Moose News

Exclusive Moose Discounts Offered for Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR Cup Series Race

The Worldwide Technology Raceway near St. Louis is offering Moose members an exclusive series of discounts to the NASCAR Cup Series Race on Sunday, June 4th. The Enjoy Illinois 300 is the second of four Moose Fraternity primary races this year with Driver Ross Chastain and the No. 1 Moose Chevrolet Camaro. The race occurs at 3:30pm ET and can also be seen on Fox Sports 1 (FS1).

Discounts start at 15% off of regularly priced seating for individual members. Discounts for groups of 30-49 people are 20% off, and groups of 50 or more are 30% off. Tickets are available in Front stretch Levels 3 & 4 and the Wallace Grandstand Section 200. Parking is included with the ticket costs.

To access the individual discount click here and use discount code Moose1.

For group seating/prices: Contact Nathan DeGroot at the track directly (618) 215-8888 or by email.  Ask for Option #1.

Chastain Returns to Site of His First Cup Series Win

On March 27, 2022, Ross Chastain, the eighth-generation watermelon farmer from Alva, Florida battled three-wide over a thrilling final lap on the 20-turn, 3.41-mile Austin, Texas road course to capture his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. Our Moose Fraternity driver returns to the scene of that triumph this weekend when the Cup Series holds its third annual race at COTA on Sunday, March 26th. The No. 1 driver arrives third in the point standings after a 13th-place finish this past Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race can be seen at 3:30pm ET on FOX.

“When I look back at our first win, I think of all of the people who helped me get here. My family, sponsors, team owners, all of the men and women who have spent time trying to help me put everything together so I could race,” recalled Chastain.

“It would’ve been so easy for me to give up and go back and work at the farm. Instead, I kept working at it, and kept trying and so many people were there to help me.”

Look for Chastain’s car, emblazoned with the Moose Fraternity logo, as he competes for victory in the following races:

April 23, 2023
Geico 500
Talladega Superspeedway
Fox – 3:00pm ET

June 4, 2023
Enjoy Illinois 300
Worldwide Technology Raceway
FS1 – 3:30pm ET

August 20, 2023
Go Bowling at the Glen
Watkins Glen International
USA – 3:00pm ET

October 29, 2023
Xfinity 500
Martinsville Speedway
NBC – 2:00pm ET

The Moose Membership Mobile App is live on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. Members can now download the app for free using their iPhones or any android phone (i.e. Samsung, Google Pixel, Motorola, etc.). The app includes the new electronic Moose membership card, your Moose membership record, the lodge locator, the General Laws of the Fraternity, as well as instant access to pay dues or sign a new member. Members should use their existing Moose “My Membership Record” user name and password to log in, or register in the app, if they don’t have a “My Membership Record” login.

This document gives information on how to download the app on nearly any phone.

If you are viewing this message on a phone or tablet, the links below will take you directly to the Moose Membership app. If you are viewing this from a computer, it will take you to an information page, but you will not be able to load the app to your phone.

Note: Administrators, volunteers and other individuals tasked with checking Moose membership cards should treat the new electronic membership card the same as the printed card. The membership expiration date is in the same location as on the printed card. The electronic card is almost identical to the printed card, however, if a member is marked as a Valued Veteran, the card will carry the VV design. Also, the electronic card does NOT have a magnetic strip, but rather a QR code instead, so members will still need to carry their printed card if their lodge has a mag strip reader on the entrance door that has not yet been upgraded with a QR code reader.

Moose International is happy to announce a more user-friendly version of Moose magazine for mobile devices – perfect for members who are busy and on-the-go! The new and enhanced version features flowable text and adjustable font size so you no longer have to struggle to read stories from your phone or tablet! In addition, the contents view makes it easy to see all the stories/features at once so you can jump to your favorite section much faster, while still being able to see the traditional/page view if you desire. A tutorial is also offered to walk you through all the features/benefits of the new platform at the beginning. We hope you enjoy this new enhanced version of Moose magazine, making it easier for those of you on the go to stay connected! Check it out for yourself here!

The Moose Journalism Awards program seeks to encourage and motivate editors of all Moose publications towards the achievement of consistently high journalistic standards in their newsletters and, through such achievement, to enhance communication and shared information between Moose members and their Lodges, Chapters, Moose Legions, Higher Degree Councils, and Associations.

Entries are now being accepted for the 61st Annual Moose Journalism Awards, to be announced at the 2023 International Convention in Reno, NV. Participants can download entry/informational forms for both the publications and website portions of the contest at the following link(s):

– 2022-2023 Publication Entries
– 2022-2023 Website Entries

Website entries are due Feb. 24, 2023. Newsletter entries due  March 3, 2023.

Questions about the contest can be directed to the Moose International Department of Communications at (630) 966-2229.

Good luck to all the participants!

*Information courtesy of CBS Sports / NASCAR – read the full article online

Driver of the Year: Ross Chastain

Before the season began, there was a pretty good sense of who Ross Chastain was and what he was capable of. Through years of overachieving in lesser equipment, the consensus was that Chastain was a talented driver who made his way on merit, and one that was capable of taking the better equipment he worked his way into and winning at least one Cup race with it.

But in only his second season running all 36 Cup Series races, Chastain performed at a level that even his fiercest advocates may not have expected him to. Not only did Chastain earn the first two wins of his career at Circuit of the Americas and Talladega, but he also led all drivers in top-five (15) and top-10 finishes (21), led the fourth-most laps of all drivers (692) and had the second-best average finish of all drivers (13.3).

In many of the season’s top moments or greatest conflicts, Chastain was a central character. His stand-your-ground, unapologetically aggressive style of driving harkened back to an era where rubbin’ was racin’, and it earned him just as many fans as it earned him enemies on the racetrack. And that was before he risked life and limb to make the Championship 4 and produce one of the greatest highlights in NASCAR playoff history at Martinsville.

If any single driver defined the 2022 season, it was Ross Chastain and his arrival as one of stock car racing’s best.

Team of the Year: Trackhouse Racing

For the longest time, the balance of power among NASCAR race teams has amounted to an oligarchy of powerhouse race shops that have gone almost entirely unchallenged — until now.

The vision of Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks, a former journeyman driver, has been transgressive and transformative for an industry that had stagnated and needed new ideas from new power players. But more than bringing on a celebrity co-owner in Pitbull and buying Chip Ganassi Racing’s entire NASCAR operation, Trackhouse has become a force in NASCAR through what it accomplished on the racetrack in 2022. Both of its cars finished in the top 10, with both Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez leading the rising tide of Trackhouse to the best seasons of their respective careers.

Moment of the Year: Hail Melon

There were 19 different winners in 2022, tying a NASCAR record. Every single driver who competed for the championship had at least one finish inside the top 10. But nothing any driver did mattered more than what one driver was willing to do to finish fourth.

Running 10th entering the final corner at Martinsville in October, there was seemingly nothing Ross Chastain could conceivably do to make up the points deficit to Denny Hamlin and make the Championship 4 in Phoenix. So Chastain shifted into fifth gear, put his throttle to the floorboard and tried to make something happen. Sure enough, Chastain’s car carried an extreme amount of speed as it wrapped around the wall, allowing him to pass five cars in one corner and beat Hamlin back to the start/finish line to make the Championship 4 by one point.

Chastain’s move quickly became one of the greatest highlights of NASCAR’s playoff era, one of the most iconic individual driving moments in NASCAR’s 75-year history, and perhaps offered a striking, lasting visual that will long encapsulate the season that was in 2022.

The new Basic 2-HOTT Class is now available as an in-person, instructor-led class. The new version has been shortened to a one-day class with two sections, making it more convenient for members to attend. The Basic 2-HOTT Class is intended to train administrators, assistants to administrators, Chapter treasurers and Moose Legion secretaries.

There is limited class availability across the country at this time, as instructors are just starting to schedule sessions in their areas. Please check the Moose Training web page beginning next week for the initial class schedules; however, there will be more classes available in the next few months.

If you take the class within the next few weeks, please be advised that this is a class that will be utilizing new practice scenarios, and you may be asked to notify the instructor in the class if something in the software does not work correctly. Please have patience with the instructors as the reporting could take extra time in the class.

Materials for the new Administrator School training are currently being reviewed and the new in-person sessions are anticipated to begin being scheduled in the middle of October. The shortened two-day course will feature new learner guides and scenarios.

Please go to the Moose Training Schedule to find classes in your area!

We hope to see you in a Basic 2-HOTT Class soon!

The Moose International Board of Directors approved two separate grant programs for the 2022-23 fiscal year in which lodges can receive money for marketing and infrastructure projects.

The Local Marketing Grant Program will open applications on Wednesday, July 6th and will continue to accept applications until the end of the Moose year (April 30, 2023) or whenever funds run out, whichever comes sooner. This program offers lodges up to $3,000 in grant money to promote themselves within the communities in which they operate. $500,000 has been committed to this popular program and the application can be accessed by Lodge Administrators through the dropdown menu on LCL.web.

The Lodge Grant Program will also open applications on Wednesday, July 6th, but applications for this program will close on Friday, August 12th. $1,000,000 has been earmarked for this program and if there are any funds left from the first application period, a second application period will be announced at a date TBD. This grant is intended to provide funds for lodge improvements to make the home more inviting for new and existing members, and again the application can be accessed by Lodge Administrators through the dropdown menu on LCL.web.

Please note: The main requirement for either grant program is attendance at the International Moose Convention in Orlando. To meet this criterion, lodges must have at least one member scanned into an official session of The Moose at the Rosen Shingle Creek Orlando.

For more details about each program, please click the appropriate Guidelines link:

– Local Marketing Grant Program Guidelines – Click Here
– Lodge Grant Program Guidelines – Application Period Now Closed

The Fraternity shows a gain in membership for only the second time in 30 years!

Moose members, energized by recent actions taken on behalf of the Fraternity, made 2021-22 a year to remember for The Moose. For the first time since 2012, year-end records show a gain in membership. Lodge membership numbers ended at 852,356, up an impressive 5,120 members over the previous year.

Several factors played important roles in this inspirational increase.

First, members approved a General Laws amendment to ban smoking within the lodge homes in 2019, which encouraged non-smokers and younger prospects to revisit their decisions to avoid our facilities due to smoke.

Next, members voted in 2020 to make lodge membership open to all individuals, men and women alike, beginning with the 2021 fiscal year. That meant an influx of talent at a variety of leadership positions across the Fraternity, which in turn, produced more effectively run operations. This decision also resonated with a younger audience that looked to participate in an organization that more closely associated with their integrated upbringing.

Third, the Fraternity began a more aggressive marketing approach, utilizing NASCAR and driver Ross Chastain to reach a larger national audience that exhibited similar demographics as the current Fraternity membership. When Chastain won the Talladega race with the Moose Fraternity car, visits to beamoose.org quadrupled the previous single-day high for the site and lodges across the country reported race fans walking into lodge homes to apply for membership.

Finally, the Moose International Board of Directors approved over half a million dollars’ worth of local marketing grants that allowed lodges to become more visible in the communities in which they operate. By utilizing youth team sponsorships, community event participation and even local billboards, Moose lodges became much more evident in the towns and counties where they recruit new members.

And recruit they did! Moose members invited 163,703 individuals to become members this past fiscal year – nearly 29,000 more than the goal of 135,000 members set at the beginning of the year. While the Women of the Moose experienced a slight decline in membership, as expected when women joined the lodges, the Moose Legion gained nearly 2,700 members over the previous year, drawing from a larger pool of members.

“It’s exciting to see the changes we made translate into increased membership so quickly,” commented Moose CEO Scott Hart. “The energy we created when we integrated the membership, combined with our increased marketing efforts, proved we are on the right path. Our leaders and members should be proud that they took these changes and positioned the Fraternity to support our missions for years to come. Keep up that momentum!”

At its February meeting, Moose International’s Board of Directors voted to extend the Moose Rewards program an additional two years, with a new targeted end date of April 30, 2024.  Members may continue to earn points through the program simply by doing activities which will strengthen the Fraternity, such as signing new members, participating in training programs, and renewing their dues.  Members may also redeem points for things such as dues renewals, convention registration, donations through Moose Charities, and gift certificates for the Moose Gift Store.  All members are enrolled automatically and earn points as they complete activities without having to submit any forms.  For more information about the program, please go to www.mooserewards.org.