 Well good morning So I appreciate you all fighting the Secret Service and the traffic and everything else to get over here I know that's a little difficult, but Obviously, it's an important event But I'm going to take gratification that you chose to pay fealty to me instead of the president. So So Just real quick by way of introduction, I'm Doug Wells national membership director, you know, it's like this For the DAV I am stationed at our national headquarters in Cold Spring, Kentucky with my wife and three of my four children Dominic Hope and Garrick My 19-year-old is currently finishing up engineer school at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and When he comes home Here in about a week or so. He'll have a few weeks with us and then he goes to Okinawa for two years So he is doing well Also to my left here, I've got my wonderful chair to the interim membership committee Warren Tobin Warren say hi. Everybody knows Warren, right? and then Another member Ed Keck from the great state of Louisiana as you can tell from all his accoutrements So we have a couple other members to the committee as well Richard Farnier and Elizabeth Ellenboe that I'm sure they're just stuck in traffic or whatever trying to make their way So we'll welcome them if they are able to make it Also I'd be remiss if I didn't Introduce again Heather Kohlmeyer. She's one of my analysts at National headquarters. She's currently stationed down in cyber central Close to where registration is offering assistance on the membership system or web portal webmaster issues So please take a moment to stop by if you have questions and concerns about anything related to any of the technical platforms that the membership department employs and then last but not least my right arm Robin Higgins, Robin stand up Robin is our membership manager She's in the trenches every day with our employees ensuring that They're giving a hundred ten percent on behalf of you and DAV every day. So I appreciate Robin Again, I've got a lot of very nice stuff to try to roll out I have to do it in a in a quick manner I want to make sure that I can get as much of this out as I can today before I start to lose some you to Go get in line for the president if that's the case, but it's very exciting. So without further ado Little bit on the agenda, but I want to like I said smoke through this pretty quick next slide And and by the way feel free to email me my contact information was on the front You can get one of my cards up here If you'd like we can shoot you the presentation. I can email it to you. No sweat. Okay So just real quick I want to talk about a couple of the accomplishments that the membership department has Been able to be fortunate enough to make happen since I took the reins last time I talked to you We're doing a great job of utilizing Statistical and trend analysis to try to help us ensure we're putting our money at the right place at the right time On behalf of the organization members and to help give you the tools that you need to do What you do for us every single day, so really trying to track all the metrics to make sure we're doing the right thing We're trying to make better use of technology and I'm going to get into that here in a little bit Some cool innovative things that we're doing This is this was a big one the last time we talked new members getting their membership cards under 30 days So round of applause for that one. I'll take that one But That's for the most part that is the case we had a little bit of a hiccup We got a little bit overwhelmed with the the massive response. We got to our Mailing last winner our member prospect mailing. That's a good problem to have right so We worked through it Robin and the team were diligent and In making that happen and so, you know, we're trucking along but for the most part 30 days from the time I get the application at headquarters whether it's a paper application or through our online application We should acknowledge them as a member and they should have their membership card. Okay, typically it's about three weeks We've designed a new membership campaign of the campaign So anytime you see this V, you know, it belongs to membership. It's one of the membership department's programs So if you have questions on it, certainly give us a call So everywhere which appropriate to brand that with we will do so and then also the biggest one Hey, you've heard talked about many times as we were able to sustain a 1.3 million membership After at the end of the membership here. So after we deceased from our roles those members who we lost Unfortunately during the course of the year based on the match with Social Security administration We were about 5,000 above 1.3 million members so give yourselves a round of applause for that one Thank you so much for all of your help So a lot of time and effort went into this I'm pretty proud of this you can see the transition from military service on the left to membership on the right We've got folks signing one another up helping families You know get taken care of fulfilling our promises to those folks. So it's a really good It's a really good earmark for DAV for membership. Next slide The first thing we employed it on of course was our new membership cards I think they're pretty snappy the biggest thing that I like is that we Reincorporated old glory the red white and blue back into the cards There was a lot of consternation about that when we did the rebranding So paying homage to our our national ensign again But the other big key that I want to point out here is at the bottom We've got the number to the national membership department So if you ever need to get ahold of this or anything, you don't got a search on the internet You gotta all you got to do is plot your wallet and there we are Okay, you're not out there alone anything. We're doing we're supporting if you have problems questions. Give us a call okay, so Pretty excited about this You are going to be the very first folks to see our new membership eligibility video It's about a two-minute video. It is designed for social media purposes So to be easily played on Facebook Twitter LinkedIn things like that. Okay, of Course there's gonna be an awful lot more that goes into membership But as I traveled around the country this year going to different conferences and conventions. I Would literally have a member recruiter Drag someone up to me by their collar and say will you please tell this person? They have to be service connected by VA to be a member. No, you don't Will you please tell this person they have to serve in combat to be a member? No, you don't You know, so there's a lot of just you know dispelling those misnomers That really kind of came to the forefront of my thought process and so that's kind of the purpose behind this What we've also done with it though is we are including our vendor partners in the video So that we can get extra mileage out of it. We can go to Ford We can go to these other partners USAA and say every time somebody sees it, you know Thinks about being a member of DAV. They're thinking about you as well. So we're getting that extra mileage out of this video So I'll get communication shortly after this to put this on our on our Facebook page and other social media Share the heck out of it for me Please do that because I think it's it's very very important to really kind of clarify Who's eligible to be a member and why they should be members? It's one of the nation's leading veteran service organizations DAV successes on behalf of veterans rely solely on the strength and engagement of its members Which help ensure veterans issues are properly addressed in your local community and in Washington But who are DAV members and how can you become one? Well first any service member who is not dishonorably discharged and sustained an injury or illness during their time in the military Whether service connected by the VA or not or anyone who aggravated a previous injury during his or her time in service is Eligible for DAV membership so long as they serve during a period of armed conflict And no it doesn't have to be direct combat So what does DAV membership include? It's well known that DAV's services including professional help with VA claims and the transition and employment assistance DAV provides all veterans at no cost do not require membership in DAV However, DAV members do get savings on Ford vehicles Exclusive USA rewards credit card points and year-round discounted pricing on hotel and rental car rates Just to name a few You also get a free subscription to DAV magazine But most importantly, especially if you were helped by DAV Becoming a member gives you the opportunity to pay it forward and add your voice to help your fellow veterans And how do you become a DAV member? Just log on to dav.org slash membership and fill out an application You can submit it online or send it in the mail either way joining DAV's ranks brings individual perks and Strengthens the voices of our nation's veterans in your local community and in Washington Learn more about becoming a DAV member by visiting DAV dot org slash membership and help fulfill the promises to the men and women who served Good stuff so, you know direct to the point very succinct So of course there's an awful lot more That goes into being a member. It's hard to compress all of that into a two-minute video The member benefits that we're putting together We are revamping that entire package. So the simplicity this video allows us to you know interchange things I mean, it's not gonna happen But if Ford tomorrow was to say I we don't want to partner with you guys anymore Then we could highlight a different partner vendor, you know, that sort of thing So that that's perfect right there But the most important thing is just kind of dispelling a lot of those misnomers that You know, I've encountered as I've traveled Since I've been national membership director So you share the heck out of this for me shared on your personal Facebook pages your LinkedIn accounts Twitter accounts Let's make this go viral because I think it's important That people understand, you know, what it is what it takes to be a member of DAV and what their benefits are And we just want this to kind of wet their whistle so they go seeking out that other information, right? Okay, so I appreciate the help on that So You heard in the video it is still feasible to Submit a paper-based application and mail it into us or whatever the case may be But I really need your help in driving as much of our recruitment activity online as possible Early I mentioned looking at statistics trend analysis There is a proclivity for members member prospects to just pay off their members Their membership if we can get that credit card from them up front The folks that don't want to pay the whole 250 or whatever that amount is based on their age If we get the recurring credit card from them, they're Exponentially more likely to convert to a full-life member Okay, so the more we can do to convert folks to You know or to get memberships via the online site with a credit card the more it's going to help you as well I know sometimes a big top of conversation is well, how does Doug or the membership director come up with the formula they use to To set our goal, okay Well, I do a calculation that involves part-life members and what I will tell you is that the less The fewer part-life members that you have on your roles the smaller your goal will be Part-life memberships are anathema to your goal Okay Also, I'm convinced that when you do a membership drive and you Give 40 bucks, you know pay the first 40 bucks to somebody without getting a credit card on file That probably 95% of the time they they get my quarterly statement in the mail and they just throw it in the round file with the rest Of the junk mail, okay, so your focus, you know I'm not saying not to sign up a part-life member that is not what I'm saying But all of your energies to whatever extent possible should be directed towards Converting the part-life members that you have on your rose to full-life members and recruiting full-life members out of the gate That will help your goals in the long term strategically Okay, and then everybody's goals will be real small and I'll have to figure out some other way to make it tough for you, so Yes Sure Right. Well, it's 55% of your total part-life membership plus your total full-life members So if you've got a thousand full-life members in your chapter and a hundred part-life members I'm using round numbers because I was a Marine and I don't like math So 55% of 100 is 55 so your goal would be 1,055 full-life members. It's that simple So the lower your full your part-life member total is the lower your goals gonna be and then everybody's making goal Raleigh you look like you want to say something or you just want to rip on me being a Marine is that what it is? Yeah, I know okay. We'll move on Yeah Yeah, I we like I said we're gonna share the heck out of it I can email you the mp4 the whole night whatever you want buddy. Yep so You know if you have a smartphone or tablet Whether it's droid based or safari based for your internet Explorer Your internet browser rather You can use this you you know the old one of the first things that I was told when I first came on board with DAV was as a member recruiter always have an application on you right how many of us heard that over the years You got an electronic device now you do okay, so it is mobile friendly. You can go right to the site It's totally PCI compliant. They are not entering credit card information into your phone They are entering the credit card information into the secure website Okay, so you don't have to worry about you know Storing financial information on your phone That the better thing to do if they don't want to do it. They're not come to have them do it in their phone Okay, and then it's on on their device So but nothing is stored on the phone with respect to you know maintaining credit card numbers or anything So I'm gonna show you a great way To do this so you never have to type a wet web address and again And I want your help with what they what the kids called gorilla marketing sharing it with with all of your partners and you know Getting it out on the street So we have created a mobile device app icon And you can do this right now we can go along with it if it doesn't work, you know, it's okay Just get with me With the droid stuff there are some different versions of chrome or whatever may give you a little hiccup But if you got the most current updates on your phone This is how it should work so on the left you can see the message that you get from an Apple phone on the right is a droid phone So what you do is you go into the address bar of your web browser Not the search bar go to the address bar and type in that very simple Address no None of that just DAV dot org slash. It's the forward slash member app Okay, so w w or no w w w. So it's just DAV dot org slash member app Okay, so when you do that What'll happen is it'll take you to the online membership application What they call a light box will pop up this these directions that you see here On the screen and it offers a direction based on whichever type of platform you have So in essence all you're doing is saving it to your home screen. Okay, you're creating an icon So it's very easy. It's pretty simple with the Apple You just click the little arrow coming out of the box at the bottom You slide your little menu across until you see the plus sign that says add to home screen click that It'll pop up one more screen. You'll confirm by pressing add again It'll shut down on you and then you'll see your icon on your on your phone From that point forward all you ever have to do is press that icon and it goes right to the app So you've always got an application on you Same difference with the droid. It's just it's a little additional step When you get the light box all you're doing is those three little dots in the top right corner Those are your menu options click that your menu should drop down. You should have an option called add to home screen Click on that. It'll give you another confirmation screen Click on it again. I believe it's add as well And then the droid doesn't shut down though, but go ahead and shut it down back out to your desktop or whatever They call it on a pad or Phone and you should see your icon there at that point now as well So again, we can help walk you through that stuff if you see me around and whatever you need. Just let me know so But now you've always got a membership application on you, okay good stuff, right? Okay, so again help me Spread the word I was hopeful to have a lot more folks in here for this today I am gonna do a quick webinar. It'll just be like a five or ten minute webinar when I get back to headquarters and get that on the member The members only section So that hopefully, you know the instructions will be there and Everybody can just take take a look at it if they need help on the road. So good stuff All right, this is another Big I hope earth shattering announcement Who likes to use their membership points recruitment points to buy stuff at the store online and hear a convention? Everybody does right okay, so the current system Whether you send me a paper application or an online application if you sign up a part-life member you get one point if that Part-life member eventually converts to full-life membership you'll get one more point So that's two points total if they buy a full-life membership out of the gate you get two points right okay? So that's the current system if you starting October 1st though if you do this online You can get a total of three points instead of just two So this is incentivizing you hopefully as a recruiter to drive as many of these online as you can so online What's that? Starting October 1st if you sign them up online You can't acquire a total of three points So how it will work is when you sign them up as a part-life member you'll get one point online When they convert to a full-life membership, then you'll get two additional points for a total of three Okay, if you sign them up online as a full-life member out of the gate you get three points Make sense? So you get three points versus two points Team if you haven't figured out I'm trying to get us away from paper It's so much more efficient to do it online The the proclivity just to pay off out of the gate is much higher the conversion rate is extremely higher So, you know, I want to do everything I can to make it very simple for you to recruit them in an efficient way especially online and then You know, it's automatic we do the update and they can get their membership number right away We can get their stuff cranked out to them a lot quicker. So Yes, sir, so Robin's reminded me because we don't use it very often, but I'm sorry Heather I'm looking at Robin and talking to Heather Um So say it again one more time first name last name zip code At DAV donor org first name last name zip code at DAV donor Dot org that's the generic email that you can put in okay Also on this online application There is a space for your sponsor ID so you can get credit as a recruiter to You know just like you would with the paper application the other thing With this is if you're a chapter or department leader and you are engaged in a membership drive Where you're paying the first 20 or something incentivizing them somehow to become a member all you need to do is From the get go over recruiting them Still get the credit card have them select their payment options like you would and it'll tell them you've put 10 down Or whatever they're going to put down and It'll give them the balance as if you know you haven't contributed anything All you got to do is put a list together for me a spreadsheet Send it to headquarters with a check covering the cost of all the people that you're supporting and we will put it in on the back end Okay, we will adjust those payments so you can still incentivize recruitment You can still do your membership drives and you can still do it online Okay, I'm convinced Doing $40 paper applications is us throwing money in the trash. Let's be more effective and efficient with our funds. Okay Go ahead. So does everybody have everybody has understanding what we're doing starting October 1st, right? Okay. Yep. Okay Yeah, they're free Yeah, you can You can come online Yeah Yeah, she No, no, she can help you fit you show you and walk you through that no problem again I said this many times the other day of my other seminar. You are not out there alone Let us know wherever you hit a pain point and we can help you through it. Okay Just real quick, I don't want to spend too much time on this take this with a huge green Assault with respect to the timelines, but my staff Robin Heather some other folks back at headquarters Have been working incredibly hard on getting all of our requirements gathered for the implementation of 360 to tell the programmers how to build what we need to use. Okay, very tedious You know exacting process Very draining, you know, there's a lot of effort that goes into that you have to be very meticulous and detail oriented It's taken us a while, but we are at the end of that process pretty much Collaborating with other departments and headquarters, but I'm hopeful that our section which is going to be called my DAV Should hopefully be up and running by at least in some shape or form to replace our current legacy membership system By late 2017 You know, there's a lot of great functionality that'll be part of that And then, you know, hopefully the following year will roll out the new portals So we'll have a more robust Advertising platform. Okay, so good stuff looking forward to it. It'll all be mobile friendly You'll be able to do your officer report right from your phone, you know, great stuff Okay, but keep your fingers crossed. No no stuck no stutter steps and hopefully this will come to fruition But with a project this big we got a plan for contingencies, but that's on the horizon Okay, the freight train or the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer a freight train. Okay All right all right One of the last couple of things I wanted to talk about here So who here likes National Geographic has read National Geographic before If you've picked up a Nat Geo at any time in your life, you've seen this guy's work. His name is Dwit Jones He's a photographer 30 plus years for the magazine and as he's traveled around the world he's you know learned a lot of life lessons and through his observation of the people and the places that that he's met and seen and He's just got some tremendous insights and when I first was exposed to him I decided that I could not share his message and he's got a whole series of things We're using it back at headquarters with respect to Trying to make sure that You know our staff is on the right page and attitudes are correct and The theme of what we're trying to do is there so I wanted to share a little bit of this with you Just to make sure that as recruiters out in the field This is kind of thematically what I want all of you to espouse on behalf of DAV and in our recruitment efforts So go ahead And then Just straight to the point and honestly a little scary Well that morning I was completely unprepared for resetting. He stopped me coldly. He changed the way I did everything from that day forward He looked at me from what was best when he said You know Dwit, the people who photograph for this magazine are the best in the world. You don't have to prove yourself I mean honestly it's all I've been thinking about since I got to this time then You don't have to prove yourself if you did But by God every day you had better improve yourself Don't prove yourself improve yourself I was still talking he said you know I want you to spend your time every day trying to be better than you were yesterday If you learn something That we will all get better faster Don't prove yourself improve yourself otherwise you're fired The first lesson I have a voice I don't know how many times I've thought about it. How many times I've acted not since that day in God's office Don't prove yourself and prove yourself And you know living that lesson, I come to see that life really is a lot more about cooperation than it is about competition It wasn't proving myself or taking others down without me succeeding It was simply consciously and continuously improving myself Finding my skills, only my wisdom, focusing my vision ultimately The only person I wish to practice as fast as I can Don't prove improve Good stuff, right? So yeah, he's an impressive guy. He's not a veteran But not all wisdom comes from our ranks, you know, it's important to tap into that wisdom wherever we can Next slide, please So I encourage competition You know who number one recruiter most improved recruiter things like that I love when departments give out awards recognizing those folks that have made tremendous efforts on recruitment But what I would hope is that those folks that are very successful in recruiting That they share their knowledge that they help one another And to be good recruiters as well, you know, it's it's not a state secret Don't don't hoard that information and that knowledge to share with one another talk to one another network Hey, you know pick up the phone if you see somebody that in your department got the award pick them up call Hey, what's the secret to your success? You know invite that folk invite that person to conduct a membership seminar and to put it get there to give a few words about You know what how they're successful with their recruiting efforts So, you know everybody here has already paid a price in blood sweat and tears by virtue of their service right So there's nothing that anybody has to prove to anybody in this room in the organization You learn something helpful share it and life's more about cooperation than competition And I think DAV better than just about any other organization really exemplifies that last statement So hopefully you can take that back to the chapters and departments from where you're from and try to instill a little bit of that into them as well So real quick we wanted to get some feedback on new member orientation So last year October ish I think I did a webinar on the new member orientation guide by a show of hands Can I just let me know if you use this or read it or seen it? Okay, so a smattering this is on the members only portal So please take a look at it. It is designed as a as an arrow to put in your quiver It is not set in stone. We very deliberately made all the material editable Okay, we want you to modify the orientation guide to the specifics of your locality Not every DAV chapter has access to the same resources that the next chapter does You may have a great relationship with the soldiers and sailors relief person The next chapter may have a great relationship with the EVOPS and LVR's in their community Whatever the case may be, design this to be specific to your chapter department The idea is when a new member comes in they have something that you can present to them that lets them know all the benefits of being a member of your specific organization Not just DAV as a whole, but what's special about chapter 114 in Michigan? What are they doing? They're holding service office hours every Wednesday from 12 to 4 You know that sort of stuff, okay? You can do this in a classroom setting We've provided a PowerPoint presentation that you can modify along with your other material You can do it on a one-on-one basis, whatever you guys feel and gals When I say guys it's everybody You feel whatever you feel comfortable with, okay? So whatever you feel comfortable with So included on that website are the new member orientation guide, the mentoring guide So who's ever going to be conducting the mentoring, a PowerPoint presentation, all of which like I said are editable And there's also the recording of the webinar that I did so that you can listen to it and get more detailed guidance on how you should be utilizing it So Warren wanted to take a minute and talk about this and maybe get some feedback from you We just as we develop this and being one of the guys in the trenches, okay, and working with chapters closely A lot of times it's easier for the volunteers to actually get some feedback and to figure out how to make that work and to provide some input to that So if we got a few minutes, if you have some suggestions in terms of how we could do this and make improvements on this Realizing that again this is a template, it's not a and it's not written in stone That's why we want to try to improve it So if you have any specific inputs you'd like to do about the ideas that you have toward this guide Please come up the mic and let us know How many of you said it was just this matter you have actually seen it or used it? Is there anybody that's really implemented it and give us feedback on how it's worked? I'll ask it that way Nobody's implemented it Nobody's tried it. Oh, there you go. Come on grab a grab a mic. I need your feedback It's right there Roger Right by district data between 8 and 15 there I just have a quick question for your right now For those of us who have not implemented this or got we need information to get a computer Do you have anything in writing where we can take with us to implement it? It's downloadable. I don't know if we have any to have any written He was wondering if we have any written versions of this No, I mean there's a lot of material on there already So when you open it up you'll see what I'm talking about that you can add slides to the presentation You can modify different parts to make it specific to your chapter Things of that nature but there's a lot of information in there already Right, I understand that but for us now that are here You know you got a lot of information there If we had something written so we can take back to present to our members So they understand it a little bit better Yeah, that's what I'm saying if you go to the new members portal Or to the members only portal, pardon me There is a webinar on there that you just click and play it and it gives you all the information you need about it So other than the actual PowerPoint and pardon me There is a PowerPoint on the members only portal as well that accompanies the webinar So you can read that and it offers additional instruction as well So there's your written format but the webinar is only about 30 minutes long Also as a possibility while you're here at the convention you might want to check it out at Cyber Central Maybe somebody at Cyber Central had there somebody could give you a hand with trying to find it And to work with it, that's an idea You just need your membership number to do that Go ahead ma'am That was my question, how do we find that portal in the first place I never even heard about a portal to get there So if you go to the main DEV webpage, DEV.org There's tabs that run across the top One of them is membership There will be a drop down that comes down And you have to click on the spot that says members only It'll prompt you for your membership number You put your membership number in there and it'll take you to where all the links are to include the new members page Yes, I just wanted an online application when you're putting in personal information And you asked a new applicant for his credit card number How is that going to stay on your phone if you got that app? That was very clear, it will not be on your phone Once you click send you're good It will not be on your phone I've been assured 100 times over by all of our technical folks and our partners on the other side of this That help administer that platform that that will not be the case Yes Mike, this gentleman here Go ahead and ask the question Since you don't have any material like we can take back with us Like the members and my division Mostly seniors and they don't deal with computers Well, I tell you what, if you go down to Cyber Central she can print off a copy for you Alright, thank you Yes, sir Anything else? Yes, sir If you could use the mic Okay, go ahead, I didn't see you You come on to the mic Well, so here's how that system works currently And we're looking at modifying this but what happens is When you put that new members zip code into the system The system queries and looks for other members that have that same zip code In the system and it will list them by chapter by size of chapter in descending order So that's how the system draws the information that's the logic it uses So you have to make sure you scroll down to find the right chapter for that new member Unless they happen to be going into the largest chapter in the state in that zip code area So it's by zip code Correct Right, you're talking about if they do it online that's how the system operates If you, you know, so, yeah They just have to be cognizant of the fact that they have to make sure they choose the right chapter Okay Yes, sir Yes, sir, I got a question in regards to transfers We still have to use the paper method I mean I've called and I've gotten great success Getting members transferred via phone and also members enrolled via phone But a lot of our transfers, you know, from other chapters coming in We still have to do it by paper Well, again, team, I'm trying to get away from paper as much as I can But there is an option to do it via the membership system electronically Oh, we can I'll check out the incoming chapter Right, so also, you know, Warren's just reminding me, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say it That the transfer has to be approved by the incoming chapter You need the record out Keeps the IG happy Yes, sir Can you use the space where you put your membership number and the chapter into insert Or I'll leave it up to the designers But you understand what I'm saying Sure Yeah, I volunteer you to put something like that together and submit it to me for consideration That's a great idea All right, sounds good Yes, sir Using an example, if we have like a membership driving a mall Or either we have four or five members come into our monthly meeting and they've got paper applications Can I take those applications, hold, transfer them on the computer Take that money out of my account and pay this or either send a paper check Absolutely, absolutely As long as I get it Say I do 20 memberships, I do it on paper, I take it home and transfer it to the computer Well, if you're using the online application system, you can only do one at a time That's what I'm saying You'll have to do 20 different transactions on a credit card Yep Thank you Well, plus honestly, and here's a big reason for this push It frees up my membership specialists when you do that work on the front end, all of you out there It lets them spend their time working those tougher issues You know, where the gaps are in the system, you know, going the extra mile, providing, you know For lack of a better term customer service, our folks aren't customers But you understand what I'm saying You know, how they're at the tip of the spear for us If a member prospect calls headquarters, you know, that level of service that they receive there Could determine whether or not they become a member How they interact with a member determines whether or not somebody potentially stays active as a member You know what I'm saying? 99.9% of the time that interaction is great But sometimes folks call up, you know, they'll chew through Rob and they chew through me They end up at Mark, I mean, it's just, you know, they're having a bad day We tried their best to help them, but those are the kinds of things that we want to concentrate on So the more you can help us with on the front end, the better I was going to make a comment about the mall situation Where you were signing up a lot of members The actual paper membership card has the credit card application And if the individual has a choice, try to encourage them to give the credit card application Then you could just do it online because you'll have all that data Would be an option to do it Yes, sir You're saying large areas were in the largest chapter in Arkansas Okay We send in paperwork for Chapter 7 with the right zip code for one community And they're being assigned to another community Or Chapter 4, which is an at-large chapter And we'll try to find out why People have to be selecting the wrong chapter when they're No, sir When they're signing them up online And it's for Jacksonville, Arkansas, where the chapter office is So you're doing paper applications? Yes Okay It's being sent in and it's coming back another county Okay, so let me address that Again, we get thousands and thousands and thousands of paper applications at headquarters Okay So what happens is when we get those paper applications from time to time If we can't get a hold of anybody to clarify if there's, you know, something's misspelled Or the handwriting is tough to read or whatever the case may be They have to make a best guess sometimes Okay So what we've been doing when they come in and complain to us is just do a transfer into Chapter 7 Yeah, I mean, that's the easiest way to resolve it There's not as much paperwork for you, though Right, that's the easiest way to resolve it once it gets to that point But we can nip it in the bud if you do it online because then you know You know exactly where they're supposed to go All right, thank you Yeah, and Heather's reminded me that if you do call us and say, hey, this person was supposed to be there And it's something that we affected with respect to inputting them We'll just transfer without the transfer form Okay, as long as we have the paper application, we can identify what the issue is Without having to do the transfer, okay? Jeremy Oh, yes, Doug My name's Dr. Jeremy Roberts. I'm the department agent for North Carolina One thing I've noticed when the year changed and the new membership goals came out Is I look at the goal, the overall goal, and I look at last year's membership And I notice sometimes maybe five or six chapters within North Carolina Have a goal that's smaller than their previous year's membership numbers And I know that was probably due to the deceased members But perhaps that can be factored in with goals in the future Because the chapter would be shrinking if they just met goal overall Well, I mean, let's think this through though Okay, goals are set at the beginning of the membership year So the deceased people are already removed before we set the goal So they're not impacting yet at all The only reason that I can think of that a chapter's goal would be smaller this year than it was last year Was because they converted more of their part-life members That's not what I'm talking about Let's say the chapter ended with 100 members The deceased took 10 away Okay Their part-lives, they have 10 part-lives that they have So now their goal is, overall goal is 95 members Okay, tracking So they had 100 members but now their goal is 95 They're shrinking for their goal won't get them to grow for the next year That's what I'm getting at I see what you're saying So the 55% formula, it's not the most scientific way to do that But when you're talking about 12, 1300 chapters across the country And how do we manage this on a large scale I'm hopeful that as we implement DAB 360 And I have better mechanisms to track chapter metrics We might be able to do something a little more robust But I agree with you Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying Also, I know you have a small staff And there's over 1300 chapters in about 52 departments If I recall correctly I just want to say thank you on behalf of North Carolina For what you guys are doing And keep up the great work Thank you I appreciate that so much And I know Robin and Heather and the rest of us do Do me a favor and let Barry know That although we're doing a great job I could use five or six more, you know Yeah, get marked too The Treasurer's over here going, no, you ain't getting those Yes, sir Yes, sir Hi, Brian Ellingbell from Chapter 17 in Texas When we run our membership listing We're noticing that we do have auto payment people However, we've been monitoring them And they're not going down After research and we found that Making contact with the individuals That the bank card, credit card, debit card Has expired and they had failed to notify national Is there anything in place to identify those folks? So every day it seems like Robin and I Figure out something we didn't know Okay, and that was one of them Our third party vendor that handles that for us That's called an excessive failure Okay, so what happens is Just like happens to us with other stuff I probably have credit cards on Netflix And all the other good stuff For whatever reason The credit card company just out of the blue My card hasn't even expired and they sent me a new card Because they think somebody was after it Or whatever the case may be, okay And so your information changes And all of a sudden, you know, Amazon was the last one Hey, what's wrong with your card? You know, that kind of thing We weren't being notified that they were trying to Query cards for payments and not You know, and them not being responsive So we weren't being notified of the excessive failures We just figured that out here in the last couple of months And we've got a mechanism in place So that they're going to be notified And all that stuff to put in current information Okay, the other question I have is When you do sign up new members And you get the auto email Saying welcome It appears that the two name on it Is defaulted to the credit card name And not the actual member themselves So for instance, if I was to use my credit card To sign up a new member My name appears on the welcome email But not the member Right, it's, you know, a third party issue again We're trying to resolve that Did we? So it's happening That's something we've been working with Our vendor partner on To make sure that, you know, we actually put together A whole campaign last holiday season Where, you know, give the gift of membership And that ended up being, you know Pretty horrendous, that's where we found out That that was an issue, so you would think Hey, we're in the 21st century There shouldn't be an issue I should be able to buy a membership And, you know, give it to somebody And it goes to them And if I want to stay anonymous Whatever, you can make all that happen Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that When you're dealing with these third party vendors Because they're not just appeasing us On those platforms They're servicing other organizations as well So we've got to put them in headlocks To get them to do what we need them to do So those are the battles that I fight Every day, unfortunately But I appreciate that We are working on it I don't want to be a nuisance But I use these seminars sort of as a roadmap To take me where I need to go My membership and other ventures of the DAV About the corncracker chapter 23 Do you recommend pulling people out of that? About the what? The chapter 23, the corncrackers Oh, it's your large chapter? Right So do I recommend pulling people out of it? Out of that end of our chapter Providing there in our area, local Oh, sure If you want to solicit them And give them a transfer form to sign Invite them into your chapter You can certainly do that But there's a reason they're in that For some reason, you know It's not necessarily derogatory We have record of that So if somebody's in an at-large chapter For a derogatory reason We'll stop the transfer That was my interest right there Another thing is this last member I'm from 171 in Kentucky And we have Our economy has went down We have nothing right at the present There's no way we're going to be able to do life members Because these new veterans are coming back They're trying to work They don't have money to pay straight up For a full life membership So the only way we can operate is on partial Well, so they can sign up for $10 down Right, I understand that I know National will access full membership I understand that I like to be baited full when I do a job I understand what you're talking about With respect to helping folks get their membership So you can still do that I'm not telling you not to... I know I can still do that But I know that National would rather Have the whole amount of money It's not about the money It's about securing them as a full life member That part I understand Because, again, if you continue to Solely operate from that standpoint You're throwing that money away I promise you Right at the time, that's the only way we have to operate Well, like I said, just encourage them To try to do it online And if you want to support them With contribution towards that You can still just send it to me And we can put it on in the back end I want to make a comment about that I did want to make a comment about the At-large chapters As a department adjutant, I see this And the easiest way to get into the At-large chapter to me Is somebody that hasn't been paying their dues for a while At some point they go to the state at large And then they go from the state at large To the national at large And you actually have to do a transfer When they go to the state at large To get them back into the chapter they were in originally So if you... My strategy has been I would encourage people to try to be preemptive on that If you see people that haven't made a payment for a while Maybe contact them Like you was talking about the $40 down And they're throwing away the quarterly statements Give them a call and talk to them And see if they want to reactivate their membership Or we use that in our department as an incentive program You haven't paid for a while We'll pay $20 to get you going again If you'll help us by writing a check For the balance of your membership And then try to do it fully paid So that's just the strategies Of things that I've learned I want to share with you So one last thing And I just kind of wanted to mention I didn't have time to put it in the presentation But I'm developing some letters That you can use that are consistent So we can have a consistent message Across the country And the chapters and departments can use them To invite folks that are part-life members To pay off their memberships One of the letters will be designed So that you're not contributing anything It's the burden of squarely on them You will get some responses People will do it There's another letter that's designed To allow you to contribute whatever you want Towards paying off that full-life membership Hey, we noticed you still haven't paid off Your part-life membership You have a balance of $100 We'll pay the first $20 if you paid the other $80 That sort of thing Or to go a lot more eloquently, of course But the idea is You can give us a call at headquarters Have a shoot you a spreadsheet With your part-life list And by the way If I've already got a recurring credit card payment On those folks Do not pay them off Leave them alone Put your resources into the folks That we don't have their current credit card on Okay I've already got them on the hook Don't pay for those Because that means they've got the wherewithal To do it, most likely Right So help the folks that aren't so fortunate Potentially So But I firmly believe That a letter coming from you in the locality Is a lot more impactful than coming from me At headquarters You know, they'll remember Hey, oh yeah, I talked to Jeremy for you He's a good guy You know, let me pay this off That kind of thing Okay Yeah, so You're better looking than the other guy But At any rate You know, we're trying to design these tools I'll roll that out in an email to all the leadership Of the chapters and departments here shortly So hopefully get us off on the right foot Here early in the membership year I'm trying to design things as well To help us avoid the mad dash At the end of the year to try to make goal Because that leads to a lot of those $40 Members that we're talking about And people don't understand That doesn't help them You know, they just go out and recruit any warm body But they're not doing it in the correct fashion So You know, anything I can do to mitigate that Will be helpful Yes, last question On that report you were just mentioning Can you filter out those that have the reoccurring That are charged for us? Yep Okay, thank you Yeah, I'm just saying if you're savvy enough To take that information and do it yourself You know, leave those guys with the asterisk By their name But if you get it from us We'll definitely do that for you So again, appreciate your time and attention Hopefully we won't have too hard of a time Getting to where we need to go I know that you'll probably still have time To get in line to see the president Whatever type of seat you get Will remain to be seen But thank you so much I've got cards up here Thanks guys