By Linda Dvorak
This past month I had an email from a concerned member wondering why we don’t emphasize our programs more and often talk membership. This is a very good question and one that deserves an answer.
First of all, as we all know, The American Legion has a very strong voice in Congress. The reason we have such a strong voice is because of the number of members we have. Who do you think Congress will listen to, a group with 100 members, a group with 75,000 members or a group with 2 million members? This is why our membership is important.
Equally important are our programs. We have so many valuable programs — Boys State, Oratorical, Scouting, Baseball, Junior Shooting Sports (just to name a few). We need to emphasize our programs to attract new members and renew the members already in our posts, and bring back the ones that have expired.
I did a little research and our numbers are dwindling at an alarming rate. As of Feb. 10, 2023, the number of members in the state of Minnesota has gone down by 17,622 members since the same date in 2015.
In 2019, the Legion Act was signed into law. The number of eligible members has grown, but our numbers are not reflecting this. Are you getting out there and talking to these individuals?
The answer to the concerned member, in order for our organization to survive, we need members, but to get members we need to talk about our programs, so get out there and recruit!
Linda Dvorak of New Prague Post 45 is the membership director for the Department of Minnesota.
