August 14 2024 - * SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT * KY DIVISION SOCIAL MEDIA INITIATIVE

Gentlemen,
It's been an exceptionally busy summer for the KY Division. We're fresh from the 2024 National Reunion in Charleston, SC and one of our own, Tom Hiter now sits on the GEC at National Headquarters as the new SCV Chaplain-in-Chief. Congrats Tom, we know you'll do a fine job! Our new Commander-in-Chief Walter Kennedy and his new team, including new Army of Tennessee Commander Carl Jones & Councilman Roy Hudson are finding their way into their new positions and KY looks forward to supporting them as we continue forward. Division Chaplain Emeritus Mark Sutherd Carroll has logged countless personal hours creating a brand new Division website, so we thank him for his efforts and commitment to something we've been needing for a while now. All of these men and the KY DEC are more than willing & able to assist you as well. In that vein, it's time we change things up and go forward as a Division. After long consideration, I'm announcing today the Kentucky Division Social Media Initiative. This initiative is designed to get ALL of our camps together into one general means of discussion & communication. For far too long, we've had certain camps and members refuse to change with the times as far as communication goes. In 2018 at the Division Reunion in Princeton, I listened to our former Adjutant talk about the need for better communication and more commitment to change. Well, that was 7 years ago now and we're still having trouble getting our message out to the public and worst of all, to our own camps. 7 years later and we still have camps meeting, eating and going home, month in & month out, with no growth in sight, no events, no outreach. Isolated camps have fallen by the wayside over the years because of a broad number of reasons, but communication is hands down the #1 cause. That's coming to an end in 2024-25.

Before January 1, 2025, each camp in the KY Division should strive to make one of these two things happen:

1) Create a camp Facebook page for your members, either public or private, but preferably both if possible. One page for your private camp discussions, one for your friends & community to see on their friends list and see that you're active and present in your area.

2) Each camp should create ONE point of contact for your camp to be on Facebook and in touch with your Brigade Commander to ensure these lines of communication are open & working.

Guys, we will NEVER outwork or outmaneuver our critics and enemies if we continue doing the same ineffective, stale things over and over. The days of snail mail and even email are over, they're not effective. I know some of you will defend email and it still has a place, but it's no longer a viable line to communicate between camps in this state. If you need proof, just have a look at the emails we send that are never returned or even read. It's disheartening, but it's a stone cold truth. Our enemies mobilize quickly because they use the technological tools available to them. Well, they're available to us, too! As much as it might pain some of us to do, we are going to have to change our ways and get into the 21st Century with instant communication. Instant messaging is a free tool for everyone, so that needs to be utilized. From my own experience (and a few other camps have done this) our camp uses a smartphone no longer needed in cell service as our camp's social media platform. This phone has Facebook, Messenger, X, Instagram, Snapchat, everything we could possibly use to communicate. We use those tools and we reach a much wider audience. For example, the Fort Donelson event this past weekend was able to draw over 70 people in attendance, with very little planning. 3 years ago, that wouldn't have been remotely possible. So if you're holding events and wondering why you're only drawing 4 of your own camp members and 10-12 members of the public to a public ceremony, or wondering why no other camps are showing up to your events or meetings, believe me when I tell you it's because you have no social media presence & you're not sharing the information needed to make these events successful. There's no reason any camp in Kentucky should be drawing small crowds to events that we organize & put effort into. Having guest speakers & programs with your camps are wonderful and should always continue, but if you're not advertising them, the camp is not going to grow. We're watering our own garden instead of bringing in new seeds to plant and eventually, as with everything else in this life, it will run its course and die off. We don't have to be that way. Look at these options and get with your camps & Brigade Commanders and let's change the course we're on before it's too late. If the left and the Marxist enemies we battle every week can mobilize and communicate, why can't we? It's long overdue and with this initiative, I fully expect each camp to make the efforts that some camps already have made and start working more closely together as a Division and with your local communities. We will not accomplish anything by just having meetings and going home. Those days are over, it's time to step into the daylight and let our camps and our cause be seen and heard, that we're not the enemy, that our ancestors were not racists and traitors and that everything Confederate is negative. We can change that by starting local and building up from there. As most of you know, the Kentucky Division is hosting the 2026 SCV National Reunion in Lexington. The Division and Bluegrass Brigade in particular have worked extremely hard to bring this Reunion to the Commonwealth & as Commander Hawkins told me today, the old ways are finished, it's time to adapt and make this Division & this National Reunion as wildly successful as we believe it can be. There's no excuses anymore in 2024, we have every tool we could possibly want or need at our disposal. Whether we succeed or fail is completely up to us, not our enemies & critics. Let's get to work gentlemen and do the job we've been tasked by our ancestors & the Sons of Confederate Veterans to do. We CAN and we WILL!
Please be in touch with your Brigade Commanders and let's get this ball rolling.
Yours in the cause,
L. Kyle Thompson
KY Division Commander
@everyone
ID 2024.08.14.2015