The Department of Ohio adjutant hosts a Microsoft Teams meeting with post and district adjutants to keep communication going.
Prior to becoming the American Legion Department of Ohio adjutant about four years ago, John Robinson served as a district and post officer where he noticed a common missing piece among the different levels – communication. To change that as department adjutant, Robinson started a monthly Microsoft Teams meeting last year with all Ohio district and post adjutants.
“That way everybody gets the same information disseminated,” he said. “If somebody has a question, everybody gets to hear the answer to the question because they might have the same question. I always have a few of the talking points I want to hit, and then I take questions and answers. But a lot of times it just becomes the adjutants working back and forth between themselves, solving what post issues they have or district issues they have.”
Adjutants will even put their phone numbers in the Teams chat to continue dialogue among each other.
Before launching the monthly meetings, Robinson reached out to three district adjutants with the idea. “I went to them and said this is my idea, this is what I want to create, help me do it. And they all three bought in.” One serves as a moderator during the meetings to help answer questions in the chat group and field them through to Robinson.
Then, Robinson collected email addresses in Personify of all post and district adjutants and sent an email inviting them to the monthly meeting with the day, time and Microsoft Teams link. The meetings are held on a different day each month to give an opportunity for adjutants to attend who may have missed the previous month due to a scheduling conflict. And they last for about an hour, however, “I’ll go as long, as they want,” Robinson said. “The more dialogue we have, the better off I think we are.”
The discussions have included membership drives, articles of incorporation, government of the post, how to keep the post running, Legion paperwork that’s due, IRS regulations, annual post data report, Legion programs, how to fill out the Consolidated Post Report and submit it, and more.
“It's very laid back to where anybody feels free to speak up,” Robinson said. “We laugh, we joke, we get heated comments back and forth sometimes because we're passionate about what we do. I really enjoy it, and I'm on a high after every meeting for the next week or so because seeing that many people want to get better at what they do makes me feel good.”
Besides Robinson speaking, other department leadership will join for about 20 minutes to give reports on membership and programs.
With less than a year in, Robinson has heard positive feedback about the meetings. During a recent district convention where he was presenting, a post adjutant that has attended every meeting stood up and said, “’I’ve been waiting 30 years for somebody to do what you’ve been doing because you do is connect everybody. And that is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. All of us have a common cause and a common goal, and you’re helping us achieve what we need to within our post,’” Robinson said. “I hear those types of comments consistently when I’m talking with other adjutants.
“We just have a good time, and we make it personable. We don't try to oversell what it is – it’s a conversation. A conversation and everybody gets to put their own dialogue and two cents in, and to accomplish our goals in a relaxed atmosphere.”
The success of the meetings is spreading as other Department of Ohio leaders are looking to host their own meetings with post officers.
“We’re hoping that by expanding it into other officer groups that we can reach even more posts,” Robinson said. “So the posts, and the districts and the department are all on the same page.”
- Dispatch