American Legion - Message

 A MESSAGE FROM THE NEW YORK DEPARTMENT ADJUTANT

James W. Casey

 

 

“Pro Deo et Patria”
 The American Legion
Department of New York

Legionnaires, Sons of the American Legion and Legion Riders,

 

Good afternoon,

 

I just wanted to brief you on a few things going on at the Department level. The planning for the Mini-Mid-Winter is moving along nicely.  Due to Covid restrictions it will not be anything like previous conferences.  We are limited to 50 participants. There will be no Delegates Dinner or Reception, Hospitality rooms or social gatherings of any type.
Our Executive committee will meet minus the 10 non-voting District Vice Commanders.  The Finance Committee will meet minus the Audit and Investment Committees. The Mountain Camp will meet with only the Directors present and the Boys State Directors will meet minus the District Directors. These exclusions are needed to conform to meeting room requirements and insure the safety of all our members.  The Major committee chairman will report to the Executive Committee one at a time at the conclusion of the business portion of the Executive Committee meeting.  We are planning on having  ZOOM coverage of the Committee Chairman’s reports so that individual members will be able to ask questions from the safety of their Posts Or County gatherings.  More on how that will be set up shortly. 

Invitation only housing forms will be sent out in a few weeks and you are requested to return them ASAP so we can adjust our numbers as needed.  Badges will be provided upon registration and you will only be permitted to attend meetings that are listed on your badge.  No guests at all.  There is to be no congregating in hallways, lobby’s or courtyards those violating this policy may be asked to leave the hotel. 

Now…having said all of that there is still a possibility that the Covid situation may worsen in the State or Albany County and we will not be able to meet at all if so we will have individual ZOOM Committee meetings with the aforementioned committees and Chairman.  Please be safe and responsible out there.  We will get thru this. 

Membership, Membership, Membership. Transmittals are coming into the office and we are processing them as fast as possible. Please be sure to use our new mailers to send in your paperwork, the post office will not deliver the old mailers even if you change the address with a pen or label. We have a new postage account since we changed addresses and the old mailers either get sent back , trashed or held onto for months at a time.  We just had an incident where we received a transmittal 2-1/2  months after it was mailed. ( my ears are still ringing ) The best and after an initial setup the easiest way to process membership is with the National program called MyLegion. You go online open the program enter your members paid hit a button and  the money to National is automatically deducted from the account you want it to come from and you are DONE. No more mailing cards to Department or sending checks and waiting for them to be cashed. Many Posts have signed up and I haven’t gotten any complaints as of yet, please give it a shot. If you need some help or have questions contact  Department Membership Chairman Gene Ormandy at acgeno61@yahoo.com

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Veterans Day, I know that many celebrations have been cancelled or altered this year and I am extremely disappointed that the New York City parade is not happening.  I marched in that parade as a youngster in my Catholic grammar school band and it was always a fun time.  In recent years the American Legion DNY has had an ever growing amount of marchers attending and we always have a great time in some Manhattan Pubs after.  

 

 

I did say brief but one more thing you can be proud of what the Department is doing for Indigent Veterans when they pass away in NYS.  In the past when Indigent Veterans passed away they were buried in paupers graves in paupers cemeteries. I think I speak for all of you in saying this is not acceptable and cannot continue.  Queens County American Legion has been insuring their  Indigent Veterans received a proper wake and burial in the National Cemetery on Long Island and others across the State are doing the same thing.  We have agreed to associate ourselves with New York State  who has allocated $250,000.00 to offset the cost of these services.  Currently our efforts have been concentrated in the downstate area as the have been doing it for awhile but we are on the verge of branching out to all of the County Service Offices to try to get them engaged. Again have a happy and safe Veterans Day.