GREETINGS EVERYONE,
It’s time for another Commander’s News Brief……
This time I’ll talk about your FAVORITE TOPIC: MEMBERSHIP…because we surpassed another significant milestone.
Give a special congratulations to our newest West Point Cadet,
A little Reminder about the Convention
Vandalism hits our HQ.
URGENT ACTION to complete your CPRs
And finally, A reminder to contribute to the Commander’s Fundraising project focused to assist our needs right here at home in Arizona.
FIRST: Membership. Congratulations are in order, as we just surpassed the 100% membership mark. I remember months ago when we were struggling to get out of the 50s of 55 departments, but then we made the jump to first place and held that for 3 months, before being edged out by the Philippines at the last minute…We wound up in 2nd place, for the year, and now we are the second or ONLY TWO departments worldwide to surpass 100%.
I thank each of you for going above and beyond to secure a place in history as a 100% department….now, July 1st, we can start our renewals, so hit it hard and let’s get the membership drives over early. Anything we can get before August will still help our delegate count for the national convention. Let’s keep hitting the homeruns…I must thank Bobbie Kimelton for her great efforts in guiding us to exceed the 100% mark.
West Point Candidate. Many of you may have heard, but Jacob Kritzer, son of Matt Kritzer, our Adjutant, and Jennifer, our Historian, will enter West Point on Monday, right after our upcoming convention. He told me that he expects Army to get back on track to defeat Navy…but I suppose we’ll see about that….says the Marine in me…
Convention Reminder: Yes, the Convention starts Thursday, June 25th. The Finance Committee will meet at 2 p.m., per the schedule on our website, and the main opening session starts in the ballroom at 6 p.m. at the Crown Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort Hotel in Chandler. Come meet some spectacular youth and special guests, and get the meeting off to a good start. If you are a commission or committee chair, plan to collect and give reports for your committees as discussed in your meeting sessions, except where it is more effective for a committee chair to report. All reports should be written and available for turn-in to the Adjutant when the report is given.
Don’t forget the dinner and Magic show on Saturday night at Post 35. If you missed out on tickets, the Commander has a few tickets left. So just ask, and we may have a seat for you.
Vandalism at HQ. The HQ building was quite hot when staff arrived on Monday morning. Climbing up on the roof to check the status of the air conditioners, we discovered the AC units had been smashed, and all key components and copper had been taken. This has slowed down our operations a bit as it has approached 100 degrees inside while trying to work. I must commend the staff for coming in as early as 0430 each day to beat the heat…, but by noon, we have had to close down for safety reasons. The insurance company and repair companies are working to restore our systems, but right now the damages appear to be from $40 to $50k. Police reports were filed, and we’ll see if anyone is caught.
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED. I need you to complete your CPR reports before the deadline at the end of the month. Commanders or Adjutants can log on to mylegion.org and complete the report online. Try to report all of your activities, but the key is to complete the reports so the data can be transmitted to National to put their reports together for our presentations to Congress. Just do it … it does not take that long, and it must be done. We have the latest status reports of who has completed their reports on the Department website: azlegion.org. In some cases, we have found that Posts have entered data, but failed to select SUBMIT when done. Go back and check to ensure your report was sent. Thanks.
OK…finally…The Commander’s Fundraiser for the year. You may recall that at the Fall Conference, I decided to take a slightly different approach to raising funds. Much of what we raise goes outside the state, but when we had significant flooding that caused significant damage, I thought it best to establish a local fund for immediate disaster assistance and to maintain a separate fund to mitigate any program shortfalls for our youth. I thank all of you who have contributed so far.
OK, I have been quiet for a bit to not compete with other major fundraisers, which have been quite remarkable, but now that the raising of other funds is coming to a close, I ask you to look again at my fundraisers and help.
Remember, I am only asking $10 (or more as able) to our disaster relief fund, and another $10 to youth programs, like Scouting, Boys State, ALLECA, etc. You can make the donation by selecting the link provided or using this QR Code, which takes you directly to our department’s donations page: https://azlegion.org/about-us/donate/
Often we fail to realize just how strong we can really be when many give a little…and I prefer that many participate and see just how much they can do. We have about 34K members…and if we give a mere $10 each for emergency response, for example, that equates to a fund of $340,000. The same if giving to the youth programs.
So, I ask that you donate right now, or at the convention, and use the link or QR Code. You can pay online with a credit card.
As said, we do incredible things to support National Programs, but I need to make sure we cover our needs here at home as well…so please donate to the Commander’s funds of emergency response, or select a youth program and give on the simple online form provided in the link or the QR Code. Thanks.
OK, that’s about it for this News Brief. Again, Congratulations on reaching another great milestone: 100% membership for our 2025-26 year.
My closing thought for the day: Weak people avoid hard things….strong people do them anyway. I am grateful to those who often attempt difficult tasks, but elated when they complete them and return to report.
Take care….see you at the convention in a few days….
