My fellow Sons members,My fellow Sons members,
I cannot begin to express how honored I am to have been chosen as your Detachment Commander for 2021 – 2022. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to live up to your expectations.
My hope is that we can emerge from the devastating effects of the past 18 months, stronger and eager to move forward as a Detachment. Our last Commander had to deal with a shutdown of our state as well as many Posts and because of that many of his goals for this Detachment were put on hold. With this organization facing an unprecedented shut down I do wish to commend him for keeping the Detachment together and operational.
I can’t help but be optimistic about what this year will bring for the Detachment; with newer and younger officer being elected to the Detachment Executive Committee I anticipate the introduction of innovative ideas. With the introduction of updated technology and new perspectives addressing issues that have plagued our Detachment in past years and working in conjunction with the experience of our existing officers I foresee great things ahead.
This term my team and I are dedicated to the development of training modules that can be accessed by any member that has an interest in learning how to do their job (or another) in preparation of moving up. The more we can educate our members, the more comfortable they will be with advancing into District, Area or Detachment positions.
We are re-structuring the Leadership Committee and focusing on the youth much more than ever before, the new Chairman has new ideas on how to meet our needs for the future development of our membership. We are implementing the use of The Committee to instruct with the education and mentoring of our present and future officers as their primary goal.
Our Americanism Chairman and his Commission are off to a great start this year and you should watch your emails for notice of new events and articles. We have filled our Committee and Commissions with new blood where possible, keeping our seasoned members where needed. Keeping in mind that it’s their knowledge that will keep us steady and grounded as we pursue new ideas in the advancement of our organization.
We are currently working on updating our web site with current information and documents, as well as making our existing Detachment documents fillable PDF’s with the help of our Technology Committee. We will be capitalizing on the fact that during the Pandemic the use of virtual platforms has improved and is now commonplace for most of us. By taking advantage of something that was derived from a bad situation, which forced us to change how we communicate and do business, we can turn it into something positive.
As many of you know the Women’s Auxiliary has developed a very successful juniors program as well as several other Detachments. Many of us believe it is high time we get on board and pursue developing a program of our own. The future of our organization dictates that we take bold steps in order to do more than just survive. With that in mind I will be assigning a liaison that will work directly with the Women’s Auxiliary and other Detachments to assist in the development of our own successful juniors program.
For God and Country in Support of the American Legion Family
Sincerely,
James Eubanks,
Detachment of California Commander
2021-2022