September 1

Media Training Program

Directly relating to Heritage Defense at the national, division, and camp level is the incorporation of a continuing Media Training Program.

This will not be a one-time or occasional event, but hopefully a program that will continue on from administration to administration. It is possible that a 1 to 2 hour-long program can be held concurrently with either the fall or spring General Executive Council meeting at Elm Springs or at each national reunion.

Media training makes everyone feel more at ease in dealing with the press. It's excellent self-protection (all commanders take note). These training sessions will be conducted by SCV men who have extensive media contact experience.
Each session will cover the following:

· The Creation and Proper Use of the News Release
· Making and Maintaining Media Contact
· Handling the Media Interview

Division Command Contact
Improving the esprit de corps in the Sons of Confederate Veterans by encouraging closer contact with Elm Springs by division commanders would be beneficial to interest and morale. Such a boost could come from the General Executive Council getting to know first-hand, more of the command personnel who do not normally visit Elm Springs. Although they are welcome at Elm Springs anytime, they would more likely come to Columbia if asked to come and attend an event especially for division commanders.

To accomplish that, I plan that a "Commander's Summit" be held once or twice a year at our headquarters facility. There division commanders and subordinates would be briefed on selected issues relating to operations. Issues such as "The Workings of a Political Action Committee," "Legal Issues and the SCV," "Improving Your Media Relations," and other topics.

SCV Educational Outreach
It is a notable credit to our cause that many SCV dads and moms take time to teach their children the truth and culture of their Confederate Heritage, knowing that if they don't receive it at home they aren't likely to find it elsewhere. All too often, our impressionable children fall under an influence foreign to what we value, the destructive influence of Political Correctness that later causes them to despise their Southern Heritage.

Unfortunately for the Sons of Confederate Veterans as well as a drifting, wobbly American society, the influence wrought by the media and the education system will not change in the foreseeable future. That is why the SCV must find a way to reach adults who may be eligible to join our fight, but more importantly - If the Sons of Confederate Veterans is to survive as anything more powerful than a history book club at some point in the not too distant future, we must reach our own children!

That is why the SCV must educate at whatever the cost. For without education there can be little progress in improving the anti-Confederate climate so prevalent throughout the nation. Until there is a much greater education effort there can be little advancement in bringing in new members. These are two excellent reasons why I plan to launch an official Sons of Confederate Veterans Educational Outreach Program.

One of the first steps in my multi-step plan is the funding of the acquisition or production of professionally produced, 21st century communications tools. Tools created specifically for our outreach programs. Tools of persuasion that must include video, audio presentations, printed material and books, CD's and computer materials that tell our side of the story about the South's struggle for independence.

These educational tools would then be made available at no charge to the camps across the Confederation that commit to becoming involved in one or more of the outreach programs suggested in this platform.

The umbrella program would be known as the SCV Educational Outreach Program. The program would make a concentrated and specific effort to reach into the thousands of targets across the South. These targets would include cooperating schools and after school events, libraries, churches, civic clubs, history clubs and any other organization that gathers together an audience in need of a speaker or program.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans Educational Outreach Program must become reality across Dixie. Given the monumental roadblock that Political Correctness in the media and elsewhere has become - the SCV must not fail to establish such a program.

Conclusion
I am honored that you have elected me to serve as your Commander-in-Chief. I pledge to give you my very best, and I invite your communication. We must all work together to answer the "Charge" of S. D. Lee.

"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations."

- Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, United Confederate Veterans, 1906