Happy New Year Legion Family members!  As we enter 2011 there are some very important issues before us.  Membership is our lifeblood!  Efforts to retain and recruit members are of utmost importance for our posts, our Department and our National organization.  We must stop the decline in membership!  Our posts are the window through which our communities view The American Legion.  We encourage all our readers to assist our posts in meeting their membership goals.  As we’ve said many time before “membership is everyone’s business!”  Get involved in making your post 100% this year.

 

An area of concern for our members, and especially our post homes, is what is happening with the “small games of chance” legislation.  Department Commander Pete Wasco has met with Governor Elect Tom Corbett’s transitional team and discussed the need to address some real changes in the current small games of chance laws.  The current law is 30-years old and falls short on realistic limits on prizes and how or what those funds can be legally expended on.  The expectations are very high; we will see new legislation passed this year.  We will keep you apprised of the process as the new legislation is introduced.  We would appreciate if you would contact your local legislator and get them to support this needed change.  For those with Internet access the information is on our website at www.pa-legion.com.

 

Another Pennsylvania General Assembly issue is increased funding for Act 66 (the service officers initiative).  Our Pennsylvania American Legion should be very proud of the performance of our Department Service Officers.  Collectively, in a twelve month period, our service officers have served over 6314 veterans, with new federal benefits awarded to these veterans totaling $68,426,503.  We have also served at least one veteran in all 67 counties within Pennsylvania.  One of the pillars of The American Legion is service to our veterans and we set the standard for maintaining this important legacy!

 

Posts should have contacted local schools for candidates in our Oratorical Contest.  Contestants should already be working on their oration.  We would like to see a large turnout for the Department finals in Harrisburg.  These young men and women compete for more than $16,000 in scholarship money and the level of preparation at this level clearly establishes this program as the premier event of its kind.  The contest is held in the Forum Building, a beautiful historic facility located in downtown Harrisburg, March 5, 2011 at 10 AM.   It is the absolutely perfect venue for our event.  Another plus is attending this contest it’s free!  Try and be present at this event.  You will be glad you attended.

 

The National Commander’s Tour is March 7 in the East at Lehighton; March 8 in Middletown and March 9 at Avalon.  Dinner ticket and ad book information have been sent out and is also on our website.  Let’s show National Commander Jimmie Foster that we are “Pennsylvania Proud”.  Please plan on attending when the banquet is in your area.  Also please support the ad booklet as this assists the sponsoring posts in offsetting the costs of planning this dinner.

 

Legion College was again a great success!  Thanks to all committee members who made both events such a complete triumph!  Thanks also to our Legion Family members who attended or helped get the word out about these events. 

 

Our annual Holiday Hospital Tour went extremely well this year.  Thanks to Hospital Entertainment Chairman Ed Connell for working so closely on the scheduling.  We traveled 1328 miles without any glitches as we visited all six State Veterans Homes and ten VAMC’s across our Commonwealth.  Thanks to all three of our Vice Commanders - Alex Dombrowsky, Earle “Spanky” McCarney and Joe Cocco - as they accompanied our Department Commander Pete Wasco when we were in their section. Thanks also to Department President Beverly Reinhard, Art Hollerman, NECman Richard Coccimiglio, and our own Past Department Commander Jim “Sammy Claus” Hales, who traveled to each stop and contributed to making the lives a little brighter for the residents and patients we visited.  Last, but certainly not least, a “special thanks” to all our VAVS Representatives and all the volunteers who make the days a little brighter for our veterans and for representing our goals so well - we salute you!

 

A few 2011 dates to remember:  The annual Allegheny County Youth Achievement dinner will be held at the Pittsburgh Soldiers & Sailors Hall April 10; February 2 is our 80% membership target date; March 3 is our 85% membership target date; April DEC will be April 1-3 at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg East; Department Commanders Testimonial Dinner will be at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg East April 2 and Department President Reinhard’s Testimonial Dinner will be in Allentown April 9. All testimonial dinner flyers have been mailed out and are on our website.  Until next time…

Let me start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, I would like to thank everyone that traveled with us on the Department Christmas Tour and a special thanks to our Department Hospital Entertainment Chairman Ed Connell for making sure everything went smoothly.

 

By the time you read this article, I will be into my sixth month as you Department Commander and it’s been a very busy six months. I have been blessed to have met so many great people during my travels and I am looking forward to meeting many more during my next six months. I attended both Legion Collages East and West and would like to thank both committees for doing an outstanding job. Both colleges were well attended and very successful.

 

Well it’s the start of a New Year with some of our programs beginning, such as our Oratorical and Essay Contests.  I hope all our districts have been out in the schools pushing these and our other programs.

 

I commend the section commanders and the district commanders that have made their last target date of 75%.  We still have a long way to go and a short time to get there. Let’s all get out there and beat the streets by going to their homes and asking them why they haven’t renewed their membership.  Phone calls can be made as well asking them the same.

 

I hope that all the districts and posts have been pushing my project, the National Emergency Fund (NEF).

 

We also have a new governor coming in and a lot of new faces in the house and the senate.  Hopefully we can get some of our veteran’s legislative issues passed.  I had the privilege of meeting with the new governor’s Veterans Transition Team in early December and it went very well.

 

I feel it necessary to remind everyone of my slogan, “Pride & Performance”.  Have pride in this great organization and perform proudly the duties we all took an oath to uphold.

 

I hope to see all of you at the January DEC.  God bless.

Legion College enhances knowledge and appreciation of The American Legion, and teaches the core values and contributions of the organization.  It can also help prepare those who are interested in Leadership positions in posts, districts, counties and the department through education, development and motivation.

The curriculum is taught in small-group sessions after the initial auditorium membership session.  These classes are set to educate, develop and motivate the hundreds in attendance.  Legion College gives opportunity for those who can mentor or need mentoring. 

Membership Power Point Presentation

 “Pride & Performance” is Department Commander Pete Wasco’s motto this membership year. You interest and participation in the Pennsylvania American Legion is welcome and in fact, needed! This great organization has a myriad of exceptional programs all of which set us apart from any of the other veterans’ service organizations. There is literally something of interest for all veterans and their families in The American Legion! Promoting membership to advancing any one of our programs is essential to the success of any or all of our programs. The task is everyone’s responsibility. Together, with your assistance, we can increase our membership and participation in The American Legion programs. You can be an asset to the success of your post, county, district, section or department. We implore you to be an active component in our American Legion. “Pride & Performance” is a fitting slogan, through your participation we will ALL benefit – ALL being The American Legion, our post’s, communities and this great Nation! Our four pillars are still as important today as they were in 1919.

Legion College is here again. All posts are encouraged to send their commanders, adjutants, SAL officers, Auxiliary, Legion Riders officers and all interested members who may benefit from this day-long training/informational session. The dates are October 30 for the east and central section at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg and November 6 at Latrobe High School for the western section. The courses this year are: General Course, Adjutant Course, Auxiliary Course, SAL Course, Service Officer Course, Legion Riders Course, Home Association Course and Chaplain Course. The registration is only $15 for any of these eight courses. Of particular interest this year are detailed instructions on the IRS Form 990, small games of chance updates, a new membership tool that will be useful for the entire Legion family, as well as information offered through each of the scheduled classes. We have had a great turnout over the past three years and we hope you will take time to attend the Legion College most convenient for you and your post’s Legion family members.

Our Department Commander Pete Wasco’s project this year is the National Emergency Fund (NEF). We have instituted the placards that have been used in the past and customized them to reflect our commanders NEF project. These placards are in essence exactly the same as the shamrocks for Muscular Dystrophy, the hearts for the American Heart Association, etc. There is one difference and that is they are supported by our members and they benefit our members. In the past ten years Pennsylvania posts and Legionnaires have drawn from this fund. We support this fund and through the sales of these placards this poses no real burden to any of our posts in pushing this worthwhile program. To support this, a post simply needs to get the placards from your district commander and sell them to your customers. Post 145 in Crafton does not have a bar but they easily sell 100 of these NEF placards at their bingo. We ask you to make a concerted effort to make this a successful campaign. In addition to the NEF our Department is supporting other National programs to include the Legacy Fund, Wounded Warrior Project, and the Child Welfare Fund. All these are very worthwhile programs that deserve our support. With the small games of chance being scrutinized more now than ever before these programs are an excellent way for your post to comply with the letter of the law and support a good cause. When your post is making donations to worthy causes please consider these as they are very worthwhile programs deserving of our support!

Congress has made September 16 The American Legion Day! In commemoration of the day The American Legion was chartered by Congress – The American Legion Day marks the beginning of a three-month period to promote the organization and the good work done to aid America’s veterans, their families and the communities in which American Legion posts are located. This is an opportune time to reconnect with your local community and possibly get some free publicity in your local news media. As I have said many times before, “our posts are the window through which our communities view our American Legion.” Posts should make an effort to reestablish programs in the community and the schools in your respective areas and show we are much more than a bar. Make your community a Legiontown! Making your town a Legiontown can begin on American Legion Day with a ceremony involving city leaders and the public with events and activities continuing through November. Every community interaction is an opportunity to educate the public about the Four Pillars of The American Legion and the services provided by your post. Other opportunities might include a Veterans Service Day, disaster preparedness education, Halloween safety, Heroes to Hometowns troop support events, and other opportunities that directly involve members of your community. The better we educate our communities as to what The American Legion is the easier we will garner participation in our programs and entice new members to join our great organization! Let’s all make our community a Legiontown!

The Oratorical Contest is coming quicker than you think! This is the time to get your local students/schools working on this great program. Every school should have a participant and should have an equal opportunity to compete for the more than $16,500 in prize monies given by our Department at the state finals. This is in conjunction with the contest money that can be won at the district, county and section contests. The student who wins our department contest will advance to the National contest for a chance to win an additional $18,000. With the high cost of higher education today I am sure many students in all our posts communities and their parents would participate in this great program.

Remember Veterans Day is November 11th that may be an opportune time to reconnect with your community. An open house may be the ticket. Inviting prospective new members to attend is a great idea!

The Department of Pennsylvania American Legion annual Christmas Tour will be December 3-9. The Department Commander, Adjutant, National Executive Committeeman, Auxiliary President and the Hospital Entertainment chairman will travel across our Commonwealth and visit each state veterans’ home and VA hospital. We encourage all interested members of our American Legion family to join us when we are in your area. The residents and patients truly appreciate it, so come out and help bring some joy to our veterans’ lives.

Our Department Executive Committee meeting is January 14-16, 2011. The annual Housing for Homeless Veterans Corp. dinner will be held Saturday, January 15th. Make plans to support this important program by placing an ad in the program book and attending the dinner. Dinner tickets will be $25, ads will run $70 for a full page, $50 for a half page and $40 for a quarter page. Make sure you get ads approved early so you can send them in and show your support for this great program.

The National Commander’s tour of Pennsylvania will begin in the east on March 7, continue to the central section March 8 and conclude in the western section on March 9th. Make plans to attend the banquet when it is in your area and hear the message from National Commander Foster and show him we are Pennsylvania proud!

Finally, I participated on a 9-11 Memorial Pennsylvania American Legion Riders run. This was well attended, well run, very organized and the camaraderie was second to none. I wish to thank the Pennsylvania American Legion Riders for their support and for the good things they are involved in! Until next time…

I would first like to thank you again for electing me as your Department Commander. When I was elected I spoke about change, and how we need to re-think the way we do certain things.

 

One of those changes is our American Legion Riders (ALR) program. We did have our first open election for our ALR and they are out there getting old chapters re-chartered and starting up new ones. I want to congratulate Charles Oakley on being elected State President and wish him well this year.

 

Other areas we need to look at are our programs. We need to get out into our communities and promote all of them: Keystone Boys State, State Police Week, Oratorical and Essay, the list goes on and on but it’s up to each and every one of us to get out and promote them.

 

My motto for the year is “Pride & Performance”. I have pride in this great organization and perform proudly the duties that I took an oath to uphold. That’s one way we can increase membership and help each of The American Legion programs.

 

Speaking of membership, we lost 11,000 members last year. I don’t know about you, but I am very proud of the fact that I come from the largest department in the world. If we don’t stop letting older members slip out the back door we will no longer be the largest department. So I urge you to make contact with all your members and ask them to renew, or find out why they are not renewing, it could be a simple fix.

 

Another thing that needed looking at was our employee retirement plan. I would like to thank all members of the DEC for making necessary changes so that we can not only take care of our employees but stay financially secure in the future.

 

My project for this year is the National Emergency Fund (NEF). I feel this is a very important program in which members and posts can and have used in the past when there was a natural disaster. All district commanders were given 1000 NEF placards at the September DEC. I hope they are being distributed to all our posts.

 

I hope to see and meet many of you at one of our Legion Colleges, either Legion College East on October 30th at Cumberland Valley High School or Legion College West on November 6th at Latrobe High School.

Please keep up the good work. Keep in mind Veterans Day is November 11.

 

God bless

The American Legion is sponsoring a College Fair to help shrink the costs of college for students and their families.  This college fair is unique because it’s hosted by veterans.  The men and women who have served our country by protecting our freedoms is now working to help the young men and women of our state attend college.

Click Here for the informative flyer

The American Legion presented over $5 Million in awards in 2009 around the country.

The American Legion invites you and your family to Soldiers and Sailors Hall in Oakland, Allegheny County on November 15, 2010 for scholarship opportunities.

These scholarship opportunities include:

• Regional and local presented by veterans organizations
• Government programs like ROTC (Army, Navy and Air Force), the 5 Military Academies, the GI Bill, USAR and the National Guard

• Contests including written, spoken and participated in (including Legion Baseball, Scouting, Boys and Girls State, Essay and Speech Contests)

There is money out there, let us help you find it.

We are leaders!

More information coming soon - check back!!

Survival in an emergency

To prevent acts of terrorism on American soil, we must enlist all of our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security capabilities.  These threats and hazards include terrorism, natural disasters, large-scale cyber attacks, and pandemics.  To protect our homeland we should continue to integrate and leverage state and major urban area fusion centers that have the capability to share classified information; establish a nationwide framework for reporting suspicious activity, and implement and integrated approach to our counter terrorism information systems to ensure that the analyst, agents, and officers who protect us have access to all relevant intelligence throughout the government.  As we do everything within our power to prevent these dangers, we also recognize that we will not be able to deter or prevent every threat.

That is why we must also enhance our resilience-the ability to adapt to changing conditions and prepare for, withstand, and rapidly recover from disruption.  To keep Americans safe at home, we are also integrating our homeland security efforts seamlessly with other aspects of our national security approach, by strengthening our preparedness and resilience.

By effectively managing emergencies, we are building our capability to prepare for disasters to reduce or eliminate long term effects to people and their property from hazards and to respond to and recover from major incidents.  You may need to survive on your own after an emergency.  This means having your own food, water, and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least three days.  Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone immediately.  You could get help in hours, or it might take days.

In addition, basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment, and telephones may be cut off for days or weeks.  Some of the things you can do to prepare for the unexpected, such as making an emergency supply kid and developing a family communications plan.

There are important differences among potential emergencies that will impact the decisions you make and the actions you take.  You should learn more about the potential emergencies that could occur where you live and the appropriate way to respond to them.  In addition, learn about the emergency plan that have been established in your area by your state and local government.  Emergency preparedness is no longer the sole concern of earthquake prone Californians and those who live in the part of the country known as “Tornado Alley.”  For Americans, preparedness must now account for man-made disasters as well as natural ones.  Knowing what to do during an emergency is an important part of being prepared and may make all the difference when seconds count.

In closing, a reminder that September is National Preparedness Month and is designed to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities.  There are three simple steps in accomplishing this:  Get Prepared, Get Trained and Get Involved!

Written by

Eugene R. Paul

National Security Chairman

Department of Pennsylvania

This fall, members of your Post, Unit Squadron or Chapter can take one day and learn about the many different programs and projects concerning the Pennsylvania American Legion.  For a $15 registration fee, “students” choose one of eight courses, which will be filled on a first come first served basis.

The General Course provides information on all Department programs, activities and more.

The Adjutant Course is a 1/2 day course which covers membership, various forms as well as other information.  The first half of the day will be spent in the General Course.

The Auxiliary Course is an all day class that covers issues pertaining to the Pennsylvania American Legion Auxiliary.

There will also be a 1/2 day SAL Course.  The first half of the day will be spent in the General Course

The Service Officer Course is an all day class that will give insight on filing claims and assisting veterans in need.

The Home Association Course is an all day class that will educate attendees on bookkeeping, IRS forms, small games of chance and the Home Association’s relationship to the Post.

Another class is the Legion Riders Course for the entire  day.  This will inform the students about the different aspects of the Legion Riders. 

The final program is the Chaplain Course for those who are or may want to become a Chaplain and will explain your obligations and duties within your Post as the Chaplain.  The first half of the day will be spent in the General Course.

For your convenience Department offers tow “colleges”.  Choose to attend October 30, 2010 at Cumberland Valley High School (Mechanicsburg, PA) or November 6, 2010 at the Latrobe High School in Latrobe PA.  Opening program begins at 8:30 am with all classes starting at 9:00 am.

Registration fee includes course material, a full course lunch and a Legion College pin.

Both facilities are non smoking.

Click Here for the Legion College application

View a video of the 2009/2010 year in review.

The 2010 Department Convention held at the Harrisburg Hilton Hotel was a great success.  View the great pictures below.