01/03/2026
Legionnaires,
Happy New Year to all our members across the globe. It is my honor to serve as your LCO and I look forward to what 2026 brings the Rebel Legion and our members. It should be a year of steadfast work for our organization. We have a lot of unfinished business and need to move forward to making our organization ready for the future.
I am incredibly proud of the team that we have assembled to lead the Legion for the 2025-26 term. It is a very diverse and experienced team of volunteers. I am going to try to highlight our teams and their strengths:
I want to thank Agustin Vera of Cruz del Sur Base, the Legion Executive Officer, for his work with daily Legion operations and working closely with the Charter Review Committee. The work that was invested in permanently expanding the Committee and allowing Regional voices to be heard there has been important in our development as a global organization. It is an honor to serve with someone with over 20 years of leadership experience with the Star Wars Costume Clubs.
I appreciate the exemplary leadership of Patricius Hackermuller of Alpine Base on the Charter Review Committee along with his entire team. They will be addressing many concerns this term, including election reform that will help shorten the election process for us. Timothy Helbing of Mos Espa has been instrumental in looking at ways for us to shorten the election cycle without taking away the checks and balances in the system.
We are beginning a long-anticipated review of our costume approval process in collaboration with the Legion Command Council, with the goal of establishing a base-level judging structure. The need for change has been a consistent and widely expressed sentiment within our forums for some time, and the most recent election demonstrated clear support from a majority of voting members to update our current approval system.
This initiative represents a significant shift and will require updates to our standard operating procedures as well as amendments to the Charter. These changes are essential to support continued growth of the Legion and to empower our bases, while maintaining appropriate oversight from Legion Command. This is not a process we intend to rush; we will take the necessary time to ensure a thoughtful and smooth transition for our membership. At the same time, we recognize the urgency of this work and are committed to completing it within this term.
I would like to thank the Council and the Administrative Team for their support, particularly Amber C**n of Great Lakes Base and LaVonne French of Ra Kura Base, whose work in reviewing and evaluating the process has been instrumental in moving it forward. I also appreciate Michael Brunco’s attention to detail, which has helped make the drafting and revision process significantly smoother.
I want to thank LaVonne French, Brian Chandler, and Blair Douglass for the work on the costume approval process. However, this transition needs to happen for the greater good of our organization. Please be patient with LaVonne French and the Approval Team as we move forward. We are going to start in uncharted waters and will need some patience before we get stabilization to the new system. Also we need patience to allow things to move as they should through the governance process as outlined by the Charter.
We are also still refining the new Forums and Website. We appreciate your patience as we continue to work on and improve the sites. We are slowly getting individual components back up and working like the census, medals, and standards. I want to thank Blair Douglass and Adam Warman for their work on the Forum side and Don C**n for his work on the Website. Don also designed the coin for our Forum fundraiser which helped make it a tremendous success. These individuals have invested a lot of their time and resources in making sure we never lost our Forums and Website.
I want to thank those who often do not get thanked, because they have one of the hardest jobs in the Legion: the Legion Captain of the Guard and the ACOG Team. Their service is invaluable to our organization and dealing with countless issues and disputes. Scott Bleisath of Apollo Base, we appreciate you and your team. We have returning faces like Jen Hyman of Endor Base (former LXO) and Jennifer Bates of Ileenium Outpost (former LCC) to give tested experience to the team and we also have new members like Robert Ashmore of Chenataa Base who has become very active in discussions.
We have started finalizing changes to our Merch Team and renaming the Merchandise Officer to the Legion Merchandise and Branding Officer. We have created regional positions to help focus on the needs and issues of the various parts of the world. I appreciate the work of Luisa Loureiro of Jakku Base, on helping create a system that will better respond to regional needs and concerns. We have also created the role of Base Merchandise Officer as promised in the election process. Christina Shaw of Kyber Base has proven experience with the team and creating the amazing RL 25th Anniversary series of merchandise that celebrated our creation as an organization.
We are excited to welcome McKenzie Mendenhall from Dantooine Base as the new Legion Public Relations Officer, adding fresh perspective and enthusiasm to the team. This is complemented by the continued leadership and experience of long-time contributors like Kellie Hendley of Terrapin Base, who has been part of the team for more than 15 years, and Chris Hummel of Kessel Base, who brings valuable Council-level insight. Chris was instrumental in Rebelthon and will be taking on management of the Legion’s logo library.
Our Charity Team is being headed by a returning veteran Jon Barnes of Kessel Base. Jon brings several years of previous experience to the team as well as Joe Booth and Michael Brunco will be advising the team. We are hoping for building a large charity campaign will Celebration coming up soon with our preferred charity partners and Star Wars Costuming Clubs,
This year we are losing a true legend in the Rebel Legion with Matt Hofmann of Mos Espa Base retiring from his long held position of Legion Events Coordinator. When I created the position for the Rebel Legion, we chose Matt for his distinctive and dedicated service to the Rebel Legion, long before I was even a member. This year we needed to find someone to fill some very big shoes. I am honored that we found that person and with Jennifer Sibley from Ra-Kura Base.
Our Council has several fresh faces on it this year. We have Joe Booth from Echo Base now as a member of the LCC and has served on our Charity and PR Teams for years. He is now going to help work on an AI policy for the Rebel Legion. We must change with the future as it continues to evolve. Also we have W***y Bauwelinck from Spanish Base serving his first term on Council.
A special thank to our Rebel Legion Fallen Rebel Team that honors our members who become one with the Force. Thank you Dan Rodriguez of Terrapin Base, Kellie Hendley, LaVonne French, McKenzie Mendenhall, and Michael Capell of Takodana Base for serving the Legion in this difficult, but very important duty,
We have a great team of Detachment Commands that help assist our members and future members with costume knowledge and expertise. We have some returning names like Michelle Petty of the Galactic Senate who has been incredibly active not only in Detachment Command, but serving with the Merchandise Team and helping curate the Honorary Member and Friends of the Legion, We also had new leadership like Dave Kreyling who stepped up to take on The Wretched Hive from Brain Chandler, who has served with distinction as RCL for North America,
Our real strength comes from our federation of bases that unit us all across the globe. From Base Commanders to active members which work at the local levels to carry out our mission of Costuming, Charity, and Community, Our members help raise millions of dollars each year with their donation of their time and support to hundreds of on profits all across the world. Each and everyone reading this should be proud of the organization you are part of in the Star Wars Costuming Community, The Force is strong with us, and we are one with the Force.
Sincerely,
–William Holmes
Legion Commanding Officer
Scarif Base
