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The Commander's Column
My, my how the time does fly. The first three months of my year have just flown by. I've been to many Posts and visited many of the hospitals and clinics around this great state of ours. I would like to take this time to thank all of the past Department Commanders and all of the District Officers and Legion members that showed up to visit with my wife and I as we made the tours. It was great to see everyone around the state. I learned a lot with all my visitations and also gave out a big chunk of money. The Legion is responsible for some new equipment and some new vans and buses at some of our facilities. We have to keep working for the Gifts For Yanks Program, and also keep sending in the monies to Charities, Inc. These two programs let us do what we do best and that is helping our fellow veterans and their families. Just returned from the National Convention, had a great time in Minneapolis. We now have a new National Commander and he is Fang Wong from New York. He is one heck of a nice man and I look forward to serving with him for this upcoming year. Fang will be at our Mid-Winter Conference on January 20-22, 2012, in Columbus. He looks forward to meeting everyone. I don't know how but he knows who I am already. I guess it must be my shy personality, you all know how shy I am. I sure hope many of you are planning on attending the Mid-Winter Conference, it should be a great time and I look forward to seeing everyone that weekend. We will have some great hospitality rooms again this year. We did win two awards this year at the convention. Both awards came out of the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation, they were the Garland D. Murphy Jr. Award and the U.S. "Udie" Grant Legacy Award. Both awards were made possible because of combined donations from the Legion, Auxiliary, Eight & Forty, and SAL. Thank you all for making the Department of Ohio look so very good again this past year. I know this Legion news will not be out until after my Homecoming, but I would like to take this time to thank each and every one of you for being there and sharing a wonderful evening with me and my family. I'm sure we will all have a great time and plenty of stories to tell later on. Once again thank you everyone for allowing me to serve as your commander this year. Seems like every year that we have the same battle as the year before, and I think you all know what I'm talking about. Our membership in the American Legion will not grow by itself. We have to go out and work to get new members. All the tools in the world won't help turn around the membership if we don't go out and try to use them. We need many new and younger members to start joining the Legion. We have many fantastic programs in this organization to help our younger veterans. We just have to go out and teach them how to use them. It seems as if we may have to start training some of the older members as to what some of the newer programs are. The best way to recruit is by that personal contact, not letters, not phone calls, but go and sit down with the whole family. Someone in that family might want to be a Legion member, or Auxiliary member or maybe an SAL member. If one person in that family wants to join, you will sign up new members. Just think about it! Then let's get out there and go to work. Remember active posts are growing posts. Also for the posts out there that don't have an SAL Squadron, you should really start thinking about starting one as they can be a huge help to any post that needs some younger people to help out. You also might want to think about starting up a new Legion Riders Chapter at your post, they can also be a big help to the post. Post activities are a must for the younger members. Keep the younger children in mind when you start planning some new activities. You need the family participation in all programs. To the Post, County, and District officers, don't forget the lap dates for the membership turn-ins. There is money and the Brown Jugs out there to win. Remember keep membership number one on your minds for the rest of the year. We just completed the Department Horseshoe Tournament at my home Post this year. The members did a great job in hosting and I also pitched in the tournament. It seems as if everyone had a great time. The food was good and the beer was cold. I'm happy to say my partner Ed Kliem and I finished second in Division B in the doubles and I finished tied for third place in Division A in the singles. I'm sorry to say none of the District Commanders from around the state came out to challenge me. I would like to thank Mike Young, the First District Commander, for his donation to Operation C.O.P.D. Mike won the first 50/50 raffle and donated the proceeds to my project. Department 2nd Vice Jeff Kauffman and his wife Nancy stopped by and Brenda McGowan and her husband John also stopped by to visit. We look forward to the tournament again for next year. I hope everyone is working on the Commander's project for the year. Just a reminder that the project is called Operation C.O.P.D. This disease is the number three killer in the country. I have teamed up with the American Lung Association to raise funds for research. COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The Disease affects your breathing and your lungs. Please donate to your Posts for the clouds and the new commanders pin. All proceeds go to the project. It's that time a year again that we have to start thinking of the holidays again. It won't be long and Thanksgiving will be here and then it won't be long before we get into the Christmas and New Years seasons. I hope you will all take a little extra time this year and say your prayers for all of our troops that are so far away from home during the holiday seasons and for their families who are waiting for their safe return. On behalf of Neva and myself we would like to wish each and everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and God Bless all of you and your families. I would like to close this article with a poem someone gave me, it was found in the pocket of a Marine after battle. It goes like this. Look, God I have never spoken to you, Bob Klostermeier, Department of Ohio
Commander |
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Second Vice Commander's Column POW-MIA Committee announces pin contest |