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George Hartley Editorial Contest Rules Lillian Cleveland Membership Award
National American Legion Press Association (NALPA) American Legion Dept of Florida American Legion Auxiliary Dept of Florida
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MEMBERSHIP – AN EDITORIAL Voyageurs, I have been traveling the state making as many wrecks as I can, and I have been talking to you about membership. During this time I have found out one thing. Some of you would rather hear a fairy tail than the truth, so here is a fairy tail with a lot of truth in it. "Once upon a time and this is no bull. There was a Grand way out west and over the ocean. And in this Grand there was a king and he had a beautiful tree, the most beautiful tree in his kingdom. People would come from all over just to sit under the tree and watch the birds and listen to the breeze. One day someone saw some dead limbs in the tree and told the king, they wanted to cut out those old dead limbs, they told the king that it would make his tree stronger and more beautiful The king didn't want to cut anything off of his tree but they told him, by cutting out the dead wood, it would make his tree stronger. So he let them do it even though he knew it would hurt him very much to see it chopped. As time went on, other people would see a limb that had no leaves on it and cut it off, because it was dead wood, it had to go. It happened so often that it didn't hurt anyone to cut a limb until one day there was no more limbs to cut. The king called the royal tree doctor and asked him what was wrong with his tree? The doctor asked the king what happened to all the limbs, and the king said, all we did was cut off all the limbs that had no leaves, because it was dead wood and we didn't want any dead wood in the tree. Then the doctor told the king that all those limbs he had cut off were not dead they were just dormant. Then the doctor asked who was supposed to fertilize the tree and the king said no one. The doctor told him that some times old limbs would not produce leaves in order to let new limbs grow. The king asked what could he do to make his tree beautiful again and the doctor told him there was nothing he could do for his tree because it was dead. His tree was forever dead. The end."
This was not a fairy tale. This is the truth. Grand du Hawaii had to give up their state charter because they didn't have enough members to hold it. And all they did was cut out the dead wood. Now you say this could never happen here in Florida. Well, you do the math, 9 years ago we had over 3000 members. Today we have 1728 members left. If we lose 200 members a year, just how long will it take for our tree to die? Think long and hard before you answer.
For the Good of the Voiture and Grand, Chuck Giffin Grand Chef de Gare 2004
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