Membership: Making Great Strides to Grow the VFW Auxiliary

Joyce Bilyeu
2015-2016 Membership
National Ambassador

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were filled with lots of family, friends, faith and most of all, love. Congratulations to all of you for working so hard to reach the 90% membership goal by December 31.  A huge “Thank You” goes out to all the Department Treasurers for processing the membership transmittals. We could not reach our goals without your hard work and commitment to get the job done. Every Department in the country is working the membership program and making great strides to grow our organization. 

Annual Members:  The time has now come for us to work even harder on our retention efforts. We have to focus our attention on retention of our annual members and getting those dues paid. If a member’s current dues are not paid by June 30 of the membership year, they are terminated by National as a member and must rejoin by reapplying for membership. 

If dues were not paid by December 31, 2015, there is a grace period until June 30, 2016 to become a member in good standing again and be able to hold an office and attend meetings.

Retention:  Work with members because we DO NOT want to lose any current members. We need to retain the members we have as we continue on our journey to reach 100% in membership. It is very important to have regular communication with your members since many lapsed members have reported never receiving a dues notice from their Department or Auxiliary.

Third Quarter Milestone:  We are now working on our third quarterly milestone of being 95% by March 31, 2016 in order to receive $500. Many departments are very close to earning that extra $500 for their Departments.  Congratulations to the Departments who have already reached and/or exceeded the milestone:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Rhode Island
• Virginia

80% in Membership by September 30, 2015:  Award = $250
90% in Membership by December 31, 2015:   Award = $300
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

Making Positive Strides with Male Members:  In the last four months, you have all recruited more than 9,300 males into our organization! Everyone is doing an incredible job in recruiting and welcoming males into your Auxiliaries. Therefore, I would like to ask that for each male member you have signed up and/or will be signing up that you give them the “Just-One” card. I know for sure that if you ask them to sign up “Just One” member they will do that for our veterans. However, if you do not ask you will be missing out on a great recruiting opportunity. 

Membership Week:  Now is the time to start preparing for National Membership Week in April. Please share your ideas on social media, in your local newspaper, on radio stations and with your communities. In addition, work closely with your National Certified Recruiter Trainer to help your Auxiliary reach its goal. They offer wonderful ideas and suggestions for recruiting and retaining members. Make sure to go to the National VFW Auxiliary website and print out all the UPDATED membership materials and resources that you might need to help in your recruiting and retention efforts. 

Over the past five months Departments have been working very hard towards making history and leaving an amazing legacy for generations to come. Every day we have been moving closer to breaking two decades of declining membership. The work that members are doing is setting the direction for the future of existence of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary. 

If we continue to stay focused on our goals and most of all our veterans and their families we WILL succeed. I have no doubt that if we keep supporting one another, utilize our resources, stay focused, keep moving forward, don’t slow down, and stay united on this journey we can become a half million strong. There are no more excuses. This year is the year that we set a precedent for next year and years to come for “Our Veterans – Now and Forever.”

This is YOUR time.

Past and future generations are depending on you.

 

No Excuse...Just Recruit!