FROM THE DESK OF
James “Woody” Hogan, Department Adjutant
American Legion family,
I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas from your Department’s Headquarters Staff. We pray that our American Legion family has a safe and prosperous Holiday Season. Let’s make 2024 a banner year for our Department and work together for the betterment of our Posts and Districts.
We just concluded another successful two weekends hosting PA American Legion College East and West. It was fairly well attended and an abundance of information was provided by our experienced instructors. We added a Constitution and Bylaws half day course this year and it was received in good favor overwhelmingly. We will be expanding it next year to a full day course that I recommend all leadership at Post level attend.
I have discovered in my relatively short time as your Department Adjutant that there are a lot of Posts that not only don’t understand the Post Bylaws, they defiantly do not follow them. We need to fix that, as it places your Posts non-profit status in jeopardy. Please know that all 680 Posts in this Department have the exact same set of Post Bylaws that were mandated at the 2004 Department Convention to apply to every Post in the Department of Pennsylvania. These Bylaws were mailed to every Post Adjutant last year by regular mail and are always available 24/7 on the Department website, under the documents and forms tab. This tab also has every form and award application that this Department has available. Please go to the website and check it out and bookmark it so you can find it again.
Please be aware that at the National Convention in Charlotte, NC, it was voted and approved to increase the National Dues per capita $5.00 effective for the 2025 membership year. It becomes effective on July 1st, 2024 when the dues notices go out for the 2025 membership year. Also, the Department Convention held in Harrisburg had a similar resolution passed, raising the Department dues per capita $2.00 for the 2025 membership year effective as on the same date as our National dues increase. So what that means to every Legionnaire is that your dues for 2025 will be raised by $7.00 per capita. Unfortunately, with today’s economy in the United States it had to be done. And if you think about this increase, it’s less than the cost of 2 gallons of fuel for your vehicle. So, I don’t know of any Post that has the ability to absorb this dues increase without raising their dues at Post level at least the $7.00 already approved. I would recommend at your next Post meeting a discussion is started with the membership to see what a realistic number is to raise your Post dues to cover the $7.00 and to also cover the costs of running the programs of your Post. This discussion should actually include a re-examination of what your Post actually does to support the Four Pillars of The American Legion. Several Posts in this Department are nothing more than a canteen that does nothing to support their veteran members or their community. If your “Image” is bad in your community, you will lose members and you will not have new members interested in joining…and you will fail just like the 22 Posts that have turned in their Charter since I have been manning the Adjutant’s Desk. It’s a shame and it has to stop. Please help me save these Posts.
Finally, in the last mailing to the Post there was a flyer included for the annual PA American Legion Housing for Homeless Veterans Corporation fundraising dinner. This dinner will be held on January 13, 2024 at the Double Tree Hilton on University Blvd. In Moon Township, Pa. Please consider placing an ad in the book and making a donation to this worthy cause. The Corporation maintains several homes across this Commonwealth providing a hand up for our veteran brothers and sisters that are facing homelessness. Please give from your heart.
