Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries

2023 Grand Lodge: Job's Daughters

John Schwietz

Audrey Mayer, Grand Bethel Honored Queen of Minnesota Job's Daughters and Todd Mayer, Associate Grand Guardian enlighten us regarding Jobies.

All right. We are back here at the annual communication of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota. I'm here with, uh, Todd Mayer and his daughter Audrey. And, uh, it's Todd's daughter, but also job's daughter, correct? Yeah, I'm the Grand Bethel honor queen of Minnesota. So you are by far the youngest person that is here today that I've seen maybe a couple of those lads that we were just talking to. So tell me, what was it that originally attracted you to job's daughters? It gets all the learning experiences and the opportunities that job's daughters offers. Okay. Growing in confidence, public speaking skills, having different leadership roles and everything you learned through that. That's what attracted me to Job's Dodges. Wonderful. Are you a student right now? Yes, I'm a student at University of Wisconsin River Falls. Very nice. Where did you grow up? Um, Andover, Minnesota. Did you go to Andover High School? Yep. Okay. So what are you studying at, uh, at River Falls?, I'm an animal science companion. Animal management major. Oh, cool. Yes. Who knew? Yeah. Now, Todd, tell us a little bit about your, uh, Masonic history. What was it that, uh, originally compelled you to, uh, become a Mason? Um, originally I, uh, I needed something to belong to after I, uh, like I say, I'm a stay at home dad. I was looking for something to do. Uh, I, I tell the story that my, my family was, was all odd fellows. Okay. And kind of contacted them, tried to find out, you know, a little bit about them, never heard from'em. And then, uh, I found out if there was a, a lodge in Anoka, which is the next town over. And. Um, from then on got really involved past Master a Good Lodge in the Noka, similar to, uh, a lot of the other, uh, organizations. It's like joined, joined a bunch of'em and then, uh, found out about job's daughters and, uh, they, uh, they both became Jovi Tobes, which is for eight years old to 10 years old. Then she, they both joined and. So you have a sister that's a, Ajovy? Yes. I have a younger sister. Her name is Molly. Okay. And she's the current honor queen of Bethel 48 Anoka. Okay. So tell me about this past year or how long have you been serving as the Grand Bethel Honor queen? Uh, it's actually been three weeks. How have the last three weeks been? Great. Uh, it's planning and at college I'm planning, I'm on Zoom calls. Okay. Working on the next events. I'm also traveling home to attend Bethel events, OES installations, lodge installations, really everything we can to help out and support our Masonic family. So were you like a deputy Grand Bethel honor queen before, or how does that work? Tell me about the hierarchy of, uh, Jovi's. So, usually. You take a test to become Grand Beth, senior Princess. Okay. And then you move up to Grand Beth, honor Queen. Okay. Ours was special this year because last year we did not have a Grand Beth Senior Princess. Okay. So there was a few of us who took the test to become Grand Beth, honor Queen and Grand Bethel Senior Princess. Okay, so the highest score becomes Grand Beth, honor Queen. Second one. Here we are. Yes, comes Graham Bethel, senior Princess. We have nothing but champions on this podcast. And one of the things that, uh, Needs to be kind of explained. Cause I think a lot of the races don't know is that, so Audrey's the Grand Bethle queen, she is the job's daughter's representative for Grand Bethel. So she's in charge of the, the Bethels in the state. Okay. Uh, we also have the Miss Minnesota job's daughters, which is Crystal and cook. She'll be here later on today. Okay. And she is the public face of Joe dos. So you're kind of the business side of the, uh, kind of the brains, the operat, let's just say it. Yeah. I run the Grand Buffalo meeting, work with all the girls, kind of assist wherever needed at initiations installation. So that's why we want a high score for that, uh, that position. What year are you at? Uh, at River Falls? I'm a freshman. You're a freshman, okay. And how has the, how's your school year gone? So, It's been great. River Falls is a great, um, animal science school. Oh my gosh. Yes. School, agricultural school. So we go to the lab farm, do all sorts of classes like that. So are you guys involved in agriculture before you went off and decided to do this or, uh, no. We live in the suburbs. Okay. So not a lot of agriculture, but I've definitely learned a lot more when I went to school. Very cool. So at what point in your life did you decide this is what you wanted to do? Um, about, because it's very specialized, it sounds like. Yeah, at about ninth grade I wanted to work with animals, specifically companion animals. Yeah. And I was kind of thinking I wanted be a vet, but. Wasn't quite sure. So I decide on River Falls and now I'm hoping to work with service dogs in the future or manage a vet clinic or boarding facility. Very cool. from my understanding, trying to get into vet school is more difficult than getting into medical school. it's so tough and if you put all your eggs in that one basket, What do you do where it sounds like you're really, you know, you kind of know what you want to do and you're going to, you're doing it, which is terrific. Congratulations. Thank you. What does, uh, the, the, the forthcoming year, what are you looking most forward to? Um, I'm looking forward to being part of the new service dog training program at River Falls. It's called Falcon Fetch. Oh, cool. So we are having dogs live in the dorms with us and go to classes, go to events, and go out in the public with us. That is b. I had a son that was a, uh, freshman in college. 2020 is when he graduated from high school. So his first year of college was Covid lockdown. And I remember him talking about the fact that on a couple of occasions they brought some therapy animals in. My wife, grew up on a farm and to her, animals are utility. They're not pets, they're not meant to be fun. But my son just talked about how he couldn't believe how calming having those, uh, those, those animals were. Cuz you really couldn't interact with other people the way that you do as a traditional college student and so on and so forth. Well, I really appreciate your time. I know uh, grand Lodge is about to start here, but, uh, any other, uh, would you like to make a plug for job's daughters? Um, I would say one of the things, um, uh, when you were asking what she's looking forward to, one of the things that we're looking forward to is at the end of this month, it's a busy month, uh, but the, uh, job SARS has her an, their, uh, leadership summit at the end of this month. Oh, cool. Which will be, uh, in, uh, Duluth. It's, uh, sponsored by the, uh, grand Lodge. We have that leadership, uh, fund that we have, so we'll be using that. And I think one of the things when, when Audrey or myself, cuz I'm the associate here, guardian talk about job's, daughters, and they ask again what, what are the benefits? And I think some of the, it's the leadership, it's the speaking, but I think it's a lot of the girls don't know what they're getting out of job's daughters until they're in college. Um, you were in, what class did you have this fall semester? Uh, leadership and group dynamics. And you're taking this class and we've had a couple other daughters who've taken classes like that in school and they come back and they say, it was so easy. I bet. Cause they talked about Parliament procedure and we had to go over Parliament procedure. They know all that. Yeah. You know, public speaking, I had to give a speech. It's not a big deal that they get all these skills that again, if you ask a 15 year old tomorrow when they're here for the, the living crops, what are you getting outta Joe's daughters? They won't be able to. But when they get to be, you know, in college, when they get, they'll know. When they know and they're like, wow, we learned so much. The light bulb goes on, you know, we're messing around, we're having fun. But, you know, Audrey's meeting all these, all these, uh, masons and yeah, I'm kind of in the background, but they've got no problem coming up with these masons cuz they know that, you know, they're friends and they can count on them. Now Audrey, is Eastern Starr in your future? I'm not quite sure. I'm quite sure quite busy at, at the moment. Very, it's a fair answer, but I will be at Grand Chapter. Okay. As a representative. Well, I will see you there. See you there. All right. Well thank you for your work too, Todd. As associate Grand Guardian, I know that there's a lot of work that, who's the Grand Guardian? Uh, Beis Hagan. Okay. She'll be here later on. She's here, uh, for the, uh, VIP event last night. Okay. But, uh, she had to work. She'll be here later on tonight. And then, uh, of course we'll be here for the installation. Wonderful. Well, thank you for your time and, uh, are you speaking this morning? I am not. You're not? Nope. Good. Yep. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you.