POST 149 ADJUTANT | BILL STINTSMAN

After a busy month of both family vacation and the Department of California Convention, the end of the fiscal year has come and gone, and we begin anew in July. The 2023-2024 membership year is upon us and I have the new membership cards available for those that would like to pay now and get this requirement out of the way.

Since I look at membership totals on a daily basis, the end of the year numbers are pretty depressing. The Department of California lost over 8,000 members last year, not including more than 1100 transferring to Post Everlasting, ranking the state at 45th out of 55 Departments. Post 149 has an end of year total of 618 members paid, which equates to 83.18 percent of our previous year, and 34 of our family transferred to Post Everlasting. District 22, our District, had the second largest number of members transferring to Post Everlasting throughout the state. Our Post had 31 ‘new’ members and 19 ‘transferred in.’ For those that have a long history in this Post, you will notice that our numbers used to be over 1000 members strong, so we are losing more than we are gaining. While this depreciation in membership is not uncommon across the spectrum of volunteer organizations of late, it is one indicator of the future. Your membership matters greatly, especially when battling veterans related legislation in the halls of the United States Congress.

Your membership equates to numbers. Numbers equate to constituents in the eyes of our elected officials and drives their decisions. The Pact Act being signed into law was because of you, your membership, and your voice being heard. (Just one recent example.) If you think your membership doesn’t matter, think of what your lack of membership says and does for those veterans that need you more now than ever.