Communicating with NALPA members
NALPA President David Wallace is sworn in during the 98th National Convention in Cincinnati on Aug. 28, 2016. Photo by Clay Lomneth

Communicating with NALPA members

he American Legion’s 98th National Convention in Cincinnati last August provided a lot of great memories for me with one in particular that really stood out: I was nominated by Past National American Legion Press Association (NALPA) President Brett Reistad to be the next NALPA president.

It is such a great honor to be serving in this position, and I look forward to working alongside NALPA and Legion National Headquarters staff members.

There were a lot of great ideas that came out of NALPA’s Executive Committee meeting with discussions ranging from increasing our membership, revitalizing stagnant associations and starting new associations within the departments. And most importantly, improving the overall communication within NALPA and its membership.

I want to thank staff from the Legion’s Marketing, Media & Communications Division who held down the fort at our NALPA table during convention. Through their outstanding support, we signed up more than 50 new members to NALPA! That is teamwork going above and beyond any expectations. And while even thinking about it today, I still get inspired.

I am excited to see we added a new social media administrator to our team. Sylvia Chess is a member of Auxiliary Unit 838 in Fort Worth, Texas, and she is taking the bull by its horns and creating our NALPA Twitter page. We now have the top three social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) covered, and our strong social media presence continues to grow on a daily basis within each of those platforms.

NALPA has been around since 1922, and for the past 94 years our purpose has been to exchange ideas and promote the development of local newsletters and public relations activities. We strive to communicate the corporate goals of The American Legion Family and recognize achievements through an annual news and media awards program. In this newsletter, we provide the names of the 2016 award winners; hopefully this helps to inspire new participants in next year’s program.

As our new board of directors are learning the best ways to communicate with one another, I want to continue moving forward with the great work our immediate past president Priscilla Imbruglia helped establish. Last year we created a new NALPA logo, redesigned our newsletter and launched a new Web page at www.legion.org/nalpa.

I believe NALPA members are the leaders in communication for their department, region and district, and most importantly their post. Anyone that has a role as an adjutant, historian or in media and communications should be a NALPA member.

We want to be able to share your stories and successes, and learn from obstacles that you have overcome.

This information can be shared through NALPA’s quarterly newsletter, on www.legion.org/nalpa, or on its social media platforms.

Are you one of those communicators? If you are, then locate our membership application on page 8 is in this newsletter, or on our Web page, and sign up today. Membership is only $15 a year.

If you have any questions about NALPA, or have suggestions for future articles, please email me at david.f.wallace09@gmail.com.

I want to hear from you and share your ideas with the NALPA team!