4th District Commander’s June 2025 report

There’s a lot of talk about the 4th and 5th District merging. People mainly want this to happen because they can’t find people that want to take leadership positions in posts and district positions.

This is an epidemic that is touching many American Legion posts and their districts. Nowadays, it seems like we can’t find people as easily as we did from the 1970s to the 1990s. Even though technology and communication are at our fingertips, life has become a hectic and battle scars are deeper than we ever thought they would be.

When I talk to people about joining The American Legion, they always ask, “Well what’s in it for me?”

We reply with, “Well, you get to help other veterans, be a part of an amazing organization and be a part of the community.”

While that’s great and all, people are looking for what they can get out of joining an organization, especially if they are paying dues there.

“Why should I be a part of this?”

We need to start asking people what they expect to get/receive when they become Legionnaires, and then give it to them. Maybe then we can figure out how to get people to join and stay. Mergers won’t help us if we don’t figure out how to receive and retain members.

The Legion Cruisers meetings have been going well. We’ve consistently had at least four members at the meetings. We decided to change the meeting date from the second Sunday of the month to the second Saturday of the month. As most people go to church and aren’t able to attend the meetings.

On June 14, anyone that’s interested in the Legion Cruisers can meet us at the Arcade Phalen American Legion at 10 a.m. with your cool car and hopefully have a little car show. After that, we’re going to leave Post 577 at 11 a.m. and cruise up to the disabled vets camp for the flag retirement.

If anyone would like to be a supporter (don’t have a cool car but want to support us) we will gladly accept you. If you don’t want to meet us at the post, you can meet us at the flag retirement ceremony with your cool car!

I would love it if people within my district would reach out to me and let me know the different happenings and good things that are going on so I can put it in this newsletter.