That's right. We have been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. In addition to this blog, we now have a Facebook Page for the Department of Indiana. You can find it by signing in to Facebook and entering American Legion, Department of Indiana in the search window. It's all still new to me -- after all, when I got into the communication business we were still setting type with hot metal. That's a true story. The first scanner I ever worked with was bigger than a Volkswagen Bus.
Our redesigned website should be up and running today. We re-worked it because we wanted to take advantage of new technology that will let our members view, complete and submit almost all the forms that we currently send and receive via the postal service. That should result in significant savings to both the department and our posts, and increase our response rate.
We are making no changes to the way in which members can renew their members for now. Technically, it is possible to accept renewal and payments on line, but constitutionally, there are some questions that have to be answered. The big question is, 'do the posts want us to accept payments/renewals on their behalf?' Sounds good on the surface, but with a little thought, some serious drawbacks emerge -- for example, how would the Department verify the renewal is from a member in good standing? Lots of work remaining. But, like Churchill said when the Battle of Britain was over: "This is not the end, nor the beginning of the end... but it is the end of the beginning."
None of these technology advances would have come about without a great deal of help from tech-savvy people on the staff and in our Legion family. Credit and Thanks are due to the SAL's Darin Battin, who is re-working the website, Amy Bender who set up the Facebook Page and is still frustrated with the old Hoosier Legionnaire's slow learning curve, and Susan Long, who has maintained the website, gathered necessary documents, and advised Darin on how we could best use an interactive website. Other members of the staff have also supported and contributed to the effort.
If you have ideas or suggestions on this or any other initiative, please comment. If you do, keep in mind the following quotation from antiquity. It is on the Facepage, but bears repeating, I believe, when we call for comments:
Come With Me Into Macedonia
“I am not, fellow citizens, one who believes that no advice may be given to leaders; nay rather I judge him to be not a sage, but haughty, who conducts everything according to his own opinion alone.
“What, therefore, is my conclusion?
“Generals should receive advice, in the first place from the experts who are both specially skilled in military matters and have learned from experience; secondly, from those who are on the scene of action, who see the terrain, the enemy, the fitness of the occasion, who are sharers in the danger, as it were, aboard the same vessel.
“Thus, if there is anyone who is confident that he can advise me as to the best advantage of the state in this campaign which I am about to conduct, let him not refuse his services to the state, but come with me into Macedonia. I will furnish him with his sea-passage, with a horse, a tent, and even travel-funds.
“If anyone is reluctant to do this and prefers the leisure of the city to the hardships of campaigning, let him not steer the ship from on shore. The city provides enough subjects for conversation; let him confine his garrulity to these; and let him be aware that I shall be satisfied with the advice originating in camp.”
Consul Lucius Aemilius
168 B.C.
What say you?
The old Hoosier Legionnaire
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