Get ready for Convention!

Leave a reply

An update on some activities from Dominion Command.

Important Branch information 

Legion Dispatch. Visit branch services.
February 2024
Twitter. Facebook. Youtube. Instagram. Linkedin.
Poppy Store.
Keep your Branch informed
Forward this email to your Branch Executives, Committee Members and other members to keep them up-to-date on important updates and information.
All Branch emails are also available on the Member Services Website
In this edition
February 2024
alt_text
2023 Year-end membership numbers are in… and the results are cause for celebration!
We are excited to announce that 2023 membership totals have grown for the second consecutive year, after three decades of membership decline. The Legion’s total paid membership as of January 31, 2024 is now 256,524 members, an increase of 5.3% (12,886 members) over the previous year!
2023 brought in 43,042 new/reinstated members… up 22.5% over last year and a new modern-day record! 89% of members that registered online joined their local Branch. Additionally, every Provincial Command saw a growth in their total membership and in their new/reinstated members. This highlights growth at the Branch level!
A number of successful business initiatives over the last six years have directly attributed to membership growth. We are appreciative of the support and buy-in of all levels of our organization including DEC, Provincial Commands, Branches and Members.
Some of the strategies positively impacting our results include:

  • Launch of the membership portal (2017)
  • Introduction of the plastic membership card (2018)
  • Introduction of the Veteran Welcome Program (2018)
  • Launch of membership auto-renewal (2019)
  • Streamlining the online member renewal process (2020)
  • Allowing members to join their local Branch online (2020)
  • Launch of MemberPerks (2020)
  • Launch of the Veteran Family Welcome program (2021)
  • Launch of the digital membership card (2022)
  • The continued acquisition of member email/phone contact information for improved communications
  • Ongoing proactive member renewal campaigns including email reminders (over 600,000 sent last year), direct mail pieces, automated renewal telemarking campaigns, online and social media marketing, Legion Magazine ads, etc.

The organization is on a path of sustained membership growth. We remain extremely optimistic for the future of Legion Membership!
alt_text
The 49th Dominion Convention is approaching!
The Royal Canadian Legion 2024 Dominion Convention will be held in Saint John, New Brunswick, August 24 through 28. This year’s theme, Building our Future on a Foundation of Strength, is not only a reflection of our past achievements but also a rallying call for the work that lies ahead.
This year, delegates and proxies representing close to 260,000 members will meet to discuss the future of the Legion. Delegates will vote on resolutions, determine national policies and elect the next Dominion President and Senior Elected Officers.
The Convention Call will be emailed to Branches later this month, and posted on the link below.
Learn more at Legion.ca/2024Convention
Bookmark this page. This page will be updated as new information becomes available.
alt_text
Advertise your Branch, District or Command in the 2024 Convention booklet
The 2024 Dominion Convention Local Arrangement Committee is accepting ads for placement in the Convention Souvenir Booklet, which will be distributed to all delegates.
The deadline to submit an ad is April 15, 2024.
Download submission form  ‣
alt_text
Did you serve in Cyprus under OP Snowgoose?
2024 is the 60th anniversary of Canadian involvement on the island of Cyprus, and the 50th anniversary of the 74th conflict.
If you served in Cyprus, you may be interested in taking a trip down memory lane by joining Team Cyprus 2024 for a November 2024 reunion. Taking place in Cyprus, the reunion is open to all CAF Veterans who served under the United Nations banner in Cyprus and family members of those who served. The linked brochure provides the background to the tour. Please contact Special Travel International for more information.
Read the brochure  ‣
alt_text
Get access to Marketing and PR resources
+ Promote membership with free Branch resources
Order FREE recruitment and retention resources through the Legion Supply Department to help promote membership at your Branch.
Check out our flyer  ‣
Light bulb
PR Tip of the Month:
Your branch social media account is a Legion account
Avoid getting personal or upset when operating a Legion owned social media account. Everything posted through a branch account should align with Legion values and Articles of Faith in tone. Disengage with anyone who threatens or uses foul language, and report them to appropriate authorities as warranted.
Have questions or need advice? Contact your Command Public Relations Officer or Nujma Bond, Dominion Command Communications at nbond@legion.ca
Your Legion calendar
On March 15, it will have been 10 years since the last Canadian soldiers returned from the mission in Afghanistan. Learn more about the men and women who served and sacrificed.
Promote important dates and organize activities at your Branch with this list of upcoming days that raise awareness of an issue, commemorate a group or event, or celebrate an important topic.
Download your copy to help with Branch planning for the new year.
Download the 2024 calendar  ‣
MemberPerks®: Exclusive offers and preferred pricing through Venngo
Celebrate Family Day with us and win a $250 CAD gift card to Deerhurst Resort!
MemberPerks® is more than a member benefit package. It’s also a tool Branches can use to promote membership. Plus, you can partner with local businesses in your community to offer exclusive discounts for your members.
Learn more  ‣
Messages from affiliated organizations
The following information is brought to you by organizations the Legion works closely with, highlighting special offers and other information.
Preferred rates for Branches from Canada’s leading payment processor
Whether your Branch wants to accept payments in-person, online, or via mobile devices, Moneris offers a variety of solutions that can meet your needs. In addition to the preferred rates, you can also enjoy services such as 24/7 support and stress-free set up.
Learn more  ‣
Cost savings on everything your Branch needs to run your restaurant and hospitality services
Entegra.
Sign up for a free membership with Entegra and your Branch will receive rebates and savings through your current and new suppliers on food and beverages, furniture and equipment, maintenance and repair services, and more!
Learn more  ‣
Mailchimp: Bulk email platform
The Legion partnered with Mailchimp, a leading provider in email marketing, to offer Branches an easy, efficient, and affordable email service can help you send out newsletters to your members with the click of a button. Plus, you’ll have access to Legion-branded newsletter templates to help support the Legion brand. They also have human-assisted support to help you along the way.
Learn more  ‣
Loop TV helps your Branch promote events, activities and more… and earn extra cash!
Loop TV is a FREE service that brings entertainment and information to your Branch TV screens. In addition to Loop’s awesome content in your Branch, you also get easy-to-use digital signage to promote specials, events, fundraisers, Branch messaging and more.
The Loop Player and service are free to use, plus your Branch will earn $20 USD in Loop Rewards per active Loop player each month.
Learn more  ‣
Special offer from Legion Magazine
Special offer.
If you have any questions, please contact Member Services and we will be pleased to assist. 1-855-330-3344 or membership@legion.ca

Office Hours: Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. EST
Working together to serve Canada’s Veterans.
Legion.
Click here if you are having trouble viewing this message

Copyright © 2024 The Royal Canadian Legion. All rights reserved.

Administrative emails from Legion National Headquarters are sent to the email address on file for your local Legion Branch. If this is no longer the correct email address for your Branch, please forward this email to the new contact and request the Branch update their contact information.

The Branch may update the email address at any time by updating their Branch Profile on the Member Services Website or by contacting Member Services. Learn more about All Branch emails.

Our contact information is:
The Royal Canadian Legion National Headquarters
Member Services Department
86 Aird Place
Ottawa, ON K2L 0A1
Canada

Toll free: 855‑330‑3344
E-mail: membership@legion.ca

News & Events for the Bay Area Canadian Community 🇨🇦

Leave a reply

A newsletter from one of our fellow Canadian organizations in the Bay Area.

Can’t see this message? View in a browser
This email was sent from this site.

The Doomsday Clock has never been closer to midnight than it is now

Leave a reply

An item from Legion Magazine.
Front Lines
Front Lines

An assortment of American nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.[USAF]

The Doomsday Clock has never been closer to midnight than it is now

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

In 1947, a group of former Manhattan Project scientists came up with the Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical indicator of the threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances.

The clock is now closer to midnight than it has ever been.

The implications of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still reverberating around the world when American physicist Hyman Goldsmith and artist Martyl Langsdorf got together to design a cover for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—a non-profit organization that studies how to reduce human threats to existence.

READ MORE
RCAF 100
Military Milestones
Military Milestones

A Distant Early Warning Line station at Point Lay, Alaska. [Wikimedia]

Cold War continental defence

STORY BY PAIGE JASMINE GILMAR

More than 75 years ago, a defence agreement between the United States and Canada carved a path for an ambitious Cold War remote lookout and communications network meant to protect North American aerospace.

The initiative to expand North America’s air defence architecture was announced on Feb. 12, 1947, and eventually led to the creation of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line.

The DEW Line stretched for 4,800 kilometres with more than 60 crewed radar stations, making it a potent deterrent to Soviet threats. It was referred to as a “triumph of scientific design and logistical planning” by the Arctic Institute of North America.

READ MORE

Member Benefit Partner
Belair

RCL members and their families can benefit from exclusive discounts on car, home, condo and tenant’s insurance at belairdirect. Learn more at legion.ca/belairdirect
Email sent to: mkbarbour@gmail.com

Canvet Publications Ltd.
86 Aird Place |
Kanata, Ontario | K2L 0A1 | Canada |
1-844-602-5737 | 613-591-0116 | magazine@legion.ca

Tomorrow: Slavery & self-emancipation in colonial Canada; Year of the Dragon 🐉

Leave a reply

A newsletter from a fellow Canadian organization in the Bay Area.

Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

  • Happy Year of the Dragon!

Upcoming Events

  • Slavery and Self-Emancipation in Colonial Canada
  • Conference on Proto-Algonquian

Academic Opportunities

  • Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship Program

External Events

  • Learn to Curl with the DML

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Canadian Studies wishes a very happy (if belated) Lunar New Year to our community! For many East Asian cultures and their diasporas across the world, the New Year is a time for reconnecting with family, friends, and their cultural roots. Celebrations took place all over North America this weekend; in Vancouver, Canada’s largest Chinese community celebrated a milestone with its 50th Annual New Year Parade. But while parades make the news, for most families the real celebration happens at home, with a traditional family dinner with loved ones. On behalf of Canadian Studies, we wish a prosperous Year of the Dragon to one and all!

Did you know? While Western dragons are thought of as fire-breathing monsters, Chinese dragons are auspicious creatures with strong associations with water. Dragons are often said to live in lakes or rivers, and can summon rain and storms.

Dragon image by Freepik.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Slavery and Self-Emancipation in Colonial Canada

Tues., Feb. 13 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

The US-Canada border played a central role in the history of slavery in North America. Yet, while Canada is remembered chiefly as a haven for those fleeing slavery in the United States via the Underground Railroad during the mid-nineteenth century, it is less well known that many people enslaved in colonial Canada during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries gained their freedom by crossing the border into the United States. Early Canadian and American anti-slavery laws did remarkably little to free people enslaved within their respective jurisdictions. But their enactment – and the proximity of a permeable border between rival regimes – afforded an unprecedented opportunity to enslaved men, women, and children. Laws on both sides of the Great Lakes inadvertently established free spaces, where fugitives from the opposite side could find sanctuary. By passing from one jurisdiction to another, enslaved individuals could exploit competing slavery laws and emancipate themselves simply by crossing the border, a development that destabilized and ultimately destroyed chattel slavery in the borderlands.

In this talk, Dr. Gregory Wigmore will provide a broad overview of slavery in early Canada, especially in the Great Lakes region. His talk will explain how both slaveholders and the enslaved, along with British and American authorities, responded to the emergence of the new Canadian-American border after the American Revolution. While slaveholders in Upper Canada (now Ontario) begged the colonial government to help them protect their valuable human property, their enslaved laborers were among the first people in North America to understand the political significance of the new international boundary, using it as a portal to freedom.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Gregory Wigmore is a lecturer in the Department of History at Santa Clara University. He received his B.A. in journalism and history from Carleton University, and his Ph.D. in history from UC Davis. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of social and political history and foreign relations, especially the role of frontiers and borders. His article, “Before the Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom in the Canadian-American Borderland”, received the Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Ontario Historical Society’s Riddell Award. He is currently working on a book manuscript based on his dissertation, “The Limits of Empire: Allegiance, Opportunity, and Imperial Rivalry in the Canadian-American Borderland.”
Conference on Proto-Algonquian

Saturday, March 2 | 9:30 am – 4:00 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

The Canadian Studies Program invites you to a one-day conference honoring the late David Pentland on the occasion of the posthumous publication of his Proto-Algonquian Dictionary. The conference will bring together scholars from across the United States and Canada to celebrate this significant milestone in Algonquian scholarship, and to celebrate Dr. Pentland’s life and career as a prominent scholar in the field of Algonquian studies.

Ever since Leonard Bloomfield published his groundbreaking 1946 sketch outlining the sound system and basic morphology of Proto-Algonquian, refinements of the details of sound change and the reconstruction of Proto-Algonquian has been a central part of Algonquian linguistics. But the close similarities among most of the languages has led to a plethora of proposed reconstructions that are often not fully consistent with one another. Pentland’s dictionary has been a long-awaited step forward, bringing a new level of rigor and consistency to the field. Of course, it will also be a springboard to a range of new questions about methodology, classification, and borrowing. And we cannot discount the window on Algonquian culture such a comprehensive work provides. Speakers at the conference will address these questions and more.

Details about the conference, including the speaker schedule, are available on our website. The conference is at no cost, but attendees must register by emailing canada@berkeley.edu.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship Program

Deadline: Friday, March 15, 2024

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) is now accepting applications for the FY 2024 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) fellowship program.

The Fulbright-Hays DDRA provides opportunities for doctoral students to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. Proposed projects must be 6–12 months long and completed within an 18-month grant period of October 1, 2024–March 31, 2026. The Fellowship provides travel expenses, research funding, and maintenance and dependent care allowances.

Because these grants must be submitted by the Graduate Division on behalf of the applicant, please note that deadlines are strict and no exceptions will be made.

Email Gina Blanco, Project Director, as soon as possible to express your interest and your intention to apply.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Learn to Curl with the DML

Fri., Feb. 16 | 6:30 pm | Oakland, CA | Buy tickets

The Digital Moose Lounge invites you to learn to curl at the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club. All are welcome – no experience or equipment is needed. Friendly instructors will show you all the basics and help you safely curl for the first time. Your ticket includes an orientation to the sport, personal on-ice instruction, a mini-game, and light refreshments. Individuals and groups welcome: DML special rate offered.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE
Facebook  Twitter
Canadian Studies Program | Univ. of California, Berkeley, 213 Philosophy Hall #2308, Berkeley, CA 94720