A letter from the Director of The State Guard & Defense Force Council (also known as StateDefenseForce.com).
It has been nearly a month since the launch of our fundraiser, and unfortunately, we have not generated the amount needed to keep StateDefenseForce.com programs operational. Up until now, a significant portion of our staff have volunteered their time to develop news items, track legislation nationwide for all State Defense Force / State Guard bills, and contact and work with state representatives and state senators to introduce State Guard legislation in various states. We have also worked with federal contacts on how to better utilize State Guards in national defense, managed all website hosting functions, upkeep, and maintenance, and overseen all financial operations to ensure that contractors who write original articles, host our podcasts, edit our podcasts, and moderate our social media platforms are supported. This includes managing The StateDefenseForce.com Facebook Group, which is the largest State Defense Force community across the internet.
What we hoped to achieve with this fundraiser was to make all of our original content currently on Patreon, our original articles, podcasts such as Commanders Briefing and Scuttlebutt, legislative updates, and advocacy reports, open to everyone. Unfortunately, we have not progressed to even our baseline request of $65,000. Reaching that level would allow us to begin compensating those who have supported this mission, expand our legislative advocacy efforts, and launch our Quartermaster Corps. This initiative is designed to ensure that enlisted personnel are not forced to go without meals during training due to lack of funding, or pay out of pocket for transportation to and from drill. It would also allow us to advocate more effectively for policies such as compensation for State Active Duty in states where it is currently unpaid, including The Georgia State Defense Force.
Our organization set out to strengthen and develop State Guards / State Defense Forces nationwide, ensuring that more units can receive the types of educational benefits already available in states such as Texas and California, achieve recognition such as veteran status within their state, and most importantly, ensure that when State Defense Forces are activated by their Governors to respond to natural disasters or statewide emergencies, they are paid for their service.
This year, and in previous years, we have focused heavily on creating new State Guards in states such as Arizona, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, and we have made considerable progress. However, we believe it is equally important to focus on those already serving. Moving forward, we plan to prioritize strengthening existing State Defense Forces and improving conditions for current personnel.
Beginning with the 2027 legislative session, The State Guard & Defense Force Council (our IRS legal name, known as StateDefenseForce.com to you) will focus initial efforts on The Georgia State Defense Force. We are already working with a legislative contact who is open to proposing a bill to ensure that all Georgia State Defense Force personnel are paid when placed on State Active Duty. We will also be working closely with one of the largest NGOs in the nation to advance this legislation. Over the coming months, our efforts will focus on building and refining this bill.
After that, we intend to involve you, the community, in deciding where we focus next. We are developing a webpage that will allow you to vote on which states and legislative priorities we pursue. Two priorities we would like to see implemented nationwide include granting veteran status within the state, and expanding access to educational benefits and tuition assistance for all State Guard personnel.
We want to be transparent: reaching our full $65,000 goal within this timeframe is most likely not possible, although I still am not giving up hope. However, even if we can reach between $6,000 and $10,000, we can still launch the Quartermaster Corps in a limited capacity, expand our legislative outreach, and continue working with members of the Executive Branch (The President of The United States) to better integrate State Guards into national defense. We have the partnerships, we have the contacts, and the groundwork already established, we simply need the resources to move forward.
We have also heard your concerns regarding recent uniform changes across State Defense Forces nationwide. This issue is at the top of our list of priorities, and many of the organizations and contacts we work with at the national level have expressed shock and awe when discovering these uniform changes and are completely opposed to it. Our primary point of contact within the Major NGO we are working with, a former U.S. Army Airborne Paratrooper, was completely in shock to learn that such uniform policies were being implemented.
With that in mind, we want to make supporting this mission accessible to everyone. If you are unable to contribute at the $25, $10, or $5 levels, we are now offering a $1 tier, the Minuteman Tier.
Even a $1 contribution helps move this mission forward.
We ask for your support in these final days of the fundraiser. Any amount you can contribute will help us continue advocating for and strengthening State Defense Forces nationwide.
*We did change the title of each Tier from ‘Supporter of StateDefenseForce.com’ to ‘Continental Army Soldier’ due to The Patriotic nature sweeping the nation and myself. We are excited to celebrate The 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence this coming July 4th, and hope to see those State Guard units, such as The Connecticut Governors Guards (State Guard) participate in many of the events and festivities as their units legacy dates back to the first battle of The American Revolution, The Battle of Lexington & Concord.
**To be transparent on everything we made a spreadsheet on where every dollar goes, you can access it: Click Here To Download Our Expense Spreadsheet
Thank you
Jean Marciniak
Director, State Guard & Defense Force Council (Also Known As StateDefenseForce.com)
