Do you believe Veteran's Organizations are beneficial to Veterans only, Veterans and Current Service Members, or no one at all?

Well as you can tell by my hat I belong to at least on VSO Organization. I am a member of the VFW, DAV and the American Legion.

All assist veterans, their families and active military. As for what you get out of being a member, well like anything in life you get out of it what you put into it.

Fact is the true "power" of a VSO is in it's membership numbers. The more members the larger the voice.

Remember active duty members can NOT advocate for themselves at all, therefore we become the voice that has their back until they transition to veteran status.

All VSO's had helped every veteran and their family in need. There are some that are highly qualified in what they do best. Membership, VA Claims, Representation as the veterans Power of Attorney and so on. I have worked with most of the Big Guns. DAV, VFW, PVA, AMVETS, American Legion, Blind Veterans, Purple Heart, NACVSO, Fleet Reserve Ass., State of California and Hawaii. Ex-POW's and the County of San Diego. Look at what the VSO's bring to the table for the veterans and their families. That's your answer you will be seeking.

S/F,

JK

Hello "Brothers and Sisters in Arms",

I apologize now this will likely be a long post.

VSOs in general have a uphill battle against the current culture of our nation. VSOs were largely founded on an all but gone community culture that many veterans of previous conflict/wars shared. This is the reason most VSOs need to make changes to accommodate younger veterans, the old ways need to change with the culture.

Before I joined my local VFW almost 2 years ago, I did some research on the current status of VSOs and how they were fairing in the current national culture. What I found very quickly is that most if not all VSOs were shrinking in overall membership and many post were closing due to low membership and low activity.

I’ll give you a brief background about me to show you my prospective. I served 18 years US Army – Medical Discharged for lower back injury in the line of duty, 30% disability rating from VA, BA in Business Admin. – Marketing, MA in Business and Organizational Security Management.
I moved from Southern California to North Idaho in April of 2013. During that long drive I made a decision to be part of the community I live in rather than just live in the community. I decided months later to join the VFW in my community. So I looked up the nearest post and found via the website when there post meeting were. So I show up and as soon as I walk in the door, everyone in the room turns and looks at me. One of the members asked “Are you a member?” I replied “not yet”. I quickly got a reply “you cannot come in; this is a members only meeting”. I turned and left the room, a membered followed me out and gave me quick explanation why I was not allowed to attend and that he did not have time to see to making me a member right now. There were only about 10 members in the room and only one of them was below the age of 50. I came back on another day and paid my dues and became a “card carrying member”. From there I attend most of the VFW functions and quickly became a “pain in the arse” to many of the older members, with my new ideas and spitfire attitude.
Looking back I understand that many posts will come off with the good ol’ boy attitude, but sticking with it will often times overcome that built in culture. I also found that when I gave an idea that I needed to back it up with action and reap the respect from its success. Over the last 19 months, I have been given enough rope to hang myself and instead used that rope to make a bridge between the post and our community. Here are some of the new things our post has done in the last 18 months and the out comes from those events:
Hosted a Game convention in alliance with our local Game store
60 people attended and the event made the front page of the paper.

The post made over $18,000 dollars in donations and donated over $18,000 to veterans in our community. There were no 30% costs or administration fees put on this money. Every dime we were donated went back to the veterans in our community.
We supported Women Warrior Retreat and recruited several female veterans.
We planned and will hold our first Veteran Family Retreat this weekend, in hopes of making it an annual event.
From these events and activities I have learned that activity breeds activity. The older the average age of a post is the more difficult it will be to stay activity in the community. So recruiting members is and will always be the life blood of VSOs. If you are not getting new “younger” members, your post is effectively dying a slow death. As you all know many posts have a bar that at one point in time with the “best watering hole in town”. That watering hole is now all dried up! The younger veterans that would be considered the market for VSOs are in the stage of their life that they have kids and jobs, alcohol though legal is not the preferred method of building loyalty with a veteran family. In my opinion the posts that perpetuation the stereo typical of veterans wasting their days away drinking and smoking at the “Watering hole” is doing more damage to VSOs than anything else. VSOs must be active in their community or they will waste away.
Some of the ways a post can be active in its community are: providing a Veteran Family Retreat, putting on a month Family movie night, have a weekly coffee and donut (free) where all veterans are welcome. This is just a few ways to move in the right direction, I’m sure there are many more. I would enjoy hearing about them.
Since joining the VFW, I have been placed/voted into several positions: Post Jr Vice, Post Sr Vice, District QM and District Chief Recruiter, I also attended the state conventions, I decided to focus on my community rather than focus on trying to move up the chairs in district. As many of you know VSOs are a bureaucracy and that means “Red Tape” and paper work. After holding the positions, I understand the need for the paper work. My goal is to change my community’s view of the VFW and provide for the veterans in my community. VSOs are a community based organization and that being said they add value to their community or they will go away.

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post and if you are in need of direction when it comes to a VSO please feel free to contact me.

I am a life member of the VFW. I also don't wish to "bash" any particular organization. When I first retired I attended dutifully and went there on Saturdays for breakfast. I was involved. But there seemed to be the same "clanish" mentality that was prevalent in the army and nothing was going to change that (at least-not before I left, maybe it has changed).
I still consider myself as part of the "younger" crowd (I first enlisted in 1981). It seemed instead of trying to "make things happen" they were more interested in their pet projects and yes, get "$$$$" much like the NRA. I am still a life member of the VFW and believe in taking care of our soldiers, sailors, marines and air men, but getting involved with the same grinds as were prevalent in the service, is not the way.
I agree, we must become involved, but the "leadership" of this institutions needs to listen to some of the new ideas that are brought to them as well. "Business as usual" will not work if this institutions plan to recruit our younger brothers and sisters.

I think we need to participate in the process of supporting or opposing legislation, advocating for our population, and helping other veterans. If we don't do our part to take care of our own, why should we expect others to do so? I'm a member of MOAA, the VFW and the American Legion. They are helpful and effective in representing us in the halls of Congress. We need that.

AS a whole they are beneficial veterans, current troops AND the civilian communities. However, the current state of the local organizations in towns, cities, suburbs is all but good. 80-90% can't even field a full roster of members. As a former Legion Commander, Officer for AMVETS, member of the Marine Corps Association and Marine Corps League, when they function like they should they are an asset.

Reviving an almost dead post of 79 memberts with only 7 active members is a 24/7 job. You spend more then half of the time fighting the old members who don't want change or want to lose control. Most snubbed the Vietnam vet in the 60's-70's and 80's which led to bad blood in recruiting for the next 20 years. Recruiting is the lifeblood. VN vets still won't join and the current vets don't want to join a post with 8-9 70-80 year olds who do nothing. Every veteran from 1990 Golf War until today are eligible to join one of the organizations, yet the vast majority of the VFW, Legion, AMVETS can't get anyone to join and over 75% have closed their doors or function with 8-9 members , over 70 years old, who do nothing but maintain the name. So when they function like many of the remaining ones do, active recruiting, help returning vets, contribute to the community they serve a purpose.

I used to belong to both the American Legion and VFW.
My impression of both (as well as many civilian clubs and Civil Air Patrol) are that they are primarily organized as a general "coffee clatch" for extraverts to congregate and relieve boredom or just pass time with.

Contraindicated for those of us that are introverts. If they DID something other than beat their chests proclaiming how good they are or selling hamburgers, or just shooting the defecants and drinking beer (and soliciting $$$$$$$), maybe they might be worth something.

They might be of some benefit to active duty people trying to maintain a hold of hometown culture --- and again for extraverts to justify living; but otherwise -- they do NOTHING for me -- so I separated from them

$0.02

Veterans organizations if ran right at local level, can be beneficial to the community also!

Although I have never used the services. I did like being a member of the American Legion.
They do real good things for soldiers, veterans, and the community.

The benefits were about the same as with having AAA membership, and are not able to be used as an additional discount.

I was the Commander of the very first VFW Post in the country - John S. Stewart Post 1 - in Denver CO. Served for 5 years and I only got involved because the Post ran into some financial issues. I can say with great pride that we not only turned the Post around, we have expanded. We are not your typical VFW Post with a bunch of cranky old guys, wearing funny hats, drinking cheap been in a dark, smoke filled bar. We are extremely active and we don't even have a bar.

I'm a huge believer that we should not segregate Veterans away from society, we should serve as a bridge between the community and Veterans. There are over 2,500 bars in Denver and we can go drink at a different one every night and get a heck of a discount (and I like do drink myself). We are located in the heart of the art district, all the artwork on the first floor of our Post is done by Veterans, have a huge number of women Veterans and student Veterans and offer Yoga 1x per week, art therapy programs a couple of times a month and screen Veteran made movies 1x per month. We are very active and very engaged. http://www.vfwpost1.org

VFWs and other legacy organizations are important - the whole reason there is a Post 9-11 GI Bill and previous versions is because of organizations like this. They help with expediting claims and they do a lot of good. Are there problem Posts and Members? Of course there are. The core of the organization is important though. If you want to change these problem Posts, get involved. I too have heard the not being wanted comments. Heck, the older timers used to refer to me and others as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It's changed now. We have lots of Nam Vets and OEF/OIF vets as members. That change only comes with getting involved though.