Deadline nears for American Legion Legacy Scholarship

The deadline is approaching for applications for The American Legion Legacy Scholarship. Eligible applicants have until April 15 to submit their applications to The American Legion National Headquarters.

Those eligible are children, including those adopted or from a previous marriage, of active-duty U.S. military servicemembers and National Guard and military reservists who died while serving on active duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001.

The scholarship applicant must be a high school senior or high school graduate to initially apply for the scholarship. The scholarship is for undergraduate study at an accredited institution of higher education within the United States.

The American Legion Riders have set $450,000 as their goal for the Legacy Scholarship. The Riders will collect donations through the last day of the 2013 National Convention for the scholarship fund.

In other news:

Child Welfare Foundation: Starting May 1, The American Legion Child Welfare Foundation will begin accepting grant applications for the 2014 year. Grant applications must be postmarked no later than July 15 for consideration. In 2012, the foundation awarded more than $734,000 in grants to 20 nonprofit organizations to benefit children. 

Legion Baseball: Regional tournament directors have begun conducting site inspections in preparation of the 2013 American Legion Baseball regional tournaments. Inspections include visiting with local host committees and site review of host facilities, team hotels and ball parks. Final inspection reports are due to National Headquarters by April 15.

National Emergency Fund: National Headquarters processed nine NEF claims from Legion family members over the past two weeks. Eight grants went to New York and one went to a post in Mississippi that lost its roof from tornado activity. Total payout from the fund was $9,900. Donations for the same period totaled $8,540.  

Consolidated Post Report: The 2012–2013 Consolidated Post Report (CPR) is now available for use at a post’s mylegion.org. The mylegion.org version is a great way for your posts to track their work. It can be continually updated throughout the reporting period before submission. The hard copy version has also been mailed. The cutoff date for submission of completed CPRs to National Headquarters is July 1. Any questions regarding the program, please contact Internal Affairs at (317) 630-1376.

Membership and DMS Program
The current 2013 traditional membership total is 1,867,273, which is 93.6 percent of the 2013 goal.

The 2013 membership year began on July 1, 2012. The fourth DMS mailing for the 2013 membership year was completed on Feb. 4.  Approximately 1.6 million pieces were mailed at that time. 

Responses from that mailing are now being processed.

Based on the four DMS mailings this year, we have acquired: 92,942 prospects, 75,097 expires, 168,039 total.

2013 Goal – 185,000 (90.8 percent of goal)   

Current Renewal Rate for 2012 DMS Members – 47.47 percent (89,999 of 189,685 new 2012 members)

On-Line Renewal Activity: 2013 Membership Year On-Line Renewals (July 1) – 176,510

Sons: The Sons of The American Legion membership for 2013 currently stands at 299,755 members, or 84.8 percent, as of March 27. At present, the Sons are running 634 members ahead of this same date last year. The next membership target date is April 10, which will be the Sons 90-percent membership target goal.