Post Talk

North Branch American Legion Post 85 - Post Talk

North Branch Post #85
By Ron Rollins, Adjutant

May 2022

  • Membership Meeting: May 10th @ 7:00PM
  • Auxiliary Meeting:  May 10th @ 7:00PM
  • SAL Meeting: May 17th @ 6:00PM
  • Legion Riders Meeting:  May 5th @ 7:00PM
  • Coffee Talk with the CVSO: May 17th @ 9:AM

Rick Hals, Post Commander

Greetings to all.

  • Midsummer is fast approaching and Carene  has received confirmations at the present time, m=Midsummer attendance will include 2 high school bands, Shriners bag pipers, Brian Baru bag pipers, Shriners motorcycle group, and their clowns will be back. Carene is waiting on several  more confirmations- stay tuned.
  • As you are aware we are all getting older so it takes more people and because of this it takes longer, so if you can please help in any way possible please do so.
  • Memorial Day is fast approaching so we be talking about it at the next meeting.
  • Bill Gordon, the 10th District Commander will be at our next meeting to talk about the 10th District activities that are going on at the present time. I hope to see a large group on May 10th.

Michelle Still, Auxiliary President

  • May is the Month of Caregivers. We want to recognize the family caregivers of our veterans who support the health and wellness of others. Caregivers provide and assist with the daily care of a family member with impairments or disorders. This can be full time and life changing for the family. The VA Family Caregiver Assistance Program is available to support caregivers and offer help. If you know a caregiver, reach out and offer to help in some way. Maybe help with time out for coffee or provide a meal. Reach out to a caregiver this month.
  • May 27th is National Poppy Day. Honor our veterans and support our military by proudly wearing a poppy.

Mark Johnson, 1st Vice Commander

Fellow Legionnaire,

On Saturday April 30th, our Post hosted several department trainers for a training session.  The training was attended by members of nearby Posts along with Ron Rollins, Michelle Still, Camille Wentz and myself.  We were briefed on the importance of social media in reaching out to members and potential new members.

The instructor went over the numerous social media platforms available and the impact they have on getting the word out.

Next up was a briefing on Parliamentary Procedure, Protocol and Roberts Rules of Order.  It was straight forward but it’s always good to make sure we are conducting our meetings in the appropriate manner.

We finished up by going over the various reports which we are required to document and report on the Legion’s activities throughout the year.  I personally didn’t realize how many there were and how time consuming they can be to fill out.

After the training was concluded, Ron and I receive some one-on-one training on MyLegion.org.  It’s the new online platform we can use to file reports, manage membership and track vital information on the Post’s members to assure they get the credit within the Legion that they deserve.  Thanks to Ron for setting up this training and providing a very delicious lunch!

Mark Johnson, Membership Director

Camille Wentz, Legion Riders Director

  • Jessica Thelander, VFW Auxiliary member attended the meeting to discuss the Kiddie Parade and tasks associated with the event. The Riders have begun working on the event by forming a budget, creating a form to solicit donations, and collecting items for prizes.  My kids are excited to create a float and have been talking to all their friends about it. I plan to get a flyer made for my kids to pass out at school, and to hang up around town. We will also promote the event on Facebook. The Riders also hope to ride in the North Branch parade on Sunday, during Midsummer days.
  • The 10th Annual Christmas in July Ride will take place on Saturday, July 9th! The riders have begun working to promote the ride on Facebook and are in the beginning stages of ride planning. Thank you to our Road Captain & Sergeant at Arms, Andy Specht for being our primary route planner. The event will be a scaled back version of years past, to start with.
  • We have been working hard to get everyone’s patches ordered and sewed on. Our Treasurer, Lisa Edwards even sewed during our last meeting, and I have been meeting with folks at my home to get patches on vests. I am excited to start seeing more North Branch Legion Rider representation out there!
  • Our group is partnering with the Forest Lake Legion Riders on several things this summer. We will be helping them staff their lemonade stand throughout the 4th of July celebration and riding in their parade on the 4th. The two groups plan to do dinner rides together every Wednesday evening between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The Forest Lake Riders have offered to help with the Christmas in July ride as well. I am excited and grateful for this partnership.
  • A By-laws and Constitution Subcommittee was formed and will be meeting for the first time immediately before the regular May 5th meeting.
  • Find us on our NEW Facebook page!  Thanks to our Historian, Austin Doll for creating and managing the American Legion Riders North Branch page and the Christmas in July Ride event on Facebook! We have 54 people interested in the ride already!
  • We welcome our new Legion Rider, Jen Kiernan (Auxiliary) who joined the North Branch Chapter #85!  Welcome to the 10th District Legion Family!!
  • I would like to recognize Adjutant, Ron Rollins and Assistant Director Dan Nybeck for their continued support in the weekly, and sometimes daily happenings of the Legion Riders. They have been working behind the scenes to support me over the last several months and I am forever grateful!
  • Last but definitely not least, special thanks to the American Legion for their generous donation to the Riders!

Camille Wentz, Chapter Director

Randy Koivisto, Past Commander

  • Veteran’s memorial update. The design committee has agreed on a design and it is being submitted to the contractor in Ohio for cost estimates and an illustrated presentation.
  • The scholarship committee met and has chosen 5 seniors to receive our annual scholarships to be presented by commander Hals on May 11th at 6:30 in the high school auditorium.
  • We are looking for someone with good welding skills to help us out with a small project. We need to have a frame welded so we can construct a cart to hold the long tables in the hall. It has been too difficult for the staff to move the tables from where they are currently being stored. Please contact myself or commander Hals if you are able to take on this welding job.
  • In addition to the Sunrise and Taylors Falls cemeteries,  I will be adding 3 Civil War era headstones at 2 different cemeteries in Wyoming this year to add to the annual cleaning project. The Sunrise Cemetery project started in 2017 and those headstones are back to a respectable appearance. The Taylors Falls project started in 2020, and they should be back up to speed by next year. I’ve received permission from all four cemetery governing bodies to work on those grave sites.
  • While making a visit to Winona recently, I stopped by to visit the grave of the only known revolutionary soldier to be buried in Minnesota. The unique gravesite is hard to miss. It’s a small scale presentation of Fort Ticonderoga, in which the veteran was believed to have served in that battle.
  • Sad to say, but we were unable to send any North Branch boys to the Boys State program this year. We will try again next year to get young men interested in that outstanding program.
  • I have agreed to offer up my name to be the Sgt. At Arms for the coming year. I’ve only taken this on because no one else has shown the skill or desire to take the position (mostly desire). I will gladly step aside if another member is interested. It’s a job that is best served in the long term, so a younger member would be ideal.

Respectfully,
Randy

Ron Rollins, Adjutant

Great news! Two more officer positions will be filled in July!! The following are the nominations for 2022-2023 leadership.

It’s not too late if you want to be apart of it. Join us at the May meeting to offer your services So far, it looks like a white ballot may be in order, but it doesn’t have to be that way. As of now the nominations are:

Election Nominations:

  • Commander: Rick Hals
  • 1st Vice Cmdr: Mark Johnson
  • 2nd Vice Cmdr: Duane Bengtson
  • Chaplain: OPEN
  • Sgt. At Arms: Randy Koivisto
  • Historian: Bruce Christianson
  • Judge Advocate: OPEN
  • Service Officer: OPEN

Appointed Positions:

  • Adjutant: Ron Rollins
  • Finance Officer: Bob Stirling
  • Gaming Mgr: Glenn Pierce
  • Asst. Gaming Mgr: Mike Johnson
  • Club Mgr: Carene Johnson

Upcoming Events:

  • May 5th- Cinco de Mayo
  • May 8th- Mother’s Day
  • May 15th- Law Enforcement Memorial Day
  • May 30th- Memorial Day
  • June 3-4- 10 District Convention at Milaca Post 178
  • June 11th- 2022 Believet Motorcycle Run at Lino Lakes Post 566
  • June 16-19th- Midsummer Weekend
  • June 24-26th- SAL Detachment Convention at Legionville
  • July 14th-16th- 2022 Department Convention in Willmar, MN

Today, I am going to finish the 2-part series on the Preamble, what it means. This is stated at the opening of every American Legion meeting. I am breaking it down in two months to save some space here.

“The American Legion Preamble”, What does it mean?

“For God and Country, we associate ourselves together for the following purposes:
To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America;
to maintain law and order;
to foster and perpetuate a 100-percent Americanism;
to preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in all wars;
to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation;
to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses;
to make right the master of might; to promote peace and good will on earth;
to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy;
to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.”

  • TO INCULCATE A SENSE OF INDIVIDUAL OBLIGATION TO THE COMMUNITY, STATE AND NATION…Always interested in building a better nation, the founders of The American Legion believed that such building must start first with the individual in his own community. So they made it one of the cardinal principles of The American legion to inculcate that sense of personal obligation to the community, state and nation into the individual citizen. That means educating the citizen-young, old and future-in his and her responsibility to be active in making the hometown a better place in which to live, in discharging the duty of voting in elections, in paying taxes promptly, in contributing to community chest funds and to blood banks. The word “inculcate” means “to impress by frequent admonitions” and “to enforce by frequent repetitions.” Like the duties themselves, the reminders that they remain to be carried forward, are never finished.
  • TO COMBAT THE AUTOCRACY OF CLASSES AND MASSES…This clause places the Legionnaire on the side of right in opposing autocracy by either class or mass when this threatens. In a democracy such as ours, composed as it is of all nationalities, races, creeds and economic groups, there are bound to both classes and masses. Indeed, the masses are composed of classes-but all groups within the mass must feel assured that in this nation, reason and fairness will prevail in all human activities and relations. There must be no hyphenated Americans-just Americans all.
  • TO MAKE RIGHT THE MASTER OF MIGHT…All wars from the veterans of which The American Legion draws its membership were started by dictators who wanted their might to be the right. If human freedom is not to perish from the earth, right must always be master of might. The rights of small nations must be protected against the tyranny that powerful neighbors may seek to impose on them just as the rights of minorities in our society must be protected and respected. Our belief in enthroning right over might is the main essence of our ideological conflict with Communism today. Legionnaires are pledged by this clause always to stand with the right, protect the weak and preserve the liberties of the individual. This concept is the basis of The American Legion’s continued advocacy of a strong national preparedness so as to achieve the ideal situation that right will be backed by adequate might.
  • TO PROMOTE PEACE AND GOOD WILL ON EARTH…Until all the world becomes a good neighborhood, Legionnaires must continue the effort to promote peace and good will on earth. It is in pursuance of this founding ideal that The American Legion has supported from the beginning and seek to strengthen the United Nations organization. Obliquely, The American Legion also contributes to this ideal by firmly supporting a strong national defense to discourage breaking of the peace by aggressor.
  • TO SAFEGUARD AND TRANSMIT TO POSTERITY THE PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY…On this ideal of safeguarding and transmitting to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy, all of the youth-training programs of The American Legion are built. All Americans can be proud that in our international relations we have tried to live by the golden rule, the mark of justice. We have granted to others, as we prize it ourselves, the great boon of freedom. Through the Monroe Doctrine, we call a halt to foreign imperialism in the Western Hemisphere. We gave freedom to the Philippines. These principles are part of the American heritage. Legionnaires are pledged to protect and preserve that heritage.
  • TO CONSECRATE AND SANCTIFY OUR COMRADESHIP BY OUR DEVOTION TO MUTUAL HELPFULNESS…The last or 10th clause of our Preamble is the most important ideal expressed in our Preamble. It marked a new concept in America-a concept that made The American Legion the greatest force for social betterment in all the history of the United States. Let us be factual and examine this. At the close of World War I, America was just emerging from its lusty era of rugged individualism. It was an era when the individual hammered out his own destiny and progress with little or no help from the government. An honest facing of the facts brings out that American society was then a cold society insofar as any organized public hands of helpfulness were concerned. The individual who fell upon evil times was left to private charity which meant mostly the churches and the Salvation Army. There were no public resources or services to help the unfortunates. When the veterans of World War I came marching home, they found the nation utterly unprepared to care for the combat casualties of the war. The wounded, the shell-shocked and the sick were lodged in poor houses, jails, asylums or what-have-you. Veterans of World War I were much more closely knit than those of World War II. They trained in the same camps, fought on the one great front. Those who came home unscarred were appalled by the plight of their less fortunate comrades. They felt a concern for them and their dependents which was a new and dramatic action aspect to what the country had known as friendship. This concern formed the bond among the charter members of The American Legion and gave them a great and noble cause to fight for-the adequate care and protection of their disabled comrades and dependents, the war widows and orphans. They faced a monumental task. Laws had to be drafted and enacted by the Congress to provide compensation for the war-handicapped, to build hospitals and to get protection for the widows and orphans upon whom the war had laid its heaviest and cruelest hand. The American Legion wrote such laws, had them introduced in the Congress, went out over the land to arouse the conscience of the people of America and mobilize support for its legislative aims. It did both with a sacrificial fervor that overcame all obstacles. The Congress enacted the laws, it provided the administrative machinery, it appropriated the funds, it built hospitals. Then to bring about a single responsibility for the carrying out of all veteran laws and to achieve a unification of these government services, The American Legion put through Congress the legislation to create the Veterans Bureau which has become the Veterans Administration of today. Over the years, a great network of government hospitals was built and a great structure of veteran legislation enacted which made the American veterans the best cared for on earth. The rehabilitation program of The American Legion for the World War I veteran brought about in its successful development a great awakening of social responsibility in America. When the New Deal Program was being developed, the government planners took a look at what The American Legion, through its vast rehabilitation program, had done for the veteran of World War I and they decided to do the same thing for all American people. So out of the rehabilitation brain child of The American Legion, there came the Social Security System with its retirement benefits and old age assistance programs for all the people. The planners took a look at The American Legion program of temporary emergency aid to needy children of veterans and there was born-with the support of Legionnaires-the state and federal program of aid to dependent children all children. This is how we can hail The American Legion today as an unparalleled force in these United States for social betterment. American Legion concepts and its ideal of devotion to mutual helpfulness warmed up the whole social climate of America. Today, America is extending its helpful hands all over the world through our assistance programs of foreign aid. It all came about because the veterans of World War I came home enriched with wonderful ties of friendship and gave those ties a meaning by consecrating them to the ideal of mutual helpfulness. The American Legion Preamble has been the beacon light of The American Legion for more than 100 years. It has been amended only twice in all that time. The last amendment consisted of removing reference to the “The Great” and adding the “All”. It makes the Preamble read today “all Wars,” so as to embrace all wars.

Announcement from the 10th District:

April 15, 2022

DISTRICT CONVENTION CALL TO ALL POSTS OF THE 10TH DISTRICT

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and By-Laws of The American Legion, Department of Minnesota- I, William Gordon, District Commander, do hereby call a Convention of the 10th District to convene in Milaca, Minnesota Saturday, June 4, 2022.

The business sessions of the Convention will be held at Milaca Post 178 commencing at 9:00 AM Saturday, June 4th, and will continue until adjournment.

The purpose of this Convention is to elect a District Commander, District Vice Commanders, District

Historian, District Finance Officer, Delegates and Alternates to the National American Legion Convention and to conduct such other business of the 10th District that may properly come before the Convention.

The voting strength of each Post in the 10th District will be as provided in the 10th District Constitution and By-Laws Article IV, Section 7.

Certification of Delegates is to be sent to the 10th District Adjutant, Paul Orson, 26 East Road, Circle Pines MN 55014 © 612-325-2899 at least two (2) weeks prior to the Convention. (As required by Article IV, Section 8 of the 10th District Constitution and By-Laws).  This is in addition to delegate registration sent to Milaca Post 178.

All members of The American Legion are invited to the Convention.

Your active participation at this Convention, representing your Post, helps keep our District strong.

William Gordon
10th District Commander

Enclosure: Convention Delegate Form
CC: File

North Branch American Legion Post 85

101st TENTH DISTRICT CONVENTION JUNE 3-4, 2022

MILACA, MINNESOTA

All Tenth District American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary, Sons of the American Legion (SAL) and American Legion Rider (ALR) members are cordially invited to the 101st Tenth

District Convention, JUNE 3-4, 2022.  The Milaca American Legion Post 178, Auxiliary, SAL Squadron and Legion Riders are hosting the convention.  The Post home is located at 160 2nd St SE, Milaca, MN 56353.  Telephone (320) 982-0038.

The enclosed packet of information includes Convention Pre-Registration, Convention Banquet Reservations, and information on area housing.  Each item is self-explanatory with a mailing address and a point of contact for any questions you may have.

Legion and S.A.L sessions are scheduled to be held Saturday at the Post Home.  Auxiliary sessions are scheduled to be held at Zion Lutheran Church, 245 Central Ave S, Milaca.

Legion Riders Convention is Saturday May 14, 11:00-1:00 PM at Anoka Post 102.  You still must register and pay, this gets you registered for both days.

The Convention Banquet will be held on Friday, June 3, 2022, at the Milaca Post Home, menu for the meal is Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Vegs, coleslaw, Rolls, Coffee, Dessert, cost will be, ($18.00) Social hour begins at 6:00 PM with dinner at 7:00 PM. There will be a short program conducted by District Commander Bill Gordon, District President Linda Deschene, SAL Commander Chance Harmon, and ALR Director Matt Berens, immediately following dinner. Reservations must be prepaid by May 20, 2022. NO TICKETS ARE SOLD AT THE DOOR.

Registration will be at the Post home on Friday June 3rd from 4:00-7:00 PM and then on Saturday June 4th, at the respective Legion and Auxiliary meeting locations from 7:00 AM to Noon. Prepaid registration is $15.00 per person; $18.00 registration day of convention.

Joint Memorial Service will be held on Saturday morning, June 4, 2022, at the Post starting at 8:00 AM.

Breakfast off menu will be available Saturday at the Legion bar, starting at 7-AM. There will also be rolls, coffee and juice available. Lunch will be at the Post for $8, from 11:30 to 12:45, Salads, Sandwiches, Pickles, Chips, Coffee.

On behalf of the Milaca Legion Family working together to make this Convention a huge success, we welcome you to YOUR Tenth District Convention.

Lew Ratajczak – General Chairman

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about the MyLegion.org training, as Mark Johnson did a great job describing the training already.

I want to mention that it was great to see members of other Posts in Chisago County in attendance.

I want to thank Terrel Isaman, of Harris Post #139, Donald Waller, Stacy Post #312. It was great to see these posts represented.  I am happy to see them there doing what they can to make sure they continue to serve veterans and their community.

My goal was to invite other Posts from Chisago County and possibly find ways to collaborate our efforts in some areas of our service to our communities.

And with that being said, I do not want to ignore the great input of Sean Gustafson and Brandy Fulton, new incoming officers of Lino Lakes Post #566. We received information on new legislative agendas and ride for Believet program on Jun11th from the Lino Lakes post.

Overall, it was a good training and I hope that we can continue and do more trainings. Thank you for all who attended. And a special thank you to the Post #85 Legion Family for attending and supporting our home post.

Remember, YOU Are the Legion