Post’s CPR Value, a Best Practice

CPR VALUE


Post’s CPR Value, a Best Practice

“The CPR may be the most beneficial document the post will complete. The post’s information, combined with that of other posts, is used when the National Commander and others testify on Capitol Hill on behalf of all veterans.”

“Each post has a story to tell and when we speak collectively our strength is magnified.”, from CPR form. 

 

The Consolidated Post Report (CPR) was developed by The American Legion in 1975 to chronicle and record all the good work of our local Legion posts. The data collected in the post Consolidated Post Report is so important it is the foundation of the data included in the annual report The American Legion is required to submit to Congress. Your post CPR has considerable value. Helping post Legionnaires understand why the CPR is valuable, is an important best practice.
The best way to report data for the CPR is using the form in mylegion.org. If you are unfamiliar with what is recorded in the CPR, take a look at the 2019 – 2020 Consolidated Report PDF to see what is required.
/In most local posts the post adjutant, commander and a few other post leaders gather and record the data required in the CPR and then submit the report on time, demonstrating good post leadership. That is a fairly accurate statement for ~70% of our California posts. The other ~30% of our posts do not submit their CPR. The goal for this year is to have 100% of our posts submit their CPR report on time.

 

For many posts, as soon as the CPR is submitted it disappears from the post’s conscience until it needs to be submitted next year.

 

We can change that by educating our post Legionnaires about the value of the CPR, what data is required in the report and how they can help their post complete the CPR by collecting and reporting their activity data all year long. The posts with the best CPR reports work hard to collect data all year long. It just makes sense to be collecting the CPR data all during the year in order to have an accurate report at the end of the year. This will improve the accuracy of the data reported and improve the understanding by Legionnaires of the value the CPR has for a post.

 

In many ways the Consolidated Post Report is much like a school report card. It reports post activity and financial support of a post activities by collecting and reporting 128 data points for eight areas of service in The American Legion, that a post could participate in. The eight areas are:
      •  Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation
      • National Security
      • Public Relations
      • Ceremonial Honors for Veterans
      • Veterans Employment and Education
      • Americanism
      • Children & Youth (C&Y)
      • Internal Affairs & Membership

The CPR reports many important areas of activity and shows what level of participation the post has had in the year being reported. 

How can we keep the CPR in the conscience of our Legionnaires and give the CPR data more value? Consider these ideas:

 

Talk about the Consolidated Post Report with post Legionnaires!
      • Discuss it with post Legionnaires
      • During a post meeting hand out a printed page from the CPR showing the questions in the report 
      • Give a short explanation on this mandatory report
Then ask your Legionnaires to help gather and report the information needed. For some questions, they can be very helpful in providing important answers post leaders may not know about.

 

Examples:
      • volunteer hours recorded at VA hospitals
      • VA Voluntary Service volunteers
      • pints of blood donated
      • times post mentioned on radio
      • times post mentioned on TV
      • times post mentioned on cable access TV
      • times post mentioned in newspaper (stories)
      • times post mentioned in newspaper (letters to editor)
      • Community Service: Estimated no. of hours of service
Once the CPR is completed and it has been submitted, give your post’s Consolidated Post Report (CPR) value for your post:
      • Share your pride in the good things your post has done
      • Share the final post CPR data with your post
      • Highlight the CPR data that shows your post’s success
      • Use the CPR to identify activity areas that your post would like to do more of in the coming year.
The Consolidated Post Report has value nationally, value for the department and most importantly value for your post. Helping your post understand the value of your post’s Consolidated Post report is a very good best practice.