STATE COMMUNITY SERVICE CHAIRMAN
VFW Department of South Carolina
Community Service
COMMUNITY SERVICE is extremely Important to each VFW Post and its Auxiliary.
The great deeds performed by our comrades and Auxiliary members across South Carolina helping our communities and supporting our veterans should be recognized and accounted for. For this reason, Community Service reporting is a requirement of every Post in the Department of South Carolina. Community Service Reporting is a criterium for All-State and All-American recognition. Each Post should have a designated Community Service representative appointed by the Post Commander to collect paper reports from comrades and Auxiliary members and report them electronically via our website.
Each Post should maintain a readily available supply of 2024-2025 Community Service Report forms for Individual Comrades. That form is available at this link:
**** SC Community Service Report Form for Individuals 2024-2025 125th Anniversary REVISED ****
Keep a supply of these forms available at your Post. Hand them out at your Post meetings so that individuals can report their activities. Your CS chairman should collect and report them via our website report form. He/she should also gather reports from your Post’s Auxiliary President and report Auxiliary hours, miles, and dollars spent along with the Post’s reports on the VFWSC.org website using the link below:
This link is to be used by your Post’s Community Service Chairman to access the online website report form is here:
****Post Chairman's online report form****
(Please note: The link above is NOT TO BE USED by individual comrades. It is only for the use of your Post’s designated Community Service chairman after he/she collects individual paper report forms.)
Just about everything you need to know about Community Service can be found on the VFW National website. The links to those materials on vfw.org are provided below. All Post Commanders and all Community Service chairmen at Post level should be familiar with the content found at these links.
COMMUNITY SERVICE BEST PRACTICES(National)
*** VFW GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE BEST PRACTICES ***
For more detailed information, the link to the Community Service and Citizenship Chairman’s Manual can be found here and is recommended reading for all Community Service chairpersons at the Post level:
COMMUNITY SERVICE GUIDELINES(National)
**** 2024 Community and Citizenship Chairman's Manual ****
In addition to these resources at National, our South Carolina Community Service guidelines provide important information for our Department’s Community Service program. That link can be found here:
**** South Carolina Local Community Service Guidelines ****
WHY REPORTING IS IMPORTANT
At the end of each reporting year, VFW national reports the number of hours and the monetary value of all of our donated time and money to Congress. These total numbers demonstrate the importance of the VFW to our government, the savings we provide to the government and the Veterans Administration, and why we should continue to maintain our tax-exempt status.
WHY REPORTS MUST BE "HONEST AND ACCURATE”
The VFW is always susceptible to an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Reports that are inflated or are not within report guidelines can jeopardize our tax-exempt status.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not "double report”. Don’t report the same activity under more than one category and claim the dollars, miles, comrades and hours again and again.
Example: your Post marches in the local parade (which would be Americanism) and invites the local Scout organization to participate (which would be Youth Activities). You had 10 comrades march in the parade and the parade lasted three hours. Report 30 hours, 10 members, and the mileage for each of the 10 comrades under Americanism. You can also submit another report for the Youth Activity but put ZEROES in the block for HOURS, COMRADES, MONEY, and MILEAGE . That would be double reporting if you claimed those hours again under a different category.!
SAFETY REPORTS
Every Post should make Safety an agenda item at each meeting. Make sure you report it! If the safety briefing took 3 minutes, just Multiply 3 minutes times 20 comrades attending to get 1 hour. Enter 1 in the Hours block on the report. If it took 4 minutes, 4 times 20 equals 80 minutes. Change that to a decimal and enter 1.33 hours.
DEPARTMENT COMMUNITY SERVICE Clyde Lindsay Award
Department of South Carolina Most Outstanding Post Community Service Award
THE CUT OFF DATE FOR THE CLYDE LINDSAY AWARD IS 1 APRIL AND MUST BE SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT AWARDS CHAIRMAN BY 15 APRIL BY EACH DISTRICT COMMANDER.
CRITERIA FOR THE CLYDE LINDSAY AWARD:
- First Criteria: The Outstanding Post MUST HAVE AT LEAST one report in EACH of the six Community Service Categories listed above.
- Second Criteria: Post MUST BE NOMINATED by its District Commander no later than 23 April. (This way, the Chain of Command is involved in the selection process and will narrow the selections down to 8 Posts for further consideration. It will also give us time to analyze the data for each of the nominations and select the winner.)
- Third Criteria: Of the 8 Posts nominated by their District Commanders, the Department Commander will select the most Outstanding Community Service Post based on the following totals as recorded on the website AS OF 1 APRIL OF EACH YEAR. The award will be selected by the Department Commander based on:
A. Total Hours given in service to the Community is probably the most important selection criteria.
B. Members Total % of Post population. Take the total number of MEMBERS reported in all Community Service reports divided by the total number of members in that Post. (This criteria will demonstrate how well the Post Commander is able to motivate comrades to serve their community).
C. Total Amount of Dollars Raised/Donated as of 23 April of each year.
_________________________________________________________________
National Outstanding Community Service Post
On the Department's dashboard are the report totals for each post for Community Service, Americanism, Legislative, Youth Activities, Safety, & Veterans and Military Support. All comrades can also see the Total Hours, Members Total, and Money Total for each post.
This award is selected by the Director of National Programs based on report data that is accessed by National from our Department’s report card.
National Award Deadlines:
*April 30, Post Special Project & Fred C. Hall Award Submission (Department to National) Outstanding Post Special Project Awards are given each year to Posts that do a special project outside their normal VFW activities.
Posts should submit their entries to Department for review and endorsement before going to VFW National Headquarters. All submissions receive a certificate, Award of Merit plaque or an Award of Excellence plaque. Those receiving the Award of Excellence will be entered into the Fred C. Hall Memorial Outstanding Post Special Project competition. Refer to VFW.org for further details.
Questions? If you need any help or guidance, please contact the Department Community Service Chairman, Nick Camera, at ncamera1@gmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Below is a list of ideas for your post to get involved in to get credit for Community Service. You do not need to do all of these but there are some excellent ideas on this list. And remember to submit your report(s) up to the Dashboard in order to receive credit.
100 Event Ideas for VFW Day of Service.
