Page 5 - MFM Nov 2014

Overveiw of the First
Montana Masonic Youth Convention

Brothers and Friends,
This year marked the 1st Montana Masonic Youth Convention. Montana DeMolay and Montana Job’s
Daughters teamed up for a fun filled, jam packed weekend. Although there were some bumps in the
road, the weekend turned out to be fantastic for all involved.
Two new members were initiated into DeMolay on Friday afternoon, with a complete initiation which
included both Degrees. On Friday evening, both Job’s and DeMolay performed a Joint Formal opening
to kick off the weekend of General Sessions.
The General Sessions included  legislation items, which is more than Montana DeMolay has had in
several years. These legislation items included some major proposed changes that would affect changes
in the bylaws. There were 3 legislation items that pertained to changing the DeMolay State Officers
Core, and the one that pasted allowed the State Chapter to add or remove State Offices (elected and
appointed) as the membership for Montana changes.
One major item that passed included a legislation on giving the State Chapter guidelines on how to deal
with a situation if an active member is caught at an event using drugs or alcohol. This was a big step for
us as we have never had solid guidelines on how to deal with this situation. The boys were adamantly in
support of this legislation and passed with no opposition.
The weekend ended with our Grand Banquet, Montana Miss Job’s Daughters election and the Installation
of Montana DeMolay’s New State officer Core. After which was the Grand Ball which went off without
a hitch, thanks to awesome DJing of DAD Josh Williams of Helena. All in all it was a fantastic weekend
filled with brother and sisterhood, Ritual completions, and heated debate on Legislation Items.
I want to thank everyone involved in making the first Montana Masonic Youth Convention and
tremendous success. Without you, I don’t think we could have done it. I would also like to thank our
Grand Master Don Cerovski; Deputy Grand Master Brian Murphy; Grand Secretary Reid Gardiner; and
Brother Justin’s Grandfather and Grandmother for helping out with the installation. It is always amazing
to see the support or our sponsoring body, Grand Lodge of Montana. You gentleman are great!
I hope you all have a great year, and Montana DeMolay looks forward to attending the 201 Grand Lodge
of Masons of Montana and performing what proves to be another great initiation.
Thank you all again
Fraternally,

DAD Shawn Ratchford (3) – State Ritual Advisor

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