Strong support continues for Legion Baseball

This week, Americanism, Children and Youth Deputy Director Mike Buss will be meeting with Steve Sclafani, CEO and founder of the Baseball Factory, and his staff at their corporate offices located in Columbia, Md. The Baseball Factory is one of the Legion’s corporate relationships having contributed $25,000 annually to the Baseball Leadership Scholarship fund since 2009.

National Americanism Chairman Joseph Caouette and staff from the ACY and Fundraising divisions will join National Commander Jim Koutz in New York City on July 16 as he accepts the annual contribution to American Legion Baseball (ALB) from officials of Major League Baseball (MLB). MLB www.mlb.com has been a longstanding supporter of ALB since 1926.

In other news:

National Education Award: An award presentation to Thomas Clark, The American Legion’s 2013 National Education Award recipient, will be held during the joint meeting of the Americanism and Children & Youth Commissions on Aug. 24 in Houston.

The National Committee on Education first became aware of Clark when he was featured in a CBS national evening news story earlier this year detailing his decades of dedication to honoring deceased veterans and their families, a history project about veterans he implements into his classroom allowing students to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of serving our nation, and his use of having veterans visit in his classroom – all of which aligns with The American Legion’s Veterans in the Classroom initiative.

Clark, a Legionnaire, will be in attendance in Houston to receive the award. A 13-minute video detailing Clark’s accomplishments will be shown in conjunction with the award presentation.

Membership and DMS Program: The current 2013 traditional membership total is 1,963,766, which is 98.382 percent of the 2013 goal. To date, there are 12 departments that have attained at least 100 percent of their traditional membership goal.

DMS Program 2013: The 2013 Membership Year ended on June 30. On July 1, 2013, the year-end DMS acquires totals were as follows: 97,149 prospects, 78324 expires, 175,473 total.

2013 Goal - 85,000 (reached 94.9 percent of goal)

Current Renewal Rate for 2012 DMS Members - 51.21 percent (97,094 of 189,577 new 2012 members)

On-Line Renewal Activity: 2013 Membership Year On-Line Renewals (since July 1): 186,029

DMS Program 2014: The 2014 Membership Year began July 1. However, the first DMS mailing for the 2014 year will be on Aug. 16. As responses to the first mailing begin to come in, the response numbers will continue to grow. The initial numbers are from responses received after July 1. These responses were primarily from earlier mailing but are attributed to the 2014 year.

DMS Acquires: 917 prospects, 216 expires, 1,133 total

2014 Goal - 101,500 (1.12 percent of goal reached so far)

Current Renewal Rate for 2013 DMS Members - 1.93 percent (3,397 of 175,473 new 2013 members)

On-Line Renewal Activity: 2014 Membership Year On-Line Renewals (since July 1) - 30,738