December 21, 2016

Department Spotlight: Alabama directory gathers valuable information

By The American Legion
Membership
Department Spotlight: Alabama directory gathers valuable information
Department of Alabama Adjutant Greg Akers has seen a huge information benefit in creating a department membership directory. (File photo by Clay Lomneth)

Reaching out through email, phone and traditional mail, the department has picked thousands of new or updated phone numbers and email addresses.

Editor’s note: This is a weekly series of Department Spotlight stories featuring unique programs and initiatives of departments throughout The American Legion. Department adjutants are invited to recommend subjects for their departments by emailing magazine@legion.org.

The Department of Alabama’s membership directory initiative has brought in both members and revenue for the department. But for Greg Akers, Alabama’s department adjutant, the value of the effort goes beyond those two results.

Started last June through a contact with Publishing Concepts (PCI), the program reaches out to different “marketable groups”, such as former members or members who have yet to renew, via phone, email or traditional mail. In addition to asking former members to renew or rejoin, the program also seeks out updated contact information from the member.

Every three months a mailing goes out but they aren’t sent multiple times to the same recipient. Akers said he’s been able to get thousands of updated phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses since the program began.

“That’s the biggest bang for the buck for me,” he said. “One of the biggest problems I’ve had is to get our people to go tech. This has been outstanding. We’ve gotten literally thousands of email addresses out of this.”

Through the end of 2016 PCI had sent out more than 25,000 mailings and gotten a response rate of 40.5 percent. Among those responses, the department has gotten more than 4,400 either updated or added home phone numbers, 4,657 new cell phone numbers, 2,605 new emails and 627 updated email addresses.

“That contact data is invaluable,” Akers said. “We came close to doubling our email database. I can send out our department newsletter to more people now. I can’t do that if I don’t have the information.”

When contacted, recipients also have the opportunity to provide a short American Legion bio of themselves to appear in The American Legion Department of Alabama Directory. The directory is available for purchase in either a digital or hardbound version; other items – such as baseball caps, coffee mugs, t-shirts and sweatshirts, and travel bags – also are available for purchase through the mailings.

“There was no department money spent to implement the mailings going out,” Akers said. “And we only budgeted $2,500 in income. But so far we’ve gotten $13,000-plus in revenue.”

But for Akers, the ability to contact members through a variety of platforms is the big benefit to the program.

“We had tornadoes in two small towns in Northeast Alabama,” Akers said. “We had members in the area, but I had no contact data. How do I check to see if they need help from the (National Emergency Fund)? Now I have that contact data.”

Akers said the department will likely try to update the directory once every five years. “We want to allow new members to get into the Legion and not get hit up every year,” he said. “With this, we may not reach all of our goals the first time, but this program does nothing but support future years to come.”

  • Membership