start learning and having an active role with the chapter, and then shortly afterwards he continued mentoring me. It was always the kind of relationship where his name was also Eric, and that was something that him and I bonded over very quickly because Eric and Eric. He was always the kind of guy, and still is even to this day, where he will always applaud and celebrate the successes, but also will be the kind of person that will drive you for how can we keep making this even better. That started, yeah, like I said, at 14 or even earlier, and then from there built me into a role where I was taking on more and more responsibility in the chapter, starting to work with some of the younger guys. By 14, I was supporting the 12 and 13-year-olds, and just continuing to build on that. By the time I got to 17 was when I took over senior leadership role as the master counselor for the chapter, and by then it was like it felt like it felt normal. And it was weird because I was painfully shy at the time, and like the idea of public speaking or kind of any sort of even like interview kind of thing was just totally totally a foreign concept to me. But but that that kind of slow-rolling development and constant journey of learning really got me comfortable being uncomfortable. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Kevin, you uh is there a point in your Masonic journey that mentorship really it took a uh front role as in me mentoring or someone mentoring me? Because I there's I've had both. Sure was something that was very meaningful to you either way.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

I think the mentorship for me to me was when I came into the Blue Lodge as a Mason, my grandpa. He's the one that mentored me through my all my degrees, all the memory work, which we all know there's memory work there, and he wouldn't let me slide. So that was my mentor all the way through. He was there, he's the one that raised me in the third degree. So that mentorship right there, and then another gentleman that was in my mother lodge, he was a good mentor to me as well through my journey after and all the way through. And after my grandpa passed, he became my go-to mentor. And sadly, he passed away himself here a couple years ago. But I had a couple good strong mentors there that kept me on the straight line, kept my roof ashler a little bit smoother than it should have been at times, let's put it that way. And then I as far as me mentoring people, I'm always trying to mentor people prepare them for what they don't know, which we've missed out a lot of that with newer brothers and sh nobles. We don't prepare them for what they don't know as much as we can. So I try to be that mentor there as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Fantastic. Yeah, for myself, I really appreciate a couple of mentors who have been key for me, especially in my journey through the dive in. Our current potentate, Barry Gogol, has been very, very instrumental in uh helping me along the way. I've I've managed different nonprofit organizations before, but never something that was personally meaningful to me, uh, like the shriners, and uh Barry's definitely helped keep me grounded. We have another past potentate in our shrine, Ari Hoxima, who has been very valuable to me because not only is he a past potentate, but he's also former governor of the Portland Hospital, and I'm currently serving my first year as an official governor this year. I served last year as an associate, and his his guidance and wisdom has uh really been uh instrumental for me. I think uh every brother in the craft is really impacted by mentorship for sure. So, Eric, what lessons were you able to take from your time in DLA and really carry forward into your Masonic journey?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I think the first and foremost one that comes to mind, and actually it's one that I still struggle with sometimes, is knowing how to ask for help. One of the greatest lessons I ever learned was that a leader is not somebody who has to shoulder everything and be responsible for everything. At the end of the day, a leader is accountable to make sure it happens, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're responsible for everything having to get done all the time. That's something that for me is still an area that I'm really focusing on. It's hard to ask for help. I think it's easy to get caught up in trying to figure out the logistics of how to fit everything onto your plate all at once, and it's really easy to overlook that we're constantly surrounded by people that choose to be involved and that want to help.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Yeah, I'll agree with that. It's tough to ask for help. I'm in the same boat I've been potentated here a couple years ago, and it's tough to ask for help, but definitely ask for that help. Like you said, yeah, a good leader doesn't do it himself, he shows the path and helps other people get there. That's literally not doing it all yourself. So you're not the only one in that boat. It's gonna be a struggle for the rest of your journey here.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, is there someone who's currently mentoring you towards the east this year? I know that it must be an incredibly difficult position for you to be in the having having to be the senior warden and considering the just very unfortunate circumstances that that you've had to assume the role of Worshwell Master. So uh who has been instrumental and how have they been instrumental in mentoring you towards the east?

SPEAKER_01 20:27

I think it starts actually with Lorne. Lorne was our master that passed away. I just want to I want to talk about him for just a moment, if that's all right. Because even through my time before becoming a warden, he he was very involved in in my life and my career with the lodge. Lorne as a person embodied, in my opinion, the values of mentorship and learning to its most fundamental level. He, in his personal life, was the deputy superintendent for the Ebmont Public School Board. He was a professor at both the University of Alberta and University of Saskatchewan. He was extremely involved with Rotary. He was a, I believe, a captain with the Canadian Armed Forces with the helicopter regiment just out here at CFB Edmonton. He was just a man that that believed in service and guidance and mentorship. And on the philanthropic side, he had taken a trip out to the Mozambique at some point uh a number of years ago, and while he was there, realized that the education system in the Mozambique is near on non-existent. And he got chatting with a bunch of locals there about kind of what the situation was, and I think many people there were kind of used to the idea of a tourist coming in and talking about how education should be better, and that they fly back home and never see them again. Lauren wasn't that kind of person. He flew back to Canada, has raised, as far as I'm millions of dollars, and at this point they've now built several schools over in the Mozambique and had developed a personal relationship with Most of the community out there flying back constantly to make sure that they had everything that they needed to to take all these young kids and make them the most successful version of themselves possible. He, for me as a mentor, like that that first person I was talking about, was constantly there celebrating the successes that we had together, but also sitting down with me afterwards and debriefing how can we make sure that this gets even better next time. He was never afraid to challenge me. I, as a mentee, the thing I value the most is mentors that challenge me and that that push me to want to be, like I said, the best version of myself possible. You can you should never strive to be better than someone else. You should always strive to be better than yourself. That was something that he had really hammered into me, and I think about that a lot. He was installed as master in June, and in November passed away. And then the October meeting, he was away actually at an educational conference, and so his only meeting fully sitting in the East was our September Lodge meeting. What I found incredible though was that he spent the entire summer from when he was installed in June through July and August developing a three-year strategic plan with myself and our junior warden, making sure that we, as a team, had a vision for what the future of our lodge looks like. We poured a lot of time and energy and love into making that plan. And my focus this year since Lauren has passed has been, I think the best way we can honor him is by making sure that this plan that we put together as a team that we carry it out. And so we've had a really big focus at Patricia Lodge on education and that we are building on quality programming. And that looks like a communication within our lodge. We've adopted some more, I would say, modern forms of communication. I'm pretty sure that from 1916 to 2024, we were using carrier pigeon and smoke signals as our only approved forms of communication. We've since gone to crazy thing, but group chat messaging. And we're taking a step in that direction, but also we've been, I think, doing a better job just engaging our members, actually figuring out what they want. I everything that I've done over the course of this year, I credit to Lauren because it's it is because of him pushing me to want to be the best version of myself possible, and because of the strategic plan that we worked on as a team, I think that is the thing that has gotten me to where I am right now and is what will accelerate us through this next term as well, and building Patricia Lodge to be one of the strongest lodges it can be.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

Fantastic. Let me ask you a question. Anything that he told you or showed you that you did not agree with that you thought was that like it sucked.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

I think the only thing I ever challenged him on really was he is a huge Rotarian. Like every everything was always compared back to Rotary. It's Rotary this. And I think that there's a lot of situations we can learn from that because Rotary is a very successful organization. That's it's undeniable. I think that there are things we can learn from, but I always challenged him that masonry and rotary are not the same thing. I think fundamentally they are different. Absolutely, we should always look at what other groups are doing to be successful and learn from that, but always make sure that we're maintaining that they're different fundamentally.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

In your few months that you've really had to take on the leadership from the East, is there anything that's surprised you or been very meaningful to you in that process?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Yeah. For me, being relatively young compared to the general age of masonry, something that I've been really working on and that has surprised me this last couple months is that being a mentor and being a leader isn't about age or length of service in Lodge or social status or credentials or anything like that. D MLA was we're all kids. We're all kids doing stuff together. And normally you you send a message to the parents, and the parents make sure that the kid is there for the next activity. When I first joined Lodge, there was a bit of time where it was a little intimidating because you're sitting in a room with doctors and people with master's degrees and people that have had incredibly successful careers in all sorts of the different fields, and that this person's a past grandmaster, and you've got 16 D GMs over here, and this group over here is coming to every meeting with their 50-year jewel. And I think that it can be a little intimidating at first. And it was remarkable though, because as soon as I stepped into a leadership role with the Lodge, every single one of those men came to me and said, How can I help you be the most successful version of yourself possible? I think it was in my head, I'm like, oh, I don't want to bother them with this menial stuff. They're doing all of these super cool, incredible things, and yet every single one of them came to me and said, Help, let us help you. What can we do? And so I think that was something I had to change my mindset on is that when we're in this lodge, is that all of that stuff from outside, it means very different things here because we're all here for the same purpose, we're all here as brothers, we're all here as for one common goal.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

We all meet on the level, we're all level no one's greater than the other, and sadly that it's lost in quite a few lodges out there. Yep. So that is awesome that you had this group of th 20-30 guys that have been there done that.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Hey.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

So you had a room full of mentors that are at least you didn't realize it at the time until they came up to you, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

And I wanted to touch on one of them in particular, actually, he's a past grandmaster in my lodge. We've had four past grandmasters from Patricia Lodge. Unfortunately, three of them have since passed, but one of them was uh grandmaster in 2023. Especially recently, him and I have gotten a lot closer. He had a fairly similar experience. He joined Lodge fairly young. As he was going through the chairs and he went in a senior warden, his master passed away. And uh Chris and I have bonded quite a bit over the last over the last several months and over the last about year and a half or two years. He's been very invested in making sure that A, I know that I can ask him questions, B, in coaching and mentoring me, and Anki recognizes that it can be scary. I I wish I had more time to to learn from Lauren and to ask questions and to figure a lot of this out because there's days where I wake up and I think to myself, oh my good lord, what have I gotten myself into? Because it's all of a sudden I've got 50 guys that are going, hey, what's happening next week? Yeah, Chris has been huge in making sure that I'm staying afloat. He's been he's been great for reminding me what's important and for just being a sounding board that when I have questions or I'm unsure about something, he's always said, just give him a call, and he'll happily answer any questions or help me adjust any uncertainties I've got.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Yeah, and I've really enjoyed getting to know Chris Alkman myself that he is in one of my lodges. So my mother lodge is acacia, but my second lodge that we've built as a builder lodge, and I've really enjoyed getting to know him, and uh he is a proud triner here with Al Shamel. So, yeah, he's been a fantastic brother, regardless of wherever you know him. I would highly recommend that if there's a brethren in Alberta who have the opportunity to have a conversation with him, do it. And I know that he travels all over. If you ever have an opportunity, he's somebody you can really learn from. So thank you for sharing that. Absolutely. Now, how does being mentored yourself influence how you mentor others?

SPEAKER_01 29:49

I think for me, a big part of that has been trying to use the things that I really appreciated as a mentee and passing those same things along to other people. One of the kids that I've had a chance to mentor through D Mole, and actually it's it's funny I'm calling a kid, he's 22 now. But yeah, exactly. So I had met him originally back in 2017, and he was his sisters were all involved with Job's daughters. He had come out to Alberta for a big Joby event that was happening here that I was at representing D Malay, and here's this young teenager sitting at a table with all the other young guys, and he's trying to covertly snap photos of me and doodle on my face and send it to other people at the table. And it's funny because at the time I'm sure I very well could have gone, oh, what a weirdo, this weird BC kid. But something just something felt different about that. And like him and I, we built a relationship. I got to be involved when he went in as Master Counselor for the first time of his local chapter. River then went on to be provincial master counselor of British Columbia. He was the national master counselor for D MLA in Canada for two years, and then in 2024 went in as one of the two international officers for DMLA and traveled the world building this organization. It's been like for me, I almost feel like I've learned more from him getting to support him as a mentor than he ever learned from me because there's so much of that relationship where he'd call me unsure or upset or trying to navigate through something that on my side I'm just trying to piece together solutions to try and figure out how to support him, but he would always leave that conversation feeling like feeling better, feeling there's somebody in his corner, and he would go on and he would kick butt at whatever he was doing. And it was really eye-opening for me to see that I think a lot of people look at mentors and think that they have the answer for everything, that they've got a magic book or a magic crystal ball or something like that where they can just draw every single one of these solutions. We're all just trying to figure it out together. Every single one of us is uh is on a constant journey of learning. We're always putting ourselves in different rooms and trying to learn from one another. And actually, part of that journey of you know being a mentor and being mentored, I've really tried to prioritize listening more than I speak. In every room that I put myself in, I try to just soak in the collective knowledge of all these people around me. Because we are fortunate to have so many incredible people with so many incredible journeys and lives that it's just a privilege to get to get to learn from so many of them. The biggest thing I've noticed, and part of my educational background is in psychology. And I've been reading some of the stats and research that's being done lately, and we're living in a society that has literally never been more connected in the entire history of humanity. You can be in touch with anybody across the entire world in milliseconds, literally at the touch of your finger. And yet the rates of depression and feelings of loneliness have never been higher as well. And I look at like my sisters, it's really funny because they will be they'll be texting each other things, and you'll get a giggle out of one, and then the other one will get a message back and giggle out of them, and they've never actually made eye contact in that entire conversation, but are just talking through their devices.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Now, in your view, where do you see the generational start of that? I definitely see, and I don't know exactly like what age it started, but I look at my my friend's younger brother, he's about 10 years younger, and then my sister, she is five years younger. Somewhere in between there, I think a lot of people have just grown up so comfortable with devices. It's uh you end up getting an iPad or a phone or something plunked in your hand at an early age and it becomes a third parent.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Yes, correct. It's interesting to say because that's a big conversation. Older generational, I'm Gen X, so we'll go with Gen X that we we bitch about all the time, but we don't try to figure out how to implement that into getting them into the Masons or the Shrine or even so I like that take on it.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Yeah, and I think that more and more, and I don't know if this is a new thing, but I feel like people are whether it be graduating out of out of university or first getting into their first real like full-time job, by the time they hit about 21, I feel like people feel like they have it all figured out. Like they've got like they've got I know, right? Like they've got this idea that I know what it exactly what the rest of my life is gonna look like, I know exactly who's gonna be in it, I know I know exactly what I want to do and who I want to surround myself with, and I have this concrete vision of exactly what the rest of my life is gonna look like at 21 years old, and it's that's not real. And I think that's for me what I've noticed the toughest cell of masonry to be is we teach something different. We teach that that sense of community, about service, about that lifting one another up, and I feel like for a lot of people that is in disharmony with the rigid vision that they might have at 21 years old. You end up getting people that hit 30, 40, 50 that realize that rigid vision is it's a figment of their imagination, like it's not real. And that's when they often connect with masonry because they're looking for something different, they're looking to finally make that change. What I love about D Malay in particular though is you look at the group that founded D Malay in 1919. Every single one of them was a Mason, every single one of them went on to become 33rd degree Masons in the southern jurisdiction, and the fundamental basis of D Malay is built on Masonic principles. Like all of our values, all of our core fundamentals are pulled straight out of the Masonic ritual. And so you get all these guys that at 12, 13, 14 years old, that's kind of where we see the majority of people joining D Malay, that get exposed to these ideas of Masonry at that young age, and by the time they turn 21, everything we do is normal. Like the idea of community and philanthropy and brotherhood and being involved in a business meeting, even they turn 21, and that is a fundamental normal part of their life. And we're building leaders.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Yes, fascinating. Yes. With Demoloy going back to being connected, how do you encourage that or discourage that with the Demolloy young gentlemen? Like connecting masonry to Demolai? No, getting them to come to meetings. I because up here in Montana we're Demoly is semi-strong depending where you're what part of the state you're in. Here in Missoula where I'm from, they try to bring it back here, I want to say five to seven years ago, they try to bring it back, but they couldn't get the young gentleman involved because of the phones and the giggling, yeah, yeah. That's a phones, even though they're talking to each other. How do you encourage that or discourage that young among your young men in D MLA there?

SPEAKER_01 36:54

I think the biggest thing you need to get people off their devices is just give them something to care about. I'm actually fairly familiar with D MLA in Montana because through my time and through my DMLA career, I tried to make a point of all of the western provinces and states building a relationship with them. DMLA back in the 2010s or so was fairly disconnected. What was happening in BC and what was happening in Alberta were totally independent. There was zero zero connection, zero relationship there. Same thing with Montana, same thing with Washington, same thing with Saskatchewan. And actually D Malay in Saskatchewan was a different take because at the time it was totally shuttered. I think in Washington in Montana, a couple of things I notice is that your guys out there have a lot closer relationship with the Jobies than I think a lot of other jurisdictions do, including your annual convention is held jointly, or at least it it had been at the time for about 10 years. And I believe it still is. I believe it still is as well. Yeah, I think that has pluses and minuses. On one hand, I think that, especially for a lot of the young guys, it's exciting to get to go to this what's a bigger event when you have all these more people involved. It feels grand, it feels exciting, it's something to really bite into. On the other hand, I think that you end up running into problems with teenage boys. The second you put uh one girl in the room, the rapport and the relationship in the room changes.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Yeah, but uh yeah, like especially Montana, I think has some strong chapters, and I think it has some strong leadership out there. I know that one of the things we see here in a lot of Canadian communities, and I think it translates fairly well to like most American communities I've run into as well, D Mole seems to be most successful in the smaller towns. When you look at kind of capital cities or other major urban centers, it's almost ironic because there's a huge population there, but at the same time, you've also got so much more competing for the attention of every one of these young men. Okay. You've got hockey, you've got baseball, you've got soccer, you've got football, you've got cadets, you've got scouts. It's all of these things competing for the attention of every young boy and girl in the entire community. Whereas I look at our chapter that we started up in Cold Lake, Alberta. Cold Lake is an Air Force base, and largely it has a small community that has developed around there, but it is a quintessential small town, Alberta. And we started a chapter there, and it has been very successful because for that community, that is something that they rally around and they're proud to have there because it's unusual for groups to choose to invest in a small town. And you guys are starting up a new chapter now in Fort McMurray. That is correct. Yep. We're working on restarting a chapter in Fort McMurray. They have not had one in, I believe 16 years was the last time there was a chapter there.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

So what was it that made the chapter in Fort McMurray fall apart? And what has changed now after 16 years that has re-energized these kids?

SPEAKER_01 40:00

Yeah. The most successful chapters I have ever seen are the ones where, in particular, Masons choose to get involved in the chapter without having any like no kids, no nephews, nobody in nobody that they're there for just because that D MLA is involved. The most successful chapters are the ones where there are Masons that choose to get involved and be invested in the chapter purely because they believe in the purpose of the chapter.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

I think I look back at Inf at Infinity Chapter was what it was called back in 2010 when it closed, and they were extremely successful, but every single advisor and every single young man that was involved were involved because it was a family affair. As soon as the youngest kid from that family aged out, the rest of the family went with them. And that that whole family unit disappeared from that chapter's support structure. In 2010, when it closed, it was the last family had aged out, and there was just no no family to backfill that chapter there. I look at the group that's starting the chapter up there right now, and there are some that are getting involved because their kid is involved, but there are also several of those Masons that I've that I was speaking with actually at the Scottish Wright Reunion that they're getting involved because they love the idea of what DMLA does for young men. And I think that those gentlemen, I think for me, are some of the most important and influential men that get involved with D MLA and Masonry.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

So Eric, what responsibilities do you think experienced Masons have towards newer members?

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Ooh. I think that I think the biggest responsibility that experienced Masons have is be open to questions. I think it's there's a line that I had heard when I was working with the Student Council at the U of A. And it's basically insiders forget what it's like to be outsiders. I think that there are so many acronyms and inside jokes and just nuanced pieces of Masonry that you get raised to be a Master Mason and theoretically speaking, all the same things as everybody else in the lodge. But the reality is you've you've barely scratched the surface. Like you're you've got one percent if that of the philosophy and learning that we all do together. I think that I've I have seen people in the past that I think feel like annoyed or frustrated by being asked questions and have this kind of idea that oh they should know that. And the reality is that when you've spent fifty or sixty years in a lodge more than most people, you've experienced more than most people in that lodge. And you need to be you need to be comfortable with people asking you questions and comfortable with people being uncertain. I think that's a big responsibility that especially the senior members have is they are the keepers of a lot of a lot of oral traditions that aren't documented in our little blue books.

SPEAKER_03 43:00

I think you hit that pretty close on the head that there's some guys in there that you said that, oh, you should know that. So I'm not gonna bother and that drives me crazy. Yep. So just not there. I see that quite a bit, especially from the older generation of that 70 plus age group. And then they bitch said we're trying to make it too easy for people to memorize stuff, but yeah, they're not willing to help any other way besides you're making it too easy now. I'm gonna bitch about it.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Yeah. Eric, what do you think are some signs that mentorship is working well in a lodge?

SPEAKER_01 43:34

I think when mentorship is working well, you can see it in like the culture of lodge and how people interact with one another. I think when mentorship is struggling, you'll have pockets of members. You'll have a group of three or four over here, you'll have a group of three or four over there, you'll have the quote unquote leadership team of the lodge when their own little group. But there's very little like harmony or interaction between those groups. The lodges that I have seen. And the chapters that I've seen that are the most successful are the ones where and that have the best mentorship are often the ones that when you walk into the room, even when people are separate, they're still together. Like it's still part of one big community. I think that the other signs of a successful lodge with good mentorship is they really do make a like a deliberate choice to have a formal mentorship program. Going back to what I had said about Weekend Without Titles, we spend so much time focusing on making these planned deliberate meetings, but we tend to leave festive board and mentorship and all that kind of stuff as a as an afterthought. Lodges that have successful mentorship make a deliberate choice to make mentorship a priority and an agenda item at every meeting. And having people that are passionate about that at the steering wheel of making mentors better.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Now developing that thought a little bit, what do you think uh good culture looks like in a lodge?

SPEAKER_01 45:00

I think good culture, you can definitely see it most, especially when you have a visitor come in for the first time. A lodge within your own group that has good culture, there it should be there's good communication between the members that people are comfortable with one another. This isn't just my lodge buddy, this is somebody that I wouldn't fight over and have in my own home. I think that when you the lodge culture is can be can be a red flag when you look at some of the other guys in your lodge or look at the majority of your lodge and think to yourself, I really wouldn't want to sit at my own kitchen table with these guys. That's a bad sign. I think if you're if you're walking into a lodge for the first time and there was a story actually of one of the lodges down in Calgary that they're when you walk in the door of that lodge, every single one of the guys wants to come up and shake your hand and welcome you to and thank you for showing up. It's a small town lodge, it's just outside of Calgary, so it's fairly accessible to a lot of the like the Calgary community, but every single time, every single one of those members chooses to go up to that guy and make them feel welcome and make them and just to say hi even. Some of them it's uh they're chatting about the last time they saw them, some of it's introducing themselves, but every single member goes up to that person to shake their hand.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

Like that that goes a really long way.

SPEAKER_03 46:19

I think we've talked about that one of our first podcasts, we talk about making people feel welcome, even uh shaking hands, so it's awesome that's you brought that example up, it's just so it must be true. But it's not talking out of my left ear when I mention that.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

Yeah, this is a perfect example of how this is being put into practice. So if uh a lodge wanted to uh strengthen mentorship starting tomorrow, where would you start? Uh what's a small step that they could take to strengthen mentorship in their lodge?

SPEAKER_01 46:58

I think one of the things actually, and this is an idea from Lauren, is creating clear expectations. I I think that actually, even in like people's officer roles, I think there's a lot of lodges that don't elaborate on what different people's responsibilities are. You get installed as uh as a deacon or a steward and you get that that brief lecture in the part as part of the investiture, but there's never really an opportunity to sit down and ask and have a conversation and divvy out who's responsible for what. I think that one of the things that we did that was really cool over this past summer was we got all of the officers together of the lodge and we went through we reviewed the three-year plan, but we also went through what our expectations were with these guys. And I think that like everybody got on the same page. Once again, rather than just expecting everybody to know what we're thinking, having that clear expectation and clear communication goes a long way. And I think it's both having a lodge officer orientation, but also when you're bringing in new guys or even some of our some of the older guys, if they've stepped away for a while and come back, like just sharing these are the priorities of Patricia Lodge, these are the things that we value. And so with our new guys that have just started, one of the things we've started doing is they've got those two sponsors are responsible for some of their initial mentorship and development as they're getting ready to join Lodge because oftentimes, and as is what it should be, those guys are the ones that have made that connection for that person to Patricia Lodge. And so they're the person opening that that door initially. But with our mentorship committee, we sit down with these guys before they're initiated, and we work out a plan for we do mentorship every week or every second week. We want to set this schedule with you. Can we have you commit to these dates, these times, where we're gonna work on your lines for proving up, we're gonna work on going through some history and philosophy, we're gonna work on building you up as you're going through this role. That it's not just memorize degree, here you go, you've got your apron, and back out the door. It's this is a deliberate journey of learning. Yes, you're working on your ritual, but you're also working on what is masonry? Why do we exist? Where did we come from? And building up that knowledge base with them as well.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

So now uh how can brethren in our lodges help strengthen the DMLA? Because when you think about it, the the these boys in DMLA that's the future of our fraternity. So what steps do you recommend to be able to help strengthen the DMLA chapters?

SPEAKER_01 49:45

So I think the thing I've noticed that the strongest chapters have is men that show up, in particular Masons that show up because they believe in what DMLA does, independent of them having a kid or a nephew or some family member involved. We've been really successful having men that choose to be involved because they believe in DMLA. They're oftentimes some of our kind of senior leadership on local chapters advisory councils. What I would recommend and what I would even ask Masons everywhere to do is if you have a chapter, when you show up wearing your apron to one of their chapter meetings, it means something to those guys. They may not say it, they may not verbalize it, they may not come and tell you this, but for every single one of those guys, and this is from my experience, when one of the Masons walks into the room, that is an instant cue to them that there are people out there that that care about what we do and that value what we do and that see that what we do here is important. I think and it's terrible. You see one of the dads walk in, you know, it's dad of it's Bob's dad or it's Richard's dad, and he walks in with the apron and it's oh he's here because Richard's here. But one of these one of the Masons that walk in purely because they believe in D Malay, and that that sends shockwaves through the chapter. We've had a few times now where we've had some of the lodges blitz some of our installations and investitures, and the guys you can see their eyes pop into their heads because all these guys walk in that just like what we do, and they're all like, Wow, this is so cool, like this is so special for us. So just show up.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

I know I enjoy visiting when I can, and it for me it's difficult to sometimes find time because I'm there's so many things going on in Freemasonry here, but I know that I definitely enjoy coming out when I can. And just for the uh purposes of the other brethren in the Edmonton area who may be listening to this, tell us when when and where we can attend a D Molet meeting in Ebington.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

So Ebington Chapter meets at Highlands Masonic Hall every first and third Friday. With that as well, we hold installations twice a year. A term in D Mole six months instead of a year, like Lodge. We hold installations every May and November, and it'll always be the weekend after the third Friday of that month. Those ones in particular, the installations are twice a year. When we have the Masons show up for those, that's though those are the really special ones for the guys because they all get dressed up extra special, they're all getting into their new roles. Oftentimes that's when we're doing different award presentations and things like that. And so having a great crowd there, same as any lodge investor in the installation, the guys going in as the new officers, it means a lot to them in the full lodge room rather than you're getting installed in the East and there's 16 people, including your officers, in the entire room. Let me ask you, is there a website that someone can go to learn more about DMLA? Absolutely, there is. So if you're in Canada, it's DMLACanada.ca, and if you're in the United States, it's dmalay.org. Perfect. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

Okay, so Erica, one of the risks that any organization uh has is assuming mentorship just happens. But mentorship is intentional, it requires awareness and a willingness to invest in others, and you've definitely shown that you are investing in others. So I thank you as a brother for what you have been doing in in your lodge and with the DMLA that I think that the if your DMLA chapter was here, that they would thank you as well. That I mean, that I've seen personally what how you've interacted with those boys. So uh thank you for what you do. Freemasonry is often described as a system of morality veiled in allegory, illustrated through symbols, but those symbols come alive through relationships that we build in our lodges and in our organizations like the DMLA. Membership mentorship is how the craft becomes personal. So I I hope that through our discussion here, that the brethren listeners have really seen what you've done with the mentorship, how mentorship has uh positively impacted you, and how you've paid it forward, so to speak, and that this is something that we can all implement in our uh lodges today. Now, our next segment is our EMBP speed round where we're going to quickly name off an action that a brethren can easily do uh in their lodge today, and that they can do that without uh any significant guidance from uh Worshwell Master or anybody that this is something that they can just take the initiative and do themselves. So, Eric, we'll start off with you with energy. What creates uh excitement early in a Mason's journey?

SPEAKER_01 55:21

I would say give them something to be responsible for. Like I was saying at the start of our session here today, at a very young age, one of the guys gave me something that I could work with him on and that I was responsible for that he very easily could have just chosen to do himself, but he included me in it and it made me proud to see the thing that I worked on as part of the bigger picture, and it made me feel like I belonged.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Absolutely. Now, Kevin, uh, you're up next with the mentorship. What's the one thing that every mentor should do within the first 30 days?

SPEAKER_03 55:54

Listen. I think that's one thing that we haven't really talked a lot, touched on a lot, but listen to the new brother of noble what they need, what they want, what they're looking for. Listen to them, don't instill what you feel they need to know, understand what they need from you, then help them mentor that way.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

Absolutely. Okay, Eric, you're on the hot seat next. Visibility. How can lodges help newer members see what's possible in the Masonic world?

SPEAKER_01 56:25

I think that I'm gonna draw on actually something from work. We have one of our managers that's been with our company now for 46 years, and every single time we do a new staff orientation, she always tells the new staff that ask questions. When you're going into your new role, ask questions. And if anybody gives you flack for asking questions, tell them Darlene told you to do this. I think that take all these young guys, tell them to ask questions, and tell them that you know, if if so and so gives you flack for asking questions, tell them the worshipful master said you could. And I think A, it'll introduce a bit of comedy, but B, it'll break through that oh, you should just know. Because yeah, it's like I said, insiders forget what it's like to be outsiders.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

Absolutely. Okay, Kevin, you're gonna finish off this segment here with purpose. When does a Mason begin to feel responsible for the future of the lodge?

SPEAKER_03 57:17

I feel that can vary depending on that Mason and where he's at in his journey. Ideally, it's probably a couple years in once he gets a grasp of things and he maybe starts moving through the chairs. Then maybe that's when he's gonna feel responsible. But I feel that, like again, that varies from each Mason and where he's at in his journey. So I don't I can't give a definite timeline on that.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Yeah, that's great. So ritual introduces a man to Freemasonry, mentorship teaches him how to live it. Titles may change, offices may change, but the influence of a good mentor can shape a Mason for life. Eric, thank you for sharing your perspective with us uh today. Do you have any final thoughts for our listeners, for the brethren out there that that they can learn from your experiences?

SPEAKER_01 58:13

I think one thing I would encourage every single person listening to do is if you've had somebody that's been in power for you as a mentor, go and thank them. I think oftentimes people might not even realize that they've supported you in that capacity or may not even realize that you see them as a mentor. I think that taking that brief moment to just show them that appreciation. I've had a lot of great conversations with mentors of mine where I've just sat down with them and just said how much I appreciate it. And it I feel like it deepens that relationship with them as well.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

Yeah, absolutely. Kevin, the final thoughts from you.

SPEAKER_03 58:50

Final thought for me, just let's keep moving forward, let's keep the conversation going. I love having Eric on. I'd like to have him on again down the road, a younger guy, bring some more different insight from his older old farts. I'm gonna put aside. But yeah, let's just keep moving forward this conversation. It's I think it's gonna be a big help, not just for us as Masons and Shreders, but even other organizations out there that are struggling, those fraternal organizations.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Absolutely, and I totally echo your thoughts, Kevin. Again, Eric, we are very thankful that you came on the show today. We're stoked that you're our first guest, and there are a lot of things that we touched on today that we've just barely skimmed over. I can totally see how we could have a conversation, a deeper conversation about some of these items. Uh, we'd love to have you on at some point in the future for sure.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

Absolutely. I would love to chat with both of you some more, and I just want to say how hugely honored I am to be your first guest. This is a very cool experience, and it's been great chatting with both of you.

SPEAKER_03 59:54

First time, second time is gonna be a lot harder.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

Yeah, exactly. Brothers, we hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please consider subscribing and sharing it with another brother who cared deeply about the future of craft as much as Eric or Kevin are I do. Now, if this conversation sparked an idea, reach out to someone, check in with the newer masons, ask a question, offer encouragement, small actions to create strong lodges, strong lodges to create strong freemasonry, and strong freemasonry is the heartbeat don't. Until next time, it's the heartbeat strong. I'm Trevor Elliott, I'm Kevin Cater, and I'm Eric Anderson. See you next time.