Department Membership Director
Welcome to a new year for membership. My participation as the Membership Director is very
important to me and to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Membership is the life blood of this great
organization.
You’ve heard of the “Three Musketeers”, we now have the “Three Bob’s” on the Membership
Team, Bob “Joe” Mulligan, Bob Funk Jr. and me.
It is important for all of us to follow our “Founding Fathers” vision in
1899 to “assist worthy comrades, to perpetuate the memory and
history of the dead and to assist their widows and orphans; to maintain
true allegiance to the government of the United States and its laws; and
to foster true patriotism”, and continue recruiting new members to fill
this role.
We must make every effort to recruit and retain members of this great organization. We are
Veterans serving Veterans; and we are to welcome these Veterans to our Posts and mentor them,
getting them involved in our Posts. We need to ensure that all Veterans are respected for their
service and to receive their earned entitlements, and recognize them for their service to this great
country.
There are many young Veterans returning from the current wars; they just need to be asked and
informed what the Veterans of Foreign Wars is all about. We’re there to help them. We need to
welcome them to our post, and explain to them all the programs that not only benefit them, but
our Community and Youth as well.
One of the main things to remember is, in order to have a strong membership, it is “RETENTION
– RETENTION – RETENTION! We all need to mentor our new members, and get them involved
in some way to make them feel important of being a member at our Posts.
My thought is that if we all work as a team to achieve our goal, we can be champions. “We’re
Buckeye’s”. Lets go for the “Big Ten” and “National Championships.” If we all work as a team,
we’ll accomplish that. Lets get Department of Ohio to the top. District Commanders work with
your Posts. Remember, you have Incentives!
Note: Life Membership Amnesty. All life members who are reported deceased between July 1,
2015 and August 31, 2015 will be removed from the Post rolls and the Post’s prior year
membership count will be adjusted accordingly.
Yours in comradeship
Bob Kroeger, Membership Director