2nd Vice Commander February 2026 Sound Off
We are now a full month into 2026. Don’t forget to get your program reports entered into Mini-Extensions. Please reach out to me for assistance if you need it. Reports for this semi-annual period must be in by July 7th. No late entries will be allowed.
National Programs Reporting Periods:
July 1st- December 31st National Deadline: January 7th
January 1st – June 30th National Deadline: July 7th
Americanism Contest:
Keep working to get the Americanism packets out to schools, scouting organizations, boys and girls clubs and your neighborhood kids. If you did not receive one, please let me know. Due to the difficulty getting into schools for Americanism, I am encouraging Posts and Districts to use social media such as Facebook and Next Door to share information in your local community.
The deadline is May 1st to have all entries to the POC’s listed below. An information sheet was emailed in December that contains the addresses and phone numbers for the following:
Kindergarten and 1st Grades: Flag Coloring Contest (Doug Rasmussen is Department POC)
2nd through 5th Grades: Post Contest (Darlene Hempel is the Department POC)
6th through 12th Grades: Essay Contest (Tim Wendt is the Department POC)
National Communication Efforts:
On February 6th, National 2nd Vice Commander Chris Studebaker and Programs Director Warren Cox held a Zoom call for Department 2nd Vice Commanders. This was the 2nd quarterly call to improve communications. There are a couple of new items to share:
Flag Retirement Ceremonies: this is a new program sub-category under Americanism
Americanism Essays: HQ is asking that we rank order our essays. This will assist them in selecting additional high schoolers to attend Founding Forward if there is availability.
ROTC Medals requested through National will be sent to Department 2nd Vice Commanders or Executive Directors – we can then use our ROTC Chairs to disseminate. ROTC Medal sets are available from National ($23/medal including shipping, medal, folder and certificate) Download the Form
White Clovers – a bulk shipment is coming to HQ around the 14th of February. National ordered 15,000. They will be on sale for $75/500 plus shipping (minimum order is 500.
Respectfully submitted by Tim Wendt, 2nd Vice Commander (Programs), (985) 630-2450
