.png)
The edict reads as follows:
Due to the Grand Master's and the Arizona DeMolay State Association's loss of faith and trust in DeMolay International and the Arizona DeMolay Foundation, effective as of this date, no Mason under the jurisdiction of The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arizona will be a part of, participate in or sponsor any part of DeMolay International, the Arizona DeMolay Foundation or the Arizona DeMolay State Association or any other DeMolay associated organization.This story will be updated as more information becomes available. (Note the August 15, 2024 date is incorrect and was probably left in error from a previously used letter. The edict really was issued Monday.)
Given the number of Masons who have been involved in Demolay over many years, this presents all kinds of complications. Unfortunately in addition to our membership decline because of demographics and changing interests, we compound the problems with a depressing number of incidents such as furor over offices and litigations aplenty. In the final analysis, we have a grave leadership crisis.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it would be a good idea to wait to see what drove the decision.
DeleteHmm. Has this been verified. The date on the edict is August 15 2024. It’s not new. Clearly there should be more info by now - assuming the edict is authentic.
DeleteI think the date discrepancy was due to an error. I would guess the template of the letter had the old date on it and the person who typed it, forgot to change the top date. The edict was issued within the past week.
DeleteThe edict indeed in place for Arizona Masons.
DeleteInfighting between adult factions (foundation and state association) could be causing the issues. Some Masons are lining up between one faction or the other. This could be carrying over into lodges. Bottom line: adults fight, boys lose.
ReplyDeleteDeMolay has always been the future of Freemasonry. Cutting off your own pipeline for future Freemasons is a horrible look. Shame on this grandmaster. He should know better and put his fraternity first.
ReplyDeleteThe Grand Master did the right thing here. It is a necessary break until DeMolay International cleans up
DeleteThe Grand Master did the right thing here. The Leadership at DeMolay International had lost their way
DeleteThere is a lot of politics most likely involved. DeMolay Internatiobal happens to have a more progressive and accepting stance regarding membership so if a Grand Master has a stick up his rear and is strongly conservative, you'd end up with this type of stuff where the boys now have to suffer all because a grand master wants HIS politics imposed. This wouldn't be the first time i seen it despite the "no religion or politics" aspect.
ReplyDeleteFactions, infighting between the state association and foundation. Nepotism in one of them (the foundation President and Vice President are brothers, and until yesterday, the father was also listed as an officer on the website). I don’t know what kind of job they’re doing. They might be doing a good job, it just has the perception of looking bad. And I’ve also heard on the other side, the acting executive officer for the state association was not actually doing anything. Again, I don’t know, just saying what I’ve heard. The adults seem to be lining up with one side or another and having a pissing contest to see who will win. Bottom line is the boys lose. I can’t help but to think the Grand Master is right in his decision, at least until there is a complete restructuring and the men wish to do what is in the best interest of the members, not the adults. But since one of the adults involved is set to be Grand Master of DeMolay next year, it gets even more complicated. Rainbow and Job’s aren’t exactly doing well in AZ for the same reason. Adults on power trips.
ReplyDeleteAs an AZ Mason, we were shocked when we heard this edict come out, and of course there was no explanation at the time, but I have since heard about what is going on. I am going to stress however, that this is only what I have heard (from a PGM, so relatively reliable) and may not be the definitive truth, but it will give some context on why the edict was made.
ReplyDeleteIn AZ, the leader of Demolay is an AZ MM (and presumptive leader of Demolay International for the next year), and his two sons, who are also AZ MMs are the Treasurer and Secretary of the AZ Demolay. My understanding is that this gave the impression of potential impropriety, with a single family running the entire organization (as the Treasurer and Secretary are supposed to be each other's check and balance to controlling the money of the org).
A request was made that someone else be put into either of those positions by the AZ GL to remove any doubt about impropriety. This request was denied by the leader of AZ Demolay, but he appointed two women to the Board to supposedly add more individuals to help govern. Except, that these women were told they had voting rights on the Board, but were not in fact given voting rights (I am unclear on this part, as it may simply be that the 3 MM can outvote them).
The AZ Grand Master then went to Demolay International to request mediation, and was told that even if they did mediate, the AZ Leader would be the leader of Demolay International the next year, and could simply rescind anything done and thus Demolay International was not going to do anything to change the situation.
The fact that none of the AZ MM family running AZ Demolay is willing to allow someone else to replace one of them, has made the Grand Lodge of AZ more suspicious that there may be financial impropriety going on (there was an incident last year where a Treasurer embezzled some money at one of the AZ Lodges, which has prompted the GL to look more closely at these things).
But since they are two separate organizations, and the only way to remediate the issue was moot thanks to the AZ Demolay leader being the next Demolay International leader, the edict was issued to put pressure on them. As the Demolay bylaws state that they may only meet with a MM present, this edict effectively shut down Demolay in AZ.
There are a lot of unhappy Masons on both sides of this issue here in AZ. Who is in the right? I have no idea. But I can understand the Grand Lodge's position.
A little fact checking is needed. According to the AZ DeMolay Foundation, the President and Vice President are both from the same family as the International Senior Councilor (his sons). The treasurer and secretary are not related.
DeleteNot completely true. The sons of the guy who is supposed to be the Grand Master of DeMolay next year (Bill Gordon), are President and Vice President of the AZ DeMolay Foundation. Not Secretary and Treasurer. What’s interesting is that until just a couple days ago, the father (Bill Gordon) was ALSO listed as an officer in the foundation (there were five officers listed on the Foundation website a few days ago, three from the same family. I noticed his name was taken off the Foundation website when I looked at it again yesterday. Is he still an officer? I don’t know. Although the main “leader” page of the Foundation website shows Chase and Chandler (no last names), if you click on the photos, Chase’s last name (also Gordon) is there, but in the “about” for Chandler, his last name has been deleted. Why do that unless you know that it could be viewed as an issue? The last names of the two other officers are also not on the “main” leader page, but their last names are in their bios. By the way, the DeMolay State Association is different than the Foundation. They’re both a part of AZ DeMolay, but have different roles. To have three of the five officers of the Foundation related isn’t a good look. The Grand Master is correct.
ReplyDeleteThe molay members Must be relative of a Brother Freemason . Them their job are to be Leaders of the others kids in town. it is the way done in Brazil. Please God do not let they change it!
ReplyDeleteHas anyone actually done any public research on the Arizona DeMolay Foundation? They have a website: https://www.azdemolayfoundation.org. it looks like two brothers are on the Board of Directors, but what does that prove when there are two others to even it out?One of the Board Members its says has served six years on the Amaranth Diabetes Foundation. I can't speak to what's happening but it's pretty easy to see what they have available online -- looks like they publish information regularly about their donations and programming.. https://issuu.com/azdemolayfoundation/docs/impact_report_-_adf https://issuu.com/azdemolayfoundation/docs/2023-2024_impact_report
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else find it weird we haven't seen anything more from the Grand Lodge on any of this? If there were actual allegations, why not bring Masonic charges or make the Brethren aware of it so we could understand and not have to ask these questions? Stinks of politics to me....
Edict seems like a way to get around Masonic charges when you just don;t like someone but you are lucky enough to be the Grand Master...
Every DeMolay I've known that's become a Mason has been one of the better ones. Don't like this decision at all. Something is fishy.
Just to put the record straight, the current treasurer of the AZ DeMolay foundation is NOT related in any way with the president or the International Sr Councilor. The president, vice president, and international SR councilor are from the same family. That is where the issue is.
ReplyDeleteThe three Gordons posted a letter on Facebook yesterday. They’ve resigned from all DeMolay activity. Three were officers on a five-member foundation board. I can’t help but think that had two of them resigned from the board when this started, none of this would have happened. Again, I’m not saying there was wrongdoing, but to have three members of a family n a five-member board looks very bad.
ReplyDeleteThe father was an ex-officio director. The Executive Officer and State Master Councilor are also ex-officio members. Do you understand what that means? The President, though a son, could only break a tie. With only three other voting members, a tie was never going to happen.
DeleteOne son was elected by the Board in 2018. The other was added by a Board of 9 sometime later to specifically serve as Secretary when Jim Miller stepped down after 10 years. Both boys were re-elected every year, though the board did get smaller to accommodate the changes to the fundraising platform.
I read the family's statement on Facebook. They claim they raised $100,000 in 4 years for the Foundation that everyone seems so concerned about. Did the Grand Master of Masons actually level an Edict to extinguish three people who raised so much money?
ReplyDeleteMust be more, right?. Honestly, a Grand Lodge just created a huge riff with DeMolay International. Do they have evidence they want to share with the Master Masons under their Grand Jurisdiction? Never in my years as a Mason have I seen a Grand Master of Masons target individuals and yet have never brought Masonic charges or shared concerns openly. This is the problem with our organization, one man holds all power and can use it vindictively.
Grand Master should be made to answer for his actions.
The concerns were expressed that three members of the same family should NOT be three of the five members on a five member board. They were not accused of wrongdoing, but there were concerns about the perceptions of this and that the three family members basically decided how all the money would be dispersed since three family votes could outvote the other two board members. They were asked to rectify. It would have been simple. Two resign, but still work behind the scenes for DeMolay. They refused. No one accused them of wrongdoing. But certainly, they should have realized how it could be perceived. So, I ask you, was their work for DeMolay only for a title? Or was it for the members? Two of them could have stepped back from being on the foundation board, but still actively work for DeMolay. But they refused. Doesn’t matter how much money they’ve raised, it simply doesn’t look good to have three members from one family making all the decisions. If they felt it was ok to do this, why did they remove the father’s name from the foundation website last week, and then one of the brother’s last names completely from the website, also. I believe the Grand Lodge was correct in asking them to fix the issue, neither they nor DeMolay International would.
Delete