@mkvii
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Hi Matt, and thank you for the question.
As a matter of fact, we already do this. The charitable donation report is public record and is available to any member at any time upon request. Members of the charity team, my Executive Officer, and I can all provide access to that information whenever needed.
We’ve been tracking this data for years through a shared spreadsheet that is populated directly from the charitable donations section of mission reports. That system allows funds raised by the Garrison to be documented accurately and, in many cases, close to real time.
This is exactly why completing mission reports is so important, and improving mission report follow-through is one of my top priorities for 2026. I’ve already had discussions about strengthening post-event wrap-up by clearly assigning points of contact whose responsibilities include taking photos, submitting mission reports, and ensuring the funds raised field is completed correctly. That transparency already exists, and my focus moving forward is making sure it is consistently maintained and easy for members to access.
Our Garrison charity team does a great job of tracking and reconciling receipts when cash donations are the only option available. We also have a cash handling policy in place that requires a donation sheet signed by two unrelated troopers, along with receipts, to verify the amount collected. That documentation is submitted together to ensure accountability and transparency.
In addition, Eric Swenson and I both run a Make-A-Wish fundraising team through Make-A-Wish’s platform, which generates a QR code for donations. This allows contributors to donate directly to Make-A-Wish without us handling cash at all (Eric runs the SC team and I run the NC team). Those funds go straight to the charity, and we never touch them.
Here’s a link to the report if you’d like to review the financials.
This answer may sound counterintuitive, but I think we actually need to reduce the number of points of contact between clubs. Currently we have multiple club channels for events, squads, this event, that event, command, one event channel for RL, another for non-members, etc. etc. Sometimes important information gets lost in the noise. I’d like to move away from Facebook Messenger entirely and rely on Discord for cross club coordination. Right now, I’m in a shared chat with command staff from the MMCC and Rebel Legion to check in and share information more quickly, and it’s been effective. I think it would be even more beneficial if we were all on Discord in a dedicated channel specifically for information sharing.
Emails get missed, Meta will ban people for trivial reasons, and I don’t have everyone’s phone number. Discord gives us a reliable way to communicate quickly without those issues.
This would not replace any official communication channels, which should always remain our respective websites and official forums. However, Discord works well as a one stop location for fast coordination without requiring anyone to share personal or private contact information.
Hi Eric,
Thank you for taking the time to ask questions.Recruitment: In my time in the legion, recruiting new members and growing our garrison has been an important issue. Without troopers we can’t have troops! What are your thoughts on recruitment. What have you seen that has worked well and what are some things that we could do better on to facilitate better recruitment?
Recruiting new members will always be a challenge, and the reasons for that have changed over time. It used to be difficult largely because costumes that met the Legion’s standards were expensive and time-consuming to acquire. Today, with the accessibility and affordability of 3D printing, a high-quality costume can be produced much faster and often at a lower cost.
At the same time, that accessibility has created more competition for people’s time and interest. A potential recruit can just as easily build a Helldiver, Spartan, T-60 Power Armor, or Astartes costume and participate in other costuming communities that may have fewer requirements or commitments. When someone can build something impressive on their own, the question becomes: why join a group at all?
The answer has to be community. We need to build and maintain a community that people want to be part of, one that offers camaraderie, shared purpose, and meaningful experiences. At the same time, we can’t sacrifice costume standards to do that. Lowering standards would diminish the hard work our members put into their costumes and ultimately weaken what makes the Legion respected and recognizable.
Strong recruitment comes from balancing those two things: maintaining high standards while fostering a welcoming, supportive, and engaging community that makes people want to stay once they join.
What also helps a lot is large numbers of troopers at events. Nothing drives the feeling of needing to join a group than a large number showing up looking awesome and having fun.
2). Collaboration: How do you view collaboration with the local sister clubs of the Galactic Senate (Rebel Legion, Mando Mercs, etc.)? Are there things that you see that work well with our partnerships with them at events? What might be some room for improvement?
Collaboration with our sister clubs is absolutely vital. It’s also important to be clear about what we mean by a sister club. For the purposes of the 501st Legion, that includes the Galactic Senate as a whole, the Mandalorian Mercs Costuming Club, Rebel Legion, Dark Empire, Galactic Academy, and the Saber Guild.
Our partnerships with these groups are one of our highest priorities outside of our own internal operations. The 501st works best when it has strong counterpoints. We need the Mandalorian Mercs and the Rebel Legion to present a complete Star Wars presence. We need the Galactic Academy to give younglings and families a place to belong. We need the Saber Guild for those who are more interested in lightsaber performance and choreography, which in some places is even recognized as a sanctioned sport. Dark Empire fills an important niche by offering custom Sith costuming that the 501st does not cover.
Together, the Galactic Senate provides something for everyone. Each club has its own focus, standards, and culture, but we all share a similar mission and similar values. That’s why these partnerships work as well as they do, and why maintaining strong, respectful collaboration with our sister clubs is essential to the health and visibility of the Legion as a whole.
Hi Brian,
I’ll try to itemize the list like you’ve numbers for easy reference.
1.) If elected, who have you arranged to be the 2026 Carolina Garrison staff?
2026 Carolina Garrison Staff
Garrison Executive Officer (GXO):
Kevin Carter, 40141Garrison Guard (GG):
Logan B Hill, 7892
Cheralyn Lambeth, 976
Beth N Pastros, 13502
Jerome E Sienkiewicz, 21972
Jeremy D Pastros, 11251Garrison Event Coordinator (GEC):
Juli L Spata, 50472
Chris Casino, 27529
Daniel Kim, 1399
Jacob A Troxler, 58851Garrison Webmaster (GWM):
Keith Hall, 77054Garrison Public Relations Officer (GPR):
Jordan S Leitner, 24138 (Instagram)
Brian H Milson, 80103 (Facebook)
Scott Dominick, 53197 (Newsletter)Garrison Membership Liaison (GML):
Eric Spears, 98701
Madison T Cloniger, 25276
Alicia Mellon, 30333
Rick Evans, 30405
Joey P Subrizi, 90974Garrison Academy Instructor (GAI):
Spencer McCoy, 42866Garrison Charity Representative (GCR):
Eric Swenson, 23454
Nathan Cuthbertson, 36777Garrison Merchandising (GMB):
Steven T Tell, 43070
Devlin Sawyer, 91919Questions 2, 3, and 5 are answered in Christina’s post so I’ll link them here: Answers to questions 2, 3, and 5.
4.) Why are you running for CO?
I’m running for CO because I love the Legion, I love this Garrison, and I genuinely enjoy trooping with you all. I like the work, and I like the people. I also think I’m well suited for the job, because what the CO actually does is mostly administrative and organizational, and that lines up with my professional background, my education, and my experience.
I’m not running because I want a title, or because I’m chasing some kind of authority that doesn’t really exist here. I’m running because I care about making this organization run smoothly, so troopers can show up, have a good time, and know the event is handled well. I enjoy working with event organizers, solving problems before they become issues, and making sure we represent the Legion professionally without making it harder on the membership.
At the end of the day, I’m here because I love Star Wars, I want to have fun in costume, and I want the Garrison to feel fun, organized, and worth showing up for. I’m running because I believe I can do the job well, and because I’ve enjoyed doing it for you.
Hi Christina, and welcome,
Time Commitment:
For the organization to run well you have to be responsive and I can always be reached by text, messenger, discord, or email. A healthy organization doesn’t operate well with significant communications delays. With that being said, the role of CO is largely administrative, it’s not just showing up to a troop 5 times a year and looking cool while your friends scramble to patch together an appearance that is wholly unexceptional… I would say at MINIMUM a CO should devote AT LEAST between one and two hours a day responding to emails and messages from organizers, Legion, members, and applicants. That is ONLY if the Garrison is running well or if there is no emergency happening. During the busy times of year we get questions that need a higher level of approval or maybe an event or trooper’s action falls into a gray area where the CO needs guidance from the LMO or even LCOG. In those periods you can expect the position to require 3 to 4 hours a day. All that said, I do try to do the administrative work after work and I dial it back on the weekends so I can troop.What the Garrison does well:
The GML team has a great process for approvals where the GML team of 5 all look at the costume and approve it with a majority vote. This allows for missed errors in the costume and avoids the perception that a friend can just go rogue and plug you into the system. This maintains the Legion’s high costuming standards.
What I would like to improve with costume approval: To build on this I have seen some applicants get frustrated that their costume isn’t just a rubber stamp pass to the Legion. I understand that because you spend a lot of money and time on it and you hate that it’s not as perfect as you see it in your head. I’d like to institute a policy that we message an applicant explaining what we look for and to please not take a fix list personally, we’re just trying to help you.Our Garrison Event Coordinators are on top of the job for setting up an event and approvals. We are excellent at posting and communicating with organizers and members about what we are doing at an event and deciding if the event really falls within our mission.
What I would like to improve in 2026: We really need to improve on our follow-through. I want to assign an EC to look at events the week before they take place and assign a POC to ensure pictures are taken and the mission report is complete. I think this would help us complete each event from beginning to end professionally.Our PR team does an excellent job with our public facing socials with multiple posts per week on IG and Facebook. They know what needs to be blocked out and what pictures shouldn’t be used.
What I would improve with PR: I really like our newsletter. I created it 2 years ago but the release is inconsistent with the time required of the CO position. I want to move a staff member to the PR department for internal comms and take over the newsletter so we can get back to a regular release.Our Charity, Garrison Guard, merch, and web teams run well so aside from minor maintenance and some tweaks improving on those processes aren’t at the top of the priority list for 2026.
“What do you think builds trust between Garrison leadership and troopers, and how would you work to maintain that trust?”
What builds trust between Garrison leadership and troopers is openness, consistency, and fairness. People don’t need every private detail, but they do need to know the process is real, the standards are consistent, and the outcome wasn’t decided by who’s friends with who.
Some conversations have to happen behind closed doors. That’s just reality, especially when there’s privacy involved. But the end result has to be something the membership can recognize as fair. Troopers should feel confident that if they’re right, leadership will go to bat for them. They should also feel confident that if they’re wrong, they’ll still get treated with respect and a chance to correct it. I’m not going to throw a trooper under the bus because it’s the most convenient path forward. I’d rather do the harder work, have the uncomfortable conversations, and protect the member while still protecting the Legion’s standards and relationships.
To maintain trust, I do a few things on purpose. I communicate early and clearly. If a policy or expectation matters, I’m not going to keep it as “inside staff knowledge” and then act surprised when someone doesn’t follow it. I stay consistent. Similar situations should get similar responses. If there’s an exception, I’ll explain what made it different without breaking anyone’s privacy. I listen broadly, then decide responsibly. I get advice from all directions and I take it seriously. But when I make a decision, I base it on the rules, the facts, and what’s respectful to the people involved, not on whoever’s the loudest.
I follow up. If someone brings a problem forward, they deserve to know it was heard and that it didn’t disappear into a staff chat forever. Even when I can’t share details, I can still close the loop. At the end of the day, trust isn’t a speech. It’s a pattern. If troopers consistently see fairness, respect, and follow through, they’ll trust leadership even when they don’t love every decision.
Edit: I couldn’t get the quotes around your last question quite right so I tried to fix it.
Hi Steve,
Just to make the list easier to read I’ll try to bullet point it. There may be more but I don’t track everything because all of this is a labor of love.
– Created a Galactic Academy School that matches our territory
– Set up a Discord Server with lots of perks for members
– Got us into the largest community festival in NC (Azalea Fest)
– Reworked the GML structure so everyone can help (not just armorers)
– Wrote a de-escalation guide for the Garrison Guard and policy to help reduce drama
– Managed the Weird Al shows in the territory with our POCs help nearly flawlessly
– Personally emailed 58 event organizers in NC & SC to get us into conventions
– Manage the NC Make-A-Wish Donation team to provide QR codes at events
– Secured our list of event contacts to provide only to POCs
– Created a GML worksheet so that the entire team has contact info for applicants so we can effectively follow-up and and ensure help is provided
– Published the Newsletter myself with member highlights 6 months in 2025
– Created a new Facebook PR page because Command only had one officer who could post because the owner has yet to relinquish control
– Set up and paid for a professional photoshoot free for all members who could participate
– I was POC for 12 events in 2025 and trooped 39 times
– After years of trying to get a hospital visit in Wilmington I finally got us in twice in Wilmington (one was a toy drive)
I want to make this part stand out so I didn’t bury it in a wall of text… I want to thank you, the membership for caring about the Garrison and investing in it. None of what we do is possible without you. You’re the ones who suit up, drive the miles, talk to the kids, work the events, and represent the Legion in the real world. Leadership can set direction, but members make the mission real.
Email me
501st.mynock@gmail.com
September 29 2024
Jaig eyed punkMy favorite troops: heroes con, galaxy con, Greensboro grasshoppers game, brick convention at Winston
My favorite star wars quote: rebellions are built on hope
I emailed the file to you.
