What do you think is the number one challenge facing the Ladies Auxiliary now, and how should we address that challenge?
Membership – no doubt. My first suggestion would be a survey of current active-duty, eligible service men and women to see what they need and want. Whether it’s a game room for the kids, a ball diamond out back, a bowling alley or teen activities, we need to find out, and then we need to give it to them. We’re letting them slip through our fingers. And I sincerely believe that we have to put money into the process, invest some of our capital in someone from the outside who can concentrate on that type of survey. We also have to be open to change. If we aren’t, I
National Guard
Candidate COLETTE BISHOP Illinois
don’t foresee us being around much longer. We need to change the face and image of this organization. We still have too much good work to do.
What do you see as the greatest strength of this organization, and how can we build on that for the future?
What we do for our veterans and active-duty military members is our undisputed strength. So we must continue sending care packages to the troops, and hosting send-off and welcome-home events. Those things are our image builders, but I don’t think we’re visible enough. We have to publicize more at every level. We need to better educate the public and we’re not succeeding at that. Our scholarship programs are excellent, too, but
they are under-recognized. We need to let the right people know about them, perhaps take the local awards presentations outside the Posts to the schools where other students will find out about them.
What motivates you to seek the role of a National Officer, and what do you believe is the best use of your gifts?
With generations of family involvement in the
Auxiliary, I cannot stand by and not be a part of making things better. I have to get in there and help our leadership by being a part of the leadership that’s making it better.
I think if I get an opportunity to talk to people about our purpose and the way we do things, I can generally motivate them. Whether that’s for 10 minutes or 24 hours, it helps. We need to motivate members to go home from meetings and do something! We need to make them excited about this. If we get excited about it, we’ll do it. n
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