ALCON;
Area 4 Commander Sheets;
Area 4 Best Wishes ......Have a great Area Conference
Vacation over. I am back to work. Tuesday October 3rd I am officially Retired from my civilian job. From that day forward I am commit-ed to making every American Legion event I am asked to attend.
Commander Sheets; I apologize that I Will not be able to attend Area 4 Conference due to my employer responsibility. I will be retiring this Tuesday. After this week-end I will be more available. Please accept my apology for not being able to attend your event as much as I really would like and need to be there. Would you convey this message to your Area Members in my absence?
If I were to attend your Area Conference this week end my message would be "Membership" which I will elaborate and congratulate momentarily.
Commentaries I would personally like to address is "Attendance to Meetings", "Advertizing your Organization" and "Scheduling your Events to meet the needs of you Audience"
First- Post Commanders "Do not have meetings". Rather "Have events". Make your monthly events worth attending. Invite the Mayor, Council Members, City Officials, or County and State Officials to address your Membership. Work with the Boy Scouts and do a Recognition Spaghetti Dinner, Do a Social, or an Open House. Make every effort to invite the community and keep the American Legion name in the spotlight. When ever possible consolidate your efforts especially if you are a small Post with community activities. If you need help please call me and let's talk. No Post is to small to be involved in the community to advertise your name and organization.
Secondly: "Advertise your events", so the community knows when you meet, where you meet, and what time you meet. Free advertising is at every bulletin board you meet, every truck stop you eat, any VA facility that has a library area, any road sign or gas station or quick stop you can hang a poster to invite your neighbors.
Thirdly: Take into "Consideration of your Audience", that you want to socialize with you, or invite to attend your events, or participate as a member in your Organization. The way we have done things in the past are not the way these young Veterans do things today. Remember that they have jobs and time restraints that affect the reason that they can or can not join us in our ranks. Remember that they are not retired and have personal free time to do as they wish. Remember that they may not have Saturday's off to attend events such as this. Being inconsiderate of their time and scheduling events that eliminate and alienate from those events allow them to convince themselves they can't join and be involved. Consider scheduling events an hour later to allow them to go home change and get to your event without the rush. "Give them reasons and opportunity rather than why they they can't attend your event." I am saying this because I am one of those you have inconvenienced for years and I want to change that for our next generation. I am not going to be at your Area Conference this week-end because why? My Job. I refused leadership positions for years because of my job. Veterans want to be involved and feel they are contributing and one of us and not a special group of old men and women that just have meetings. Veterans want to be involved but it has to be at their convenience not ours because we are self employed or retired. I don't mean to be harsh I want it to be understood that we need to re=invent the icon.
Membership:
Ladies and Gentlemen; We are at 62% membership Quota for National Objective. Congratulations to you because you are doing this as an American Legion Family. I personally Thank you for your efforts and for a great start for a year that we will make our National quota. NOW We can not sit on our laurels. Now is when the rubber hits the pavement. Now is when we will see what we really have to do to accomplish our final goal. Please do all you can to finish this by December. If we do not make our 100% quota by December we will do a second Drive by March. If we do make our goal by our final drives in December we will exceed our numbers. Realistically, If we wait until March before our Birthday we will fall short. As your Vice-Commander and having the responsibility for the Department I would love to announce that we hit our goal for our American Legion Birthday and have reason to celebrate our great Organization.
Now let me elaborate on our National Quota Goal and our Department's Goal. In August the Department Commander and myself went to Indianapolis, Indiana. We attended the National American Legion Membership Workshop. We attended separate meetings. I attended the Membership Workshop. As the Department Vice-commander over Membership I went in session with our Department Commander face to face with the National Commander. We gave our report and the National Commander gave us his quota that he wanted us to achieve. That goal is 7072. As a Department Staff we wanted a Department Goal that exceeded Nationals. Ours is 7500. Taking into consideration the past years statistics.... I felt that we needed to achieve last year Post's quotas before we expect to exceed those quotas this year. With the possibility of over 160,000 Veterans in Utah we can make our Department Goal. Therefore; You will see the Quota that is National numbers that we have to achieve to make Utah look good with 100% Membership. The Goal is Departments numbers that we want to achieve to have and help the Department produce the funds to budget our Americanism Programs.
Therefore; Quota is National numbers and Goals are Departments numbers.
Again,,,,, Thank you so very much for all you do. Your time, energy, talents, money, support, encouragement and desires are appreciated beyond this simple thank you.
For God, Country and the Americanism Spirit
Best wishes for a great Area Conference
Randy D. Edwards
Vice Commander
Department of Utah
The American Legion
After Action Report to Commander Sheets
October 28, 2012
Commander Sheets;
Thank you for your hospitality and the Area Conference After Action Report. Your Area Conference was of great value to all of us. Thank you for your continued support to unite your Districts and Posts in the goals for the Department. We can do so much together in a consolidated effort. Thank your District Commanders and Post Commanders for all they do. It is the Districts and Posts that make the Programs and the over all Organization the pillar of Americanism that it is.
From our Heart Thank you.
For God and Country
Randy D, Edwards
Vice-Commander
Department of Utah
