President’s Monthly Message for December 2024

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FOR DECEMBER 2024

Hello members!! I can’t believe how the time has flown since my last message back in May! Where has the time gone? My apologies for not putting a message out earlier in the fall.

First and foremost, on behalf of the entire Executive Committee I would like to wish all of you the very best of the Holiday Season. I hope you all get to enjoy the festivities with family and/or friends.

Secondly, a HUGE thank you to all the members who were in a position to donate when we sent out the emergency call for help this past summer. Your generosity helped us get through the crisis, and made it possible for the Legion to stay open. We are working hard to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

I attended the Dominion Convention in Saint John, NB this past summer, where we elected the new National level Executive for the next 2 years. I learned a lot about how the Legion operates at the higher levels, and was quite impressed with the conduct of the 5 days of meetings. If you ever have a chance to attend, I highly recommend it!

As always, please send me an email (rcl632orleanspresident@gmail.com) to let me know if you have questions, or suggestions, or if there is something you want addressed in this message.

BRANCH HAPPENINGS

The fall months have been very busy with lots of changes to how we do things. These changes are necessary in order to turn our financial situation around and keep it stable. Change is never easy to navigate for anyone. Please know that anything we do is with the Branch and our Members in mind.

One of the biggest changes has to do with the Friday night dinner and dance. We now only have live bands playing once each month, and on other Fridays we have a variety of entertainment events like Karaoke, Line Dancing, DJ-style music, and other themed events. The live bands cost $400 each, and let us know that prices were going up to $450-$500 in the fall. With the precarious financial situation that developed over the last year, we just couldn’t justify keeping bands every Friday. The other events are not costing us anything to put on and are actually attracting new faces from the community! The Entertainment Chair has worked very hard with a very small team to put on some stellar Friday night entertainment. I’m very happy to report that through a combination of the very generous donations that flowed in from the members, the new way of doing Friday night entertainment, and an increase in rental bookings, we are no longer operating at a deficit. We are still very mindful of where the money is spent, and will need to be for quite some time. However, we are no longer worried about how to pay the basic bills.

Our annual Honours and Awards Ceremony will be held in early May 2025. If you have anyone who you think should be nominated for recognition, please send your nominations to Marty Keates before 1 March 2025. RCL632OrleansAwd@gmail.com. She is also available to assist you if you need help with the nominations.

The Military Service Recognition Book is in its 12th edition!!! This book is for ANY Veteran anywhere in Canada who wishes to have their service recorded. ON Comd publishes the book and uses the revenue from the advertisers to support Veteran programs in the Province. If you or a Veteran you know has not yet submitted your photo and a short bio (max 200 words), please contact Mike Adams to do this. You do NOT have to be a member of the Legion to be recognized in the book!!!

The NEXT GENERAL MEETING will be held on 21 January 2025. Please come out to this meeting if you are able to so that we can get membership approval on a few things we are planning for the coming months.

VOLUNTEER CORNER

Charitable Gaming:

Lola Bingo is doing well. Thank you to the volunteers who work one or both of the shifts every Monday. We have been able to help in the community due to their work, with donations made to the Navan community pavilion, the Eastern Ontario Resource Centre, and the St Joseph Food Bank. The Lola team lead and the Entertainment Chair are working on the package to submit to the City to allow us to use a larger percentage of the funds raised to create our Building Maintenance Fund. This will hopefully be completed early in the New Year.

Volunteers needed:

The Legion runs because of our volunteers who do the work. If we don’t have new people stepping up to help, we will struggle to operate the way the Provincial By-laws for Branches mandate. We are very aware of the demands on your time and try to make it as pleasant as possible for everyone on the team. We hope you will consider joining us!

➔ FUNDRAISING/SPECIAL EVENTS COMMITTEE This tiny-but-mighty team is up and running, but still needs more members! This is an ideal position for people who like to plan events and raise funds while having a great time! Please consider helping us improve our Legion by joining this team!! Time commitment varies depending on what event or function you choose to help with. The more people who join this team, the less work for everyone!

➔ SENIORS & VETERANS 65+ The Chair of this portfolio could really use a team! If you are interested in helping to organize visits to Retirement Homes in the Orleans area to visit Veterans, helping to organize the Over 80 Christmas Lunch, helping with events for our Veterans at the Perley, and other related activities, please let us know! Time commitment varies, with the bulk of it being in the fall months.

➔ GENERAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS There are a number of Committee Chairs who have been managing their portfolios for several years, and would like to pass the torch on to others. We need new volunteers who are willing to team up with these Chairs to learn the jobs with the goal of taking over the portfolios. Some portfolios require 1-2 hours a month while others require 4-5 hours a month.

ELECTIONS

Elections are already just around the corner! The year has flown by. The 3rd Tuesday in April is our Elections General Meeting and I hope to see a good turnout. I know that there are a few positions that will be opening up. If you want to have a say in how the Legion operates, this is your opportunity to get involved! Please note that to be on the Senior Executive (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer) you must have served on the Standing Executive Committee for at least a year (this can be in our Branch, or in another Branch if you transferred in). Watch for the Elections board to go up in the Lounge!