Department of Iowa, I Thank you for electing me your Department Commander.
I thank you for the trust you put in me to help lead our great organization.
My motto this year is the last four words of our Preamble “Devotion to Mutual Helpfulness”. Why? Because all of us need the help of others, and as this new year begins, we have several areas we need to help each other with.
Membership, we must rewrite and rethink the way we operate when it comes to retaining and recruiting members. The only way we can do this is by helping each other. The ideas and brainstorming sessions need to go beyond our Membership Committee. If you, as an individual, your post or district is doing something that is working please share it with our membership team so we can evaluate and share throughout our organization.
At-risk veterans need our help and support through our BE THE ONE Initiative and Buddy Checks. While these two initiatives are geared toward our veterans you can also use them to help our family members, friends, and neighbors. Make them aware of the resources available and help them get the care they need.
We need more participation within our programs. I believe this is partially due to program chairpersons not having the training they need or knowing what the expectations of the position are. Department-level Commissions and Committees are expected to participate and have tables at the Mid-Winter Conference programs fair. Communication with our District and Post program chairs is critical to making this work. Programs can’t grow if we fail to supply the information to our post, county, and district representatives.
Commanders Project for this year is our American Legion of Iowa Foundation. I can’t think of any other cause that supports our Four Pillars better than this one.
In closing, I thank you for this opportunity and look forward to working with and for, all of you this year.
Stanley Elliott
Commander Department of Iowa