Alaska Post 30 wants ‘to be everyone’s Google’

American Legion Internal Affairs and Membership Division staff at National Headquarters reached out to posts and departments to share their membership success stories. We will be sharing the stories submitted over the next few issues of the Dispatch. To start, Amanda Jones, immediate past Post 30 commander in North Pole, Alaska, shared the following best practices on how Post 30 has increased its members over the past three years from 93 members to 214 and counting.

Branding: When I communicate with folks, I say AK American Legion Post 30. This is how we are found on Facebook, our primary source of communication.  There are three posts within a 30-mile radius of us (Post 11 and Post 57 in Fairbanks) and 30 posts in the state. We must be sure they know Post 30’s name.

I tag “AK American Legion Post 30” in every Facebook post.  It then tags our post, and we are constantly “in their faces”.  Every time I see a veteran in need, I refer them to our post via our Facebook page. One thing is for sure, if anyone is in the social media pages near me, they’ve heard of Alaska American Legion Post 30! 

You must make sure everyone knows you exist. They will eventually start coming to you.  I want them to come to us even if we are not the resource that can help them.  Why? Because we are the resource that will put them in touch with the resource that CAN help them!  We indirectly help so many veterans by being the place a veteran can go to get information and resources.  A lot of times we are the resource they need and can fulfil their needs.  But, if we don’t have the ability, we know who does and we get them connected.  We want to be everyone’s Google.  Think about it, if you want to know something what is one of the first things you do?  You go to Google.  Google does not provide many services, but they tell you who does provide the service you need, and we want to be everyone’s Google!

Communicate: We talk to anyone and everyone about who we are and what we can do for them.  “You’re a veteran? Let’s talk veteran services. You’re a family member of a veteran? Let’s talk veteran’s family member services. You’re not a veteran, nor is an immediate family member, but you know a veteran?  I bet you have some connection to a veteran that makes you eligible to be a member of us, let’s connect that dot!” 

Everyone that comes into our post, they are welcomed.  Once determined they can join The American Legion, Sons or Auxiliary, we invite them to join.  We discuss the benefits of membership and how we can help them.  We never not ask.  Most people frown on this as they assume it is targeting or attacking.  I think the mentality should be we are such an amazing organization that we are doing a disservice by NOT asking people to join us.

Set a goal: Set a goal at the beginning of the year. Goal-oriented people will work toward that goal, even if they feel it is out of reach because they have a purpose. When I joined my post three years ago, we had 93 members. I said, “Why so few? Let’s reach 100 this year.”  (Post 30 is near Eielson Air Force Base) with easily 2,000 eligible people, not including the veterans in this area that are not stationed at Eielson.  We did.  We got to 103.  The next year I set a goal for 150, as second vice commander.  (Jones said there were many not on board with the goal.) We hit that goal and finished with 153. Department said, your new goal is 160. I became commander that year. I said, we are going for 206 because that’s double what the original membership number was when I joined two years ago.  Now, the one thing everyone should have done was call me on my math because 93x2 is not 206, it is 186. Apparently, they were so mind-blown they didn’t correct me. (Jones said many didn't believe 200 members was possible.) 

As of 22 April, we are sitting at 214 members. (Jone said many members who were not on board at first with the goal) signed up their grandkids to help us reach that goal (because their grandkids are currently serving in the military). We are not stopping at 214!! 

SET a goal. BELIEVE in your goal.  WORK toward your goal.  Others will get on board with it and will help you achieve it.  Next year my goal is 250 members! Everyone became a recruiter!  Everyone asked everyone. Everyone started talking to people when they were out and invited them to the post, then invited them to join. Everyone helped us reach our membership goal, and our new members number grew.  In fact, some of our new members went and recruited their friends to join because they wanted their friends to be there too. 

Conduct Buddy Checks. We did Buddy Checks in October. We called every single member and checked on them.  With that, a few renewals came.  We didn’t do the Buddy Checks for membership, we truly wanted to check on our folks.

Make phone calls for renewals. In December, I took the 2023 membership roster and filtered it down to the following categories of members who had not renewed for 2024:

• 20+ years of membership.  It was a no-brainer they were going to renew!  I had a member call and reminded them it was renewal time.
• 15-19 years of membership.  Again, I had someone call about renewal time.
• 10-14 years of membership.  This was a little trickier. But we contacted every one of them.  Thanked them for their 10+years of membership and reminded them we needed them to renew.
• 5-9 years of membership.  We reminded them they had been with us for five-plus years.  We told them our goal of doubling our membership.  Many renewed because they wanted to help us meet our goal.
• 2-4 years of membership.  We asked them to renew their membership because we needed them to meet our goal and we appreciate their membership.

Then, we contacted members that had only been with the post for less than two years. We told them we had a goal to reach, and we wanted to meet it.  We reminded them we do monthly dinners and just coming to the post once a month for free food was worth the $50 membership dues.  We reminded them the good The American Legion does for veterans. Several renewed. Of course some did not.

I truly believe renewals are the heart of increasing membership growth. Taking the roster and breaking it down by membership years helped spread the renewal requests across a few volunteers. And, it helped us reach 100% contact of our members to check in on them. It also helped us update their contact information as some had moved or changed their contact information since the year before.

Get out into the community. We gave away money to local charities, veterans and families in need, children and youth sports teams, etc.  Those folks started coming to our meetings to say thank you and when they came in the door they were hooked.  They wanted to be a part of an organization that gives back so much to their local community! Our post is small but powerful.  We donate $3,000 per month to our local community.  It’s an incredible feeling, and it’s because our membership is amazing.

Invite the community in. We invited people to use our little post (our max occupancy is 49) to host their retirement parties, graduation parties, celebrations, birthday parties, post-sports events parties, gatherings, family BBQs, block parties, etc. We have a beautiful back yard and deck and during the summer it’s a fantastic place to host friends and family.  This brings people in that never would have come to the post. Exposing our place to people brings more people in.

Our post does not have a kitchen. I invited a local food vendor to come into the post to serve her food.  People loved it.  She drew her normal crowd and exposed people to the post that would not have been there otherwise.  Her food also brought locals in to eat because it was advertised on social media.  We got exposure and people came back because they didn’t know we existed, but we have a pretty cool little bar and people enjoy the atmosphere.

We welcome anyone and everyone in our doors.  There is a 99% chance they’re eligible to be a member of the post, Auxiliary or Sons. By not immediately snubbing someone, it brings folks in, and they bring their friends in.

Embrace department and national programs.  For example, the Law Enforcement and Fire Fighter of the Year Awards.  We contacted all the local law enforcement and fire fighter departments around us.  When we selected our winners, we invited their entire station to celebrate with us.  That brought in veterans that had never been to our post before and they came back. 

Have support. I had an incredible First Vice Commander Julie Doll. We did so much together.  I delegated; she knocked it out of the park.  When she couldn’t, she either delegated further or pushed back to let me know and I went a different route to find volunteers, or I just took care of it.  She was so valuable to me.  She is a rock staple in our post.  There are a few folks that love to do behind the scenes work such as Harry Schuster, Robyn and John Zook.

Also, know your members likes and dislikes, talents and desires to assist.  We have a few families that pay their dues and visit the post once a year because they are busy with other things. They are still valuable! I tapped into a few of them.  One family is busy with three kids in sports and both mom and dad work. I asked them, “Hey, we have this big Easter event coming up. We need 1,000 eggs stuffed.  Can I give you eggs and candy and can you fill them and return them?”  They were so excited to be able to help! They even bought two or three bags of candy to donate.  One family has told me, “Amanda – I have no time, but I’ve got money.  When you need something donated let me know and I got you.”  So, when we had our sock drive in October, I asked the family if they could donate socks to support homeless veterans.  They went to Costco and bought 50 pairs and donated them.  I have other families that love to BBQ.  I was told at the beginning of summer last year, “Hey, anytime you need someone to man the grill I got it.”  And every BBQ we had last summer he manned the grill!  Use your members how they want to be used – 99% of members want to contribute, find ways for them to contribute in their own ways. 

Every member counts, and every donation (time, money, product or otherwise) is valuable and needed.  I have a member that loves to bake.  Every time we have an event that needs dessert, I ask her to make cakes. She provided 35 cupcakes for our American Legion birthday party.  She even decorated the cupcake stand with “105” birthday stuff to make it even more special.  Use your members because they want to be used.  It makes them feel special.

We continue to look for ways to improve.  We continue to try and help every veteran we possibly can.  We continue to love the organization we are members of and share that with others.

Network. Lean into department leaders (Like Deb Davis, Pam Crawley).  Network with other posts doing things well and wrong; learn from both!  Ask a million questions of your department team because they are there to support you. 

Find another post like yours and compete with them (in a friendly way of course!).  Congratulate them when you see their successes and encourage them when they are struggling.  Basically, find an accountability partner at a different post.  I appreciate Dan Jones, Alaska Post 3, and Garrett Kravitz, Alaska Post 14, for this friendly competition and accountability.