Post 229's Operations by Committees
To better align Post 229's operations to methods employed by both the Alabama American Legion Department and to the National American Legion Headquarters, Post 229 in 2025 is exploring implementation of committees to further develop internal activities, budgets and participation aligned to the four (4) American Legion "pillars".
Structuring within committees allows for expanded operations outside of the monthly meetings. Expectation is that empowering members to decide who, what, when and why, can more closely align individual members to their interests, decentralize some management of legion functions and expand community support. The current top down driven approach to current activities only results in engagement of roughly 10% of members. Thanks to those dedicated members, Madison County in 2024 has recognized Post 229 as the best veteran organization out of some reported 50+ veteran organizations.
To reduce if needed any burden on the consistent membership and importantly to encourage more engagement and ownership of legion's broad range of activities, the following concept summarizes an expanding concept. This requires the following actions:
1. Obtain general consensus to proceed with committees
2. Identify voluntary Committee Leaders, who will serve as Post 229 officers, and an initial roster of volunteers to develop the committees
3. Standardize reporting requirements initially across the committees: /files/Post_229_Committee_draft_reporting_form.docx
4. Committees develop activities and a proposed budget to implement their objectives.
5. Summarize progress/updates quarterly to the Executive Committee to de-conflict the annual calendar, provide updates to the monthly meetings as appropriate and to prepare the annual budget in May for membership approval in June.
References:
A: Concept briefing:/files/Organizing_around_Committees_Print_Version.pptx
B: Post 229 web links to the National American Legion web pages tailored to the "Pillars" construct. /files/Post_229_Survey_Links_to_National.pdf
Committee Reporting Format Link: