Legacy Run details being finalized

The schedule for the 2013 American Legion Legacy Run is set. Participants will ride through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas for about 1,500 miles.

Preliminary route planning has been completed and will be announced on www.legion.org this month. The details are as follows:

Aug. 18 — Indianapolis Post 64 to Rolla, Mo. (353 miles). Lunch in Effingham, Ill., overnight in Rolla, Mo.
Aug. 19 — Rolla to Muskogee, Okla. (311 miles). Lunch in Springfield, Mo., overnight in Muskogee, Okla.
Aug. 20 — Muskogee to Stephenville, Texas. (358 miles). Lunch in/near Gainesville, Texas, overnight stop in Stephenville, Texas.
Aug. 21 — Stephenville to Seguin, Texas. (278 miles). Special events in Burnett, San Antonio and Fort Hood, and then an overnight stop in Seguin, Texas.
Aug. 22 — Seguin to League City, Texas. (236 miles). Arrival Post 554, League City.

Favorable lodging rates have already been negotiated, and two community chambers of commerce have indicated that they wish to honor our event during our stops in those communities.

A "pre-run" dress rehearsal of the route will be conducted in June, and final law enforcement coordination will be conducted in July, 30 days before the event, with all public safety agencies along the route.

Online registration is open at www.legion.org/riders and will continue until Aug. 9. So far, 225 individuals have pre-registered for the event.

In other news:

Operation Comfort Warriors: OCW received seven requests last week, including two from Arizona, and one each from North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Alaska and Nevada. All were forwarded to their respective departments for follow up. Staff continued to coordinate the OCW visit to Fort Carson, which is this week.

Memorial Day speech: The suggested remarks for Memorial Day 2013 have been completed and is available for download here. Copies will be distributed to the subscriber list early next week.

Oratorical Contest: The 76th American Legion National Oratorical Contest will take place April 20-21, at the Indianapolis Wyndham West. Fifty-three department champions will travel to Indianapolis to compete for more than $135,000 in scholarship money. At 10 a.m. April 21, the national finals contest will determine our first, second and third place winners. The finals will be broadcast live on legiontv.org.

Membership and DMS Program: April 10 was the cutoff for the 95 percent target date. Thirty-three departments reached the 95 percent membership goal. The current 2013 traditional membership total is 1,902,714, which is 95 percent of the 2013 goal.

The 2013 membership year began 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:

DMS Acquires:

Prospects 93,958
Expires 76,415
TOTAL 170,373

2013 Goal – 185,000

Percent of goal – 92 percent

Current renewal rate for 2012 DMS members — 48 percent (91,754 of 189,685 new 2012 members)

On-Line Renewal Activity: 2013 membership Year On-Line Renewals (since July 1) – 179,516

Sons of The American Legion: On April 10, the Sons of The American Legion achieved 89 percent for the eighth Sons membership target goal for the 2013 membership year . SAL membership currently stands at 315,357 members and is 7,158 ahead of this same date last year. At present, 21 detachments achieved the 90 percent membership target goal.