September 10, 2008
Hello Navy Leaguers! As your council starts the fall season, think about events that bring everyone together – picnics, networking sessions, youth, Sailor, Marine or Coast Guardsman recognition events. Getting folks together to present your upcoming schedule is an important first step to improve attendance! If you have questions or comments about the information below, please contact the Member Service Center at service@navyleague.org or 800.356.5760. Thanks! Bill Waylett
Featured Sections:
I. National Convention at Kansas City in October
II. National Sea Cadet Month in September
III. Legislative Affairs
IV. Public Relations
V. Membership
VI. Announcements
I. National Convention at Kansas City in October
The Navy League’s 106th National Convention will be held October 28-31 at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Information on the Convention can be found at our convention website http://www.navyleaguenationalconvention.org/. National President J. Michael McGrath strongly encourages all Navy Leaguers to attend this meeting - especially Council Presidents and other council leaders. We will be conducting many Council Workshops that are intended to assist council leaders in council operations.
Register now at http://www.navyleaguenationalconvention.org/2008/registration.html for the Convention and the hotel.
NOTE 1: The deadline for early registration discounts is October 1st and the deadline for receiving the special hotel convention rate is September 26th. Timely action now will save you some money!
NOTE 2: The airlines have reduced schedules for the fall, so we encourage everyone who plans to attend to book their airline reservations ASAP.
II. National Sea Cadet Month in September
National President Mike McGrath has declared September 2008 as Naval Sea Cadet Month. The Sea Cadet letter and proclamation are available on our website under council resources. The Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC) was authorized by the US Congress in September, 1962.
Councils sponsoring a Sea Cadet unit should plan some activities in September to celebrate their birthday and to increase their visibility in your community!
Councils not currently sponsoring a Sea Cadet unit are encouraged to join sponsorship program by contacting the NLUS Vice President for Youth Programs, Jim Erlinger, or NSCC Headquarters, seacadets@navyleague.org. For information detailing what “sponsorship” entails, please refer to the Navy League Youth Program Guide and Sea Cadet Corps Support Guide, available online under council resources - council guides.
III. Legislative Affairs
by Randy Hollstein, VP, Legislative Affairs
By now, most of you have read Mike McGrath’s excellent President’s Message in the September issue of Seapower. This Message, entitled “A National Security Failure,” touches on key issues on the decline of the Navy’s fleet that are covered in Grass Roots Presentations One and Two. This article makes a good case why every Navy Leaguer needs to be involved in the Grass Roots Legislative Affairs program at some level. If you have an interest, please either discuss with either your Council President or your Region Vice President for Legislative Affairs as to how you can get involved.
Mike’s September President’s Message will also provide complementary support to the overall Grass Roots program. To date, we have reached around 140 Members of Congress with the key messages included in the September Message. However, with the help of John Fleet, Director-Legislative Affairs, Mike will send a copy of this Message to every Member of Congress to make sure they are aware of these issues. Although not as effective as an IN PERSON visit like we have in Grass Roots, sending in a copy of the Message provides a good interim s step until we reach our goal of visiting with 60% of the Members of Congress with Grass Roots Presentations One and Two.
Grass Roots Presentations One and Two training will be scheduled again in September. If you need this training, please notify your Region Vice President of Legislative Affairs to be scheduled for this training.
IV. Public Relations
PR Grass Roots Initiative: Op-Ed – “National Security Failure”
In concert with this month’s President’s Message in Seapower, “A National Security Failure,” addressing the shrinking size of the Navy’s fleet and its effect on our national security, and the Legislative Grass Roots Program’s effort, addressed in the Legislative Affairs section above, to send every Member of Congress a copy of that message, the VP for Public Affairs Pat Du Mont and Public Affairs Committee Chair Phil Dunmire are spear heading the Grass Roots PR effort to get councils to get a related Opinion-Editorial (Op-Ed) letter published in their local newspapers.
Council Presidents were sent an email from VP Du Mont containing the Op-Ed letter and the guidelines to assist your efforts in presenting them to your local media. If you have not received the documents, click here to download them. Should you have any questions regarding this PR Grass Roots initiative, please contact NVP Pat Du Mont at pfdumont@aol.com or PA Committee Chairman Phil Dunmire at dunmirepl@aol.com.
V. Membership
Council Rebates
We have finalized our work on the new rebate process that has delayed the second quarter council rebates a few weeks. Council rebate checks were mailed last Friday, September 5th. We expect third quarter rebates to be much smoother.
Retention suggestions
Increase your council’s income by increasing your retention rate!
Here’s an example – If you have 100 regular members up for renewal this year, your potential rebate is $1,250. If you retain only 65 of them, that’s $812.50 (a loss of $437.50) and a retention rate of 65%. If you were to increase your retention rate by as little as 15%, your rebate would be $1000. A high retention rate for your council is easy money (and that’s before you include your new members). Councils can really begin to increase their income when their new members aren’t supplementing their membership losses.
Tom Jaffa, the National VP of Membership and Marketing, wants to stress an important fact to everyone – Councils are by far the best first line of defense against membership loss. Councils are the most familiar with their members and can speak to them on a personal level. You know the activities that you have held (and that the renewing member may have been involved in), and you know your planned activities for the coming year. This kind of information is powerful stuff when you’re speaking to your members about renewing their memberships – and the more active your Council and members are, the easier it gets. Councils may also want to consider getting members’ sponsors involved in the renewal effort.
The Online Community (OLC) is a tool that all Council Membership and Retention officers should now be using to sort their Council’s membership by renewal dates. When you pull your Council’s roster, sort it by clicking on the expiration date column heading and your lapsed (and soon to lapse) members will be at the top of the list in date order.
If you have questions about how to use the OLC, please contact the Member Services department at 1(800) 356-5760 or service@navyleague.org.
Council Contact Information Updates
We are currently cleaning up our Council contact pages in the database, and are finding some Council information is out of date. All council Presidents are requested to send an email to service@navyleague.org and give us your:
- Council Name
- Council MailingAddress
- Council Phone number
- Council Email
- Council Website Address (if you have one)
- Council President’s Name
Thank you very much for your assistance with this very important project
VI. Announcements
1. Web Domain Scam Alert
Recently, a council received a check from Domain Registry Group, Inc. asking them to renew the registry of the council’s web site. The fees were excessive and the subsequent investigation revealed this appeal is a SCAM. Buyer beware!
2. Seapower Digital Online Version Released
The September 2008 edition of Seapower is now available online at http://www.seapower-digital.com/seapower/seapower_sample/. The August edition includes a report on the challenges encountered hosting a Ship Commissioning Ceremony.
3. September Deadlines
Registration for the Convention Hotel rate is due by September 26th.
September 10th marks the Sea Cadet’s Birthday – Navy Leaguers are encouraged to honor our Sea Cadets and their leaders this month.
Member Services support email: service@navyleague.org
Navy League website: http://www.navyleague.org