Hard to believe that we are down to just 24 hours left of the NALC. The time as flown by any many ways, and in others we have accomplished so much that it feels like we have been here for longer then just the five days of the college.

With so much ground gained, hopefully National will consider keeping this blog up for us to continue to converse with, and learn from, our fellow classmates. On the same note, hopefully everyone will join the alumni association and continue to share ideas and contribute to maintaining The American Legion as THE best veterans organization, and to making it even better in the future.

cds

MFHannan 11/8/7

Please consider having someone be able to tell the students about how to satisfy our basic needs. Clothing and shelter are covered - therefore eating (where and how to get there) would be helpful since we do not have transportation while we are here. The messages being delivered to each of the groups from the facilitators is not consistent. There are housekeeping items that need to be mentioned in the beginning so that we are not wondering how some basic things will be taken care of; i.e. the accumulation of instructional materials to be shipped to our homes for us. Critiquing was given a negative connotation unnecessarily; it is helpful knowing that we will be provided with constructive criticism from some people at the very top. We should not be led to believe this is something to be concerned about. Facilitators should be provided with details of a general nature; i.e. where to go to get what done, what tools we will have available, etc.

Even though our group appears to be the only one that has created it's own section of the blog, and others appear to be posting everything in the main page, as long as this section is here we may as well make use of it.

Group five, and many of us have commented upon internally since the first breakout session, appears to be a diverse but well prepared group that has quickly become a team. We've encouraged and received input from all members, built consensuses on the issues and projects before us, and generally moved with a purpose to achieve our goals.

There is a bit of a tendency to get more in depth and over-detailed then we need to (of which I freely admit to being one of the bigger perpetrators), but yet after a late night on Sunday, the last two days we have left the HQ building with an agreement that the work of that day as a group is done. Individually, and sometimes in smaller groups, we have continued to research and hone the information we have - which has lead to changes in the projects the next day - but we've had the hours after to leaving the headquarters building available to socialize, network, and learn from each other's experience while knowing that the projects are already taken care of.

It's certainly an honor to be a part of this group, and of this National American Legion College and I look forward to what the second half will bring.

cds

Joe T's Day 2

Hello to all:

Memebers of NALC visited the local VA Hospital. I personnaly had a very good visit with their West Wing Trama Unit. The personnel working this Unit were very helpful with questions and allowing my little group access to our fellow Veterans that are in their Unit. Group 5 has begun to come together as a group and we are going to have great presentations on our assignments.

Thank you to all Joe T.

Day 1 - GROUP BLOG

Met together as a group - working with "PVT 5" to discuss Post 901 revitalization. Choose a spokesperson and recorder. Choose topics for 20 min presentation, and will meet again later tonite to organize our 5 minute presentation, after conducting research.
Michael Hannan
Jerry "Marty" Everett
Milt Smith
Joseph Thompson
Jill Druskis
Domnic Brown
Patrica Harris
Joseph Mansfield
Charles "Dale" Strom