Hear from posts in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico.
American Legion Internal Affairs and Membership Division staff at National Headquarters reached out to posts with membership growth this year to share their success stories. We will be sharing the stories submitted over the next few issues of the Dispatch. The following submissions were provided in April 2024.
Post 12, Wickenburg, Ariz:
We started a campaign here that is a proactive Be the One effort. This proactive effort tries to find veterans before they contemplate suicide and provide them the resources and benefits first. We have a very aggressive service officer campaign and have seen such success that I now have three service officers for our post of 400 members. Our reputation has grown exponentially as the VA in Phoenix and Northern Arizona who see veterans that need assistance refer them to us.
The post and its leadership support the four pillars in all of our activities. We have a robust canteen that has recently expanded to include a beautiful patio and painted a patriotic western themed mural on the side of the Legion. As a tourist town we receive a lot of walk-by traffic, which we always engage with a good morning or a howdy. In other words we are nice to all and often get new members by just being polite. We participate in a flag program that puts in excess of 300 flags up on major holidays in front of the local businesses and line our downtown with flags. We support youth sports, Future Farmers of America and provide in excess of $20,000 in scholarships to our community. Our Legion, Son and Auxiliary all exceeded 100% in membership based upon the entire teams’ efforts.
- Tom Core, commander
Post 272, Montebello, Calif.: I believe the growth in our Legion is primarily due to a vested interest in actively pursuing membership by our members and the cohesiveness of our entities. We work together as a team and ultimately our main goal is to make our legion successful. Our SAL and our Auxiliary play a big role in making our Legion accessible and enjoyable. We provide many opportunities for the community to come to our Legion and enjoy the camaraderie . The leadership tries to be present and welcoming to all. We do our best to make people feel like the Legion is their home.
- Genny Cervantez, 1st vice commander
Post 40, Henderson, Nev.: Here's a few reasons why our membership numbers have improved versus last year:
1. Post 40 now provides office space for an independent service office nonprofit and they have encouraged veterans who they help to consider joining The American Legion and this has worked.
2. Our 1st vice commander has enlisted a few active-duty co-workers and they in turn are sharing positive recommendations in support of The American Legion.
3. We've been investing in our facility to make it appealing to all our members and guests thanks to our building superintendent.
4. Competitive pricing at the bar and several meal offerings have attracted members who have promoted the post to prospective members. Sunday morning breakfast at the bar has been a big hit and resulted in new members.
Our post roughly 10 to 12 years ago had over 1,500 members, but time has taken a heavy toll. We call it Post Everlasting. We woke up and realized that the future of this post depends on recruiting younger veterans. That's our focus, and we realized it would take time, but we needed to start ASAP.
- John Towsley, commander
Post 101, Anton Chico, N.M.
Quarterly newsletter. We send to current and previous members (who were paid up to last year) so they can stay up to date on what we do.
Facebook. We use this social media platform to showcase the club and community events we sponsor.
Club events. Whold potlucks and other celebrations for holidays (St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, Halloween, Christmas and New Years). We also have ceremonies for Memorial Day and Flag Day.
Community events. We welcome non members to join us for bigger events such as bingo (turkey bingo for Thanksgiving is a hit!), motorcycle run and Sons squadron Christmas Light Parade.
Communication. We send out the "We want you back" membership letter found on mylegion.org to members who have not renewed their membership. The letters are individualized so many felt the invite was personal.
Networking. We attend as many district and state meetings/conventions as possible. Our commander comes back with new contacts and ideas that we can put to use in our post.
We are always looking for ways to expose our organization to prospective members and the community. We just like to have fun when raising money for a cause, honoring our veterans, and bringing the community together.
- Felix Saiz, commander
- Dispatch