Membership: Welcome All New Male & Female Members to the VFW Auxiliary

Joyce Bilyeu

2015-2016 Membership
National Ambassador


WELCOME all eligible males to the VFW Auxiliary AND all new members. We are so excited to have you as a part of this wonderful organization. I know your journey with this elite organization will be an experience you will carry with you for generations to come.

By now all VFW Auxiliaries should have the new applications and are recruiting new members. You can download a single-page application from the National Organization’s website or order the brochure using the fillable Brochure Order Form. Remember a couple of things regarding eligibility:

• If a person is eligible to join the VFW, then they are NOT eligible to join the Auxiliary. If you currently have a female VFW member who is also a VFW Auxiliary member she does NOT have to quit the Auxiliary. However, as of now you cannot sign up folks for dual membership into the VFW and VFW Auxiliary. 
• If a Men’s Auxiliary member wants to join your VFW Auxiliary they must fill out an application, be investigated, voted on and accepted just as you had to. An individual who is eligible for both the Men’s Auxiliary and the VFW Auxiliary may have memberships in both; they must also pay membership dues in both since they are separate organizations.
• While signing up males into the VFW Auxiliary DO NOT forget to sign up new female eligible members. We do not want to leave any Brother or Sister behind. 

Auxiliaries, we would love to see pictures of you initiating men and women into the organization.
Please send those pictures to Megan at the National Auxiliary Headquarters at
mzinn-sanchez@vfwauxiliary.org so she can post them on social media.

Just a couple of things to take note of and share with your members:

1.  The member award forms (5 members and 20 members) that are in the National Program Book should be for NEW members only. There is NO Reinstate member. Please pass this information along to others.  The correct forms are on our national website under the “Programs” tab, and “Membership” tab. Click on my “Membership Tools” page to find the correct forms.

2.  The monetary awards for reaching our quarterly milestones are the following:
 

Sept. 30, 2015 Reach:          80% Receive:      $250	Dec. 31, 2015 Reach:          90% Receive:      $300	March 31, 2016 Reach:         95% Receive:      $500	May 31, 2016 Reach:         100%+ Receive:      $1,500	June 30, 2016 Reach: 101+% Receive Additional: $500
1St Quarter	2nd Quarter	3rd Quarter	4th Quarter	Bonus Award

3.  Work closely with your National Certified Recruiter Trainer in your Department to help assist with reaching our membership goals.  They offer wonderful  ideas and suggestions for recruiting new members and retaining existing ones.

As you can see in the graph above, we are coming upon our first quarterly milestone on September 30, 2015 to being 80% in membership. Many departments are very close to earning that extra $250 for their Departments. Congratulations to Alaska and California for exceeding that goal. They are currently working on milestone two (which is to be 90% by December 31st in order to receive an extra $300 for their Departments). I personally do not know of any Department who cannot use an extra $250. I know you can do this, especially now since our membership eligibility has expanded to males. There is No Excuse...Just Recruit!

By now you should all be planning what you will be doing for National Recruitment Week in October. Please share those ideas on social media, your local newspaper, radio stations, and with your communities overall. Please make sure to go to the National VFW Auxiliary website. All of the membership materials and resources that you might need to help in your recruiting efforts will be UPDATED with the new name and logo on Tuesday, September 8. For example: print out the “Just One” Card and make copies of it and pass them around to other members and get them to commit to recruiting “Just One” new member.  Make copies of the “door-hanger” and plan a day where you go into your neighborhoods to put them on your neighbor’s doors. Involve some young people to help; better yet, get some of your new members to help (this can help with retention).

Please don’t be the Department that is left behind. Remember it is so much more than money we are working towards. We are working towards making lives better for veterans and their families by building the biggest and best Auxiliary ever in history.

We all have 10 months to go to break a record and to show the world we care about the welfare of our veterans, their families and their children.