Attendees: NC Sheldon Ohren, PNC Warren Dolny, PNC Monte Mayer, PNC Ed Goldwasser, PNC Norman Rosenshein, Maxwell Colon, Hannah Deutch, Joe Kraut, Elliot Donn, Jerry Farris, Debbie Stern, Richard Rosenzweig, Alan Cornblatt, Don Feldman, Joseph Seller, Mrs. Bailor, Henry Frank, Peter Gilbert
Staff: NED Herb Rosenbleeth; DOO Larry Richardson; Nikki Salzman, Greg Byrne
Subject:Energizing Membership Through Involvement and Planning
- Membership is the future of our organization – RAM: Recruit a Member!
- Carry a membership form with you at all times
- When we carry an application with us, we’re all a membership committee of one
- It doesn’t hurt to ask Jews if they’re vets, or vets if they’re Jews. Ask, ask, ask
- Be active in your Jewish, veterans, and local communities
- If you have a relative or a family friend that’s a Jewish vet or in-service, make sure that they’re signed up – we need to use our personal connections to get people enrolled in our organization
- Stay positive about getting people to join our organization
- When we talk about veterans, we have to talk about the men and the women
- The more we talk about both, the more we’ll see women step up and become members
- Young people are not going to come to you, you need to go to them
- Keep in mind – in-service people move around, they may ultimately end up in someone else’s Post. BUT, once National has their information, they’re going to be able to keep in touch with them and keep them in our organization
- Dual membership
- People are moving to places like FL, and are not willing to join the local Posts as dual members
- They don’t want to lose their Post membership where they came from, and they aren’t willing to pay dues in more than one Post
- By making it easier to attain dual membership, we might see an increase in activity from the people who are currently inactive because they’re no longer near their home Post
- We need to concentrate on getting more Patrons
- Leadership
- We need our leadership to lead by example
- Many of our members are not interested in taking on leadership positions
- They need to be shown what leadership entails
- This will lead to less fear in volunteering for these positions in the future
- We need to start concentrating more on our current vets
- We need to be there when these men and women are returning home – we need to welcome them back and be there in the hospitals for those who are wounded
- We need to work with the USO and the hospitals
- Programming
- Don’t do the same old, same old or you’ll lose the attention of your members
- They need activities that they can participate in or they’ll feel like they aren’t doing anything
- Host a Military Recognition Day
- Participate in Stand Downs
- Have a table at local events
- Partner with other local VSOs
- Publicity
- Get your activities into the newspaper so your local vets know that you’re a big deal
- Take photos!
