Candidate for Department Commander: Jeffery Freeman

Jeffery Freeman, Candidate for Department Commander

Return to our Roots

Joined Legion in 2013 via mail in application transferred into Post 263.

Post 263 Asst Chaplain 2015-2017 (Conducted several Honor guard services approx. 60 per year.)

Post 263 1st Vice Commander 2016/17 (Worked membership and reported to District meetings)

Post 249 Kitchen Manager 2017-2019

District 11 1st Vice Commander 2019/20 (Worked with Commander Leonardi conducting department revitalizations bring the department the last 100% year on record.)

District 11 Commander 2020/22 (Only district in department with all post at 100% meeting every National membership goal and every Post submitting their forms by June 1st deadline both years.)

Helmets for Heroes Sub-Committee chair 2021/23: (Worked with committee and increased H4H income from 40k to 120k in two years paying for 1/5th of the VSO budget.)

Area 3 Vice Commander 2022/23: (Visited every Post in Area and helped train on MyLegion bringing the Area to 1st place in the department and having three of the top five districts in the department membership.)

Area 3 Legislative Chair 2020/22

Mental Health/Suicide Intervention Committee 2021/present: (Helped in the creation of the Committee with Past Commander James.)

Department Membership Director 2023/24: (Finished year at over 95% membership and had the most Post and District receiving 100% than any of the last five years.)

National Security Council 2023/24

Bio:

USAF Security Police law Enforcement and Ranger trained who served in a rapid response team in the Air Force. I am a third generation Law Enforcement Officer married for 43 years with one son. I owned and operated my own roofing company making 1.3 million in sales annually for twenty years. After selling the company I then opened a custom wood furniture company making furniture by hand all while being the CFO of my wife’s information technology corporation till, she sold it in 2016. I am also an artist in wood and metal venues. I have the corporate knowledge and understanding to properly help the department achieve greatness.

Vision for the Department:

To find ways through corporate America and the State of California to fund the department using grants. I have proven this concept in the eleventh district where every Post both legion and VFW received grants to renovate every Post in San Joaquin County. Six million dollars were distributed between every post who owned their own building. Post 190 receiving $890,000, Post 172 receiving $800,000, and Post 249 receiving 1.2 million all from grants from the county board. I will retain the Ad Hoc Committee whose only job will be to find and apply for grants to fund all the departments preventing any further increases to our dues in the future.

I wish to update our website the commission and committee pages are up to fourteen years out of date with many links in them not working. Our commissions and committees need to meet quarterly submitting reports to be placed on the website for all to see. The Mental Health committee needs to roll out their Peer Support education to become state certified Perr Support Specialist something I did last July. I will work through grants to fund this endeavor.

I wish to start departmental Job Fairs collaborating with Corporate America and corporate HR to give training on Interviewing and how to create the perfect resume. With these events we can employ our transitioning Veterans and at the same time show off or programs like the Riders, SAL, Auxiliary, Gaming, Baseball, Ext. This in turn will also allow the department to draft new members from the participants.

 Membership, I know most of you hate hearing about membership. However, the department has been gushing blood for the last five years on membership. This year we are on track losing approx. 4,000 members from last year’s final total. In 2022/23 year, we lost almost 10,000 members. These are members who did not renew. Fifteen years ago, we had 120,000 members in the department and today we have 60,000 members. We must find ways to stop this loss, and I have proven over the last seven years that I know how to get members and with my guidance and a new director I feel we can achieve a 100% year again. VFW today has more members than the department, and I find this to be totally unacceptable.

Jeffery Freeman
Post 190, Eleventh district third area

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