March 4, 2025 • 43 mins
Now there’s a Mason’s Mason; it’s Chuck Brust. We talk technology and beyond: what it means to be an Enterprise IT Architect at Mayo Clinic, the all-new Lodge Historical Digitization Project (aka “scanning project”), and the Conference of Grand Masters coming to Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2028. When he’s not revolutionizing healthcare technology at Mayo Clinic or serving the Craft, he goes on 175-mile walks from Portugal to Spain.
Put on your walking shoes…it’s an all new Minnesota Masonic Histories & Mysteries.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Thanks again for joining us.
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It's another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Our guest today is someone wehave been looking forward to
hosting.
Chuck Brust is joining us instudio today, who currently
serves as the Junior GrandWarden of the Grand Lodge of
Minnesota.
He grew up in Aberdeen, SouthDakota and migrated to Rochester
in 1996.
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Professionally, he's anenterprise IT architect with
Mayo Clinic.
Can't wait to hear more aboutthat.
And he has a long history withour Masonic fraternity, going
back to his early days with DMLAas a youth and later as an
advisor.
When he's not working orpursuing Masonic interests, he
loves to hunt and fish, and heis a passionate fan of multiple
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Chicago sports teams.
Chuck, welcome.
Thanks, Reid.
Happy to be here.
I'll forget to bring this uplater if we don't cover that.
Now, multiple Chicago sportsteams, how did that come to be?
Well, you have to understandthat my dad's family is It was
originally from Southern Iowa,so the Cubs, the Bears, that was
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what was available to them and,uh, that family history kind of
pulled all the way through.
WGN was huge, back in the day.
You could get it everywhere.
Baseball every afternoon, got tobe there.
That makes sense.
So what about ChicagoBlackhawks, NHL?
If I was a hockey fan, sure.
I have never followed hockey,The way their season's the last
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couple, it's rebuilding time.
It's not any time to jump on, onthat bandwagon, but I've already
learned something about you.
I did not know of your, uh,fondness for the Chicago market.
How does that go with our localVikings and Packers?
Well, considering how the, theBears have done over the last
several seasons, nobody seems tocare.
Probably more of a sympathyfactor in that aspect.
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So tell us more about yourmigrating.
I like how you said that too.
So you moved to Rochester in1996.
What does it mean to be anenterprise IT architect with the
Mayo Clinic?
Sure.
So those two things go hand inhand.
I came to Rochester in the late90s specifically to start at
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Mayo.
Started out there working onthe, uh, on the server side of
the house.
Always been an IT guy.
So dealing with Windows serversfor 18, 20 years.
And then moved into theenterprise architecture space,
when I was dealing with theservers, that was a very hands
on, uh, on call, get a call atthree a.
(02:29):
m.
kind of a job that gets old overtime.
Uh, my current gig is much morealong the lines of strategy and,
uh.
roadmaps, where are we headed inthe future?
What are our standards for theentire company?
Uh, software wise, hardwarewise, things of that nature.
So I get to see a lot of the newthings that are going on.
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some of the stuff that'shappening with our new.
Construction in Rochester willtie directly into some of the
work that I'm doing kind ofhospital room of the future kind
of things, robotics, things ofthat nature.
Well, obviously medicine isevolving at a rapid speed.
How does the I.
T.
side of the house keep up withthat?
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It's tough sometimes to be ableto.
Make sure that the providershave all of the information that
they need at their fingertipsfor the right patient at the
right time in the rightlocation.
There's a lot of challengesaround that and that is really a
lot of what I'm focusing on withsome of this new work that we're
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doing to be able to haveinstantaneous lab results, be
able to have all of that rightup on the, on the wall in the
hospital room for the patientand the provider is going to be
a huge step forward.
it's difficult to get our headsaround what a massive operation
Mayo is at large.
Can you give us a little moreperspective on the size and
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scope of, of the several layers?
Sure.
So, just really rough numbers.
Mayo's got about 80, 000, fulltime employees across the
multiple locations.
Uh, major hospitals inRochester, in Phoenix, and in
Jacksonville, Florida, alongwith a lot of hospitals in the
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upper Midwest, uh, Mankato, LaCrosse, Eau Claire, et cetera,
plus a bunch of smaller clinicalspaces in some of the small
towns.
So the practice really does runthe gamut of anything from a two
person facility in Lake Crystalall the way through the million,
tens of millions of square feetof space in the Rochester
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downtown core.
So you have a front row seatessentially on the IT side that
has to keep up with the bedsidecare in that almost
instantaneous result that isabsolutely fascinating.
Are you basically saying thatlab work that, radiology results
could be almost immediately orthe same day for someone to be
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displayed and discussed at thebedside?
Oh, absolutely.
That's exactly it.
Speed of care.
can make a huge difference inthe outcome for the patient.
To be able to say the patientthat's presenting in the ER is
having a stroke within a smallnumber of minutes versus having
to wait for two hours for somesort of lab results to come
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back.
It can make all the differencein the world, it can be
literally life or death.
And while I don't have anyexpertise on the medical side of
that, being able to look at thesystems that we're running and
ensure that those results can bemoved as quickly as possible is
paramount to providing that ITpiece of the care that's being
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done.
You really do have aninteresting position to be
working parallel with medicalresearchers and what is trying
to be accomplished on that sidethat how I'm going to ask a
stupid question.
How stressful is that?
It, uh, it has its moments,certainly, to be able to have a
conversation with a providerwho's looking for a particular
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function and, maybe we have it,maybe we don't, to be able to be
able and go out and build thatwith them is a great way to do a
partnership.
Sometimes there are conflicts inhow we can accomplish that,
whether that's financial,whether that's timing, whether
that's Uh, we just don't havethe technical capability to
provide what they need today.
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Uh, those are harderconversations and we try and
keep things on the level andmake sure that we get them as
best result in the end as wepossibly can, but we're not
perfect.
How often have you been asked todevelop something that feels
impossible?
Maybe it's just the threshold isfar out of reach in the short
term.
I would say we're doing a lot ofthat right now with a lot of the
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artificial intelligence workthat's going on.
A ton of Stuff going on thatspace that is dealing with how
can we take?
millions or or billions in somecases of records of data to
learn from that and, be able toprovide advice for the
physicians and the nurses and,and all of those people.
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Medicine has moved so quicklythat it's difficult for any
provider to keep up with all ofthe new advances that are coming
out on a day by day basis.
Whether that's newpharmaceuticals, whether that's
new procedures, whatever it is,to be able to then allow the
technology to help in that spaceand perhaps suggest, go look at
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this new process or this new medthat just came out that might be
a good fit.
You're leaving all of thedecisions in the hands of the
provider in the end, but you'readding on.
You're augmenting what theirknowledge in their head is by
the technology as well.
Those sorts of things are newenough that it's difficult to
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have them out there today, butwe're working on them very
closely.
And the impetus to get that outthere, the benefit to patient
outcomes in the end ispotentially huge.
So we're pushing on that veryhard.
A few months ago, we interviewedDr.
Douglas Yee from the MasonicCancer Center at the University
of Minnesota.
And he shared some interestingevolutions of that care at the
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bedside that had really notexisted before, say, the 90s or
the early 2000s.
And he touched on sometechnology aspects that are
really revolutionizing cancerresearch.
I want to ask how much is AIhelping in terms of not just the
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records and consolidating thosethings, but are you able to
take.
um, Several aspects of researchand of knowledge that's
scattered all over the place andcombine it and really get from
that hypothetical to a theory.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I can I can give you acouple examples that might help
the listeners out.
(09:05):
We've got one where we have.
And utilizing MRI images ofbrains.
Uh, some of these are known tohave some sort of a tumor in
them.
Some of them are known not to.
And we take that and use thoseimages to train this AI model,
to what does brain cancer looklike in an image.
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We've gotten to a point in someof that research today where the
computer can much more readilyand certainly much faster
identify those tumors versus ahuman doing it and in general
can identify those images inSpaces where it might not be
visible to the human eye.
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It's so early on that we're ableto have much earlier
interventions.
Similarly, I, I'm aware of some,uh, AI work being done with ECG
images, or excuse me, ECGtraces, where that heart rhythm
can show small changes in that,will show that, uh, there may be
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changes in other bodily systems.
That can be diagnosed just fromthat ECG.
So we're seeing a ton ofadvancement in that space really
quickly that is directlyclinically applicable.
It's fascinating and soundsstressful for you when you
describe the level ofresponsibility and the role that
you have with Mayo Clinic.
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And obviously in addition to allthat you do in your career, you
spend a significant amount oftime within the Masonic
Fraternity.
Currently.
Uh, the junior grand warden forthe grand lodge.
How are things going in general?
We could go into so manydifferent avenues of your
Masonic involvement, but how hasit been so far in serving in the
grand line?
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I've loved it so far and Iexpect that that'll continue.
You know, big picture.
I've had an opportunity toreally get out and visit a lot
of lodges, have conversationswith a lot of the brothers.
And certainly.
We have concerns within thefraternity.
There are lodges that are havingsome trouble.
Uh, we try and get out there andhelp them out as best as we can.
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Give advice.
We recognize that those lodgeshave to go through and implement
the advice.
Whichever parts of it they wantto take themselves.
So there's work to be donewithin the lodges.
We want to make sure thateverybody has the opportunity to
succeed in the end.
So those sorts of interactionshave been great.
As far as I'm concerned.
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We're also doing a lot ofplanning going forward.
as you may be aware, we'rerunning up on the 175th
anniversary of the Grand Lodgeof Minnesota.
Yes, 2028.
Tell us more about that.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah.
Uh, lots of things going on,lots of planning going on,
certainly, uh, are lookingforward to celebratory, uh,
events, uh, perhaps, uh, a largegala that involves as many of
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our brothers around the state aswe can, the ability to, uh, get
together and to celebrate asignificant milestone like that
is going to be wonderful.
We have a couple other thingsthat are major events that will
go along and be tied into that.
we have the opportunity to hostthe conference of grandmasters
in 2028 here in Minneapolis.
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It'll be here.
Yeah, right here in Minneapolis.
So, uh, we'll have grandmastersand, and Grand Lodge officers
from across the U.
S., Canada, Mexico, andgenerally there's, uh, South
American lodges that come andare represented as well.
So, wonderful opportunity for agreat gathering right here in
Minneapolis in 2028.
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That's excellent.
I don't want to forget to ask,with that Conference of
Grandmasters and also the GrandSecretaries Gather, were some of
our members who aren't familiarwith, they've heard of the
Conference of Grandmasters, orfrom, perhaps even for newer
Masons, what goes on at thatgathering?
Yeah.
So.
So, the Conference Grandmastersand Conference Grand Secretaries
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is an opportunity for GrandLodge officers to get together,
to compare notes, to talk aboutthings that perhaps are a new
program within their GrandLodge, things that they've had
success with, uh, perhapscompare some notes on things
that maybe aren't going as welland try and find some new
solutions.
So, one of the things that we,uh, that we talked about this
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year.
So, uh, in the discussion washow one day to masonry, you
know, all three degrees in a daytype festivals are being done in
different jurisdictions acrossthe country.
And we picked up some newthoughts on how we might
implement some of that in ourown one day festival that we do
every January, uh, in thefuture.
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being able to have bettereducation, better mentoring for
our community.
brothers that go through and gettheir degrees through that one
day festival, uh, has been aconcern that we've been talking
about for a while to make surethat they get everything that
they need out of the experience,and we picked up some great new
information, uh, that Wisconsinand that Ohio are using, uh, for
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their versions of thatparticular event, and I think
we'll see some of that happen,uh, going forward.
That's great to know is the oneday is a successful event in
perhaps equally important to aone day candidate that goes
through the traditional longform that we have more resources
to guide them after they havebecome a master Mason and a
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voting member of their lodge.
What's next?
What are my options forattending for visiting other
lodges or getting involved in acommittee?
a lot of that institutionalknowledge Well, maybe that's
been a little bit lost over theyears and it'd be exciting to be
refining that and providing somereally strong Resources for our
members.
Yeah, absolutely and we combinethat with the work that we're
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doing before a petition evercomes in to try and make sure
that the man is bonded to thefraternity and And that he's got
a good, pool of resources in hisown lodge.
I think those two thingstogether are going to continue
to improve our success in, in,in getting guys, uh, really
involved in the fraternity andretaining them over the long
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haul.
I couldn't agree more.
And as we look at a 175thanniversary in 2028 of the Grand
Lodge of Minnesota, we've beenaround a long time.
perhaps something we can hangour hat on as far as a longevity
is that we are an organizationthat is apolitical, non
sectarian.
We are open to someone whoembraces our core values of
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friendship and personaldevelopments and community,
giving back to the greater goodbeing that desire.
There is a really strong desirefor that in our world right now.
How do we capitalize on that forthose who may not be familiar
with what we've set out to dowith, we call them in
Freemasonry, the tenets of ourprofession or those, or those
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core values of brotherly love,relief, and truth.
Absolutely, and we're alwayslooking for good men who believe
in those sorts of values.
What I would say to you, toanswer your question, Reid, is
we need to, as members of thefraternity, continue to go out
and Seek those men out in a oneby one basis.
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Look for that man that youinteract with at work, in your
neighborhood, uh, at yourchurch.
Whatever the venue may be, andhave a conversation with him.
We've always I've gone down theroad of saying that masonry does
not go out and recruitmemberships, but that does not
mean that we shouldn't be havinga conversation one on one.
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There's no prohibition to askingsomeone, why aren't you a mason
yet?
why haven't you ever thoughtabout the fraternity and, and
would you like to know more?
Similarly, anyone that is notcurrently a brother of the
fraternity is welcome to reachout via be a free mason.
org, uh, via someone that theyknow.
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We can't.
We can't any of those paths areopen to you and we can have a
conversation about is this theright fit for you.
It's not necessarily aninvitation, hey, you should
join, but what questions do youhave about my involvement in my
Masonic Lodge?
How much interest have you hadin what we do in the community?
Nine times out of ten, thatconversation results in someone
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saying, well, I didn't know Icould.
I didn't, I thought I had tocheck more boxes of having a
family connection and none ofthose things are, are accurate,
but there's still a bigdisconnect even from our own
members who are under this oldmisperception that we can't have
that curiosity conversation.
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We're not out handing outleaflets saying, join us.
But if to your point, if, if weknow someone.
who embraces the things we justtalked about.
That is definitely the onus ison all of us to to do that.
Correct?
Absolutely.
We need to get away from thatold attitude where men felt that
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it was purely secret.
Couldn't talk about anything.
Couldn't talk about the factthat they remember and couldn't
go ask their best friend in theworld to be.
Involved if they had a desirethat it just doesn't make sense
and as the society has movedforward For some reason that old
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thought has just continued tostick and we've got to get past
it Most definitely my own fatherdidn't join because my
grandfather who was a pastmaster of his lodge of that old
school mentality This is severalgenerations ago was waiting on
my dad to say Hey, tell me moreand it never happened and as a
result it just fizzled out andunfortunately my dad never, my
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dad broke the chain of severalgenerations of being Masons and
it was how unfortunate of thatTime and again within my role as
a regional director, I haveconversations with, well, men of
all ages between 25 and you nameit, and the desire to make
quality friends, to have a pathof personal development.
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Striving to become that bestversion or better version of
oneself and the community pieceis So highly sought right now in
this world that has so muchdivisiveness so much screen time
It is very refreshing anduplifting to hear the feedback
especially from some of theseyounger guys that are just tired
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of doom scrolling and They'retired of being isolated in their
apartment or at home.
They really want to get out andconnect as friends in an
authentic way, human to human,face to face.
That's not to say we abandontechnology, Freemasonry offers a
uniquely analog experiencewithin this digital world that
we live.
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Absolutely.
I can go back to and think aboutmy own experience and I was
fortunate I was able to joinwhen I was very young.
I was initiated when I was 20years old and that for me came
from my DMLA background havingParticipated in DeMolay and
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having those relationships withthe masons that I did when I was
in high school.
I knew right off I needed tocontinue my journey, come into
the fraternity.
The timing certainly wasdifferent then.
We didn't have the social mediaaspects and some of those
things.
It was Well, 1992 to throw myage out there, so, uh, you're
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still young to me, Chuck, butthen the young guys look at us
and say, Oh, please go on.
But to have those relationshipswith a variety of men of, of all
ages, even just as DMLA advisorsfor me, widened my view within
the fraternity and withinsociety to be able to say These
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are men that are doing the rightthing.
These are guys that reallyunderstand where our values are
and where society could beheaded if we come together and I
had to be part of it.
how far back does the Masonicconnection go with parents,
grandparents?
Is this a multi generationaltradition in your family?
No, no, I had no link to thefraternity, it was one of those
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things.
I was Um, I was a theaterteacher.
Always involved in the theaterproductions in junior high and
high school, and I saw one of mybuddies with what I later
learned to be a D Malay ritualstudying his lines during study
hall.
Uh, just one day at school, andI asked him.
What's that?
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What do you got there?
It looks like a script.
You know, just a small booklooks like a theater script, and
that was my introduction.
It was not long before I was amember of the chapter back at
home and That's where thingsstarted for me.
It's not amazing to think ofwhat a subtle moment that was.
Oh yeah.
And how it's affected in apositive way the rest of your
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life.
It has.
All the way until, till now.
you mentioned earlier about thefriendship, started alluding to
the brotherhood.
It made me think about therelationships that we make along
the way.
you and I are similar in age, asI look back on the Masonic
experience of, Of having mentorsthat I didn't know they were my
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mentor in the moment.
Maybe it was that unintentional,we were just chatting.
Maybe I was venting about a jobor the job search or things
happening while I was in my 20sand 30s.
And never appreciated as much inthat moment, Ken Hill and Jim
Burlingame, some of these guysof having a passing
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conversation, the listening theydid, they didn't necessarily
have the answer to life'sproblems, but listen, provided a
perspective and context.
Looking back, there was 10, 20years of just some of the most
meaningful friendships and lifeadvice that I personally have
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ever known.
If you had to identify onesingular, most impactful aspect
of being a member, of thefraternity, of being a
Freemason, what would that be?
Boy, that's a, that's a toughone to knock it down to just
one.
for me, it's, it's really whatyou just said.
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It's about those mentorship typerelationships.
Whether that's I had, uh, a manthat was sitting as the Grand
Master of South Dakota when Iwas at DMLA.
He was one of the advisors ofthe chapter.
Did I know that at the time?
No, no idea, but the lifeexperience that he brought and
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the Advice that he would giveand frankly the gentle nudge
that he gave me to step up andsay You might want to run for
this leadership position.
I think you'd be really good atit was life changing for me And
I've had the great fortune tohave several brothers like that
over the years where it was goodand timely advice, whispered at
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the right time and focusing myefforts in a particular way that
has gotten me to where I amtoday.
Another story of a subtlety too.
You didn't know he was a,whatever his title was in the
moment, but that he stepped upand said, Hey, That little, that
little nudge, you shouldconsider doing that.
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it concerns me that we missedthat opportunity, especially
with some of our younger memberswho are either on a trajectory
of development, or who need alittle confidence boost.
All those future leaders are allaround us, and sometimes I'm
afraid we assume that, well, Iassume that you will tell the
young man next to it.
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There's so much power and impactin putting an arm around that
brother and saying, you didgreat, and I think you should
try even more to strive for thisnext level of leadership, or of
taking on a community engagementproject, or heading up a
committee.
Absolutely true.
The, the capabilities that ourbrothers have, uh, they may not
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recognize them yet, especiallysome of the newer members or
some of the younger guys thatare around, but these brothers
have a lot to give to the craft.
And to society in general, andwe need to be very explicit
about supporting that for everyone of them to be able to, as
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you said, just take them asideand say, Hey, I think you could
do this.
Would you be willing to step upand have this opportunity, or
the other side of it is and wetend to not be so great at this
at times too.
Recognition of, hey, you did agreat job on this thing that you
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did well done.
I really appreciate everythingthat you did to put effort into
it.
Community engagement is a veryhighly sought after aspect of
the Masonic experience, and I'mvery excited about how many of
our younger or newer Masons haveasked how can I get more
involved with Masonic charities?
How can our Lodge better supportand be aware of the things
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happening?
At the university with theMasonic Cancer Center, the
Masonic Children's Hospital.
Some very exciting endeavorsoccurring, literally right in
our backyard, that are impactingthe world.
And to see these young menstepping up and saying, how can
we help promote that along withother, other aspects of
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meaningful community engagementis, is really.
Huge.
And these brothers have so muchto give, and their experiences
to date have been different thanyou or I were at that point in
our lives.
Let's utilize those experiencesto continue to make progress in
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society.
We are an organization very muchsteeped in history.
and learning from history andalso evolving as we move
forward.
I saw a great quote out of the,it was actually from the
Northern light from a WaltWheeler, who's the sovereign
grand commander of the Northernjurisdiction.
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And he said more or less that weas Freemasons must adapt and
enhance our approach to ensurethat our storied organization
remains relevant in the future.
What do you see as our long termvision moving ahead and looking
long term into the future?
It's a great question, and it'sinteresting, going back to the
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conversation a little while ago,I told you I was just at the
conference of grandmasters.
Well, Walt was one of thepresenters there, and we had
exactly this conversation.
In one of those sessions.
So the timing is perfect.
Oh, good.
I had no idea.
Yeah, we, uh, we really had a, agreat conversation about really
trying to be explicit aboutbringing communications,
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bringing, the technology in thelodges up to modern day, uh, we
see certainly.
Lodges that have fallen behindin the way that they do their
communications.
Perhaps they still are doingonly a paper newsletter That
goes out to their membership.
We need to look at other optionsnow Does that mean that we
(28:55):
should kill that papernewsletter for?
Everybody including the guysthat maybe don't have email or
that sort of thing.
No We need to be conscious ofour membership and that we
ensure that everyone gets theinformation that they need to
have, but we also need torecognize that today's 25 year
old is unlikely to, uh.
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They're going to want to dealwith something that they got a
piece of paper in the mail.
Do they even rather have it ontheir phone?
The 25 year olds even checktheir mail.
That's an excellent question.
Probably not other than forbills, right?
So being able to embrace some ofthose technological changes
while at the same time retainingour core values is really what
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we need to look at.
The conversation when we were inMyrtle Beach really went to the
concern around innovations inthe craft.
What does that mean for someonewho isn't unfamiliar?
Yeah.
So, uh, any, any sorts ofchanges.
And the way that it's beenframed in some cases is we
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shouldn't change the ritual.
Uh, we should not change thecore values.
We should not change the Thingslike that.
But, if we look at thehistorical record, other than
the core values, Every one ofthose other things has been
changed at different times inthe past.
We've changed our ritual.
We've changed even the modes ofrecognition, at different points
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in the past in order to betterserve those that were members of
the fraternity.
And this really isn't anydifferent in my mind to be able
to Take our technological edgeand move that forward to better
serve those in the fraternity Isonly going to benefit us in the
long run now.
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Do I see us?
having Things like a virtuallodge where we're putting on
degree work Through the the zoomsession.
No, not at any point in thefuture.
Uh, there's there's too muchthat goes along with The
learning process that needs tobe face to face, person to
person.
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But, we certainly should betaking advantage for
communications, for education,other things of that nature that
aren't esoteric by nature.
And being able to broaden ourimpact to our brothers and to
society as a whole through someof those technological changes.
Part of the technological changeis ensuring that we are
(31:28):
preserving our history.
We started to touch on thehistorical aspect and it seems
that Masons are very much.
Students of history to someextent, Tell us more about the
project that you've embarkedupon that ensures that we are
archiving and keeping andmaintaining our history alive
with those resources to ensurewhether that is it going to be
(31:49):
digital all the way through, orplease tell us more.
Yeah, great question.
Thanks, Reed.
Uh, the Scanning Project, orwhat I'll call the Scanning
Project, just for brevity here,Lodge Digitization and
Preservation Project, I think isthe official title that we have
gone with, in any case, uh, isan effort that we are
undertaking, uh, as apartnership between the Grand
(32:10):
Lodge of Minnesota and MinnesotaMasonic Charities, uh,
specifically the museum, to Takedigital records of minutes books
of interesting correspondence ofphotos Anything that a lodge
might have that has any sort ofa historic value We recognize
(32:31):
that there have certainly beensituations where floods fires
Other sorts of disasters havedestroyed records in different
lodges we further understandthat Old minutes books mostly
were handwritten, uh, the paperis starting to degrade, the iron
ink is starting to fade.
(32:52):
There's late 1850s, early 1860sminutes books that it's very
difficult to even be able to getenough light on them to be able
to read it at this point.
And those early histories arehugely important, not only for
those that are members of thecraft, but for historians in
general.
There's all sorts of tie ins toimportant figures in Minnesota
(33:17):
as a state that were also Wewant to be able to preserve the
legacy of our brothers withinthe craft, and we want to be
able to ensure that all of thatlegacy is preserved over time.
So, we're embarking on a projectwhere we are digitizing those
records.
We've got several overheadscanners and laptops and really
(33:38):
a whole kit of gear that we cantake out to any lodge.
And have some of our brothersteach those local brothers how
to do the work.
those brothers are able to takeevery one of their minute books,
every one of their pieces ofinteresting correspondence, and
scan them so that they've got adigital record of that.
(34:01):
I take one example here.
the lodge in Mankato, uh,Mankato Lodge number 12, has
correspondence that was writtenfrom members of that lodge back
to the lodge while thesebrothers were off fighting in
World War I.
They've got these on display,uh, and it's, you know, it's,
(34:22):
it's One guy talking to thebrothers of his lodge in letter
form about what's going on inhis life while he's over in
Germany, France, etc, fightingin World War I.
And I would hate to haveanything happen to those
original documents, of course,but at least if we can get them
scanned, we've got A record ofthem.
(34:44):
We know what they were that weknow what they looked like and
we can preserve the originalsmore appropriately Uh as well,
we're going through both, youknow, the digitization certainly
but also Ensuring that we'reappropriate, uh better archival
practices are being handled acidfree boxes sealing against
(35:06):
water, things like that arebeing done with this project as
well in order to help the lodgeshold on to the physical media at
the same time.
Preserving it in a way you justdescribed, but also now we'll be
able to share it.
We can internally distributesomething like that.
What it sounds like there's somany timeless pieces.
Within the archives that manyhave never seen or are literally
(35:28):
unaware of that's exactly rightAnd as we move forward the
intent here is things likeminutes.
We'll be able to have asearchable PDF where for example
Trinity Lodge in Duluth we tooka hundred years worth of their
minutes There's all happened tobe typewritten, so we didn't
(35:49):
have to worry about, uh,translating old calligraphy and
that kind of thing.
But you said a hundred years, ahundred years of minutes we've
able, we would be able to then.
Take all hundred years and witha few keystrokes search for
every instance of Denfield whowas one of our past grandmasters
(36:09):
and who was a member of thelodge up there and find every
spot in That hundred years wherethat name was mentioned in a few
seconds two questions.
How long does the scanning take?
And is this new technology?
Are you bringing something intothe scanning project that is
maybe more than what in my mindis an old school way of doing
(36:30):
this task?
It is, it is a little bit newer,uh, technology.
Yes.
So when we did our So this isour initial test up at Trinity
Lodge.
We went through on 1, 500 pagesof minutes in the span of
somewhere between three and fourhours.
So it's really quite quick.
(36:51):
The way that the technologyworks is the scanner is an
overhead type setup.
So you've got an open book, theopens minutes books.
It'll take both.
Um, and it'll scan all the pagesfacing pages at the same time
and as quickly as you can turnthe page and click the button.
It'll take that scan.
If the book happens to be openwhere it's bent and has a curve
(37:15):
in it or anything like that,it'll flatten it out
automatically in the image andbe able to just move on and flip
through as quickly as you canturn the pages safely.
You covered in just a handful ofhours when that particular case
now the technology is obviouslyway beyond what it once was that
(37:35):
said, how many volunteers wouldbe helpful in something like
this?
Are you looking for some to stepup maybe with a little more
affinity for history?
Who would want to be a part ofthis?
Yeah, so on the committee rightnow, we've got four of us that
are, that are deep into it.
Um, we would absolutely love afew more helpers, especially as
(37:57):
we're starting to get out andget this equipment distributed
around the state because we needto A, ensure that our committee
members.
Um, and, uh, can operate thescanners.
And I will say it's not tough.
It's not difficult by any means.
I know that me as atechnologist, I can say that
sometimes, and maybe it's not astrue as others.
(38:17):
You read my mind.
However, I've been told by thosethat aren't tech folks, uh,
that, no, it's pretty easy.
yes, I would love to haveadditional volunteers.
When we go out to the lodge,really, it's a matter of Usually
two or three guys is all we needfrom that local lodge, somebody
to meet, you know, usually thesecretary that has access to all
(38:38):
the records and a couple ofwilling volunteers that are able
to do the physical parts of thework.
The only concern that crosses mymind is that if someone like me
was involved in that, it wouldbe so easy to stop scanning and
read either the minutes or thebook that's being looked at if
it's something like theCentennium book, it would
(38:59):
require a bit of focus and lookthrough the book later, right?
Absolutely true.
I found myself doing exactlythat.
And the nice thing about it isonce we've gone through the
project.
You've got that digitallyforever, so you can go back and
take as much time to readthrough that later on as you
want, and that's what I've gotto keep reminding myself as I
flip through these becausethere's always something
(39:20):
interesting.
But this will be in PDF form andthen can be shared, distributed
as appropriate if someone wasinterested or that by that
search function is Exactly,exactly.
To be able to go through and.
Now, as I said, find allinstances of someone's name or,
uh, look for when a particularevent happened and find all of
(39:41):
the, the related minutes to itin a flash of a second is for
historians, for educators, foranybody that's interested in, in
the history of the lodge.
Really gonna be a huge stepforward.
We are recording today just afew weeks away from our annual
communication, which will be inApril.
Will there be more informationon this available when we gather
(40:04):
in Wake Park?
There will.
So we will have a short promovideo that we'll show, uh, and
that will be available out tothe lodges through their
district representatives aswell.
couple of minutes.
We just shot that the other day,and I think that will be.
Uh, great for a high leveloverview, but, uh, for those
(40:24):
that want to take a deeper dive,we will also have a breakout
session, at Grand Lodge wherewe'll do some demo, we'll do
some walkthrough and we'll teachyou how this really works and,
and how you can engage with theprogram going forward.
And if any brothers listeninghave an interest in getting
involved in this, I'm going torefer them to reach out to me at
(40:45):
the Grand Lodge office and I'llget your information shared with
Chuck and the committee and putyou to work.
Sounds great.
Love to have more.
What else does a year hold foryou?
Like we said, the annualcommunication is just a few
weeks away, which gives me atwinge of nerves with all that
still needs to be done ahead ofthat, but what else is on the
calendar for you personally andMasonically?
you and me both, it's going tobe an interesting time over the
(41:06):
next few weeks in this run up tothe session, making sure we've
got everything finalized andprepared, ready to go.
Beyond that, for me, I am hopingto get out to a lot of lodges
here right away in the spring.
I've had the wonderfulopportunity to deal with some
lodges in the Southwest overthis last year.
I'll have Northwest lodges inthe next term.
(41:28):
tradition prevailing, assuming Iget elected in, in April, uh, so
I'm looking forward to that.
Uh, perhaps I can haul thefishing boat along and, and do a
little fishing during the daywhen I'm between meetings, uh,
if I'm going to be up north fora few days.
So I would hope so.
Yeah.
Short summer.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And looking forward to that alittle bit, uh, beyond that,
(41:50):
I've got some personal travelcoming up.
I've got a, a long.
I hope trip to Portugal comingup, my mother and I have a goal
of doing the Caminos de Santiagowalk, so we'll be, uh, we're
planning to walk from Porto,Portugal to Santiago, Spain,
which is about 175 miles in thespan of two weeks.
(42:13):
No kidding.
Yeah, yeah, should be fun.
That's one word, fun.
What's the, what's the kind oftemperatures are we looking at
for that?
It's.
It's Spain and Portugal insummer, so 90s, 80s to 90s.
Yeah, you are a man ofadventure.
There's no doubt about it.
That's a far cry from sitting ina fishing boat in northern
Minnesota.
(42:34):
Well, Chuck Brust, it's beengreat sitting down with you
today, learning more about yourcareer, your upbringing, what
led you to join Freemasonry.
And we'd be remiss if we didn'tsay.
thank you for the time that youhave contributed and continue to
do so towards the Masonic familyin general.
Happy to do it.
If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn'tbe here, Reid, so thank you for
(42:57):
the time today.
Chuck Bruss is the Junior GrandWarden for the Grand Lodge of
Minnesota.
Thank you for being here.
We look forward to seeing you atthe annual communication in
April.
My name is Reed Endersby.
This has been another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Thanks again for joining us.
(00:01):
It's another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Our guest today is someone wehave been looking forward to
hosting.
Chuck Brust is joining us instudio today, who currently
serves as the Junior GrandWarden of the Grand Lodge of
Minnesota.
He grew up in Aberdeen, SouthDakota and migrated to Rochester
in 1996.
(00:21):
Professionally, he's anenterprise IT architect with
Mayo Clinic.
Can't wait to hear more aboutthat.
And he has a long history withour Masonic fraternity, going
back to his early days with DMLAas a youth and later as an
advisor.
When he's not working orpursuing Masonic interests, he
loves to hunt and fish, and heis a passionate fan of multiple
(00:41):
Chicago sports teams.
Chuck, welcome.
Thanks, Reid.
Happy to be here.
I'll forget to bring this uplater if we don't cover that.
Now, multiple Chicago sportsteams, how did that come to be?
Well, you have to understandthat my dad's family is It was
originally from Southern Iowa,so the Cubs, the Bears, that was
(01:02):
what was available to them and,uh, that family history kind of
pulled all the way through.
WGN was huge, back in the day.
You could get it everywhere.
Baseball every afternoon, got tobe there.
That makes sense.
So what about ChicagoBlackhawks, NHL?
If I was a hockey fan, sure.
I have never followed hockey,The way their season's the last
(01:23):
couple, it's rebuilding time.
It's not any time to jump on, onthat bandwagon, but I've already
learned something about you.
I did not know of your, uh,fondness for the Chicago market.
How does that go with our localVikings and Packers?
Well, considering how the, theBears have done over the last
several seasons, nobody seems tocare.
Probably more of a sympathyfactor in that aspect.
(01:45):
So tell us more about yourmigrating.
I like how you said that too.
So you moved to Rochester in1996.
What does it mean to be anenterprise IT architect with the
Mayo Clinic?
Sure.
So those two things go hand inhand.
I came to Rochester in the late90s specifically to start at
(02:06):
Mayo.
Started out there working onthe, uh, on the server side of
the house.
Always been an IT guy.
So dealing with Windows serversfor 18, 20 years.
And then moved into theenterprise architecture space,
when I was dealing with theservers, that was a very hands
on, uh, on call, get a call atthree a.
(02:29):
m.
kind of a job that gets old overtime.
Uh, my current gig is much morealong the lines of strategy and,
uh.
roadmaps, where are we headed inthe future?
What are our standards for theentire company?
Uh, software wise, hardwarewise, things of that nature.
So I get to see a lot of the newthings that are going on.
(02:53):
some of the stuff that'shappening with our new.
Construction in Rochester willtie directly into some of the
work that I'm doing kind ofhospital room of the future kind
of things, robotics, things ofthat nature.
Well, obviously medicine isevolving at a rapid speed.
How does the I.
T.
side of the house keep up withthat?
(03:13):
It's tough sometimes to be ableto.
Make sure that the providershave all of the information that
they need at their fingertipsfor the right patient at the
right time in the rightlocation.
There's a lot of challengesaround that and that is really a
lot of what I'm focusing on withsome of this new work that we're
(03:33):
doing to be able to haveinstantaneous lab results, be
able to have all of that rightup on the, on the wall in the
hospital room for the patientand the provider is going to be
a huge step forward.
it's difficult to get our headsaround what a massive operation
Mayo is at large.
Can you give us a little moreperspective on the size and
(03:56):
scope of, of the several layers?
Sure.
So, just really rough numbers.
Mayo's got about 80, 000, fulltime employees across the
multiple locations.
Uh, major hospitals inRochester, in Phoenix, and in
Jacksonville, Florida, alongwith a lot of hospitals in the
(04:17):
upper Midwest, uh, Mankato, LaCrosse, Eau Claire, et cetera,
plus a bunch of smaller clinicalspaces in some of the small
towns.
So the practice really does runthe gamut of anything from a two
person facility in Lake Crystalall the way through the million,
tens of millions of square feetof space in the Rochester
(04:38):
downtown core.
So you have a front row seatessentially on the IT side that
has to keep up with the bedsidecare in that almost
instantaneous result that isabsolutely fascinating.
Are you basically saying thatlab work that, radiology results
could be almost immediately orthe same day for someone to be
(05:01):
displayed and discussed at thebedside?
Oh, absolutely.
That's exactly it.
Speed of care.
can make a huge difference inthe outcome for the patient.
To be able to say the patientthat's presenting in the ER is
having a stroke within a smallnumber of minutes versus having
to wait for two hours for somesort of lab results to come
(05:23):
back.
It can make all the differencein the world, it can be
literally life or death.
And while I don't have anyexpertise on the medical side of
that, being able to look at thesystems that we're running and
ensure that those results can bemoved as quickly as possible is
paramount to providing that ITpiece of the care that's being
(05:44):
done.
You really do have aninteresting position to be
working parallel with medicalresearchers and what is trying
to be accomplished on that sidethat how I'm going to ask a
stupid question.
How stressful is that?
It, uh, it has its moments,certainly, to be able to have a
conversation with a providerwho's looking for a particular
(06:05):
function and, maybe we have it,maybe we don't, to be able to be
able and go out and build thatwith them is a great way to do a
partnership.
Sometimes there are conflicts inhow we can accomplish that,
whether that's financial,whether that's timing, whether
that's Uh, we just don't havethe technical capability to
provide what they need today.
(06:27):
Uh, those are harderconversations and we try and
keep things on the level andmake sure that we get them as
best result in the end as wepossibly can, but we're not
perfect.
How often have you been asked todevelop something that feels
impossible?
Maybe it's just the threshold isfar out of reach in the short
term.
I would say we're doing a lot ofthat right now with a lot of the
(06:50):
artificial intelligence workthat's going on.
A ton of Stuff going on thatspace that is dealing with how
can we take?
millions or or billions in somecases of records of data to
learn from that and, be able toprovide advice for the
physicians and the nurses and,and all of those people.
(07:12):
Medicine has moved so quicklythat it's difficult for any
provider to keep up with all ofthe new advances that are coming
out on a day by day basis.
Whether that's newpharmaceuticals, whether that's
new procedures, whatever it is,to be able to then allow the
technology to help in that spaceand perhaps suggest, go look at
(07:37):
this new process or this new medthat just came out that might be
a good fit.
You're leaving all of thedecisions in the hands of the
provider in the end, but you'readding on.
You're augmenting what theirknowledge in their head is by
the technology as well.
Those sorts of things are newenough that it's difficult to
(07:59):
have them out there today, butwe're working on them very
closely.
And the impetus to get that outthere, the benefit to patient
outcomes in the end ispotentially huge.
So we're pushing on that veryhard.
A few months ago, we interviewedDr.
Douglas Yee from the MasonicCancer Center at the University
of Minnesota.
And he shared some interestingevolutions of that care at the
(08:24):
bedside that had really notexisted before, say, the 90s or
the early 2000s.
And he touched on sometechnology aspects that are
really revolutionizing cancerresearch.
I want to ask how much is AIhelping in terms of not just the
(08:44):
records and consolidating thosethings, but are you able to
take.
um, Several aspects of researchand of knowledge that's
scattered all over the place andcombine it and really get from
that hypothetical to a theory.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I can I can give you acouple examples that might help
the listeners out.
(09:05):
We've got one where we have.
And utilizing MRI images ofbrains.
Uh, some of these are known tohave some sort of a tumor in
them.
Some of them are known not to.
And we take that and use thoseimages to train this AI model,
to what does brain cancer looklike in an image.
(09:30):
We've gotten to a point in someof that research today where the
computer can much more readilyand certainly much faster
identify those tumors versus ahuman doing it and in general
can identify those images inSpaces where it might not be
visible to the human eye.
(09:50):
It's so early on that we're ableto have much earlier
interventions.
Similarly, I, I'm aware of some,uh, AI work being done with ECG
images, or excuse me, ECGtraces, where that heart rhythm
can show small changes in that,will show that, uh, there may be
(10:12):
changes in other bodily systems.
That can be diagnosed just fromthat ECG.
So we're seeing a ton ofadvancement in that space really
quickly that is directlyclinically applicable.
It's fascinating and soundsstressful for you when you
describe the level ofresponsibility and the role that
you have with Mayo Clinic.
(10:34):
And obviously in addition to allthat you do in your career, you
spend a significant amount oftime within the Masonic
Fraternity.
Currently.
Uh, the junior grand warden forthe grand lodge.
How are things going in general?
We could go into so manydifferent avenues of your
Masonic involvement, but how hasit been so far in serving in the
grand line?
(10:54):
I've loved it so far and Iexpect that that'll continue.
You know, big picture.
I've had an opportunity toreally get out and visit a lot
of lodges, have conversationswith a lot of the brothers.
And certainly.
We have concerns within thefraternity.
There are lodges that are havingsome trouble.
Uh, we try and get out there andhelp them out as best as we can.
(11:17):
Give advice.
We recognize that those lodgeshave to go through and implement
the advice.
Whichever parts of it they wantto take themselves.
So there's work to be donewithin the lodges.
We want to make sure thateverybody has the opportunity to
succeed in the end.
So those sorts of interactionshave been great.
As far as I'm concerned.
(11:38):
We're also doing a lot ofplanning going forward.
as you may be aware, we'rerunning up on the 175th
anniversary of the Grand Lodgeof Minnesota.
Yes, 2028.
Tell us more about that.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah.
Uh, lots of things going on,lots of planning going on,
certainly, uh, are lookingforward to celebratory, uh,
events, uh, perhaps, uh, a largegala that involves as many of
(12:02):
our brothers around the state aswe can, the ability to, uh, get
together and to celebrate asignificant milestone like that
is going to be wonderful.
We have a couple other thingsthat are major events that will
go along and be tied into that.
we have the opportunity to hostthe conference of grandmasters
in 2028 here in Minneapolis.
(12:23):
It'll be here.
Yeah, right here in Minneapolis.
So, uh, we'll have grandmastersand, and Grand Lodge officers
from across the U.
S., Canada, Mexico, andgenerally there's, uh, South
American lodges that come andare represented as well.
So, wonderful opportunity for agreat gathering right here in
Minneapolis in 2028.
(12:44):
That's excellent.
I don't want to forget to ask,with that Conference of
Grandmasters and also the GrandSecretaries Gather, were some of
our members who aren't familiarwith, they've heard of the
Conference of Grandmasters, orfrom, perhaps even for newer
Masons, what goes on at thatgathering?
Yeah.
So.
So, the Conference Grandmastersand Conference Grand Secretaries
(13:05):
is an opportunity for GrandLodge officers to get together,
to compare notes, to talk aboutthings that perhaps are a new
program within their GrandLodge, things that they've had
success with, uh, perhapscompare some notes on things
that maybe aren't going as welland try and find some new
solutions.
So, one of the things that we,uh, that we talked about this
(13:27):
year.
So, uh, in the discussion washow one day to masonry, you
know, all three degrees in a daytype festivals are being done in
different jurisdictions acrossthe country.
And we picked up some newthoughts on how we might
implement some of that in ourown one day festival that we do
every January, uh, in thefuture.
(13:49):
being able to have bettereducation, better mentoring for
our community.
brothers that go through and gettheir degrees through that one
day festival, uh, has been aconcern that we've been talking
about for a while to make surethat they get everything that
they need out of the experience,and we picked up some great new
information, uh, that Wisconsinand that Ohio are using, uh, for
(14:12):
their versions of thatparticular event, and I think
we'll see some of that happen,uh, going forward.
That's great to know is the oneday is a successful event in
perhaps equally important to aone day candidate that goes
through the traditional longform that we have more resources
to guide them after they havebecome a master Mason and a
(14:33):
voting member of their lodge.
What's next?
What are my options forattending for visiting other
lodges or getting involved in acommittee?
a lot of that institutionalknowledge Well, maybe that's
been a little bit lost over theyears and it'd be exciting to be
refining that and providing somereally strong Resources for our
members.
Yeah, absolutely and we combinethat with the work that we're
(14:55):
doing before a petition evercomes in to try and make sure
that the man is bonded to thefraternity and And that he's got
a good, pool of resources in hisown lodge.
I think those two thingstogether are going to continue
to improve our success in, in,in getting guys, uh, really
involved in the fraternity andretaining them over the long
(15:17):
haul.
I couldn't agree more.
And as we look at a 175thanniversary in 2028 of the Grand
Lodge of Minnesota, we've beenaround a long time.
perhaps something we can hangour hat on as far as a longevity
is that we are an organizationthat is apolitical, non
sectarian.
We are open to someone whoembraces our core values of
(15:42):
friendship and personaldevelopments and community,
giving back to the greater goodbeing that desire.
There is a really strong desirefor that in our world right now.
How do we capitalize on that forthose who may not be familiar
with what we've set out to dowith, we call them in
Freemasonry, the tenets of ourprofession or those, or those
(16:04):
core values of brotherly love,relief, and truth.
Absolutely, and we're alwayslooking for good men who believe
in those sorts of values.
What I would say to you, toanswer your question, Reid, is
we need to, as members of thefraternity, continue to go out
and Seek those men out in a oneby one basis.
(16:27):
Look for that man that youinteract with at work, in your
neighborhood, uh, at yourchurch.
Whatever the venue may be, andhave a conversation with him.
We've always I've gone down theroad of saying that masonry does
not go out and recruitmemberships, but that does not
mean that we shouldn't be havinga conversation one on one.
(16:50):
There's no prohibition to askingsomeone, why aren't you a mason
yet?
why haven't you ever thoughtabout the fraternity and, and
would you like to know more?
Similarly, anyone that is notcurrently a brother of the
fraternity is welcome to reachout via be a free mason.
org, uh, via someone that theyknow.
(17:11):
We can't.
We can't any of those paths areopen to you and we can have a
conversation about is this theright fit for you.
It's not necessarily aninvitation, hey, you should
join, but what questions do youhave about my involvement in my
Masonic Lodge?
How much interest have you hadin what we do in the community?
Nine times out of ten, thatconversation results in someone
(17:33):
saying, well, I didn't know Icould.
I didn't, I thought I had tocheck more boxes of having a
family connection and none ofthose things are, are accurate,
but there's still a bigdisconnect even from our own
members who are under this oldmisperception that we can't have
that curiosity conversation.
(17:54):
We're not out handing outleaflets saying, join us.
But if to your point, if, if weknow someone.
who embraces the things we justtalked about.
That is definitely the onus ison all of us to to do that.
Correct?
Absolutely.
We need to get away from thatold attitude where men felt that
(18:15):
it was purely secret.
Couldn't talk about anything.
Couldn't talk about the factthat they remember and couldn't
go ask their best friend in theworld to be.
Involved if they had a desirethat it just doesn't make sense
and as the society has movedforward For some reason that old
(18:35):
thought has just continued tostick and we've got to get past
it Most definitely my own fatherdidn't join because my
grandfather who was a pastmaster of his lodge of that old
school mentality This is severalgenerations ago was waiting on
my dad to say Hey, tell me moreand it never happened and as a
result it just fizzled out andunfortunately my dad never, my
(18:58):
dad broke the chain of severalgenerations of being Masons and
it was how unfortunate of thatTime and again within my role as
a regional director, I haveconversations with, well, men of
all ages between 25 and you nameit, and the desire to make
quality friends, to have a pathof personal development.
(19:23):
Striving to become that bestversion or better version of
oneself and the community pieceis So highly sought right now in
this world that has so muchdivisiveness so much screen time
It is very refreshing anduplifting to hear the feedback
especially from some of theseyounger guys that are just tired
(19:45):
of doom scrolling and They'retired of being isolated in their
apartment or at home.
They really want to get out andconnect as friends in an
authentic way, human to human,face to face.
That's not to say we abandontechnology, Freemasonry offers a
uniquely analog experiencewithin this digital world that
we live.
(20:06):
Absolutely.
I can go back to and think aboutmy own experience and I was
fortunate I was able to joinwhen I was very young.
I was initiated when I was 20years old and that for me came
from my DMLA background havingParticipated in DeMolay and
(20:27):
having those relationships withthe masons that I did when I was
in high school.
I knew right off I needed tocontinue my journey, come into
the fraternity.
The timing certainly wasdifferent then.
We didn't have the social mediaaspects and some of those
things.
It was Well, 1992 to throw myage out there, so, uh, you're
(20:52):
still young to me, Chuck, butthen the young guys look at us
and say, Oh, please go on.
But to have those relationshipswith a variety of men of, of all
ages, even just as DMLA advisorsfor me, widened my view within
the fraternity and withinsociety to be able to say These
(21:15):
are men that are doing the rightthing.
These are guys that reallyunderstand where our values are
and where society could beheaded if we come together and I
had to be part of it.
how far back does the Masonicconnection go with parents,
grandparents?
Is this a multi generationaltradition in your family?
No, no, I had no link to thefraternity, it was one of those
(21:39):
things.
I was Um, I was a theaterteacher.
Always involved in the theaterproductions in junior high and
high school, and I saw one of mybuddies with what I later
learned to be a D Malay ritualstudying his lines during study
hall.
Uh, just one day at school, andI asked him.
What's that?
(22:00):
What do you got there?
It looks like a script.
You know, just a small booklooks like a theater script, and
that was my introduction.
It was not long before I was amember of the chapter back at
home and That's where thingsstarted for me.
It's not amazing to think ofwhat a subtle moment that was.
Oh yeah.
And how it's affected in apositive way the rest of your
(22:21):
life.
It has.
All the way until, till now.
you mentioned earlier about thefriendship, started alluding to
the brotherhood.
It made me think about therelationships that we make along
the way.
you and I are similar in age, asI look back on the Masonic
experience of, Of having mentorsthat I didn't know they were my
(22:42):
mentor in the moment.
Maybe it was that unintentional,we were just chatting.
Maybe I was venting about a jobor the job search or things
happening while I was in my 20sand 30s.
And never appreciated as much inthat moment, Ken Hill and Jim
Burlingame, some of these guysof having a passing
(23:03):
conversation, the listening theydid, they didn't necessarily
have the answer to life'sproblems, but listen, provided a
perspective and context.
Looking back, there was 10, 20years of just some of the most
meaningful friendships and lifeadvice that I personally have
(23:24):
ever known.
If you had to identify onesingular, most impactful aspect
of being a member, of thefraternity, of being a
Freemason, what would that be?
Boy, that's a, that's a toughone to knock it down to just
one.
for me, it's, it's really whatyou just said.
(23:45):
It's about those mentorship typerelationships.
Whether that's I had, uh, a manthat was sitting as the Grand
Master of South Dakota when Iwas at DMLA.
He was one of the advisors ofthe chapter.
Did I know that at the time?
No, no idea, but the lifeexperience that he brought and
(24:07):
the Advice that he would giveand frankly the gentle nudge
that he gave me to step up andsay You might want to run for
this leadership position.
I think you'd be really good atit was life changing for me And
I've had the great fortune tohave several brothers like that
over the years where it was goodand timely advice, whispered at
(24:33):
the right time and focusing myefforts in a particular way that
has gotten me to where I amtoday.
Another story of a subtlety too.
You didn't know he was a,whatever his title was in the
moment, but that he stepped upand said, Hey, That little, that
little nudge, you shouldconsider doing that.
(24:54):
it concerns me that we missedthat opportunity, especially
with some of our younger memberswho are either on a trajectory
of development, or who need alittle confidence boost.
All those future leaders are allaround us, and sometimes I'm
afraid we assume that, well, Iassume that you will tell the
young man next to it.
(25:14):
There's so much power and impactin putting an arm around that
brother and saying, you didgreat, and I think you should
try even more to strive for thisnext level of leadership, or of
taking on a community engagementproject, or heading up a
committee.
Absolutely true.
The, the capabilities that ourbrothers have, uh, they may not
(25:36):
recognize them yet, especiallysome of the newer members or
some of the younger guys thatare around, but these brothers
have a lot to give to the craft.
And to society in general, andwe need to be very explicit
about supporting that for everyone of them to be able to, as
(25:57):
you said, just take them asideand say, Hey, I think you could
do this.
Would you be willing to step upand have this opportunity, or
the other side of it is and wetend to not be so great at this
at times too.
Recognition of, hey, you did agreat job on this thing that you
(26:18):
did well done.
I really appreciate everythingthat you did to put effort into
it.
Community engagement is a veryhighly sought after aspect of
the Masonic experience, and I'mvery excited about how many of
our younger or newer Masons haveasked how can I get more
involved with Masonic charities?
How can our Lodge better supportand be aware of the things
(26:42):
happening?
At the university with theMasonic Cancer Center, the
Masonic Children's Hospital.
Some very exciting endeavorsoccurring, literally right in
our backyard, that are impactingthe world.
And to see these young menstepping up and saying, how can
we help promote that along withother, other aspects of
(27:02):
meaningful community engagementis, is really.
Huge.
And these brothers have so muchto give, and their experiences
to date have been different thanyou or I were at that point in
our lives.
Let's utilize those experiencesto continue to make progress in
(27:24):
society.
We are an organization very muchsteeped in history.
and learning from history andalso evolving as we move
forward.
I saw a great quote out of the,it was actually from the
Northern light from a WaltWheeler, who's the sovereign
grand commander of the Northernjurisdiction.
(27:44):
And he said more or less that weas Freemasons must adapt and
enhance our approach to ensurethat our storied organization
remains relevant in the future.
What do you see as our long termvision moving ahead and looking
long term into the future?
It's a great question, and it'sinteresting, going back to the
(28:06):
conversation a little while ago,I told you I was just at the
conference of grandmasters.
Well, Walt was one of thepresenters there, and we had
exactly this conversation.
In one of those sessions.
So the timing is perfect.
Oh, good.
I had no idea.
Yeah, we, uh, we really had a, agreat conversation about really
trying to be explicit aboutbringing communications,
(28:30):
bringing, the technology in thelodges up to modern day, uh, we
see certainly.
Lodges that have fallen behindin the way that they do their
communications.
Perhaps they still are doingonly a paper newsletter That
goes out to their membership.
We need to look at other optionsnow Does that mean that we
(28:55):
should kill that papernewsletter for?
Everybody including the guysthat maybe don't have email or
that sort of thing.
No We need to be conscious ofour membership and that we
ensure that everyone gets theinformation that they need to
have, but we also need torecognize that today's 25 year
old is unlikely to, uh.
(29:18):
They're going to want to dealwith something that they got a
piece of paper in the mail.
Do they even rather have it ontheir phone?
The 25 year olds even checktheir mail.
That's an excellent question.
Probably not other than forbills, right?
So being able to embrace some ofthose technological changes
while at the same time retainingour core values is really what
(29:40):
we need to look at.
The conversation when we were inMyrtle Beach really went to the
concern around innovations inthe craft.
What does that mean for someonewho isn't unfamiliar?
Yeah.
So, uh, any, any sorts ofchanges.
And the way that it's beenframed in some cases is we
(30:01):
shouldn't change the ritual.
Uh, we should not change thecore values.
We should not change the Thingslike that.
But, if we look at thehistorical record, other than
the core values, Every one ofthose other things has been
changed at different times inthe past.
We've changed our ritual.
We've changed even the modes ofrecognition, at different points
(30:22):
in the past in order to betterserve those that were members of
the fraternity.
And this really isn't anydifferent in my mind to be able
to Take our technological edgeand move that forward to better
serve those in the fraternity Isonly going to benefit us in the
long run now.
(30:43):
Do I see us?
having Things like a virtuallodge where we're putting on
degree work Through the the zoomsession.
No, not at any point in thefuture.
Uh, there's there's too muchthat goes along with The
learning process that needs tobe face to face, person to
person.
(31:04):
But, we certainly should betaking advantage for
communications, for education,other things of that nature that
aren't esoteric by nature.
And being able to broaden ourimpact to our brothers and to
society as a whole through someof those technological changes.
Part of the technological changeis ensuring that we are
(31:28):
preserving our history.
We started to touch on thehistorical aspect and it seems
that Masons are very much.
Students of history to someextent, Tell us more about the
project that you've embarkedupon that ensures that we are
archiving and keeping andmaintaining our history alive
with those resources to ensurewhether that is it going to be
(31:49):
digital all the way through, orplease tell us more.
Yeah, great question.
Thanks, Reed.
Uh, the Scanning Project, orwhat I'll call the Scanning
Project, just for brevity here,Lodge Digitization and
Preservation Project, I think isthe official title that we have
gone with, in any case, uh, isan effort that we are
undertaking, uh, as apartnership between the Grand
(32:10):
Lodge of Minnesota and MinnesotaMasonic Charities, uh,
specifically the museum, to Takedigital records of minutes books
of interesting correspondence ofphotos Anything that a lodge
might have that has any sort ofa historic value We recognize
(32:31):
that there have certainly beensituations where floods fires
Other sorts of disasters havedestroyed records in different
lodges we further understandthat Old minutes books mostly
were handwritten, uh, the paperis starting to degrade, the iron
ink is starting to fade.
(32:52):
There's late 1850s, early 1860sminutes books that it's very
difficult to even be able to getenough light on them to be able
to read it at this point.
And those early histories arehugely important, not only for
those that are members of thecraft, but for historians in
general.
There's all sorts of tie ins toimportant figures in Minnesota
(33:17):
as a state that were also Wewant to be able to preserve the
legacy of our brothers withinthe craft, and we want to be
able to ensure that all of thatlegacy is preserved over time.
So, we're embarking on a projectwhere we are digitizing those
records.
We've got several overheadscanners and laptops and really
(33:38):
a whole kit of gear that we cantake out to any lodge.
And have some of our brothersteach those local brothers how
to do the work.
those brothers are able to takeevery one of their minute books,
every one of their pieces ofinteresting correspondence, and
scan them so that they've got adigital record of that.
(34:01):
I take one example here.
the lodge in Mankato, uh,Mankato Lodge number 12, has
correspondence that was writtenfrom members of that lodge back
to the lodge while thesebrothers were off fighting in
World War I.
They've got these on display,uh, and it's, you know, it's,
(34:22):
it's One guy talking to thebrothers of his lodge in letter
form about what's going on inhis life while he's over in
Germany, France, etc, fightingin World War I.
And I would hate to haveanything happen to those
original documents, of course,but at least if we can get them
scanned, we've got A record ofthem.
(34:44):
We know what they were that weknow what they looked like and
we can preserve the originalsmore appropriately Uh as well,
we're going through both, youknow, the digitization certainly
but also Ensuring that we'reappropriate, uh better archival
practices are being handled acidfree boxes sealing against
(35:06):
water, things like that arebeing done with this project as
well in order to help the lodgeshold on to the physical media at
the same time.
Preserving it in a way you justdescribed, but also now we'll be
able to share it.
We can internally distributesomething like that.
What it sounds like there's somany timeless pieces.
Within the archives that manyhave never seen or are literally
(35:28):
unaware of that's exactly rightAnd as we move forward the
intent here is things likeminutes.
We'll be able to have asearchable PDF where for example
Trinity Lodge in Duluth we tooka hundred years worth of their
minutes There's all happened tobe typewritten, so we didn't
(35:49):
have to worry about, uh,translating old calligraphy and
that kind of thing.
But you said a hundred years, ahundred years of minutes we've
able, we would be able to then.
Take all hundred years and witha few keystrokes search for
every instance of Denfield whowas one of our past grandmasters
(36:09):
and who was a member of thelodge up there and find every
spot in That hundred years wherethat name was mentioned in a few
seconds two questions.
How long does the scanning take?
And is this new technology?
Are you bringing something intothe scanning project that is
maybe more than what in my mindis an old school way of doing
(36:30):
this task?
It is, it is a little bit newer,uh, technology.
Yes.
So when we did our So this isour initial test up at Trinity
Lodge.
We went through on 1, 500 pagesof minutes in the span of
somewhere between three and fourhours.
So it's really quite quick.
(36:51):
The way that the technologyworks is the scanner is an
overhead type setup.
So you've got an open book, theopens minutes books.
It'll take both.
Um, and it'll scan all the pagesfacing pages at the same time
and as quickly as you can turnthe page and click the button.
It'll take that scan.
If the book happens to be openwhere it's bent and has a curve
(37:15):
in it or anything like that,it'll flatten it out
automatically in the image andbe able to just move on and flip
through as quickly as you canturn the pages safely.
You covered in just a handful ofhours when that particular case
now the technology is obviouslyway beyond what it once was that
(37:35):
said, how many volunteers wouldbe helpful in something like
this?
Are you looking for some to stepup maybe with a little more
affinity for history?
Who would want to be a part ofthis?
Yeah, so on the committee rightnow, we've got four of us that
are, that are deep into it.
Um, we would absolutely love afew more helpers, especially as
(37:57):
we're starting to get out andget this equipment distributed
around the state because we needto A, ensure that our committee
members.
Um, and, uh, can operate thescanners.
And I will say it's not tough.
It's not difficult by any means.
I know that me as atechnologist, I can say that
sometimes, and maybe it's not astrue as others.
(38:17):
You read my mind.
However, I've been told by thosethat aren't tech folks, uh,
that, no, it's pretty easy.
yes, I would love to haveadditional volunteers.
When we go out to the lodge,really, it's a matter of Usually
two or three guys is all we needfrom that local lodge, somebody
to meet, you know, usually thesecretary that has access to all
(38:38):
the records and a couple ofwilling volunteers that are able
to do the physical parts of thework.
The only concern that crosses mymind is that if someone like me
was involved in that, it wouldbe so easy to stop scanning and
read either the minutes or thebook that's being looked at if
it's something like theCentennium book, it would
(38:59):
require a bit of focus and lookthrough the book later, right?
Absolutely true.
I found myself doing exactlythat.
And the nice thing about it isonce we've gone through the
project.
You've got that digitallyforever, so you can go back and
take as much time to readthrough that later on as you
want, and that's what I've gotto keep reminding myself as I
flip through these becausethere's always something
(39:20):
interesting.
But this will be in PDF form andthen can be shared, distributed
as appropriate if someone wasinterested or that by that
search function is Exactly,exactly.
To be able to go through and.
Now, as I said, find allinstances of someone's name or,
uh, look for when a particularevent happened and find all of
(39:41):
the, the related minutes to itin a flash of a second is for
historians, for educators, foranybody that's interested in, in
the history of the lodge.
Really gonna be a huge stepforward.
We are recording today just afew weeks away from our annual
communication, which will be inApril.
Will there be more informationon this available when we gather
(40:04):
in Wake Park?
There will.
So we will have a short promovideo that we'll show, uh, and
that will be available out tothe lodges through their
district representatives aswell.
couple of minutes.
We just shot that the other day,and I think that will be.
Uh, great for a high leveloverview, but, uh, for those
(40:24):
that want to take a deeper dive,we will also have a breakout
session, at Grand Lodge wherewe'll do some demo, we'll do
some walkthrough and we'll teachyou how this really works and,
and how you can engage with theprogram going forward.
And if any brothers listeninghave an interest in getting
involved in this, I'm going torefer them to reach out to me at
(40:45):
the Grand Lodge office and I'llget your information shared with
Chuck and the committee and putyou to work.
Sounds great.
Love to have more.
What else does a year hold foryou?
Like we said, the annualcommunication is just a few
weeks away, which gives me atwinge of nerves with all that
still needs to be done ahead ofthat, but what else is on the
calendar for you personally andMasonically?
you and me both, it's going tobe an interesting time over the
(41:06):
next few weeks in this run up tothe session, making sure we've
got everything finalized andprepared, ready to go.
Beyond that, for me, I am hopingto get out to a lot of lodges
here right away in the spring.
I've had the wonderfulopportunity to deal with some
lodges in the Southwest overthis last year.
I'll have Northwest lodges inthe next term.
(41:28):
tradition prevailing, assuming Iget elected in, in April, uh, so
I'm looking forward to that.
Uh, perhaps I can haul thefishing boat along and, and do a
little fishing during the daywhen I'm between meetings, uh,
if I'm going to be up north fora few days.
So I would hope so.
Yeah.
Short summer.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And looking forward to that alittle bit, uh, beyond that,
(41:50):
I've got some personal travelcoming up.
I've got a, a long.
I hope trip to Portugal comingup, my mother and I have a goal
of doing the Caminos de Santiagowalk, so we'll be, uh, we're
planning to walk from Porto,Portugal to Santiago, Spain,
which is about 175 miles in thespan of two weeks.
(42:13):
No kidding.
Yeah, yeah, should be fun.
That's one word, fun.
What's the, what's the kind oftemperatures are we looking at
for that?
It's.
It's Spain and Portugal insummer, so 90s, 80s to 90s.
Yeah, you are a man ofadventure.
There's no doubt about it.
That's a far cry from sitting ina fishing boat in northern
Minnesota.
(42:34):
Well, Chuck Brust, it's beengreat sitting down with you
today, learning more about yourcareer, your upbringing, what
led you to join Freemasonry.
And we'd be remiss if we didn'tsay.
thank you for the time that youhave contributed and continue to
do so towards the Masonic familyin general.
Happy to do it.
If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn'tbe here, Reid, so thank you for
(42:57):
the time today.
Chuck Bruss is the Junior GrandWarden for the Grand Lodge of
Minnesota.
Thank you for being here.
We look forward to seeing you atthe annual communication in
April.
My name is Reed Endersby.
This has been another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
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