Membership: This is Your Time!

Membership: This is Your Time!

CALL TO ACTION:  The time has come for all of us to focus our attention on collecting continuous member dues. If these dues are not paid by June 30 of the current membership year, the member will be terminated by National and must rejoin by reapplying for membership.  Please contact these members to find out if they are having a financial hardship and if so, see if your Auxiliary can assist by paying their dues for them. We do not want to lose any member due to a financial hardship.

Third Quarter Milestone: Congratulations to the Departments who have reached and/or exceeded the third quarter milestone of being 95% in membership by March 31, 2016. These Departments will be receiving $500 for achieving this goal:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• California
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Maryland
• Nebraska
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Virginia

There is still plenty of time for each Department to reach this milestone and I am confident that you will succeed in achieving this goal.

95% in Membership by March 31, 2016     Award = $500
100+% in Membership by May 31, 2016        Award = $1,500
101+ % in Membership by June 30, 2016      $500 Bonus Award

Male Members:  For the past five months you have recruited nearly 12,000 males into our organization. Please continue recruiting males into our organization so we can have the membership strength to carry on our mission of serving and honoring veterans and their families. If each one of these new male members would recruit just one new member that number would be doubled. Please be sure to inform all NEW members on all the wonderful awards they can receive for recruiting members.

National Membership Week:  National Membership Week is April 10-16. You should have plans in place on what your Department will be doing to promote membership during this special week. Make sure to go to the National VFW Auxiliary website to print out all the UPDATED membership materials and resources that you might need to help with your recruiting and retention efforts.

Be sure to work closely with your National Certified Recruiter Trainer in your Department to help assist with reaching our goals. They offer wonderful ideas and suggestions for recruiting and retaining members.

Department Websites: Your Department website is one of your most valuable recruiting tools. Please make sure that your Department website has the most CURRENT membership information and resources. Many Departments still have information from years past and this information is not correct.

Imagine a complete stranger is viewing your website. Are they going to get a good understanding of all our current programs, or are they going to get old information that is no longer valid?

NOTE:  Information on your Department website can be viewed by anyone (not just your Department’s members). Please make sure that those viewing your website are getting correct and accurate information. One way to do this is to put a link on your website page that viewers can click on and it will go directly to the National VFW Auxiliary website. Therefore, you can be assured they are getting current and updated information.

Every Department has been doing an amazing job in membership recruitment for our organization this year! There is no doubt that if we keep supporting one another, stay focused, don’t look back, don’t slow down, and most of all, stay united, we WILL become a half million strong.

There are no more excuses. This year is the year that we change the direction of membership for this year, next year and years to come for “Our Veterans – Now and Forever.”