National Commander tells posts to use Internet
By Andy Steinke, Dells Events
American Legion National Commander Clarence Hill, who visited Lake Delton Friday through Sunday to attend the Legion’s Wisconsin Midwinter Conference at Wilderness Resort, spoke with the Events in an exclusive interview Friday about the importance of technology in reaching veterans and streamlining their paperwork.
“My goal is to get all Legions to embrace the Internet and social networks,” Hill said.
Hill tweets and posts content regularly to his Web site and Facebook profile about what he’s been up to, including a travelog that shows where he’s been, and thinks Legions on the local level can use the same sites to promote what they have going on.
Tools like a Web site or Facebook account can not only promote events like open houses, but can also offer contact information to Legion recruits.
“It’s a good way to reach younger vets,” Hill said. “They may come to an event, and then maybe they see they can work this into their schedule.”
The idea is that those Web sites and social networking sites will pass information along from friend to friend.
Hill said he has about 1,750 friends on Facebook, but wishes more of them were non-Legion members.
He said there is a lack of knowledge about what veterans organizations — including the American Legion, which is the largest with 2.5 million members — do.
Technology, Hill believes, could also be better used throughout the entire life of a serviceman. The digitalization of Veterans Affairs benefit claims could help unclog the current claims backlog, and computers could be used to keep one record — instead of several — for each soldier from the time they enlist to their interaction with the VA to their death.
On the state level, Wisconsin has the third highest membership total nationwide and 85 percent of its veterans are Legion members, Hill said.
When veterans need to get away from it all because of an injury or other ailment, Wisconsin is also home to Camp American Legion in Lake Tomahawk.
For information about the American Legion on the national and state level, visit www.legion.org or www.wilegion.org.