Certificates sent to longtime Legionnaires

Continuous Years Certificates have been completed and mailed to their respective posts. If a department knows of a post that has not received their certificates by Feb. 28, it should contact Internal Affairs at (317) 630-1330.

Certificates are mailed to members of The American Legion credited with 50, 60, 70, 75, or 80 years of continuous membership.

Beginning in 1996, the certificates were sent directly to posts (rather than through departments) for presentation to members in an appropriate ceremony to be held near or on March 15, the birth date of The American Legion.

A small surplus of each type of certificate will be sent to departments to fill requests received for those individuals whose continuous years may not be on the national membership files.

Since these certificates are routinely printed once a year, special requests should be limited to those needed for a special presentation. If a special print is requested, make sure National Headquarters receives an update for the member’s record.

In others news:

Child Welfare Foundation (CWF): Financial support of the Child Welfare Foundation benefits children – 100 percent of each donation goes to award grants to nonprofit organizations serving children. For example, Childhood Leukemia Foundation of Brick, N.J., was awarded $60,000 for its project “Hope Binders.” This grant will produce and distribute 2,000 Hope Binders to 200 hospitals across the nation. The binders assist families with the task of tracking and prioritizing medical information and costs associated with their child’s treatment. Tax deductible contributions may be sent to: Child Welfare Foundation, PO Box 1055, Indianapolis, IN 46206.

Junior Shooting Sports: American, Children & Youth staff is scoring targets for the first round of the American Legion Junior Shooting Sports National Postal Tournament.  Postal matches allow shooters from throughout the nation to compete without meeting face-to-face by completing a course of fire at their local ranges, and then submitting those targets to a central authority for scoring. Scores have been posted online.

Immigration Booklet
The American Legion Policy on Illegal Immigration – A Strategy to Address Illegal Immigration in the United States booklet has been updated to reflect the most current governing resolutions and is available for download at www.Legion.org/publications.

Membership and DMS Program
The current 2013 traditional membership total is 1,808,222, which is 90.59 percent of the 2013 goal.  

The 2013 membership year began on July 1, 2012. This report reflects responses being tracked for the new membership year. The fourth DMS mailing for the 2013 membership year was completed on Feb. 1, 2013. 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 tabulated the following numbers:

DMS Acquires: prospects, 86,942; expires, 55,773; total: 142,715

2013 Goal – 185,000        Percent of Goal  -  77.14%

Current Renewal Rate for 2012 DMS Members — 45.88 percent (87,001 of 189,685 new 2012 members)

On-Line Renewal Activity: 2013 Membership Year On-Line Renewals (since July 1) – 169,950

Operation Comfort Warriors: OCW staff briefed the program at DSO school in Washington. Upcoming: staff heads to Camp Pendleton for presentations Wednesday and South Carolina next week.

Sons of The American Legion: The Sons of The American Legion membership for 2013 currently stands at 268,979 members or 76.1 percent, as of Feb. 21. At present, the Sons are running 4,687 members behind of this same date last year. The next membership target date is March 13.