Inaugural Address

to the

133rd Congress

National Society Sons of the American Revolution

President General John L. Dodd

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your President General. Thank you to my wife, Karen, and our family, for their support. I am not quite sure whether they tolerate my absences for SAR travel or look forward to them.

I thank PG Pickette for his friendship and assistance advising me this past year and involving me in the various deliberations and decisions.

Thank you also the former PG's who have encouraged me to seek this position and mentored me along the way, especially PG Larry Magerkurth whom we lost last year. Larry was instrumental in increasing the professionalism in SAR leadership and understanding of corporate governance which is a key to our long-term stability.

A few housekeeping matters. Thanks to COVID, I am - unfortunately - still working full time. Please do not call my office. Email is preferred to the johnldodd@twc.com email. Generally, I will respond at the end of the day or the next morning, not instantly.

Dr. Keith Weissinger and I are in the process of finalizing the committees. I thank Keith for his attention to detail through this process. If there is a committee you would like to assist, please first contact the committee chair, who will relay your request to Keith and myself.

Since I am working 3,000 miles away, I will be unable to travel for events to the East Coast every week. My goal is to attend an event in the Eastern or Central U.S. every other week. Many of these events are already on the calendar. I look forward to seeing you there. This will necessitate VPGs or other General Officers attending in my stead. Please contact travel coordinator Derek Brown with your requests as soon as possible. Priority will be given to events which have some "public facing" aspect.

Because of health concerns First Lady Karen usually will not be accompanying me. She will be there in spirit though and appreciates the work of all the ladies in the states and chapters to support the SAR's projects. As a "First Lady Project," she requests donations be made to the educational outreach programs at HQ. Karen was a teacher before becoming a lawyer. She recognizes the importance of patriotic education for our youth. SAR hosts countless students throughout the year for $10 a head. Hopefully, your donations will make this resource available to schools which otherwise would be unable to participate. Megan and Rae Ann have a fund for this.

Because of COVID we have not had an SAR trip for some time. Next spring we plan to journey to France to honor the contributions of Rochambeau, Vergennes, and others Tentative dates are April 28 to May 12 so we - meaning "me" - can return prior to college graduations. We plan to see a lot of the countryside, including Normandy, the Loire Valley, Tours, Lyon, Dijon and concluding in Paris. We will have some great wine and food, as well as fellowship with our Compatriots from the France Society. Information will be available on the SAR website shortly. Travel with fellow SAR Compatriots is a great way to make new friends who share our common interest in history and patriotism.

I was pleased to see the Hayes family host a young lady from the France society as part of our Youth Exchange program. Both my son Will and daughter Lacy participated. I recommend it highly. Compatriot Hayes has taken over as program chair and is eager to assist you with matching your children and grandchildren with a counterpart from France.

As we enter the period of the 250th Anniversary of the Revolution, everything we do should raise public awareness of both the sacrifices of our Patriot Ancestors and the SAR. 

My goals this year are modest. Spread the word of the sacrifices of our Patriot Ancestors and the good work you all are doing in your states and chapters. To mix Biblical metaphors: do not hide your good works under a bushel basket but proclaim them from the rooftops.

This can start simply by wearing your SAR logo shirts and caps when you are running errands around town. Wear your SAR rosette on your sports coat or suit coat, or an America 250 pin. These are great conversation starters and a way to find potential members you might not otherwise contact. 

States and chapters must be creative in raising the SAR's profile over the next several years. This benefits not only the SAR but also advances our educational mission to inform the general public concerning the sacrifices of our Patriot Ancestors and the current relevance of the values for which they fought.

The National Society has taken steps to raise the public profile of the SAR with the addition of Marketing and Public Relations Manager Drew Hight. The new Marketing Plan provides useful guidance to states and chapters to assist in getting out our message.

We now have active Face book, Twitter and YouTube accounts. Each one of you should "join," "like," "follow" and "subscribe" to these outlets, as the case may be. More followers tells the algorithms that these sites are important and will direct traffic to them from folks outside the SAR. This simple act takes only minutes. Please take this message back to your states and chapters. 

Each of your chapters should at least have a Face Book page, and maybe Twitter and YouTube accounts as well, depending on whether you can get your kids and grand kids to help set them up :>

Also, each time you have an event, post on your social media about it. Create a short video and send it to Drew for editing and posting on the national YouTube channel. We are depending on the states and chapters to create the "content" which will raise public awareness of the SAR and the 250th.

I also commend the work of everyone involved in publicizing the 250th Anniversary of the Revolution, particularly Cliff Olson as committee chairman and J. Howard Fisk for the website. Howard and Compatriot Eric Alford are helping with one of the highest visibility aspects of our 250th publicity. We are working with Henry Rifles to produce a special SAR tribute rifle marking significant events in Revolution. For those who have not seen these, go to Henry Rifle's website and check their tribute editions. They have them for the scouts, firefighters, truckers, and other groups.

Our tribute model will have an etching of the SAR eagle logo on one side of the receiver with a special etching of the event on the other. Each rifle will be available for only approximately one year. We will start later this year with the Boston Tea Party to mark that 250th in December. Then we will have the Lexington and Concord, Washington Crossing the Delaware, etc. on though Yorktown and maybe the Treaty of Paris - depending on sales.

We hope to have these available exclusively through Bass Pro Shops & Cabelas, featured in their Christmas catalogue with a paragraph on the event and mention of the SAR. We hope a portion of the proceeds of the sale of each rifle will go to the Foundation for the Education Center and Museum. So, guys - and ladies - get your Christmas list started. The mention of the SAR and the 250th in the catalogue will be seen by millions of Americans. It will be an important kickoff for the 250th Anniversary period.

I encourage you to try and include some public facing aspect in everything you do. Not only present flag certificates to prominent businesses but go further and issue a press release and document the presentation with photos and videos and post them on line. Offer to investigate the lineage of anyone at the business.

Not only document your presentation of awards for youth and first responders, but send out press releases and post the ceremony on social media. 

Presentation of these awards is a vehicle to inform the public - through press releases and social media - not only about the SAR and its programs but also about the upcoming 250th Anniversary of the Revolution. Again, offer to investigate the recipient's lineage.

I also suggest that, for prominent members of your community or recipients of these awards, offer to pay their application fees and first year dues. Maybe they will take you up on it, or maybe they will pay anyway. You may have seen that actor James Woods joined. When we met to sign the application, he said thanks but he would pay the fees, taking out his checkbook. He asked how much. I responded $175 or whatever it was. He joked I should have told him $1,000.

Compatriot Woods has been instrumental in spreading the word about the 250th by re-tweeting the Revolutionary War and Beyond essays sent out by PG Manning to his 3.4 Million followers every day and encouraging folks to be passionate about history - as well as join the SAR and DAR. I encourage you to "follow" him as well.

Compatriot Travis Tritt also has tweeted out about his SAR membership to his over 300,000 followers. There are several more folks in this pipeline, with hopefully even more as we enter the 250th period.

The publicity you will get on social media from inducting those to whom you give awards or the owner of the local shopping mall, manufacturing plant or car dealership will far outweigh the small amount the chapter advances for fees. And he may see fit to make a larger donation to the chapter or national society down the road.

Whether prominent or not, welcome these new members into your chapter. I continue to hear of anecdotal evidence of a chapter representative merely handing an interested fellow a brochure, sending him a weblink, or answering an email whenever he gets around to it. We are all volunteers, but for the SAR to grow, we really do need to take some of these folks by the hand and walk them through the process.

Moreover, once they come to a chapter meeting, buy them lunch, find a position or committee that interests them. Let them know you value their participation and are happy they joined. It takes less effort to retain a member than do the paperwork for a new one. Maybe you have a member who has had the same position for 10 years and does not want to pass it along. But maybe he would agree to an assistant, or mentor someone about the SAR. Younger members, sons and grandsons can be your webmaster or social media chairman. 

Now that I am a cranky old man, I can say we can't just be the "cranky old man society."

SAR membership currently is about 37,000. For several years, we have had no significant net gain in membership. New members more-or-less equaled deaths and drops. Retention is the simplest solution. Reach out to those who chose not to renew and see what more they are looking for in the SAR.

If we can grow about 12% annually for the next several years, we can reach 60,000 members sometime in 2026. This is difficult but not an insurmountable goal. I challenge you to meet or match that goal for your own chapter.

The SAR has transitioned - to use a use a word currently in the news - from an organization focused on membership activities, awards and local parades to also being an organization on the cusp of being the primary source of accurate information concerning the American Revolution.  

Youth programs focus on students who hopefully will be tomorrow's leaders. The Dr. Tom & Betty Lawrence American History Teacher Award and multiple state and chapter sponsorships for attending the Freedom's Foundation at Valley Forge provide important assistance to the teachers who are educating tomorrow's leaders. The Annual Conference on the American Revolution focuses on the academic community by advancing historical scholarship at the highest level

Building on this educational mission is the Educational Center and Museum, under construction in Louisville. Note "Educational Center" is before "Museum." Through the efforts of Kent Gregory, Bill Stone and others, we are amassing an amazing collection of Revolutionary-era artifacts rivaling any in the country. However, it is the educational component which will set your facility in Louisville apart from the crowd. Using cutting edge technology, the educational component will be available not just to visitors, but also to any classroom in America, as well as home schoolers and interested adults, and not just in America but around the world.

Now that we have begun construction of the Education Center and Museum, I urge you to double down on your contributions. The Liberty Tree Campaign is probably the most painless way you can make a difference. For less than one dinner out monthly you can make a meaningful recurring contribution on your credit card.

We the Sons - and Daughters - of the American Revolution do not belong because we think we are better than our friends and neighbors who either have not completed the paperwork or are ineligible. We participate because we know we owe something to our Patriot Ancestors. We owe them the effort to remember and document their sacrifices.

I will share one short story about one of my ancestor's service. I have not completed the supplemental paperwork yet, but I claim him nonetheless.

When he was about 16, in 1776, Mathias Hanlon's father sent him to Allentown, New Jersey, to stay with his sister supposedly away from harm. Instead of staying with her, he enlisted in the army, fighting for several years. He was in battles of New Bruswick, Brandywine, and others.  According to his pension record, at one point he was sent to Kettle Creek to guard salt works. The record reports: "they got in conversation with Ladies and were taken by some British and Tories before they were aware of their approach." He was then "hung until he was lifeless" but "afterwards found himself lying upon the ground abandoned by said British and Tories, and as soon as his situation would permit, made his way back to the Kettle Creek Salt Works." Talk about perseverance! This guy was not even 20, gets hung until the Tories think he is dead, then gets up and continues the fight. We owe these Patriots something. 

Our Patriot Ancestors did not just fight a battle of arms. They fought a battle of ideas. This new nation began as an IDEA. Scholars, shopkeepers and farmers shared the common IDEA people could govern themselves. It was not merely that the colonists opposed any particular tax. Our Patriot Ancestors opposed the IDEA that they could not govern themselves. They fought for the IDEA of independence.

Some colonists were content to be ruled by a king. Others even were willing to take up arms to remain servants of a far-away government which wanted to impose exorbitant taxes and dictate many details of their lives. So, too, now, many people do not share the values of our Founders. It may be popular in some circles to denigrate, disparage or even deny the ideological underpinnings of the American Revolution. It may be chic to ignore the benefits our Patriot Ancestors' sacrifices brought not only to this Nation, but also to the entire world. Popular culture often misrepresents the Founders' motives, criticizing the IDEAS which gave us the Constitution, which permits them right to criticize those ideas.

But not us. Our Education Center and Museum is an important step in winning the modern battle of ideas. The ideas our Patriot Ancestors fought for must not be forgotten. Be proud of your Patriot Ancestors. Honor their legacy. Their ideas are timeless and will prevail.

Thank you again for your continuing service to the SAR and for allowing me to serve as your President General. God Bless America and the SAR.

John L. Dodd

President General

2023-2024