Sunflower Sons for God and Country – I hope everyone is having a good summer.  It is surely one of the hottest I can remember  in quite some time.  Since Fall is right around the corner and time is slipping by quickly, we all need to focus on working membership hard!  I would like for our goal to be  reached by the end of February 2011 and I know we can do it, but it will take a concentrated effort on all our parts.  We especially need to focus on maintaining all of our current members, which is not an easy job.  Our SAL team seems to be very strong at signing up new members…which we need to grow, but we all must do a better job of keeping our current members.  The key is personal  contact…via email, mail and especially one on one.  We know our story…and our great history…we  must actively communicate this important message every time we engage a member about membership.  At my squadron meetings, our team goes through the ones who have not renewed and each of the members accepts the responsibility of taking a few of the names and commits to getting in touch with them to secure their renewal.  We try to put a little competitive spirit into the effort…one guy takes one or two…the  next guy will take some …and this has really helped us reach members that were straying…maybe it could work for your Squadron too! Last year in the Detachment of Kansas…we had over 900 new members, but we lost over 800 existing members!  Imagine how we’d be doing if we signed up 900 members and KEPT those 800 too!  It is imperative we try and overcome this loss and keep those members in our ranks!   Your officers are here to assist you…but we’re counting on you to keep up the great work and work membership  24-7! As you may know, my project this year is to support the special needs of our veterans at the Leavenworth, Winfield, Topeka, Wichita, and Fort Dodge facilities.  In conjunction with American Legion Commander John Thomas and Auxiliary President Trish Ward we have been selling Tie Dye shirts to raise money.  To date we have been very successful and this is due to the support of the American Legion family for their generosity and enthusiasm for purchasing our custom shirts.  I know our veterans are very appreciative and we will be working all year on selling Tie Dye shirts to support our project and help out our Kansas veterans.  Our theme for the project is “Show Your Colors for our Kansas  Veterans!” … and we will be having shirts available throughout the year at various events!  Please feel free to contact me on email if you would like more information or an order form!  We have all sizes and every shirt is unique!  Don’t forget the annual SAL Steak Feed in McPherson is Saturday, September 18!   I’ll be there to help out – Hope to see all of you in Milwaukee at National.   Yours in Service Steve Ward Commander 2010-2011 Detachment of Kansas-Sons of the American Legion God Bless the American Legion Family and God Bless America