Legion Family,
Yesterday, you elected me as your State Commander for our Arizona Department of The American Legion. Your support and vote humble me, and I am so extremely thankful for the opportunity before all of us to move our Legion in the direction we want and need.
I applaud both Legionnaires who also ran for this office, along with our outgoing Commander, Ben Headen. Without the leadership of all those who led this organization for the last 103 years, the Legion, our Legion, would be nonexistent. A large part of my focus over the next 364 days will be focused on supporting and better communicating to our already existing Legion Family and also reaching outside of our posts to grow our family.
The American Legion National Headquarters has just recently begun a new campaign, called, “Be the One”. The logic here is simple: Be the One person to do a Buddy Check today. Be the One person to reach out to a Legionnaire who hasn’t come to the post recently. Be the One veteran to make a decision to ask a friend for help — I share this because if all of us, every member of our AZ Legion Family, reached out and recruited just ONE new member, we would literally double the size of our Department. I also shared yesterday that Arizona boasts over 630,000 veterans, while we only have 34,000 members in our Legion, meaning there are more than half-a-million veterans in Arizona we can recruit and deliver better services to.
I ask you to Be the One! I ask you to Be the One to recruit a new member!
From increasing and bettering our communication from Department to Posts and our AZ Legion Family, to increasing our membership, we have a lot of work ahead of us over the next 364 days. If you have an idea or a way for us to improve, I want to hear it. Please call, email, or write me. The only way we get better is by working together. We must all remember The American Legion is here to serve Service Members, Veterans, and our families, not for personal gain.
In closing, I continue to be thankful to each of you for your support and for entrusting in me the leadership of our Department and Family. That said, I am excited and honored to work arm-in-arm with our newly elected Sons Commander, Noah McMullen, along with our new Auxiliary President, Barbara White. The three of us respect and love one another and I know that together we will achieve great things. However, we simply can’t do it without you, our AZ Legion Family. I also congratulate our newly elected Area Vice Commanders and am eager to begin working with them as they begin their travels to your areas.
As you take some time to recover from Convention, rest up, and prepare for a year of action and moving us forward.
For God & Country,
Mike Simon
Commander
American Legion, Department of Arizona
