The Legion needs to adapt to new technologies while remaining true to its traditions, says Steven Clark, the new national executive director of The Royal Canadian Legion. Clark, the former director of Corporate Services at National Headquarters, took up the position May 16, following the retirement of Brad White. “The two areas I most want to focus on are communications and innovation,” said Clark. Social media is developing new ways in which the Legion can communicate with its members. “We have to get information about what we are doing out to the public in order to attract new members,” he said. He also wants to enhance Legion systems to make them more efficient. “You have the ability to renew your membership online. For some people, that is the way they do business. We still have...

Ken George and Stephen Tedford are busy men. As Halifax-based service officers for Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion, they are managing hundreds of veteran-related files, fielding first-time callers daily, launching appeals, and working at the vanguard of the battles the Legion was created to fight. The two help veterans get treatment, compensation, pensions and services—both government and Legion—while running the country’s second-largest provincial command service bureau, after Ontario, in its seventh largest province. The bureau handled 791 Veterans Affairs files in 2018—and more than 400 by the time the command held its biennial convention May 18-20 in Windsor, N.S., where veterans’ services were central to two days of discussions among 279 delegates. “...

Membership and money, two of the Legion’s biggest challenges, were highlights of the 65th Prince Edward Island Command Convention held May 23-25 in Cornwall, a community 10 kilometres west of Charlottetown. It was spring in P.E.I. The red earth had just been tilled and bright green seedlings were breaking through—all against a brilliant blue sky. The mood of the 52 delegates was as warm as the weather and they quickly got down to the business of convention at the Cornwall Curling Club and Civic Centre. “I am very pleased to state that P.E.I. has achieved 100 per cent of our paid membership for 2018 as compared to 2017. This is higher than every other command in Canada,” Membership Committee Chairman Duane MacEwen told delegates. “Last year, there were 2,010 paid members on the Islan...

Getting online members into the branch where they spend money and get to know their comrades was on the mind of delegates at the 49th Manitoba-Northwestern Ontario Command Convention held June 14-17 in Fort Frances, Ont. Four resolutions were put forward following the report of the Membership Committee. Two almost identical resolutions called on Dominion Command to transfer new online members from a holding branch to the nearest Legion branch as determined by their postal code. “We don’t make our money from membership dues. We make our money from members being in the branches and spending money,” said one delegate. Both brought objections from delegates who lived in Winnipeg or Thunder Bay, Ont., where there are several branches within the city. Speakers said a new member should st...

With severe flooding in Gatineau and Montreal this spring, delegates to the 58th Quebec Command Convention adopted a late resolution allowing for prompt use of poppy funds for relief of natural disasters declared by the federal or a provincial government. The resolution recognizes that rather than debating in a legislature, governments these days are more likely to declare a state of emergency for a particular area by issuing an order-in-council. The resolution was passed at a Provincial Executive Council meeting the day before the May 17-19 convention began in the Cynthia-Coull Arena beside Greenfield Park Branch on Montreal’s South Shore. The resolution adds the wording, “[The declaration] can take the form of a formal declaration in the House of the respective parliament and/or...