 I'm Brian Buckwalder with DAV, and today I'm joined by Al LeBell. Al is a DAV life member in Wisconsin, and he wears many hats in our organization. And one of those roles is he's the chair of DAV's National Interim Legislation Committee. He's joining me today to talk more about the DAV and Auxiliary National Convention and what our members and guests can expect. We're going to be gathering in Orlando August 6th through the 9th with thousands of our closest friends. Al, thank you for joining me today. Convention is just days away. Are you ready? I certainly am ready. Can't you feel the enthusiasm? I mean, I'm ready to go. Now, this is going to be my first convention, and you've been to how many? My first one was 2006 in New Orleans. So, and I've been to everyone since then. OK, so you're excited about it. It must be good if you've been to that many and you're just ready to go. What are you most excited about heading into this year's convention? Well, it's always great to reconnect with old friends who I've made over the years. Certainly I do a lot of legislative work, so I've gotten to know a lot of the national staff to begin with, both in legislation and communication for that matter. And it's always nice to reconnect with people. Yeah, I mean, I mean, convention is great. DAV is great because we're a family, right? You know, we're able to get together. We're able to have a good time. You know, but convention is, from my understanding, it's so much more than that. A lot of work gets done in a really short amount of time. Can you tell me a little bit more about what kind of business is done in a convention and why is it important for members to actually come? Well, it's important in that, like I mentioned previously, our first one was 2006 and every year I learned something I didn't know. So that would be the major reason why this should go. In Wisconsin, we really stressed the fact we try to recruit as many people as we can to attend a convention. This year, we will have 18 members being attending from the department and full from the auxiliary, and it's a real, really great time to understand who DAV is and what we really do and the specifics of what we really do. Yeah, and you that you were saying that there's a lot of seminars. What about business? Like, I mean, things happen, like resolutions are made, plans are made, votes happens. And can you tell me a little bit more about that? Well, I, as I said previously, I do a lot of legislative work at the Capitol in Washington. I usually pre-pandemic would walk two or three times a year. One of them, of course, was midwinter. But the regarding a convention, like the first day, August Saturday, August 5th at 7.45, we'll have an interim legislative legislation committee meeting of which we'll discuss some resolutions that need to be submitted along with other business and get updates and exchange what each of us have been doing and what we know. So also, there will be important seminars and workshops that I need to go to, and one of them will be done on veterans' rights and legislation. I know there will be a seminar during the convention or on the veterans' rights and legislation. And there will be an interview with, I believe the secretary will be coming out. And there's usually an interview between the national staff and the secretary and other invited guests, which is really informative to the attendees on what VA is doing regarding veterans' health care and veteran benefits. Yeah, so it's really just a way for the organization to connect with the VA, to connect with its members, to keep people informed about what's happening, the decisions that are being made, the things, the resolutions that are coming up that drive our agenda for the year, correct? I mean, that's really important to have happen. Well, regarding resolutions, we cannot take any positions on legislation unless we have a resolution. And the process starts with the individual. Many times people will say, well, how come DAV does not support this legislation? And it will mainly be because we don't have a resolution. So I will say the reason is because you did not submit a resolution. So the individual will submit a resolution. Usually it will go to the chapter level, move up to the state convention, at which time, once it's approved by the chapter, we will discuss it at the state convention and approval there then it moves on to the national convention. And when it passes the at the national convention, then it becomes part of the DAV legislative program. Well, that is, you know, that's so important to understand. And I'm glad you really walked us through that because our members' voices matter. Membership matters. Our strength is in the ability to have people bring these resolutions up in their through the chain of command, so to speak, but bring it up to these conventions and the more people and the more voices that we have, the stronger DAV is. You know, so there's the membership side and the legislative resolutions. But what else can our members do to ensure that veterans' voices are heard in Congress? Well, first, they can do a particular contact their representative and senators. DAV has what is called the Commanders Action Network. I can and you can go to DAV.quorum.us and contact your representative and senators through the network. And basically what it is, you will get an email which is pre-written, but it can be modified and we really stress people to personalize them the best they can. And once that is completed, then you can hit submit and it will automatically go to your representative and to senators. Excellent, and you can see we have the link right down there. We just had it up on screen for everyone. I encourage to check that out, to use that, to use your voice as a member. You know, Al, finally as we wrap up here, is there anything else that you'd like to share about convention, maybe something I didn't ask you or maybe something a little known, can't miss, you know, when we go down there? Let me just wrap up the legislation, the legislation plan. We really encourage people to join the can because we're only as effective as people make us. When legislation is really a team effort, you know, the national staff is terrific. Like Shane has been running around Capitol Hill here the last couple of days on the Honoring of Pact Act, which is an historic comprehensive omnibus bill on toxic exposure. You know, when the bill covers all toxic exposure, starting with radiation risk, Agent Orange, Burn Pits and PFAS. So Shane does a terrific job doing that and many of us do. But we need the voices that we present or the presentations that are given, they need to be amplified by the voices of members and supporters. So that was, I just had to finish that up. There is, you know, it's great to meet old friends or whatever. And a lot of times in particular with Wisconsin, I know others have a little more formal get-togethers. We usually try to go out to some restaurant in the area or as a group and, you know, just kind of have a let loose, should we say. And at one time, I'm getting a little older now, so I don't do it quite as much. But sometimes we settle some issues and problems at the bar, you know, having a drink or two and again, rekindling old friendships and things like that. So it's not all work. We try to also intersperse some fun along with the important business that we do at the convention. Well, that's wonderful. And from what I hear, it's, we got a few surprises up our sleeve for those who will be there. But again, I think the biggest takeaway for those watching and listening now is if you're not signed up to come down to convention, there's still time. Our strength is in our numbers, absolutely. We're gonna be at the National Convention in Orlando. It's the DAV and Auxiliary National Convention, August 6th through 9th, Orlando, Florida. It's less than a couple of weeks away. But if you need to, you can head to dav.org slash events. You'll see a link right there that you can click for more information about attending convention. Al, thank you so much for your time. I'm really looking forward to seeing you again and joining you down at convention. Well, thank you for having me. And again, I look forward to seeing you, Brian. So maybe we can, you know, spend a little time having some fun. Solving a few problems. All right, so it's been a real pleasure. Thank you.