My theme for the coming year is borrowed from Michael Smith, a Past Grand ER.  It is “Be Proud, Be Loud and Be Visible“.  Every Lodge does a lot of things for their community that we should be Proud of, such as Americanism contests, Drug Awareness programs including red ribbon week, scholarships, the Hoop Shoot, service to our veterans, sponsoring Camp Carefree and donations to various community projects.  All of these are things to be Proud of, but how much of this is known to the people of your community?  We need to be Loud and let the community be aware of what we do.  If you have an award ceremony, take pictures of the presentations and try to get them published in the local paper, perhaps in the club section if they have such a section.  This is how you can become more Visible.  If you have a designated public relations person, every Lodge should have such a person, have this person try to get your events posted in the local paper or on your web site or Facebook page so the community can be made aware of what we are doing.

Fraternally,
Peter Breidenbach