The 2020-2021 membership year has started and the department is starting strong. In the first 10 days, we are over 7,500 members compared to last year’s stats. The Department adjutant and I believe this is happening due to more individuals paying directly to National with the use of online payment.
The Department had recently sent an email to all California members (around 50,000), and encouraged this option.
The dramatic increase is also a direct result of almost 80% of our posts paying the members-per-capita payment directly to National online. Thank you to everyone for promoting this best practice!
Remember, part of the focus of the Department and the membership team is to engage our members in an effort to retain them. The Department of California ended the 2019-2020 membership year with the highest renewal rate of all large departments at 87.6%.
Retaining our current members must be our first priority. One of the easiest ways to do this is to include a thank you letter when you mail membership cards to individuals who paid to your post.
Below is a sample of the letter I am using at my post this year with information I found on the American Legion National website.
This is a simple way to engage your members, while at the same time inform them of something they may not know. Again, thank you for a great start to the new membership year. The membership team and I look forward to working with you throughout the rest of the year.
Sergeant Aaron Lopez-Stoner, assigned to the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), conducts his last walk at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, January 15, 2017. (Staff Sergeant Terrance D. Rhodes/US Army)
Dear Legionnaire:
Thank you for renewing your American Legion membership. For one hundred years, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has served as the nation’s most cherished shrine to the country’s fallen military soldiers. Following a tradition established by the British and French, an American unknown from the Great War was interred on the plaza of the Memorial Amphitheater on Armistice Day 1921.
The hastily built, simple marble sarcophagus served as the nation’s primary monument to the Unknown until the addition of the more elaborate and current die stone in 1932. In 1958, Unknowns from World War II and the Korean War were buried in separate crypts in front of the main monument.
A Vietnam Unknown was designated and buried in 1984 but his body would be later disinterred and identified through the use of new DNA technology as 1st Lt. Michael Blassie (USAF). The book by Philip Bigler entitled, “The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: A Century of Honor, 1921-2021,” tells in detail this amazing story.
Enclosed is your 2021 membership card appropriately adorned with a picture of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Please join us on ______________ of every month at our general membership
meeting at the legion hall. Socializing begins at _____ , with the meeting starting at _____ . All are welcome to come and share in the camaraderie.
Again, thank you for your membership renewal for 2021. I look forward to seeing you at the next general membership meeting.
For God and Country,
Paula Bibby
