Cleve Geer, National 1st Vice Commander, Spring 2012 American Veteran Column

I hope this article finds you and your loved ones in the best of condition.

The two new programs that the membership department put together to help increase our numbers received a great response from our members in the field.

The first program was a veteran gift membership to the post of your choice. This individual must not presently be a member in AMVETS and the selected post would obtain immediate credit for the member.

The second one was the mail in free membership application for one year. These veterans’ applications will be held in a separate department at Headquarters. After the free year is completed, the veteran will be able to renew their membership through the HQ department, and this information will be passed on to their local department and post. This could become a good feeder membership program for both the department and post levels.

Looking at the growth of some departments over the year, this program was designed to expose the veteran community to the AMVETS brand. Not intended to take dues money from the departments and posts, this was also thought of as an awareness program and simply a national effort to help the departments get new members. Our membership department goal for 2012 is 200,000 members, and with everyone’s efforts we can reach this goal.

This year, the membership department focused on promoting AMVETS and these two programs were very helpful in achieving this goal. Now that we are getting new members, we need to develop ways to make it attractive in order to keep them.

We ask that you continue to support these two programs and give them a chance to be successful.

Realizing these were new and not fully understood, many of us did not want to get involved.

However, with your efforts these programs are successful, and they’ve helped our numbers grow. I’m enjoying being your Vice Commander for Membership. Again, I would like to thank you for all you do for veterans and their families. Please continue your good work in attempting to make AMVETS the number one VSO in this country.