Tag Archives: children and masonry

Shout Out for CHiP

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This past Thursday, T and I were helping run one of the most important events that the Masons coordinate. It wasn’t a fundraiser, or a fancy ball, instead, we gave our services away for free.

The CHiP program, or Child Identification Program, sometimes called Masonichip, is a service that Masons help provide, that parents hope they never have to use. CHiP helps create a packet for your child, containing current photographs, a short video, fingerprints, a DNA sample, a scent pad (for scent dogs), and dental impressions. The idea is that in the event a child goes missing, a parent who has participated in the CHiP program simply has to give the packet to police, which will hopefully greatly assist in finding the lost child. Despite what many conspiracy theorists want you to believe, the CHiP program does not microchip or mark your child in anyway, nor is any of the information kept on a list. Nothing, in fact is saved as far as the Masons are concerned, and all of the information goes home with the parent or guardian. Since they grow so fast, it is recommended that a new CHiP packet is made each year in order to have the most up to date information. Often CHiP events are held at county or state fairs, the one that T and I helped out at was at my hospital’s safety fair.

The CHiP program is 100% funded by Masons, and it is Masons and their families that help run the events themselves. The CHiP program actually works directly with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I’m not going to go terribly into too much detail about this topic, because I run the risk of repeating myself. If you would like to know more about the CHiP program and similar programs funded and ran by Masons, including Take25, you can check out last year’s post here. The national CHiP website can be found here. Although often, an individual state will have its own separate website. If Masons do not have a CHiP program in your state or jurisdiction, there is lots of information on the national site about making that happen.I highly encourage you to do so if it is not available in your state.

I’m keeping it short and sweet for this week. I feel that this is a very important program that certainly warrants passing the word along from year to year. If you would like to get involved with a CHiP program in your state, or would like to help start a CHiP program in your state, contact your Grand Lodge.If you have kids and find yourself at an event where a CHiP program is running, I would highly encourage you to have your children participate. It is wonderful for both the welfare of your children, and helps support Masonry at the same time.

That’s all for now; hope you have a wonderful week!

I’m Masonic Youth, and You Can Too!

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Life is hectic. Between work, Lodge, Masonic dinners, and other activities, T and I are forced to schedule time together- and we don’t even have kids yet! A major component of our activities revolves around supporting the Masonic youth organization DeMolay; as I have said before, T and I are both adult advisors. We had our first advisory panel meeting since I joined recently, and even though I was exhausted from work, I came to realize just how much goes into running these groups, and more than that, how often they can be overlooked by the rest of the Masonic family.

What is Masonic Youth?

I go into greater detail on each organization here, but this is the quick recap. There are three Masonic youth organizations, DeMolay for boys, Job’s Daughters for girls with Masonic relations, and Rainbow for Girls, who accepts members with and without a Masonic relationship. The ages for each group varies, but they all age out at 21; old enough to be a member of a Lodge or Chapter for 3 years, which allows them to theoretically transition from one group to the next.

The groups do a lot of different things together, but most activities fall into one of a few categories: regular business meetings, initiation/ritual practice, fun nights, service activities, and fundraising. Each group is set up so that the youth are the ones in charge; they run the meetings, vote on activities, give the obligation to new members, etc. In addition to this, each group has one or two state wide conferences each year, which usually includes ritual competition as well as group activities between Chapters. Some states may have mixed conferences every so often, such as MYLC.

In short, Masonic Youth groups provide excellent opportunities for kids that might not receive them otherwise. The minimal cost (I pay $20 a year for my dues), intermingling of groups (i.e. DeMolay sweetheart, dances), lack of religious affiliation, and Masonic connection and values makes them more appealing for many families over other youth groups, such as the Boy Scouts of America.

What are some issues these groups are facing?

Like all of the Masonic organizations, the biggest issue the youth groups are facing is membership numbers. Following in the footsteps of Blue Lodge, none of the organizations openly advertise, and instead rely solely on word of mouth. As many members of Masonic organizations know, membership numbers have been dwindling in the last decade. It can be very hard to interest people, especially teenagers, to come out and do extra “work” (you would be amazed at the difference of guys that come to fun nights vs nights we volunteer to wash dishes), in addition to school, and for some, jobs. The membership issue, in turn, leads to a lack of public interest and knowledge, and the cycle is fueled again.

While I cannot speak for all chapters of these organizations, I can tell you a bit about what is going on in my own. One cannot say that there is a lack of leadership within our Chapter, in fact, we have a few guys that make excellent and natural leaders, that help the Chapter flow the way that it should. These guys volunteer first, are always there on service days, and encourage others to do the same. The issue is it tends to be the same handful of guys that are in this position. Ideally, everyone should be taking turns filling the leadership roles. This I feel, however, is more due to the nature of the beast that is teenagers. Often, youth feel insecure in themselves, are wary about what their peers think of them, and therefore would rather follow than lead.

Another issue that most, if not all, of the Masonic youth organizations face, is that of money. Each Chapter, Bethel or Assembly must be sponsored by an adult Masonic body. Our DeMolay Chapter is sponsored by our local Shrine, for instance. Usually this simply means that the Lodge, Shrine, or Chapter allows the youth to use their facilities for their meetings. We are lucky enough at our Chapter that our sponsor also allows us to be active in supporting events that they put on, mostly through service. Sponsorship does not, however, usually entail much funding, if any. The majority of the funds required by a Masonic youth organization, come from the public, either fund-raising done by the youth, or from the adult advisors.

What are they doing to remedy these issues?

As I said above, Masonic youth organizations are not really advertised the way that other youth groups are. Often, the only way someone even knows they exist is if their child is a member. At one time, DeMolay used to be a household name (I suppose the same could be said for Masonry), but all you will get is funny looks if you ask around. To my knowledge, no real changes have been made on this front (at least for DeMolay). Unlike Freemasonry, Masonic Youth organizations do have an International Council. Statewide, the youth are encouraged to bring in new members, but that is more or less where that ends. Although all of the groups have moved onto social media, this tends to serve more for communication between members more than anything else. Personally, I am not so sure what I would do to bring in more members, but I do know that something needs to be done if these organizations want to continue in the States. Oddly enough, Brazil and Australia have a booming Masonic youth population. Let’s hope that the US takes a page from our Masonic families overseas.

How a group handles the issue of youth leadership really depends on the needs of the specific Chapter, Bethel, or Assembly. Masonic youth groups encourage youth leadership because they are all lead by the youth, instead of by an adult leader, like Boy/Girl Scouts of America. Just like Blue Lodge and other branches of Masonry, these offices exist on a state level, and unlike Masonry, exist on an international level as well. As far as encouraging the youth to take up these positions is concerned, our Chapter is trying a few different methods. We’ve gotten a bit lax over the years with dress, and we want to encourage our members to dress in business casual, instead of shorts and a t-shirt. Many of them will be joining Blue Lodge soon, and this helps ease that transition, and also helps create feeling of specialness when the Chapter is open.

As far as the issue of money is concerned, there always seems to be only one answer: fund-raising. Our Chapter sells baked goods, and I am sure that Job’s and Rainbow does something similar. Of course, all of the members do pay dues, however the dues cost is low enough that it does not put a lot into our coffers. We rely a good deal on donations from the public, both Masons and not. Many of our activities are paid by the guys themselves, for instance if we go out for ice cream, our comes out of the advisors pockets, like gas money when we go to state events.

What can I do to help?

As always, the number one answer is get involved. I cannot tell you what an awesome time I have had in just the few months that I have been an advisor. If you have the time, and meet the requirements I highly recommend it. You can find your local group through Google, or click the name of the organization, which will take you to the main page. By the way, here are the requirements to become a Masonic youth advisor:

DeMolay
*Any adult 21 and older
*No Masonic affiliation is required

Job’s Daughters
*At least 20 years of age and:
Master Mason
Majority Job’s Daughter
Person of Masonic heritage
Parent, grandparent, stepparent, or guardian of an active or majority member of the bethel

Rainbow for Girls
*At least 24 years old and :
Master Mason
Majority Rainbow Girl
Member of Eastern Star, White Shrine, or Amaranth
Parent, grandparent, or guardian of an active or majority Rainbow Girl

If circumstances do not allow you to become an advisor, there are many other ways to get involved. Encourage your children to become members. If you do not have kids of your own, recommend the organization to friends who are looking for activities for theirs. Suggest to your WM that your Lodge support a Masonic youth group that may be looking for a new home. Contact the head of the group in your area, and see if you can sit in on a meeting, to see what it is all about. Attend public events put on by the groups, and encourage others to do the same. Welcome and greet a Masonic youth just as you would any other Mason or affiliated member, encourage them to also attend your events. This will also help your Lodge or Chapter’s membership when the time comes. If nothing else, donate. Time, money, your backyard pool; it may not seem like much to you, but it can make a world of difference to them.

#MYLC2K14

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Alright! That was a little bit of a rough week! I hope everyone is feeling well, I know that I am. This last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the Nebraska Masonic Youth Leadership Conference, otherwise known as MYLC, as a DeMolay advisor. I had a ton of fun. September was really the month for Leadership, as I also was able to present at the Nebraska Grand Lodge Leadership Conference. I am sure you were expecting a big post about the importance of leadership, and believe me, that is in the works. However, this week I wanted to share everything that we did at MYLC. I had a few kids that this was not only their first big Masonic trip, but also their first overnight stay (far) away from home, and they were a little freaked out. I know that it can be just as scary to send your kiddo off for the weekend without really knowing what it is they will be up to.

Our journey (eventually, after a turnaround for a misplaced cell phone), began with me driving a car full of teenagers at 6am. Luckily, most of them slept through the 3 hour journey across state, and didn’t wake until around the halfway point. Once we arrived, we were given matching t-shirts, and randomly assigned groups. Everyone then convened in the main ballroom, where we were introduced to the state officers for DeMolay, Rainbow, and Job’s, as well as our emcee for the weekend, Amanda Hammett (more on her later). We all then got to know each other quite well via a group photo.

Nebraska only holds their youth leadership conference every three years, and this year we easily more than doubled the attendance!

After a quick ice breaker and a run down of what our day would look like, our keynote speaker, Josh Shipp did his thing. If you ever get a chance to hear Josh speak, do it. I don’t care if you’re a teenager, a grownup, Masonic, or not, that man has a lot of really awesome things to day, and has an excellent way of saying them. I actually had one of our members turn to me and say, “This is so much better than a keynote speaker!” Josh talked about two major points as far as leadership is concerned; don’t be average, and be human. I will be writing more about what Josh had to say next week, so be on the look out for that.

After Josh was done speaking, we had a quick lunch, and then broke up into our respective groups. My group first met back up with Amanda, who talked with us about leadership and failure. She reminded us of something that I think is excellent for youth to be reminded of; everyone fails, and failure is okay, and not the end of the world. Amanda alluded to the fact that she had failed big time, but wouldn’t tell us exactly how until the next day.

Pondering had about our own failures, we headed off to the just for fun part of the day, a Frisbee show put on by Flying Houndz. I’m pretty sure this video will give you a better idea than I can:

Needless to say, it was pretty cool. Our next stop was our service project. We stopped by the local food pantry and sorted canned goods for a bit, before heading to the store to buy some more.Within our groups we broke off into smaller teams of about 5 or so. Each team had about $65 dollars to spend (remember, when you donate to Masonic youth, this is the kind of things you are funding!), and 10 items that we had to buy, the rest we could buy any non-perishable items we pleased. Of course, its more fun with a little competition, so our goal was not only to spend the most money without going over, but also to buy the most amount of items. While my team did not win (we ended up with 129 items, mostly canned goods), I will say that I am very proud of my kiddos, as they decided to vow to not spend any of it on ramen. They felt that buying ramen would be the easy way out as far as winning was concerned, and that no one really wants to eat ramen in the first place, and that the food pantry probably already had pallets of it anyway. They literally decided to sacrifice the win in order to obtain higher value foods (mostly canned veggies and muffin mixes). Can’t say no to that, and I applaud them wholeheartedly for that decision.

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I had been up for about 14 hours at this point, and it was barely 6pm. I was starting to drag, but a nice dinner and my 3rd cup of coffee for the day did the trick. After dinner, we had a beautiful short presentation called the “Nebraska Family Masonic Portrait”. T tells me that they have done it in years past, but I do not think that changes the impact at all. Basically, the head officer for each Masonic organization in Nebraska, or at least someone in the Grand Line, took time out of their weekend, to come and represent their organization for the youth. Although it was short, the results were really quite stunning.

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We were then given a show by a great magician (of which I ended up with no pictures of, somehow), and then it was time for  the tradition for any Masonic Youth conference (leadership, or not), the dance.  It was more or less just like any junior high or highschool dance you’ve ever been to, the girls acting a little boy crazy, and the boys awkwardly standing on the sidelines, not really sure they want to dance with any girls. I suppose this is where I should mention that in my state, girls out number the boys as far as Masonic youth at least 3:1, maybe even 4:1. I talked my guys into staying for 45 minutes, then they could do as they pleased, and was surprised when they agreed. Their time was up shortly after the tradition of Masonic youth dances in Nebraska (at least, I don’t think it happens anywhere else), the Dashboard Light skit. I wish I had video of this, but for some reason I decided pictures would suffice (they don’t). Somehow, at some point in time, a tradition was started where the DJ plays the song Dashboard Light, by Meatloaf. Not the most wholesome song, but I recognize a lot of the kids probably don’t “get” it. During the song, the youth act out this fairly elaborate skit that goes along with the song. I was first introduced to it at the Master’s Ball, where I got drug into doing it with T and his old DeMolay friends. Not sure how it started (I asked, apparently it started sometime in the 80’s). Anyway, the rest of the dance was filled with sweet moves, as seen below:

After some much-needed sleep, our next morning gave us Curt Tomacevicz, an Olympian on the 2 and 4 man USA bobsled team. He spoke to us about fear, and how we can keep it from running our lives and keep us from being leaders. It also resulted in this awesome selfie (excuse the shaggy hair)

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After getting to hold an Olympic gold medal (!), Amanda came to speak with us again, more about failure and success. She lost everything due to a simple error, but was able to find so much more than she had in the first place through talking with youth. She was truly wonderful and very easy to approach.

There was one more point of business to attend to, shown here by our state officers:

With our send off song finished, we hugged our new friends goodbye, and loaded back up into the Expedition to head home. I had a wonderful time, and learned a good deal; not only about leadership, but also about our youth members. I know that many of them felt the same. Too bad it’s another three years until the next one!

Hopefully that helps put some of your minds at ease as far as sending your kiddos off on Masonic youth trips. As I said before, next week I will be covering more in-depth on the content of the two conferences; and a goat.

All in the Family

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For those of you who don’t know me personally, I work at a children’s hospital in my city, caring for babes and teenagers alike. While I was at work this past weekend, my mind wandered to Freemasonry, and how it relates to and affects our families.  After a few quick Google searches, I was a bit flabbergasted to learn that there was actually little to no factual, informative material on how the two interact, and indeed, support one another.

Generation to generation

Perhaps the most common, and often the most asked about topic when it comes to Masonry and family is that of Masonic lineage. Since Masonry was very popular in the 1920’s and 30’s, many of your grandparents or great (or perhaps even great-great), grandparents were involved. You may be surprised to discover this about your family, but with a little bit of digging, asking family, and making some phone calls, it is fairly easy to ascertain a distant relative’s lodge.  This does take a bit more legwork than just doing a Google search, because most lodges do not keep records of past members on their websites, and even if they do, it is usually only the names of past Worshipful Masters. If you are having a hard time tracking down a relative’s credentials, I would recommend contacting the Grand Lodge that you believe they were a member of most recently.

Something that happens not as often as I think it should is one family member raising another into the lodge. This is most often seen as father to son, but I have heard numerous stories of uncle to nephew, cousin to cousin, (blood) brother to brother, and even occasionally, a son raising his father.  T was lucky enough to be raised by his wonderful stepfather, who also installed him as Worshipful Master this year; and¸will be raising T’s oldest brother near the end of this year.

Sometimes, however, I think that sometimes there is a break between generations, usually for one of two reasons, but of course not limited to these two. The first case is that the father is not sure how to approach the subject with his son. For whatever reason, the Mason may feel uncomfortable discussing it, or may not be sure how to approach the topic. Related to this, the father may feel that his son needs to ask, since Masonry heavily enforces the “to be one, ask one” concept. The other way that it usually skips a generation, is that the son may not be interested, or may reject his father’s invitation. This was the case with my own family, as my father was invited to join lodge by my grandfather, but my father was not interested in Masonry at the time. I was more than happy to pick up the torch and continue the tradition of being a Masonic family.

The Masonic Family

Usually when someone is discussing the idea of the Masonic family, they are talking about all of the groups related to Masonry, Blue Lodge, Job’s Daughters, Scottish Rite, etc.  And, it is true, Masonry is a type of family within its own right, both within a specific organization, as well as between. There is, however, another type of Masonic family, perhaps the one that the outsider may think of first- the family raised in and brought together through Masonry. Freemasonry actually lends itself to this idea quite easily.

When you think about it, the idea really makes sense, and the organization of Masonry is that every family member can be a part of it. As you know, there are numerous organizations for women and youth. In addition to this, however, all lodges and jurisdictions put on some sort of family event at least once a year, but usually much more often than that. These usually include picnics, trips to the zoo and circus, or even just a BBQ at the lodge building. The nice thing is that it does not usually take much to organize a family event, and it allows you to meet other families that you already have something in common with-Masonry. If, for some reason, events do not happen like this at your lodge, suggest them to the Worshipful Master or events committee, or even volunteer to put it together yourself.

One of the things that Masonry offers that I feel are not mentioned as much as it should be, is support. Yes, usually support for the Mason is mentioned, however the amount of support that is available to the family as a whole is usually not mentioned to anyone other than the Mason himself.  One of the focuses of Freemasonry is charity, and this extends to its members as well. The two main ways of support that Masonry offers are financial- the Masonic Relief Fund is set up by every lodge and grand lodge, to serve as assistance in dire financial straits. The other form of financial support is through scholarships- for college, mostly, although my chapter does give one out for a Masonic youth band camp. In addition to the financial support, Masonry offers a wide array of emotional support as well; not only through fellowship, but also through actual support groups, such as Masonic widows and widowers. These vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction of course, but many groups are moving online, making them more accessible.

Most often, when you look for something regarding Masonry and families, you will quickly come across two kinds of posts: you will find a lot of conspiracy theorists stating that Masonry is evil and set out to brainwash the men and kidnap the women, and, you will find a number of women that claim that Masonry is the reason for their divorce. Please remember, that above all else, Masonry teaches that family comes first. Masonry is not out to take your husband away from you, nor is it looking to ruin your marriage. Instead, enjoy the nights that your husband goes to lodge, do something nice for yourself, or something special with your children. If you feel that he is becoming too involved in lodge, or that it is becoming a priority over his family, communicate that with him. If he, for whatever reason, does not agree with you, or is not interested in talking with you about it, contact his Worshipful Master and express your concerns to him. In addition to this, if you have a question about lodge, Masonry, or anything related, or simply want to learn more, ask. The only things he cannot share with you are usually specific words or phrases used in the ritual, and secret symbols, such as handshakes.
The point of all of this is, quite simply, that Masonry is more than just something for the Mason, or the man of a household. Masonry can easily encompass the entire family’s needs and social calendar. More than that, Freemasonry allows for a family tradition to be started, or continued, and is something that is easily passed on from generation to generation. Nothing is cooler than receiving pins that belonged to a great-grandparent whom you never met, and know that you stand where they once did. It is a way of bringing the entire family together, not drive you apart, as some people would have you believe. Long story short, Freemasonry is a family affair.

What would you do if your child went missing?

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I was lucky enough to attend my first CHiP event last week, conveniently at my hospital, on a day that I happened to work. I think that the CHiP program is important enough, and prevalent enough within Masonry, that I wanted to help spread the word.

What’s this about chips?

CHiP (sometimes called Masonichip) is the Masonic child identification program, designed to help the authorities find missing children. Here’s how it works: you take your child to a CHiP event, and they will make you a packet for your child, including digital still photo, fingerprints, a DNA sample (from a mouth swab), a short video, a scent pad (for scent dogs), and dental imprints. You get to keep all of the information, there is no giant database that all of this information is kept in, in fact, they delete all of the information after they create your kit, so if you lose any part of it, you will need to go to a new event and remake the part that you lost (or make a new kit). Currently more than 1.5 million kits have been completed in the United States (I believe the program is also in Canada). The program is free of charge.

What does this have to do with Masonry?

The CHiP program is 100% Mason owned and operated, in fact, it was created at the 2004 conference of Grand Masters. It is a charitable initiative, and is primarily funded by the jurisdiction’s Grand Lodge. All CHiP events are staffed by volunteers from local lodges (depending on your jurisdiction, one lodge may always volunteer, or there may be a rotation system). It serves as a wonderful opportunity for you to donate your time to give back to the community, and the idea of helping create something tangible (the kit), may give more of a sense of satisfaction than simply donating money.

Of course, no Masonic charity is without it’s bling. CHiP offers scarves and ties. They are covered in rainbow hand prints, to remind us of the impressions that child leave on our lives. They are kind of loud- but that is the idea here, it gets people to ask, “What’s up with that tie?” Apparently, all brothers that are lawyers will wear them to court when the case involves children in any manner (how cool!). You can order them here.

I was lucky enough to attend my first CHiP event last week, conveniently at my hospital, on a day that I happened to work. I think that the CHiP program is important enough, and prevalent enough within Masonry, that I wanted to help spread the word.

I thought the police department did this?

In some states, the local police or fire department runs a different kind of program. Interestingly, the program that the authorities used is actually based on CHiP, not the other way around. The main difference between the public (police, fire, etc) and the private (Masonic) programs is the way in which the information is handled. In the public programs, all of the information is stored in a searchable database, that the authorities have access to at a moment’s notice. In the CHiP program, however, there is no database, all of the information is deleted after it is confirmed correct and placed in your kit, and you are the only one that has access to the information. This is why if you lose any part of the kit, you have to go and make a new one.

I read about Take 25, what’s that about?

The CHiP program started working in collaboration with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2007 to create a program called Take 25. The idea is simple. Take 25 minutes of your time, to have a conversation with your children (or kids you babysit, friends your kids have over, younger siblings, etc), about safety and abduction prevention. It’s 25 minutes, and not 30, to correspond with National Missing Children’s Day, May 25. Their website has a number of resources available, including conversation starters, safety tips, and general information for you, as well as for your child. It’s a little bit like talking with kids about drugs. You don’t want to think that it will happen, you don’t want to even think about it, but it is more important to talk about it with your kiddos than to ignore the fact that it happens every day. The CHiP program mixes in with the idea of Take25, any child old enough to speak will ask what’s going on, making it a perfect time to talk with them in the event that an abduction or similar would happen. In fact, all CHiP events are also Take25 events, and information for both will be readily available.

Do these programs actually have an impact?

While we can’t be for certain, it’s clear that having programs like CHiP and Take25 are far better than children having no education about the topic, and you having no similar records of them at all. 

Here are some statistics:

  • Approximately 800,000 children younger than 18 were reported missing, since 1999.
    • More than 200,000 children were abducted by family members.
    • More than 58,000 children were abducted by non-family members.
    • An estimated 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. 
    • The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 193,705 missing children since it was founded in 1984. Their  recovery rate for missing children has grown from 62 percent in 1990 to 97 percent today.
  • The MasoniChip program has generated over 1.5 Million “Completed ID Packs” of children for parents since 2004
    • It has conducted over 15,000 events in America alone
      • My home state has held over 311 events, making packets for 37,577 children
    • They have identified over 4,200 children

How can I get involved?

Number one, best answer, hands down- volunteer your time. The events do not run themselves, and in fact take a good deal of man power to put on, especially the larger events. Volunteer with your lodge buddies, or your SO, volunteering for children is a wonderful opportunity. If you are not able to volunteer your time, funds are most often needed when starting up a CHiP program, as the computers are all dedicated for the program, and therefore can become fairly costly. Ask your Worshipful Master if the program is run by Masons in your state, I believe about 18 jurisdictions run the program at this time. If it is not offered in your state, get together with the right people, and get it started. There are also a number of resources available for starting up a program, found here. Each jurisdiction’s program has their own website, which can usually be found on the corresponding Grand Lodge’s website. There is a place to find local events on the main site, but I am not sure that it is working at this time. 

The MasoniChip program’s website is here.

I sincerely hope no one ever needs the information obtained through CHiP, but I would much rather that you have that information!

Have a great week!