REPORTS from the Department's National Executive Committeeman |
| John E Hayes |
Previous Reports: |
N.E.C. REPORT TO THE 88th ANNUAL DEPARTMENT CONVENTION June 14-15, 2007 Chapala, Jalisco |
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N.E.C. REPORT TO THE SPRING DEPT. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE March 22, 2006 Guatemala City, Guatemala |
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N.E.C. REPORT TO THE FALL DEPT. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OCTOBER 27, 2006 Antigua, Guatemala |
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Before I begin to tell you about what went on at the recently held Fall Meetings in Indianapolis, let me tell you what did not happen.
Resolution 46 of the Spring Meetings would have cancelled our Department Charter. In May it was tabled and since it was not brought up again during those meetings, the motion to table has become the same as a defeated motion. However, the matter can be resurrected at any future meeting of the N.E.C. Therefore, it certainly behooves us to make a major change in how we do Post business to assure that the membership renewals are sent into National ahead of the target dates and to continue actively recruiting all year long, even after you achieve your annual membership goal.
In relation to that Resolution 46, I have to say that it did provide us with a lot of publicity. People who had never shown an interest in what we do down here have been asking how our Legion Year is shaping-up. Both at the National Convention and at the Fall Meetings, I have received many messages of support from other members of the NEC. The NEC begins and ends with comments from the National Commander. Commandere Paul Morin (MA) began his remarks discussing that most important Legion activity, our service to our comrades wounded in the defense of their country. The Heroes to Hometowns program is well launched; we even have a VA&R officer working full-time inside the Pentagon. Together with the President of the Auxiliary, Commander Paul has visited troops in the Walter Reed Army Hospital and just like his predicessors, has found that morale is high. Apparently the biggest gripe of our wounded servicemen is that the news media are not telling the American people about the good things that are going on in Iraq such as Iraqis having running water, sewage, and freedom – all of which are new experiences. For his part, the Commander's biggest gripe is that he no longer gives testimony to joint comittees when he goes before Congress. His testimony before the Senate's Veterans Affairs Committee was unfettered and lasted several hours. On the other hand, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee allotted him only five minutes but allowed him to speak for ten, because the room was packed wall to wall by Legionnaires. It does not matter how good a communicator one might be, it is impossible to explain or even list the concerns of The American Legion in ten minutes. While talking about the medical needs of this generation's returning warriors, the Commander said that 40% admit to suffering PTSD (post tramatic stress syndrome). This could be a major problem for the vet who goes out looking for a job. Worse, the VA expects fully 75% of the returnees to exhibit symptoms within the near future. Related to getting a job is getting one's job back. Commander Paul said that we owe it to this generation of veterans to ensure that veterans' preferences work to get them their jobs back or to get new employment. Commander Paul reiterated his emphasis upon the Four Pillars of The American Legion – national defense, Americanism, our children, and veterans' care. This is a “Back to Basics” emphasis, but that does not mean that everything we do will be done the way we have always done it. As an example of finding new ways to be relevant in the 21st Century, we are joining with four other national veterans organizations to form Veterans Coalition, Inc. This organization will be a non-paratisan non-governmental agency created expressly to study the VA and to define how the VA should operate into the third decade of the century. It will be self-funded, independent and objective. Our partners in this endevor are the DAV, Amvets, the VFW, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Together, we shall be directly representing over 8 million veterans and indirectly three times that number. The fact that we are so interested in overseeing the activities of the VA corresponds to what I have often called our being the “Loyal Opposition” to the VA. We do not oppose it, but rather want it to become all that it should be to attend to the needs of those who have gone forth in the defense of their homes, families, and their country. When speaking about private sector healthcare, Commander Paul said that private care is flawed, it has failed and become too expensive. The VA healthcare costs 35% less than non-governmental care programs and is state-of-the-art. We need to assure that it will be available to the current generation of veterans and those who come in the future. An interesting number was provided to us by Paul. During WW-II there were between 2 and 3 wounded for every KIA. Because of access to faster and better care on the battlefield, there are fewer fatal injuries, and the current ratio is 6-7 wounded for every serviceman who is KIA. The very fact of this success on the battlefield means that the VA will have more clients in the future; these will be clients for whom the private sector will not provide the best possible medical care or possibly, any care at all --- This is the care that the VA system does provide, subject, of course, to the funding that any healthcare system requires. Finally, the Commander asked for our continued support of three key programs during this Legion Year: the National Emergency Fund (NEF), the Children's Miracle Network, and (new this year) supporting the Auxiliary sponsosred National Veterans Creative Arts Festival. After the Commander's introductory remarks, we had committee reports. National Finance Committee: The Magazine has been getting $3 per member; after the dues increase goes into effect, this amount will not change. All new income will go to operating expenses. Our expenses are on track for the expected $1,000,000 defiict for 2006. Next year the budget will increase by $2 million but there will be an additional $9 million of income. Convention Committee: There is a strong concern that some conventioneers at the 2007 national convention scheduled for Reno, Nevada will not respect the housing assignments and go outside the national convention package which is a contract between our organization and the city of Reno and its hotels. Hotels are contractually prohibited from offering rates lower than our negotiated rates for lodging during our convention dates, but some have been found to be doing just that. This leads to individual Legionnaires violating the housing assignments. The committee reported that there are five strong bids to host the 2012 convention. Citizens' Flag Alliance: The CFA is preparing for its next fight, the one that will come during the 110th Congress. Starting now we have to go 24-7-12 to ensure positive results in the future. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is moving from setback to set-back without loss of enthusiasm.” This year we lost by one vote. We need to work at getting every candidate on-board so that we can eventually pick-up that one missing vote. The CFA web site shows how your Senators voted. You might want to check that listing before sending-in your absentee ballot . Senator Hatch says that minority leader Senator Reid voted with us but held back two votes; we then lost by one. The senators representing the Democratic Party have got to be told – in the only manner they understand -- that they can not talk out of both sides of their mouths and then go against the stated will of 85% of their constituents. Magazine Commission: At this particular moment, the Magazine is doing well. They expect to make $9 million in advertising revenue this year. The bad news is that they are forecasting a 10% increase in paper costs for 2007. Americanism Commission: This group always has lots going on. At the Fall Meetings they were very pleased that the Samsung Scholarship awards this year benefited 20 university students with $20,000 each. Their main concern seems to be that the PERA legislation – that is, the Public Expression of Religion Act – is having a hard time in the Senate. The House passed its version, but S-3696, the Senate version, is being held-up in committee. To remind you, PERA would make it illegal for judges to award the ACLU court costs for cases attacking the use of religious symbols on war memorials and cemetaries, for cases against the Boy Scouts of America, and for any other case challenging traditional aspects of American culture. At present, the ACLU takes on cases such as the San Diego war memorial case, invests as many lawyer hours as possible, and then presents the court with their bill. This income is a major component of the ACLU's operating budget. It comes directly from the American taxpayers, and it has to stop. National Security Commission: The recruiting effort of the Army has resulted in hitting 100% of its goal while the National Guard is at 99% of its goal. In both cases, retention is a major contributor to success and that says a lot about the validity of what our armed forces are doing in the mid-east. The troops who have been there think that what we do is a worthwhile expenditure of American resources and assets. The Commision had hoped for more than the 2.2% pay raise recently announced, because inflation has been in the neighborhood of 3.5%. Children and Youth: This year our donations came to a total of $4.1 million; these monies have affected 17 million children. Since 1999, we have donated a total of $19 million, so this year's total is above average. We were also informed that the Temporary Financial Assistance Program has made 476 grants affecting 1047 children. These grants total $450,000. VA&R Commision: Last year 6720 Legionnaires gave 947,000 hours of volunteer community service to the VA through the VA Voluntary Service Program. That is 135 hours per volunteer. The Commission hopes to increase the number of volunteers by 5% in 2007. The Heroes to Hometowns Program has started into operation. Through this new initiative, we are doing what The American Legion has always done: provide service to returning military personnel, especially those who bear wounds received on active duty. The difference in this effort is the extent of the number of agencies with whom we are working at the local, county, state, and national levels. One example of how we are doing our traditional task in new ways is the fact that the national organization has a full time VA&R staff member actually working inside the Pentagon. NEC Resolution No. 1 came out of VA&R. It states that The American Legion strenuously opposes any change in dates set for the National Commander's testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee because such a change will make his input come after budgets have been established, not before, as is the traditional way of doing business with Congress. Internal Affairs: The Commission reports that during the year the National Emergency Fund has disbursed $2.3 million as hurricane relief due to several different hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina. During this same period, Legionnaires have generously donated $2.6 million, so the NEF is in better shape now than before Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Resolutions from Internal Affairs cancelled the charters of two foreign posts, both in Germany and both for the same reason, that they depended upon active duty military members who are no longer residing in those communities. The Public Relations Commission voiced the same concerns about PERA legislation as has already been reported. Foreign Relations Commission: The Commission recommended two resolutions. One of these was Convention Resolution No. 186 “Support for Foreign Exchange Education Programs” which originated here in Mexico. It had been held over for further study after the National Convention, but now has been approved as a policy position of our national organization. The other resolution had to do with enforcing fair-trade rules world-wide to ensure that American jobs are not lost due to unfair trade practices. Membership and Post Activities Committee: At present, our national membership is up 100,000 members from the same time last year and renewal rates are good. The DMS – direct mail solicitation- program is on track for producing 190,000 new members; at present it has generated 106,000. The general opinion that we heard several times from different sources is that this year our membership can be expected to return to 2,800,000 or better. The advice that was given out corresponds to a Back to Basics agenda: we are told to do membership the old fashioned way by calling, writing and knocking on the doors of our members and lapsed members. Eye to eye recruiting is really the best way to do that particular job. Legislative Commission: To date, only two budget appropriations bills have been passed. There are eleven pending that will remain pending until after Congress comes back to Washington after the November elections. It is quite likely that these will be consolidated into one Omnibus Appropriations Bill. While that is better than running the government with continuing resolutions, it is not a solution that lends itself to effective budgeting. One item that did come out of one of the appropriations bills passed is that The American Legion's patent on the Legion Emblem has been renewed for another 14 years. While I think this is reasonable legislation, I personally do not like the fact that this sort of item, non-germaine to the fiscal running of the federal government, would be included in the defense appropriations act. National Judge Advocate: The one report we received that did not originate with the national commander, a Commission or Committee was the annual report of the National Judge Advocate. Lately Phil Onderdonk has been held on a tight leash time-wise, therefore his reports are not so complete as used to be the case. As usual, he reported upon at least one Dram Shop case in which an individual (not a Legionnaire) had a drink at a Legion Post, went to a VFW post for several more before going out and buying considerably more at a liquor store. When he went the wrong way on an interstate highway and suffered the accident that one might expect from driving drunk the wrong way on an interstate highway, we, The American Legion, were included in his law suit demanding damages. As almost always occurs, the Legion's corporate counsel, our National Judge Advocate, succesfully removed the Legion's national organization from the case because neither the national organization nor the department has any day to day participation in the Post's operation. We also had a baseball case. These also come up regularly, usually alledging a player's right to play on another community's team rather than his own. Players understandably want to showcase their talents by playing with the best team in the region, but if they get cut from the better team, they also regularly cry “unfair” and go to court. Another Dram Shop Case was dismissed when the plaintant could not find proof that he had been served at – or even any witness to say that he had been present in – a Legion Post has a restaurant and bar in operation. The national judge advocate filed an amicus brief in a Boy Scout case where a boy who says he has gay inclinations sued the BSA for not letting him join even though he admits he never asked to join because he thought their quote religious orientation unquote would result in his being turned-down. The Scouts won that one, hands down. A less favorable result has come out of the Pledge of Allegiance case in California. The same plaintant has filed a second suit and his judge has ruled that an opinion relating to his previous suit made by a member of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals can be received in evidence – even though that first suit was thrown out of court because he was found to not have a legal right to sue. Given that situation, the prior case was a “non-case” and no opinion on it should be acceptable in another court case. Unfortunately, the legal system as found in California only seems to apply national rules when it suits the politically correct agenda. Finally, we were informed that under the Pension Protection Act, all non-profits must file their required reports annually, even when there are no pension payments to report. Failure to do so can result in cancellation of the non-profit tax exempt status, and there is no guarantee that such status will be awarded if requested again at a later date. The National Vice Commanders all spoke briefly about their activities since the national convention and then we heard Commander Paul Morin give his closing remarks. Once again Commander Paul emphasised the “4 Pillars” of The American Legion: national defense, Americanism, our children, and veterans' care and his three priority programs for this Legion year: NEF, Child Welfare Foundation, and the Veterans Creative Art Festival Fund. There were only 50% of Legion Posts submitting the Consolidated Annual Report during the past year. Our commander is asking that we get more intentional here and submit at least 75%. ¨This information is useful to the national organization when it tells Congress what we do and in our particular case, it will be most helpful in justifying our continued existence at a time when there are people who are not particularly friendly toward this department. Please make the effort to have a 100% response this year. It is surely something we can do. The Legislative agenda of our organization depends upon the person to person contact of members of the Legislative Commission with their Senators and Representatives. We do not have a direct roll in that activity, because your congressmen already have a Legionnaire assigned to present the Legion's positions, but we can help by writing to our Congressmen, especially to our senators encouraging their favorable vote on the PERA legislation. Commander Paul Morin wants to make the annual convention more of a family event; this means being attractive to the Vietnam and post Vietnam Legionnaires. Among his ideas is to change the venue of the Legion Baseball World Series to coincide with the date and location of the annual convention. As he reminded us, our convention cities all have either a major league team, a minor league team, or Triple-A farm club team. He would like to have the final game on Friday before the opening of our convention. As always, I have the 51 NEC resolutions with me should anyone wish to see exactly what was passsed at the Fall Meeting of the NEC. Respectfully submitted, John E. Hayes, National Executive Committeeman |
N.E.C. REPORT TO THE ANNUAL CONVENTION JUNE 21 & 22, 2006 Chapala, Jalisco, México |
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This report will be different from any report I have given previously. That is, first I shall report on the high points of the recent Spring Meeting of the National Executive Committee and then I shall report on one particular Resolution and how it might affect this Department.
Commander Tom Boch opened the NEC with a report of his recent activities and the issues that are on the front burner for the National Organization. As you would hope, our national leadership is being congruent and consistent in that the issues that have been made our legislative agenda by the various National Conventions in recent years are precisely the issues that have the most importance for Commander Tom's administration. Therefore, you may well be familiar with some or most of these issues. The first of these is the need for Mandatory Funding for VA health services. At present the budget battle must be undertaken every year as vets have to beg for adecuate medical attention. The Second is that we want Medicare to be modified so that the VA Health Care System can be the health care provider for the veterans whose needs the VA knows so well. Combined with this, we want the VA to be able to retain for its own use any monies that Medicare would reemburse it. Presently, any such funds go into the Government's General Fund and does not benefit the VA or its healthcare system. The Third issue is the need to be able to represent veterans – all veterans-- before Congress. In the House of Representatives the chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee, Representative Buyers, has been doing an effective job of limiting the voice of veterans service organizations. This has been done by limiting the time allocated to testimony and by rescheduling testimony so that it is heard after the most important decisions have been made relating to the nature of the particular piece of legislation. For instance, the National Commander has been offered 10 minutes to explain all of the Legion's Legislative Program where he previously was given 90 minutes. The Fourth issue is to stop the ACLU's attack on basic core values of Americanism. To begin this, theLegion is supporting HR2679: The Public Expression of Religion Act. This would prohibit the government from paying legal fees to the ACLU when it sues to remove religious symbols from public spaces, such as war memorials, or when they have historical significance, such as the crosses which appear on municipal coats of arms, as has been the case in San Diego and other California cities. When Commander Tom reported upon his travels, he says that morale is great ! One of the reasons for this is the medical attention our war fighters are receiving. Troops who are seriously injured in Iraq are medivaced to Europe within 24 hours and then on to the States in 48 hours. However, troops in hospital want to go back to their units rather than go home. They have told him, “We train as a unit, we deploy as a unit, and we fight as a unit. We want to go home as a unit, too.... Send us back to our units” He also reports that the National Emergency Fund has been doing a tremendous job of assisting Legion Posts and individual Legionnaires who were affected by natural disasters last year. He is serious about increasing the NEF trust fund ... so much so that when the cell phone of the NECman from Alabama went off during Commander Rom's presentation, he assessed an immediate $25 “donation”, and he got it !! When he spoke about a survey taken of Legionnaires, Commander Tom reported that the number one priority among our members is National Defense, followed by Veterans' Health Care. It is no surprise that those two were the top priorities, but their relative importance has flip-flopped in recent years. Commander Tom congratulated National Adjutant Robert Spanogle on having completed 25 years as Adjutant, 11 years longer than any previous individual in that job. Later, several other folks joined in offering their congratulations, along with several commemorative gifts. There was one other matter that Commander Tom Boch brought up during his opening remarks, but it did not come at the end. Right off at the start he told us exactly how many ticks were left on the clock for this administration. At appropriate points during the rest of the Spring Meeting, Commander Tom let us know just how many seconds were left. He had a point to make and it applies to us all. We can not afford to waste our time. We need to clear for action and go to work, and we need to put-out 103% of our potential. Citizens' Flag Alliance Following the Commander, we heard from the President of the Citizens' Flag Alliance, MG Patrick Brady, USArmy (retired). There will be a vote in the Senate this year. That is, it will not be put off by any sub-committee action as happened in the last Congress. That is good news and the CFA believes that we are within striking range. One or two additional votes will assure passage of the Flag Protection Amendment when it comes up for a vote on June 26th. That's right, the 26th -next week; that is when we can expect to have our vote. There is still time to lobby your Senator. Contact him or her to either offer your thanks for the support being shown or to ask that the Senator to vote for the Amendment which would allow Congress to pass legislation to prevent the physical desecration of the flag of the United States. The most amazing thing General Brady said is that there are Senators who have yet to read the actual text of the Amendment. Words have meaning and these particular words have very special meaning. They will allow what normal legislation has not. On the Republican side of the aisle, Senators McConnell and Bennett have supported legislation to protect the flag, but they have not voted for the Flag Protection Amendment. We – you -- have to convince them that the correct procedure is to first pass the constitutional amendment which specifically allows for flag protection legislation, and then to pass the actual legislation. Anything else is simply hypocritical posturing. The Supreme Court has said that legislation not specifically allowed by a Constitutional Amendment will not be legal. Therefore, Senators who say they support legislation but do not support the Amendment are very derfinitely targets for our criticsm. On the Democratic side of the Aisle, the majority of Senators are against this legislation, so we should be very intentional in thanking our supporters such as Senator Reid and Senator Finestein. The next order of business was the reading of memorial resolutions for 59 distinguished legionnaires who have passed on to Post Everlasting since our last NEC meeting. National Finance Commission Following this, we received a report from the National Finance Commission. In 2005 there was a $15,000 deficit and the present budget appears to be headed for approximately a $400,000 deficit. They recommneded that the NEC send a resolution to the National Convention to increase the portion of our dues which goes to National from $9.00 to $13.50. On a roll call vote, this passed by a slim margin. Now, please note, this does not insure that the National Convention will increase dues, and if it does increase them, there is no certainty that they will go up by the full $4.50 suggested by the NEC. After all, since the last increase, we have enjoyed surpluses every year until the rather small deficit last year. This year's amount is noteworthy, but it only represents $0.15 per member. While it is true that Yes, we are losing our WWII members, we should note that they are only 25% of the membership, so even if we lost them all during the same membership year, an increase of 50% would not seem to be justified. Any increase in dues will affect this Department because we never get our membership cards submitted in a timely manner. All of the cards submitted after December 31st will cost us the higher amount even though we can not charge our members that higher amount until another Legion Year, sometime in the future. The way our Department By-Laws are written, this Conventnion can increase dues for the 2007-08 Legion Year, but not for the 2006-07 period. Even if we decide to make a change, we shall have to do so before we know what amount the National Convention will decide to raise National's share of our dues. We know that they can increase dues up to $4.50 but we do not know how much they actually will be increased. In any case, this Legion Year we shall have to pay higher dues out of our financial reserves for every member submitted after January 1st 2007. If we increase the 2007-08 dues at this convention but guess incorrectly, then we shall also end-up paying that difference out of our accumulated reserves for the entire year of 2007-08. This matter will be discussed further in the Finance Officer's Report. National Convention Commission The Convention Commission announced that the 2011 convention will be in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis package was explained in detail. The City will be providing the Convention Center, the parade arrangements, and the sum of $100,000 cash besides a large number of tickets to sporting events and discount cards for use in The Mall of the Americas. The room rates, while not the lowest in recent memory are guaranteed. Two thirds of the rooms are guaranteed to be at or below $119 and the others will be at or below $129. Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation (VA&R): The Legion is prepared to join other Veterans' Service Organizations (“VSOs”) in suing the Government if the Government proceedes with its intention to offset VA disabilities payments against Social Security disability benefits. This is wrong; flat out wrong. One is compensation for wounds received performing military service while the other is a benefit related to insurance policies paid to a beneficiary after that person has paid an insuranace premium. If this offset goes into effect, it will be another Disabled Veteran Tax. We were told about a new Legion program, “Heroes to Hometowns”. This program will provide both short and long term support to insure that returning veterans, especially those who have been disabled during military service, will be fully reintegrated into their communities. It is not very different from our traditional concern for the well-being of our comrades, but it does try to be more inclusive, efficient, and effective in doing what we have always done so well. The effort will include new levels of colaboration with other VSOs, as well as coordination and collaboration with government entities at the community, state, and federal levels.This is based upon a very successful program currently being run by the Department of Washington. We passed four VA&R resolutions, including one which calls for greater VA attention to the special needs of female veterans. Another would assure us that the National Commander is given sufficient time and the proper venue to report to Congress as he is required to do by the clauses of our Congressional Charter. At present, the chairman of the House committee on Veteran Affairs not only limits the time allowed to us, but for the first time in many years, he has refused to participate in joint hearings with the Senate. As a result, in this Congress we shall be getting a hearing in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives. Americanism: The Americanism Commission is seriously worried about illegal immigration. They are calling for “enforcement by attrition”. What this means is the enforcement of existing laws, including those that sanction employers of undocumented workers, so that there will be no incentive for immigrants to enter the country without following established legal procedures, and no incentive to stay. The Commission believes that as a result, immigrants illegally in the US will return to their countries of origin and the problem can be controlled over time. Children & Youth: During the past year, 1,128 children have benefitted from the Temporary Financial Assistence program. (TFA) During the year $4,000,000 was donated to the Children's Miracle Network; this resulted in touching the lives of some 17 million children. Over the past 10 years, we have donated $20 million and I do not have a clue as to how many millions of children have benefited - - - but this is definitely a Legion program we can support. Internal Affairs: We were informed that as of the date of the NEC meeting, the present year's membership stood at 2,533,861. This is 18,753 behind last year, but we are not so far behind as we were previously during this Legion Year, so we might actually make our numbers if late dues keep coming in. (I think the Department of Mexico just may have taught National the words to that tune.) Past National Commander Butch Miller called our attention to just how full the NEC room was, but reminded us that it is only a third as full when the Legion College meets there. He exhorted each Department to send the College the men and women who have the potential to be our future leaders. The prime qualification is that the Legionnaire attending the College shall have service dates after Vietnam. During the NEC we had a special presentation by a public relations company that did a survey of two groups of Legionnaires. The first were those who renewed their membership and the other were ex-Legionnaires who had not renewed their membership. As I prepared this report, I was hopiing that the Legion's package describing the Survey would be available to us by Convention time, but I have not received it. Since the Internal Affairs folks asked that we do not extract miscellaneous details without presenting the entire study, I shall only say that both groups gave the Legion high marks – an 8.3 on a scale of 0-10. By comparison, the VA received a 7.2. Both groups feel strongly about our Four Core Missions of : National Defense, VA&R, Patriotism, and Youth Programs, but they assigned different priorities to the first two; those who have stayed with The American Legion give National Defense the No. 1 priority.. I shall be glad to make the Survey results available to the Department after they are received here. Commander's Closing Comments: After we had considered all of the various Commision reports and all proposed resolutions, Commander Boch summed-up what we need to concentrate upon. Time is critical; time that goes by is simply gone; it can not be revisited. We need to assure that the VA receives the funding it requires. We need to get the VA authorized as a Medicare provider to provide veterans health care by personnel specialized in precisely the problems that we have as a result of our military service. Commander Tom stated emphatically that Representative Buyers has lied when he said the Legion has refused to testify to his committee – on one lone occasion he, Commander Boch did not attend an event to which he was invited, a vets day sponsored by Buyers, but it was not a committee meeting and no Congressmen were present other than Mr. Buyers. The Commander called for increased vigilance to protect the country from attacks from within ... specifically those launched by the ACLU. At the same time, we need to be vigilant to restore border security. Finally, Tom reminded us that the good we do is just a small demonstration of our ability to care for our comrades and communities. If we really show our communities what we can do, then we shall have no problem getting our membership renewals – to say nothing about further growth. ==================================
What I have presented so far is pretty much like most of my reports. I have let you know what is going on at National and what is happening with various Legion programs. I think any NECman from any Department would report on these matters. Now I have to report on a subject that may get only passing mention from other members of the NEC, but which is of vital importance to the Department of Mexico. RESOLVED THAT THE CHARTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MEXICO BE CANCELLED: When the Internal Affairs Commission gave its report, there were, as I have reported, four resolutions. One was Resolution No. 46 which had the resolving clause: quote That the charter of the Department of Mexico is cancelled. Unquote. Resolution 46's other clause went on to explain the process by which individual Posts might choose the department they would join after this Department of. Mexico ceased to exist. This was supposed to be a big surprise, one for which we would have no effective response. That was the way the cancellation of the Departments of Canada, Italy, and Panama Canal were presented eleven years ago. At that time the representatives of the departments affected presented no defense and their charters were, indeed, cancelled. Luckily for us, after the Foreign Relations Commission finished its meeting on Tuesday, I picked-up on a comment made in a public area outside the commission meeting rooms. This was that Internal Affairs had decided to cancel our charter. As a result, I had most of that day prior to the meeting of the NEC to prepare a defense. I did not go to bed until after 2 a.m., but on Wednesday, I was ready. When all was said and done, we beat-off the attack on this Department and the Department of Mexico continues to be alive. That is the good news; the bad news is that this may not be a permanent victory. This and two other foreign departments were chartered in 1921. The first attack against foreign departments came a year later in 1922. Since that time, there have been other attacks. Only once has an attack been successful, but we have to respect that old principle of survival that says that defense must be eternal and that it only takes one defeat to cancel all the good results of previous efforts to defend ourselves. So that you will have an idea of the defense I was able to put together, I am submitting an addendum to this report which will be included in the minutes. The $64 question is: what shall we do to defend ourselves? The answer may not be one lone item, but I know that the principle arguments against us were financial. (For an explanation, please see the addendum to this report.) To counter financial arguments we need to have membership, membership, and then more membership - - - and it has to be submitted early in the year not after the 100% target date. If we are on top of the membership report, then we shall be much safer than if we are down in the basement and only come out so late in the year that effectively no one is reading the weekly report any more. This is possible. When Royce was Commander all the membership target dates were met. I do not remember exactly how many weeks we were number one that year, but I seem to remember a number around 40. [Webmaster correction: Royce corrected me .. .. .. we were on top 26 weeks that year .. both early and at the end. JEH] Now is the time for each and every one of your members to go through their address books and look for eligible veterans to sign-up into the Department of Mexico. It does not matter where they live, just that they are eligible. I mean brothers, cousins, children, nephews and nieces. I mean your old neighbors and their children, cousins, nephews, and nieces. The American Legion may be the largest veterans' service organization, but it only signs-up 10% of those who are eligible. Our goal is to connect with those who make-up the other 90%, especially if they ever set foot outside the U.S. of A to visit our countries. Now is the time for your Post Executive Committees to go through the computer print-out and mine it for the names of members who have not renewed this year or last year and while you are at it, use the sheets from previous years to mine the names of others who may have been members of the Department in years past. Now is the time to check your Post membership lists and decide whose dues the Post will pay first and collect later. This is not the year to say, “All our members arrive after Thanksgiving, so we have nothing to turn-in”, but rather, you should say, “Joe and Jim and Rudy always ante-up once they get here, so lets steal a march and get their dues into National early.” Now is the time to be active in the committees and commissions of the Legion. You do not have to be a delegate to the National Convention to get other Legionnaires working on issues that you know can be of importance to active duty personnel, to veterans and the families of these American Heroes. However, being a delegate just might be a good start! It has been quite a while since we have had a convention delegation made up of all the delegates we rate and all their alternate delegates. Now is the time, right now, to draft the resolutions that you want us to present to the National Convention. Don't go home and say, “We should have delt with such and such”. Rather, start putting down the back ground “where-as” clauses, write down the basic ideas. Then talk to other delegates at this Department Convention, polish your resolution and present it to us all. Let us show the world that we are active in working for the things for which our American Legion stands. Now is the time to believe our National Commander Tom Boch when he says that there is absolutely no time to waste as we set to doing all the tasks that we need to accomplish our goals. There is no place in The American Legion where his words are more true than in this Department of Mexico. Respectfully submitted, John E Hayes, National Executive Committeeman TOP OF PAGE
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