Chief of Staff: Respect Yourself, Your Auxiliary, Your District and Your Department

RESPECT  YOURSELF
enough to walk away from anything that
no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.
If you aren’t being treated with love and respect,
check your price tag.
Maybe you have marked yourself down.
It is you who tells people what your worth is.
Get off the clearance rack and get behind the glass
where they keep the valuables.

I read this and chose to select and share with you as members, Chairmen and Officers of the VFW Auxiliary in your Auxiliaries, Districts and Departments.

In viewing reasons for Auxiliary Suspensions and Cancellations, it is scary and worrisome to read the reasons WHY Auxiliaries:

• Are not electing a full slate of Officers.
• Do not have a quorum to hold meetings. (Let alone hold meetings outside of regular meetings that exclude members and are taken as the norm.)
• Are not completing audits. (How is this getting past Official Visits?!)
• Are saying they no longer want to work our Programs or write reports.
• Are failing to hold ten meetings per term.
• Are not showing up for meetings with the Suspension Committee for the purpose of receiving assistance and mentoring to be a healthier Auxiliary.

I could go on with many more “WHY’s.”

I am hearing from Department Presidents and Chiefs of Staff that…

• Department and Post Commanders are ordering or bullying for action of the removal of Auxiliary Presidents, or stating they have the right to sit in on each Auxiliary meeting. Who or what gives them permission to think and/or do this?
• Past Department Presidents, Line Officers and members openly show disrespect for and of their sitting Department Presidents and members through bullying, making them feel worthless and disrespected. Who gets or gives permission to do this?

Help support our existence for another hundred years by changing how we engage with our fellow members and comrades. It’s time for us to move forward, not backward.

To paraphrase the above Agape Quotes piece:

RESPECT YOURSELF, YOUR AUXILIARY, DISTRICT and DEPARTMENT
enough to walk away from anything that
no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.
If you aren’t being treated with KINDNESS and respect,
check your price tag.
Maybe you have marked yourself down.
It is you who tells people what your worth is.
Get off the clearance rack and get behind the glass
where they keep the valuables.