Meet the Candidates: Andrew Caroselli for State Scribe

Convention is not to far away, so lets get to know the rest of our candidates for Elected State Office. We have two candidates for the office of State Scribe. Our first is Bro. Andrew Caroselli of Friendship-Bray Chapter. 

Hello, my name is Andrew Caroselli and I am running for the Office of State Scribe. I joined Friendship-Bray Chapter over 3 years ago and after my first weekend at Patton Campus I fell in love with DeMolay. My experience with DeMolay has been amazing and joining this organization has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I still have a good amount of years left until I age out, and having already served as Master Councilor on the chapter level, I want to stay involved and serve on the state level. I want to help give to the members, what DeMolay has already given to me, and then some.

What is your greatest DeMolay experience or accomplishment?

I have had so many great experiences in DeMolay it is hard to count, but one of the best has to be KeyMan University. I have attended KeyMan three times and each one has been very rewarding. I learned how to raise awareness about DeMolay, plan successful events, be an effective leader and so much more. I also got the opportunity to make friends with people that live all over the country and Canada. In just one week, I made relationships that will last a lifetime.

Who are some of your DeMolay influences and how have they inspired you?

There have been many people that have helped me throughout my time in DeMolay, but one of the biggest has to be “Dad” Dennis Hunter. “Dad” Hunter was the Chapter Advisor when I first joined and he guided me through my first couple years in DeMolay and has always been there to help. He convinced me to stick with DeMolay when it wasn’t easy because I was busy with other things, and I'm glad that I did. He inspired me to run for the state line, and if it wasn’t for “Dad” Hunter I would not be where I am today.

What are your goals if elected to serve as a State Officer?

Aside from working with the State Master Councilor and other Elected State Officers which is a given, there are a few goals that I would like to accomplish if I am elected. The first is that I would like to talk to the new members as much as possible and make them feel welcome. To a new guy, simply sitting with them at lunch can go a long way. After I first joined, when I still didn’t really know anybody, I was at my first KeyMan and one of the State Officers at the time sort of took me under his wing. This made me feel welcome and comfortable so that I could meet even more people. On top of this I would like to make sure that DeMolay continues to be a fun organization where everyone can be involved whether you like to play sports or video games. Lastly I would like to visit all the chapters and help in any way that I can. Whether it be by giving ideas on how to improve membership or helping out at an installation. I want to be there to support them.

Meet the Candidates: James McKeown for State Senior Councilor

Convention is soon approaching, and we have more candidates to get to know. We have two candidates for the office of State Senior Councilor. The second is Bro. James McKeown of Friendship-Bray Chapter.

If somehow you don’t know who I am, then let me enlighten you; I’m James McKeown and I am running for the office of State Senior Councilor.

I’ve been a member of Friendship-Bray Chapter for three years now, and wow has it been one wild ride. The whole DeMolay experience itself has helped me through the hardships of growing up. While I can heartily say that I’d be almost the exact same man that I am today without DeMolay, it’s that little sliver that wouldn’t be, that I can 100% contribute to DeMolay. It has helped create in me a sense of fulfillment and belonging that I couldn’t find elsewhere. Now I can sit down and recognize that I have a place in this world. That what I do, matters. I’m not the only person who can say this about DeMolay, but I know that I’m extremely grateful for this gift. Because I realize all of what DeMolay has given me, I look forward to making sure that every single DeMolay finds their own sliver.

What is your greatest DeMolay experience or accomplishment? 

My greatest experience in DeMolay has to be going to Arnold’s Family Fun Center with my Chapter. It wasn’t my greatest experience because of the way it was planned or the center itself, but rather because I not only got to spend some quality time with some brothers in my chapter, but it helped me realize something; that DeMolay is supposed to be fun. I don’t mean that we should just make DeMolay fun, but I feel like we need to put more emphasis on the fun aspects of DeMolay. At the end of the day we should enjoy the short time that we have as members.

Who are some of your DeMolay influences and how have they inspired you? My greatest influence in DeMolay, is “Dad” Mike McKee. He has taught me so many life lessons that I could fill an entire book. However, the most important thing he has taught me, by his example, is to be yourself. I probably don’t need to tell you that we live in a time where being fake or disloyal is the norm. “Dad” McKee has helped me come to the realization that being true to yourself is the only correct way to go and live your life.

What are your goals if elected to serve as a State Officer?

If elected, I would like to focus on three main goals. The first and most important goal of them all is pushing the programs and events that the State Master Councilor has put in the term for this upcoming year. The second goal is to make the DeMolay experience more fun without taking from the general purposes of DeMolay. The third goal is to set up an environment that everyone can be comfortable learning in.

The registration deadline for Convention is June 10th. Make sure you are there for your chance to vote for your Elected State Officers. See you in Gettysburg!

DeMolay Week: The Best Week of My Life

This blog post is from Brother James McKeown, PMC of Friendship-Bray Chapter and Region H Representative for Pennsylvania DeMolay. 

My greatest experience in DeMolay was KeyMan 2016. This was my second time at KeyMan and one of the best weeks of my life. This week was not only one of the best weeks of my life, but it also changed my life.

During the summer of 2016, I was going through some changes in my life. I just graduated from grade school and I was preparing to enter high school. I was super hyped that whole summer to finally leave my school and experience a change for once. During that summer, I was also Master Councilor of my Chapter. Leading up to KeyMan, I was going through a midterm crisis. My term as Master Councilor really wasn’t going the way I wanted it to, and because of this I was losing interest in DeMolay. I felt like taking a break from DeMolay once my term as Master Councilor was over. I didn’t really feel like going to KeyMan at the time. I just wanted to hang out with my friends and not be bothered by DeMolay, but I already signed up, so I had to go.

I got to KeyMan and I was still not excited about being there. I was put in the Ritual Track. I already met half the guys in my group because of the Patton weekends, but the other half were all from Canada. The week started out a little slow. I was enjoying the courses and what I was learning, but I wasn’t having a lot of fun. It started to pick up around Tuesday. I started to get to know the people in my group during the activities we participated in, the times we were eating, and the times we were supposed to be sleeping. I was bonding with these people who I just met or only met a few times. I went to KeyMan the previous year, but I didn’t really bond with the guys in my group. We started to work together as a team. I’ve been on a lot of teams before, but not a team that was this close together. Everything we did together was fun. We had to perform the Opening and Closing of a Chapter and The Ceremony of Light for the end of the week project. I’ve been on tons of ritual teams over my DeMolay career, but not a team that worked so smoothly and so in sync. It kinda felt like we could read each other's mind while performing. People say that ritual makes us unique, but it can also bring us together and help us grow. The week came to a close and I made sure to keep in contact with everyone.

The week might not have been the best and most fun week ever, but it honestly changed me. It made me care about DeMolay again and motivated me to finish my term as Master Councilor with a full head of steam. Without this week, I'm probably not the person I am today.

The Key to Success is to Learn from our Failures

The following blog post is from Brother James McKeown, Region H Youth Representative and PMC of Friendship-Bray Chapter.
Failure; it isn’t fun, but it is something that is a part of life. We constantly have to deal with it in school, sports, personal life, and sometimes even in DeMolay. No one’s perfect, which is why I'm sure we've all experienced failure at least once or twice in our lives. People might think it's a way of saying that you didn't succeed, but I see failure as an experience gained. An experience, good or bad, can be used as experiences for your benefit. Quitting is the only true way to fail at something. I’m going to tell you a few stories of failure that happened to me.

The first story happens over the span of four years. I played basketball for my grade school from 5th grade to 8th grade. Over those four years, I was never on the best team, despite my school having one of the best basketball programs in the Catholic School League. I would always be on the “B” team, due to my lack of skills, but that didn’t stop my team from winning. Every one of those four years, my team would be top three in the league, putting us in good spots for the playoffs. We fought hard each year through the playoffs to make the championship and made it to the big dance all four years! In true Buffalo Bills fashion, we lost the championship four straight years. Looking back at this makes me ask the question, "why?" "Why couldn’t we just win one of those championship games?" "Why couldn’t I step up and do more for my team?" I’m never going to get an answer to these questions. The reason I ask these questions is because they are part of the experience I gained through losing. This experience helped me realize some important things in life. The first thing that comes to mind is that "life is so unfair." We have all heard, or even used this phrase. The only time we think about "life being unfair" is when it smacks us in the face. I truly believe that my team and I never failed. It taught my team and I that winning isn’t everything, that life still goes on after a loss. Losing taught us to keep moving forward and use the loss as motivation to better yourself.   

The second story is about a failure that I experienced in DeMolay. It was September 2017, and happened at the Mid Atlantic Tournament of Champions, which we know better as MATOC. During MATOC, I was set to perform the Magnificent Seven. I should have taken a few lessons from the Boy Scouts prepared better.I was not ready to perform the Magnificent Seven and I was going into this competition knowing that it will not be pretty. The lack of confidence showed, because I got 10 out of a possible score of 1000. I almost gave up halfway through the competition. Quite frankly, I never wanted to do ritual again. This experience of failure was hard to come to terms with, but it also taught me a few key lessons in life. It is still teaching me a lesson, which I still am learning to this day, and that is procrastination is bad. I really wasn’t motivated to learn my part for MATOC and that is the main reason why I procrastinated until the final few days to learn my part. Another lesson it taught me is to be confident. Being confident can make a major difference in one's performance. Looking back at this year's MATOC, I am glad I went. Without this experience of failure, I wouldn’t be learning these key lessons that will help me down the path of life. This experience helps me strive to do better in ritual, because now I know the embarrassment of doing poorly while other people are judging you. Will I do better in ritual now? I don’t know the answer to that question. All I know is that I will strive to do better and try to be the best ritualist I can be. 

Going into writing this blog post, I wanted to share experiences to help combat failure, but I realized that combating failure just comes naturally. We need failures in order to succeed. We need to know the bitterness taste of defeat before tasting the sweetness of victory. I’m glad I got to experience failure, because I can now use these experiences as motivation to better myself. The only way you don’t succeed is when you decide you've given up. Just because you failed at a task, doesn't make you a failure. Learn from these experiences, and I promise you that you will succeed.

Selling the DeMolay Product

In order for DeMolay to grow, chapters must find ways to sell the organization to the general public. DeMolay is a worldwide organization, however when brought up in conversation with our peers, a lot of people know nothing about us. As members and advisors, it is our job to get the word out to the community. Sometimes that means putting on the salesman hat and selling the organization the best that we can. How do we do that? Here are some examples of how to sell DeMolay, and some examples from chapters in Pennsylvania to prove that these methods work.

Advertise in Publications
One of the best ways to advertise DeMolay is to promote in the local community newspaper. Recently, Elizabethtown Chapter and Chester Pike Chapters have done just that. Chester Pike Chapter advertised their local flea market to the community, while also explaining briefly what DeMolay was in the advertisement. Elizabethtown Chapter publicized the activities they participated in within the community, including the Dodgeball for Dyslexia Tournament and the Chicken Pot Pie Dinner they hosted.

Promote within the local Schools
I've mentioned this example before, but since it deals heavily with the membership growth of Pennsylvania DeMolay, it's worth mentioning again. Friendship-Bray Chapter has recently sent flyers and other information to local school to help promote the organization to the young members of the community. Rob Caroselli, an FBC advisor, is also a Principal of Fox Chase Elementary School, which has helped promote DeMolay to the young men of their school. FBC has brought in 9 members to DeMolay so far this year because of this, and looks to bring in even more in the near future. Since this took place, other chapters across the state have started to put together programs to target local school districts as well.

Get your Government Officials to buy in to the product
This year for DeMolay Month, we had several DeMolay Chapters that received proclamations from local Government Officials. This means that they show support to the program. Congratulations to Allentown, Pilgrim, Friendship-Bray, Chester Pike, Elizabethtown and all the other chapters that have reached out and received support from their local Government Officials.

How did these chapters have so much success in promoting the organization? There are a few factors that go into selling your product:

Know your target audience: Recognize who it is you plan to reach out to, and find the right way to promote to that group. If you're reaching out to youth, you may want to impress upon them the fun activities that we provide. If you're trying to reach out to the parents, you may want to explain to them the scholarship opportunities, honor roll challenges and other activities that will make a parent happy. If you're reaching out to a local Representative, explain the community based activities and offer a helping hand. 

Confidence: This is one of the biggest keys to success. The way the product is presented is important to know whether a person is buying in. If your excited about what you're promoting, a customer will acknowledge that and be more likely to buy in themselves. Remain calm and remembers what drives you in DeMolay.


Keep it simple: The saying "less is more" is very true. Make sure all of the facts are covered, without dragging on for long periods of time. If they seem interested enough to ask questions, that means they are engaged and want to know more. If its a news article that you are writing, keep it to a few paragraphs.

Hopefully this helps give some insight into promoting DeMolay. Go out there and sell DeMolay proudly!

Until next time - "Dad" Joe Pullin
  

Five Fun Years of FBC

The PA DeMolay Offices are in overdrive as we continue to gear up for Key Man University and Convention 2014. So, today, we thought we'd share something special. This is a scan of a fifth anniversary publication from Friendship - Bray Chapter, one of the oldest Chapters in PA. This scan details the early history of the Chapter and has some neat call backs to what DeMolays did more than 75 years ago. Check it out! (Click the image to make it larger.)



Make sure you stop back on Thursday for another round of Department information from KMU! Frat! ~ "Dad" Seth Anthony

Westmoreland Road Warriors

Today's article is brought to you by "Dad" Bruce Neubauer of Westmoreland Chapter, located in Greensburg, PA.

What do you think about when you hear visitations points? I bet you think about taking a trip to a DeMolay Chapter and getting points for the competition. I don't want to say that this is not important, because it is. When the guys from Westmoreland visit another Chapter we take the visitation form to to get signed and send it in for points. Our members enjoy traveling and want to win the competition. But, how about we think about visitation points in a different way. Instead of points, think about visitation ideas and thoughts.

What I've have learned about visitation points is that it is not just a number on a piece of paper; it is indeed a powerful tool. Our members  at Westmoreland Chapter first started traveling to get "the Judge" (the PA DeMolay travelling gavel.) That might be how we started, but it has grown from there. Now, don’t get the wrong idea. Westmoreland is still dedicated to bringing "the Judge" back to Greensburg. But now we look forward to travelling for other reasons too. As Advisors, we do not talk about the competition. We just say there is an activity coming up and the DeMolays ask at a meeting "...who wants to go?" Fortunately we have the advisors that like to travel and enjoy the events just as much as the young men.

I would like to take my story back to Key Man 2010 for a minute. Key Man proves the idea that in DeMolay, the members and advisors you don't know are just friends that haven't not met yet. We came home from Key Man and a couple months later one of our members said that he wanted to go to an installation at a Chapter that a friend he met at Key Man belonged too. Without asking where the Chapter was, the answer from the transperation advisor was "Sure!" Then we found out the Chapter was North East Chapter in Philadelphia. But you know what, the answer was still "yes."  Our member went on the visit out of friendship and brotherhood. He didn't want to make this visit for points - he wanted to make it personal.

This past Sunday one of our Appointed State Officers from Westmoreland Chapter was asked to help at an installation of officers at Friendship-Bray Chapter. We had three other members ask to come along. At the last minute another office needed filled and one of the guys coming along agreed to fill in. Again this does not sound like a cut-throat points based competition. It sounds like brotherhood. It also sounded like a chance to capture one of the most illusive pictures in PA DeMolay history - a shot of "Dad" Rick Freedman, a long time Philly area resident, wearing what can only be described as a Pittsburgh Steelers collar. Great work!

As I was riding home from Friendship-Bray I started thinking how important it is to support other Chapters. I feel that one of the most important days in a Master Councilor's term is the Installation. It would be great if you could get all the nearby Chapters to show support.

The advisors of Westmoreland DeMolay are very proud of our young men. They have certainly caught the spirit and gotten the meaning of DeMolay.

If you let Westmoreland know when you are having an installation, We might just be there.

"Dad" Bruce Neubauer is the Chairman of Westmoreland Chapter. He has attended the last two Key Man Conferences and is quickly becoming a familiar face around PA DeMolay. He is actively involved in the Tall Cedars of Lebanon, where he serves as a District Deputy Supreme Tall Cedar and was elected to the Board of Directors. He also does a great job explaining how important the funny hat they wearreally is (its called a "pyramid" by the way) . This editor certainly appreciated it and will wear his proudly.