History and Civics Challenge

For many years within the fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons there have been discussions on ways to raise the profile of freemasonry and attract new members while staying within the practices of not directly soliciting or advertising.

As an organization with an ancient history it would make sense to use history to project an attractive positive perception of the Masonic Order. It is to that end that I submit the following basic proposal as the possible base for a project to address the issue of increasing membership.

With all the above issues in mind I would like to submit the following proposal on behalf of the Grand Lodge Public Relations and Mostly masonry Committees. It is with the intention of indicating through this project to the general public the Masonic Order is a valid and contributing organization to our overall society while maintaining a low profile.

Note: The following submission should be in no way considered as complete, final or unchangeable. This submission should be considered as the basis of something that can refined to a point where it would be a credit to our fraternity and jurisdiction. Numbers are used as illustrations of the concept and are not to be taken as accurate or final. Any facts used to promote this project will be attached. Should the basic concept be accepted by the Board of General Purposes and authorization to proceed has been granted all of the final details and specifics would be completed by interested Masons the final approval to adopt and go public with this endeavour would rest with the Board of General Purposes.

Therefore all those who read this proposed undertaking should feel free to send all comments and suggestions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

1. Overview:
With a clear indication there is a need to develop a higher level of knowledge of all students in the history of Canada and New Brunswick history and civics (see attached newspaper articles), what better way than through an open competition with substantial rewards for demonstrating that knowledge at the grade 11 and 12 level. By developing and sponsoring such a competition, based on history and civics, the Masonic Order would benefit, in numerous ways from a successful initiative, which would address the issues previously expressed in the introduction.

2. Objectives:

Enhance the interest in Canadian history and Civics of the country
Provide financial support to one or more deserving students for secondary education.
Through various prizes, awards, bursaries, scholarships and acknowledgements by an open public competition enhance awareness to the Fraternity.
Provide another meaningful activity for the Fraternity other than just raising and donating funds to organizations heard from only once a year.
Put the Fraternity before the general public without solicitation in a positive manner.
Establish contact and an open informative rapport with future generations of young people, their present families and relatives.
Provide interested masons an opportunity to work on developing a project that is not labour intensive nor will it be an endeavour where solicitation be the main point for success.

3. Proposed Format:

Each district within the New Brunswick jurisdiction would promote and support a day where registered students would write a 100 multiple choice question qualification examination based on Canadian History and Civics within a 2 hour and 30 minute time limit.
The top 10 scores from each district or the top 70 overall from the qualification examination would than participate in a one day oral, two wrong answer elimination competition, at some specified location decided during final planning hosted by the Grand Lodge of New Brunswick.
The participants would select their own questions for each round from those remaining in the inventory of numbered questions of over 500 questions previously prepared. It is our hope the initial qualification examination questions and the oral questions will be prepared by those who have experience in the education environment. The very same question will not be used twice but could be rephrased.

Example: A student will approach the microphone his or her number is called, possibly ask for question # 159, it will be read to him or her, he or she will respond- the mediator will announce whether or not the answer was correct. The student will take a seat and wait for the next round of questions. A participant is eliminated from the competition after having two wrong answers regardless of what round has been reached.

The rounds will continue until only one person remains who has not wrongly answered two questions over the entire competition. Should there be a tie at the very end with the last 2 competitors having wrongly answered two questions, the rounds will continue until one competitor answers one more question right than the other. The final two competitors will have to answer the same number of questions.

4. Entry Process:

Any registered grade 11 or 12 student can enter the competition in the company of a designated supervisor, mother, father, guardian, teacher or other authorized person.
There will be an initial entry fee of $75.00 which must be received before a determined deadline to be eligible to write the 100 question qualifying examination. Upon competition of the written examination $25.00 will be returned to the participant whether or not they qualify for the final competition. This extra $25.00 penalty is to defray the costs of preparing and setting up for "no shows".
All materials required for the written examination will be provided and will be closely supervised.
The participant can represent a public school, private school, enter as an individual and can be sponsored.
The organizers will provide a list of references used to create the questions which will be used during the competition. That will be the only assistance offered any further material will have to the responsibility of the participants and their supporters.

5. Desired Result:

Have one or more participants benefit through cash prize(s) for their future education beyond high school.
Raise the profile of the Masonic Order by increasing public contact with the Masons who work for this initiative at the various locations and the overall publicity announcing the event and published announcements pertaining to the results of the winner(s).
Create enhanced interest in the fraternity and possible increase membership over a period of time.

6. Jurisdiction and Lodge Responsibilities:

Grand Lodge through Mostly Masonry and Public Relation budgets would provide $1500.00 setup costs for advertising material and posters; examination preparations and competition materials.
Each Lodge would provide $50.00 to the setup and prize structure, each year.
Each lodge would be asked to promote the competition to the high schools in their areas and have their membership work within their entire district to enhance interest and participation.
Each district would provide a location to accommodate the writing of the qualifying examination. (Could be a school, a lodge) The written examination will be written on the same day in every district, starting at the same time.

7. Financial Structure
The following is an indication of what is potentially available and how funds could be used:

The $1500 made available from Mostly Masonry and PR funds would be used to provide setup costs including publicity and examination preparation and record keeping.
The $50.00 provided by each lodge would be divided by $20.00 going towards the setup expenses and $30.00 going into the prize money account.
The entire $50.00 for the entry fees would be placed into the prize money account.

The following format illustration is based on 200 entries, for the division of funds available for prizes would be as follows; (take note the dollar amount over the years may change but the percentages are recommended to remain the same):

Prize money from 40 lodges @ $30.00 each $1200.00
Prize money from entry fees 200 @ $50.00 each $10,000
Total prize pool rounded off to $12,000.00 for easy calculation
- 20% of 12,000.00 will go to cost recovery for Grand Lodge and setup costs for following year ($2400.00)
- 50% of $12,000.00 will go to the first place prize winner ($6000.00)
- 20% of $12,000.00 will go to the second place finisher ($2400.00)
- 10% of $12,000.00 will go to the third place finisher ($1200.00)

(Reminder: the amounts of the cash prizes will depend on the number of entries each year but as previously indicated the percentages should remain the same)

It is hoped there would be no cost to Grand Lodge after the second year.

8. Sponsors:
The issue of having sponsorships from outside the fraternity is something which would have to be considered and could also raise the profile of the event but that time the Board of General Purposes would have to authorize approaching other organizations or businesses and devise a policy for that aspect of the promotion.

9. Brotherly Requirements:
For this event to function and be creditable will require the participation on at least 30 brothers who would lend their experience and knowledge in the preparation of the qualifying examination questions, the 500 plus completion questions and the locations for qualifying examination and helping with organization for the final oral competition. Click here for specific details on this resource

This event is something that would be good for Freemasonry and something all masons could participant and take pride.

10. Conclusion:
As previously stated this is only a basic concept based on the present National Spelling Bee format and would have to be fine tuned with many more details and questions to be answered before the final project would be presented to The Board of General Purposes for the approval and put out to the public.

Last Updated on Thursday, 27 August 2009 08:16

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