Depending on the degree to be performed, certain individuals are responsible for the general preparedness, communication and hosting of a First or Second Degree. This section will define who is responsible and what the expectations of each person is.
FIRST DEGREES:
All First Degrees are the responsibility of the GK of each council. That
includes appointing team members, monitoring team preparedness and communicating
all degree dates. It is important that once you have the interest of
a new perspective candidate to the Order that you get him to a First
Degree as soon as he is able to attend. It is expected that the DD will
follow up with each council GK in their District to ensure that they
are ready and prepared for hosting a degree. The following are the responsibilities
of GKs for hosting a First Degree. Now that every council has a First
Degree Team, you should be conducting a First Degree at least once every
other month. This will help ensure that any new candidates can be initiated
into the Order as soon as they say “YES” to becoming a Knight.
It has been proven that the longer you wait to get a candidate to his
First Degree, the greater the chance of losing that person.
In addition, at least 2 weeks prior to the date your council is hosting a First Degree, contact the other councils in your district, your DD, your RDD, and your Insurance Agent. Give them the date, time, and place of the degree. Ask the councils to get back to you within a week of the degree if they will be bringing candidates to your degree or not. In other words, return communications is needed. We will talk more of communications under that section. Once your DD gets notification of the degree, he will contact the DDs in the immediate area and find out if any of their councils would like to bring candidates to the degree and they will be asked to contact the host council with this information.
Starting a Council First Degree Team
Every First Degree team must eventually be certified.
Every council should have a “certified” First Degree team.
However, based on the new rules from Supreme, the GK, DKG, and Chancellor
parts may be read. Once all the parts are memorized, certification of the
team is done by your DD. If he is not able to certify a team, he will contact
his RDD, one of the State Officers or the State Ceremonials Chairman to
certify the team. If you are just starting to form a First Degree Team
and aren't ready to do your own degree, this should not inhibit you from
HOSTING a First Degree. Offer to host a degree for other councils in your
district and ask one of the other council teams to come in and put on the
degree for you.
Councils with Existing First Degree Teams
Councils with existing degree teams must practice prior to putting on a
degree. All parts must eventually be memorized. Reading is allowed when
first forming a team. If it has been a while since members of your team
have done their parts, practice is good to help ensure they have their
parts down, and are ready to exemplify this degree. Your DD will enforce
this. The beauty and dignity of the lessons taught depends on the proper
performance of each team member. As the host council, if you are having
trouble getting degree team members together for a degree, the GK must
contact their DD right away and he should be able to help you find someone
to fill in where needed. Do not wait until the last minute to find out
that a person is not available. The team captain must be in constant
communications with his team. When the GK sends out notice to the DD,
RDD and Insurance Agent, he should also verify their ability to attend.
General Guidelines when Hosting a First Degree
Never cancel degree just because you only have one candidate. If this is a degree your council is hosting, and there is only one candidate, ask a brother to stand in with the candidate while taking the degree. There have been many men lost to the Order because of canceled degrees.
First and foremost, no candidate ever goes to a degree by themselves. This means there is always at least one member to accompany him to a degree. This should be the person who sponsored the candidate when at all possible.
During a degree, is it acceptable to have one team member assigned to follow the degree with the degree book open. No matter how well we practice or how well we know our parts, it does happen that a team member gets stuck. This person can prompt the team members as needed. Many teams have the music man do this since he has the degree book open already.
Many have expressed a concern about holding a First Degree on a meeting night because it makes for a very long evening. If this is the case, host the degree on another night, but send out a notice to all brothers to please come and welcome the new members of their council by observing the degree. I have heard from several new members that they were overwhelmed by so many brothers being there for them while taking the degree. If the consensus of your brothers is that they would prefer NOT to attend a special degree night, then as the GK, you have no choice but to hold First Degrees on a meeting night.
SECOND DEGREES:
All Second Degrees are the responsibility of the DD. That includes appointing team members, monitoring team preparedness, finding a council to host the degree, and communicating the degree dates. It is important that once you have the interest of candidates to take their Second Degree, you get them to this degree as soon as they are able to attend. It is expected that the DD will follow up with other councils in his district, other DD’s, the RDD(s), the State Ceremonials Chairman, and Insurance Agent(s) as soon as he knows when the degree is scheduled. Once this has been done, he needs to let the host council know what councils, DDs, RDDs and Agents need to be on the degree notification. It is the host council’s responsibility to communicate with the councils, DDs, RDDs, and Insurance Agents to advise them of the date, time and place of the degree. It is also their responsibility to stay in touch with all the councils notified of the degree to ensure they have an accurate number of candidates that will be taking the degree. This will help ensure that any new candidates can be initiated into the Order as soon as they say “YES” to wanting to be a Knight. It has been proven that the longer you wait to get a candidate to his Second Degree, the greater the chance of losing that person in your council.
Starting a District Second Degree Team
Every Second Degree team must be certified.
Every district should have a “certified” Second Degree team
to perform a degree. Certification of a Second Degree Team is done by a
State Officer or the State Ceremonials Chairman. If you don’t have
a certified Second Degree Team, start by getting a couple of men to learn
the DD and GK parts or some smaller part. Then talk it up at council and
district meetings and with the new brothers. Over time this will lead to
more interest and before you know it, you will have a team. Not having
a certified team should not inhibit you from HOSTING a Second Degree. If
your district does not have a team, offer to host a degree for other districts
in your area and ask one of the other district teams to come in and put
on the degree for you.
Districts with Existing Second Degree Teams
Districts with existing degree teams must practice prior to putting on
a degree. All parts must be memorized. There is no reading allowed. If
it has been a while since members of your team have done their parts, practice
is good to help ensure they have their parts down, and are ready to exemplify
this degree. Your RDD will enforce this. The beauty and dignity of the
lessons taught depends on the proper performance of each team member. As
the host district, if you are having trouble getting degree team members
together for a degree, the DD must contact his RDD right away and he should
be able to help you find someone to fill in where needed. Do not wait until
the last minute to find out that a person is not available. The team captain
must be in constant communications with his team. When the host GK sends
out notice to the RDD, Insurance Agent, and State Ceremonial Chairman,
the DD should also be verifying those members able to attend.
General Guidelines when Hosting a Second Degree
First and foremost, no candidate ever goes to a degree by themselves. This means there is always at least one member to accompany him to a degree. This should be the person who sponsored the candidate when at all possible.
During a degree, is it acceptable to have one team member assigned to follow the degree with the degree book open. No matter how well we practice or how well we know our parts, it does happen that a team member gets stuck. This person can prompt the team members as needed. Many teams have the music man do this since he has the degree book open already.
The host council should not hold the Second Degree on the same night