Welcome to our first Sound Off of 2023! I want to take the time to thank all of you for your support in my year as State Commander. I also want to remind members of our upcoming SEC meeting on March 18th at the Radisson in Green Bay. The Hospital & Service Foundation meeting will be a 0900, the Admin meeting will be at 1000, and the SEC will be at 1100. That evening the Commander’s and Auxiliary President’s Testimonial will take place. Cocktails will start off at 5:00 PM with seating and opening ceremonies at 6:00PM, and dinner to be served at 6:30 PM. The Testimonial invitation should be in this issue of the Sound Off. The Radisson has room blocks for the events. Call 800-333-3333 or the hotel direct at 920-494-7300 ext. 0. To receive the group rate, you must ask for a room in the AMVETS Spring SEC & Testimonial Dinner room block.
Since the last issue of the Sound Off I’ve represented the State at the 4th National District in Indianapolis on November 5th. The 4th District consists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In attendance was the National Communications Officer Myles Migliara. He is interested in what Posts are doing in their communities and also looking for outstanding AMVETS in their communities. You can email him at media@amvets.org. I would like to see some posts taking part in this endeavor.
Within the State I attended a Veterans Day Reception with Governor Evers and Secretary Kolar at the Executive Residence in Madison. Most of the Veteran Organizations were in attendance. On November 12th myself along with Ron Griffin and Stu Kohlin attended an event at the Heritage State Historical Park in Green Bay to promote AMVETS. On November 15th I attended Shawno Post 10 meeting where the Post donated $1,000.00 to the Commander’s Program Sofa for Service! December 2nd was the Winter State Dance in Waupaca with the SEC meeting the next day. That same day I traveled across State to Hayward Post 1 for the 24th Annual Elmo Dahl AMVETS Cash for Christmas. That was a blast! On December 4th I was in Reedsville for the Breakfast with Santa and the 3rd District meeting.
Many Posts hosted Christmas Parties combined with Awards and with fundraisers. Among those were South Milwaukee Post 4, Oshkosh Post 7, Milwaukee Post 37, Sturgeon Bay Post 51, Ladysmith Post 127, and Kansasville Post 911. I want to thank all of you for your outstanding hospitality.
The Hospital & Service Foundation Chairman invited myself and the Auxiliary President to the King Recreation Committee meeting held at Moses Hall on January 11th. A tour of the Hall was held after the meeting. It was the first tour held since Covid lock down. Pictures should be in this Sound Off issue.
I would like to bring your attention to the next Department Raffle that is being distributed to the District Commanders to be given to each Post. The raffle is our major funding source for the Department. Please try to sell the tickets. If your Post is not able to sell them get them back to the fund raising committee to get them back into circulation. If a ticket is not sold the Department will lose that amount in revenue! The drawing will be at the State Convention. There will be only one raffle held this year.
Hope to see all of you soon.
Dale Wiegand WI AMVETS Dept. Commander
