The following document helps summarize the philosophy and motives of the men who formed MDI in 2000. It also hints at some of the specific details of organization structure and membership requirements, as noted below.
The New Trust
by Eric deRivera
To put the Spirit of the Men’s Weekend into action by discovering, learning, and teaching other men, how to be the man they always wanted to be.
Thru love,
Thru trust,
Thru honor,
Thru ritual,
Thru legacy,
Thru integrity,
Thru discipline,
Thru relationship,
Thru commitment,
Thru higher purpose,
Thru our masculine identity,
Thru initiation into manhood;
we bring the teachings and spirit of the Men’s Weekend to our lives and to the world.
Thru the Men’s Weekend we became connected to all men. We are here because of our love for that connection and our love for the human spirit and our desire for higher purpose.
It’s really simple! KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
Its already about the spirit of the Men’s Weekend! The only thing we
need to eliminate from the structures and agendas and leadership
methods is the pressure to fill weekends. There can be no pressure to
fill weekends whatsoever.
All other things will resolve themselves around this resolution.
Leadership will come from trust instead of control.
There will be less need and tendency toward leadership by control.
There will be a place for all men who have done the Weekend.
Men will have unpredictable, outrageous fun.
Men’s teams will serve their communities.
Cultural contributions will be respected.
Men will own it at their level.
Enrollment will be natural.
Ownership in things will be infectious.
Boys will be taught by these men.
Marriages will stay together.
We have relationships with the family of women that work toward family and community.
We are a place for men to give in their own masculine way.
Teams will give to their communities.
We can have a positive public image.
We will have a great reputation.
We will be a resource for men based on the principles of the Men’s Weekend.
Our elders will be taken care of.
Our families will be protected and provided for.
Our children will be brought up amongst positive role models.
We will have an honorable place in society.
The lessons of the Weekend will be brought to more men.
We can still have a code of confidentiality without everything being secret.
This doesn’t mean we don’t enroll men, register men into the Men’s Weekend, pressure and test each other, confront each other. It doesn’t mean we become soft and feminized. It doesn’t mean we won’t have standards. It doesn’t mean we won’t follow a code of honor. It doesn’t mean we wont train men. It simply means no hidden agenda to get men into their seats in a Men’s Weekend – period.
We are a non-profit organization with full accountability and professionally managed funds. We are guided by an elected board of directors. We hope to have a good relationship with, but we have no contract with, the Sterling Institute of Relationship. We are open to men thru payment of dues and a signed agreement. We have a leadership structure in order to coordinate our activities, keep the message pure, provide a training ground for leadership, and provide a means of implementing new ways and activities that bring out the spirit of the Men’s Weekend. Our fundamental structure is the Men’s Team.
Is there any reason we can’t trust this?
Do we have the balls to stand for it?
From the above it can be deduced that membership in the new organization would be understood to include:
- follow a code of honor
- elect representatives to a board of directors
- pay dues
- sign a membership agreement
- maintain and follow a leadership structure
- organize around the Men's Team as a fundamental unit
Each of these items, in somewhat modified form, appears in the membership requirements that became clearly stated by mid 2001.
Back to MDI Membership Chronology
This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 2010 Oct 15.
s.27