Notes from the Field

Laura Bush, new member of the National Advisory Board (center) with National Commander Commissioner Israel Gaither (left) and National Advisory Board Chairman Rob Pace (right)

Rob Pace chairman of The Salvation Army’s National Advisory Board welcomed Laura Bush as a new member of the board during the plenary session at the January meeting held in San Antonio.    Mrs. Bush has been a long standing supporter of The Salvation Army’s charitable works, including serving as a keynote speaker during the Army’s 2007 National Advisory Organizations Conference in Dallas, attended by more than 2,000 organizational volunteers, staff and officers.

As with all new members to the NAB, Mrs. Bush, participated in a new member orientation session, conducted by National Commander Commissioner Israel Gaither, NAB Chairman Rob Pace, National Chief Secretary Colonel David Jeffrey, and Major George Hood, National Community Relations and Development Secretary. 

The new member orientation included a discussion of the mission of the Army, a brief history of The Salvation Army, its organizational structure, the NAB’s mission, responsibilities and operating plan, and the role of committees.  The discussion was augmented by a PowerPoint presentation.  Mrs. Bush asked each of the officers to share their personal story about their call to ministry to The Salvation Army

At the conclusion of the orientation session, the National Commander escorted Mrs. Bush to the various committee meetings, which were in session. After visiting the committees, new members to the NAB can decide which committee they would like to serve.

The National Advisory Board and local advisory boards are absolutely essential in the work and acceptance of The Salvation Army in the communities in which they serve.  These boards are imperative to the work, progress and life of The Salvation Army.  The wisdom of involving key, influential leaders of the community in the work of the Army is obvious, and proved itself many times over.

Happy New Year!

We promise to do the most good.

According to Wikipedia New Year’s resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year’s Day. Some examples include resolutions to donate to the poor more often, to become more assertive, or to become more environmentally responsible.

I usually start the New Year with at least a few resolutions. It’s only when I’m honest with myself about the bad habits or attitudes that I’d like to change, along with a deep-down commitment to making the change, that I have any degree of success. I need to keep revisiting my resolutions . . .it helps to keep me on track.

I thought January is a good time for us to revisit The Salvation Army’s promise to serve and do the most good.  Keeping this inspiring message fresh in our mind  may help us align our sights for our journey through 2010.

I am doing the most good.

I am hope.

I am compassion.

I am strength.

I am faith.

I am doing the most good.

I serve a community.

A region.

A nation.

A world.

I serve heroes.

I serve victims.

I serve a sovereign God.

I am doing the mot good.

I am an Army.

Drafted by the Creator.

Commissioned by a man who defied death.

My enemies are despair and destruction.

My ammunition is grace and mercy.

My allies are generosity and benevolence.

I am an Army.

Helping others be all they can be.

I am doing the most good.

I feed empty stomachs and hungry souls.

I rebuild ruined homes and shattered lives.

I am a willing listener for a veteran with stories to tell.

I am a bottled water and an encouraging smile for a weary firefighter.

I am an answered prayer.

A silver lining.

A second chance.

I am doing the most good.

I am a humble steward of other people’s generosity.

I am a grateful courier of a stranger’s kindness.

I am the faithful executor of others’ goodwill.

I take my responsibility seriously.

I am blessed.

I am a blessing.

I am The Salvation Army.

I am doing the most good.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed at Christmas?  Are you pouring over the Christmas shopping list, scheduling parties, preparing for guests or making travel arrangements, writing and mailing Christmas cards? 

Every year, I resolve to start early!  Between now and News Year’s Day, many of us are caught up in the holiday frenzy. This year my goal is to simplify my self-imposed trappings!

Many of us are cutting back this Christmas due to the economy.  According to the Conference Board, $390 is the average amount U.S. households expect to spend on Christmas gifts this year, down from $418 in 2008.  Twenty-two percent plan to spend less than $100. Seven million people have lost jobs since the beginning of the recession.

A colleague remarked the other day that it just doesn’t “feel” like Christmas.  I began to reflect on her remark.  I started to think about what Christmas means to me. I could add more to this list, but to offer a few personal joys in celebrating Christmas, such as:

• Giving gifts to my husband, the grandchildren and dear friends; 
• Hearing Handel’s Messiah and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and singing Christmas carols;
• Seeing the Christmas lights in windows and wreaths on doors;
• Spending the holidays with family and friends;
• Reading the Christmas story of the birth of Christ.

But what can I do to simply my self-imposed trappings and embrace the spirit of Christmas?  Here are some of my thoughts:

• Instead of sending out cards, I can call some dear friends on my list and wish them a merry Christmas. Hearing a friend’s voice on the phone is always heartwarming.
• I can offer a smile and a pleasant greeting to those people who assist me all the time, such as at the bank, grocery store, and drycleaners. 
• I can be more patient when inconvenienced, especially at the post office. Sometimes, I’m in such a rush to complete errands.

Working with The Salvation Army, especially during the holidays, is very fulfilling.  No matter what’s going on in the world or the state of our economy, The Salvation continues to provide for people in need year round. 

The Salvation Army offers many opportunities to celebrate the holiday season by thinking and doing for others:

• Volunteer at a Salvation Army red kettle;
• Gather friends together to serve meals at your local Salvation Army unit;
• Host your own online Red Kettle.

My shopping list is shorter; I’m not sending out as many cards; I’ve hung the wreath on the door; my Christmas tree is smaller.  I feel better by getting back to the true meaning of Christmas. 

Please share your thoughts about your Christmas journey this year.

Online Angel Giving Tree

One small gift can bring joy to a Salvation Army Angel this Christmas.The Salvation Army is gearing up for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season to provide comfort and joy to even more people in need this year.

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. and The Salvation Army are joining forces this Christmas season through a grand-scale online Angel Giving Tree program. From now until December 14, for the first-time ever, customers can adopt and shop online for Angels at www.jcp.com/angel, providing tens of thousands of children and seniors facing hardship in communities across the country with Christmas gifts. 

This new online Angel Giving Tree program with JCPenney that will allow The Salvation Army to build upon a great Christmas tradition by reaching a new online audience,” said Major George Hood, national community relations and development secretary for The Salvation Army. “With the winter months around the corner, we appreciate this opportunity to inspire the American public to make a better Christmas for the millions of children and seniors living in poverty.  One small gift can bring joy to a Salvation Army Angel this Christmas.”

The online Angel Giving Tree program allows customers to adopt an Angel at jcp.com/angel and conveniently shop for them online at jcp.com, in JCPenney stores or at any location they choose. In a few easy steps, customers can visit the site to request an Angel by location, age range and gender. An Angel who matches the criteria will be e-mailed to the customer along with a list of needed items. The confirmation e-mail will also include a link to view drop-off locations in the customer’s area and ship-to addresses for online orders.

Supporting the online Angel Giving Tree program will be a multimedia marketing campaign including in-store, print, online and e-mail advertising as well as social media initiatives through Facebook Connect. JCPenney Facebook fans will be able to access the Angel Giving Tree website directly as well as post and share their Angel adoption with their friends.

  The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program has been in operation for more than 40 years.

The National Red Kettle Kickoff  for The Salvation Army takes place on Thanksgiving Day with Grammy-nominated  rock band, Daughtry, performing live at the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game against the Oakland Raiders in a nationally televised halftime show that will air on CBS television network on November 26, 2009 at 3:15 pm CST.  The performance will officially kick off The Salvation Army’s 2009 Red Kettle Christmas campaign, the oldest annual charitable fundraiser of its kind in the United States.

Daughtry’s performance will mark the 13th year that the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game halftime show officially launches the Red Kettle Christmas Campaign on a nationally televised stage. The event has become an annual holiday tradition for fans in attendance.  Previous halftime performers include Jonas Brothers, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Sheryl Crow, Destiny’s Child, Toby Keith, LeAnn Rimes, Creed, Jessica Simpson, Billy Gillman, Clint Black, Randy Travis and Reba McEntire.

The Red Kettle campaign has raised more than $1 billion since the partnership began in 1997 and has helped the Army to serve 30 million people each year nationwide. Last year, the campaign raised a record $130 million.

For more than a decade Mr. Jones and his family have been major supporters of The Salvation Army. The Jones family and the Dallas Cowboys  help The Salvation Army express the importance of giving back during the Christmas season. This partnership has evolved into a great holiday tradition.  

As the national honorary Salvation Army Christmas chairperson, Dallas Cowboys owner and manager, Mr. Jerry Jones will act as an advocate for the campaign during Christmas by helping to spread the word about The Salvation Army’s critical programs year-round.

Mr. Jones is now an Emeritus member of The Salvation Army’s National Advisory Board and his daughter, Charlotte Jones Anderson and wife Gene currently serve as active board members.

Did you know that the Red Kettle Campaign is a tradition which began in 1891?

From its original beginnings as a fundraiser started by a Salvation Army captain in San Francisco in 1891, the Red Kettle Campaign has grown into one of the most recognizable and important charitable campaigns in the United States. As part of the campaign, more than 25,000 Salvation Army volunteers spread throughout the country to ring bells daily and solicit spare change donations to the iconic red kettles from holiday shoppers.

In 2008, the campaign raised more than $130 million nationwide, a new record supported by the public’s  nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars (and the occasional diamond ring or gold tooth) all collected and used to help people in the communities where they were raised.

Last year, the funds helped The Salvation Army provide food, clothing, toys and other assistance to nearly 30 million Americans in need. In addition to physical kettles, donors can also contribute online at www.salvationarmyusa.org or through a virtual red kettle on any number of corporate or individual websites and Facebook pages.

The state of the economy has forced an increasing amount of people across the country to seek help from The Salvation Army.  The continued public support of the Red Kettle campaign is a major reason why the Army able to provide families with food, utility assistance, adult rehabilitation from alcohol and drug addiction, disaster relief and other services to more than 5,000 communities nationwide.

Share your experience as a bell ringer.

Change or Die?

In recent days I’ve noticed that several of my staff members have walked into my office and remarked, “Oh how beautiful,” as they are staring outside through my windows.  I have a lovely ground-floor corner office and must admit that I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to what’s going on outside.

Yesterday, after having yet another individual make the same remark while gazing through my windows, I stopped to see what all of the admiration was about.  I looked out my window and there it was.  Beautiful fall trees; bright, bright red leaves on at least two large trees, accompanied by a few more glistening in vivid colors of gold and orange.  At that moment I too said, “Wow!  How pretty.”  And I almost missed it because I was accustomed to only looking inward.

Change is in the air.  Yes, the leaves have begun to change their colors; the night air is a little bit nippier; the average daily temperatures are dropping and for us in Northern Virginia, we have been through several days of steady rain.  You can feel the change and when you look outside, you definitely can see the change.

I have a book in my personal library that carries the title Change or Die.  It is a church growth book and I haven’t read it in several years.  Its message is pretty clear and frankly presented.  The church as we know it from our own perspective; the church of our past and present, is striving to survive amidst a culture that is in rapid and mostly unpleasant change.  The point being made is that we either change or disappear.  For The Salvation Army the reality of change must be observed and addressed in a dual focus – how do we address change as it impacts us as a church, and how do we address change as it impacts us as a charity, solely dependent upon emerging generations of future donors?

My advice to all of us is this – open your windows and take a long hard look outside!  What do you see out there in this new world of mobile devices, dwindling respect for authority, intensely polarized opinions, and compromised values?  How will we survive?  Can we survive?

Change or die?  I believe we need to be open and receptive to change.  I’m certainly not suggesting any changes in our theology, our core values, or our mission.  But what about our tactics, procedures, structure and willingness to explore innovative approaches in outreach evangelism and corps growth on one hand, uniquely paralleled with how we cultivate, relate, sustain and grow our donor base and advisory boards on the other?

Unfortunately, we are notorious for only looking inward.  We thrive on our aggrandizements, Army myth and  folk lore, and sometimes truly believe that we can channel William and Catherine Booth to proclaim how they might react if they were truly with us today.

I’m suggesting to you and me, that we may need to open up our windows and take a long hard look outside, not inside.  What do you see out there?  How will you react to what you see?  What can you efficiently change from what you see from where you are?  How passionate are you about what you see?

Change or die?  It just seems to me, as I take a look outside, the strategies and tactics that we identify today as being the most ripe for change, may be the means by which we win the future.

Major George Hood

National Community Relations Secretary

The Salvation Army National Headquarters

As one who believes in the old adage that we can’t thank our volunteers too many times, I wanted to share a concept we do in Phoenix during the holiday season. I think it’s a fun and different way to say thanks … while sharing some interesting bits of “trivia” about our beloved organization.

We have a very large Christmas Angel program in our community.  Though thousands of families are served through multiple distribution centers, our major center hosts seven distribution days. In preparing the warehouse for each day of distribution, we have large groups of volunteers at the Center the evening before (and on weekend days as well). More often than not, a majority of each evening’s volunteers come from one or two corporations or civic groups. As we work through the evening, one of our board volunteers always takes dozens of photographs of the workers … some posed, some candid.

At the end of the evening, each respective group is invited to pose in front of the shelves that are overflowing with gifts. It’s a very impressive shot. (We also encourage individual families to let us take their photos together as well.)

We then send an e-mail to the corporate organizer to thank them for their assistance … and include countless photos of their employees (and family members) that participated. Included in the e-mail of gratitude are bullet points of interest about the Army. For example, did you know The Salvation Army was the inspiration behind the wonderful Christmas song, Silver Bells? We reiterate how many people are served locally and nationally by the Army (even though we mention this at the end of the evening’s work, it’s good to mention in writing). We share fascinating tidbits of information about the history of the Army. This information about our organization is easily attained for a note of this nature.

When the corporate representative receives our e-mails of photos and information on the Army, s/he forwards it to all the participants and sometimes throughout the organization. At that point, the volunteer effort becomes an even greater point of pride for employees and their families. (We know of at least one family who incorporated their warehouse photo into their annual Christmas card.)

Photographs are a wonderful way to show appreciation. Adding some nuggets of history about The Salvation Army into an e-mail “thank-you” makes the whole acknowledgement even richer and easier to share.

The “Others” award is an important way to give special recognition to those that give important service and assistance to your local Salvation Army.

It is important that your board develop specific criteria for determining worthy recipients, and you will be required to write up the application for ultimate approval at division and territory levels.

While you should carefully consider giving this award annually, there is no mandate to make this on a yearly basis, and in many cases you will want to only give it, as appropriate, and not simply because another year has passed since last awarded.

Suggested criteria might include:

*   Given in recognition of unique and meritorious local service to the Army

*   Create a committee of past award recipients to make recommendation

*   Ideally alternate between internal (board) and external (community)

*   Keep careful records as to past recipients  (never give it twice to the same person!)

*   Only one per year, and consider skipping years, as appropriate

Remember, this is a very significant award, and it should be determined with great care and thought.  Also, be sure to award this, if possible, at an event where the community is in attendance, to give the greatest exposure and recognition to the recipient and the services performed.

We also give lesser awards to deserving individuals which we call “Community Service Awards.”  We have special plaques engraved with suitable Salvation Army logos and identification of the award.  Thus we are able to give wider recognition to deserving community members than otherwise afforded by the once a year “Others” recognition.