Fraternity-Testvériség, 1970 (48. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1970-04-01 / 4-6. szám
English Section President’s Report to the Board of Directors for the Year of 1969 Distinguished Members of the Board: Dear Brethren: GRATITUDE AND THANKS As I wish to give an account of a year filled with difficulties and problems to the members of the Board —I feel — my first words have to be that of gratitude to the Almighty God, who sustained us in His providence amidst the many concerns and problems of the past year and guided us safely to this day. Samuel, one of the prophets of Israel, erected a memorial stone after their victory over the Philistines and said with his people: “The Lord has helped us so far.” We begin our report with the very same statement of happy and deepfelt gratitude. It would be ungrateful on our part not to give thanks to the Lord, without Whose help we have never been able to carry out our work during the past year. How many times we were disillusioned: He gave us strength and hope. We fell: He lifted us up, He gave us strength in our struggles to defend our heritage, He gave us courage. I especially bow down at His fatherly hand, because He brought me back from the gate of death after a period of trial. His is the gratitude, glory and praise for His mercy and loving kindness with which He kept us and enabled us to preserve and to increase the legacy entrusted to us. DIFFICULTIES AND OBSTACLES The past year was not an “easy” year. Our special characteristics, our name, our narrowing field, the training and skills of the majority of our field force were great obstacles to achieve all our plans which we set before us at the beginning of the year. We heard at the Fraternal Congress, that many other organizations are unable to stop the decrease in membership and policies. The competition with the “giant” commercial insurance companies becomes more and more intensive. True fraternalism, active life in the branches, youth work — due to the many luring prospect of modem life — face more and more hinderances. The requirements of technology, automation, the withdrawal of our prospected tax-exemption, the incredible increase of wages, the expenses of administration are such problems we had to face and problems we have to solve, if we wish to survive. RESULTS — ACHIEVEMENTS There are areas in which we have such results which have been unique and unprecedented. Among these I have to point out our insurance in force, which increased by one million dollars past year compared with an increase of $30,000 in the previous year. I. Insurance in force: December 31, 1968 ...................................$46,966,506.00 December 31, 1969 ................. $47,938,860.00 Increase ...........................................$ 1,017,354.00 II. Assets of our Federation: December 31, 1968 ..................... $15,310,931.00 December 31, 1969 ...............-................$15,905,451.33 Increase .......................................$ 594,520.33 III. Valuation Ratio ....................-........................... 112.% Increased, and among the best. IV. Ratio of investment income ........................ 4.59% Very good, increased. V. Mortality rate ............. 50.1% VI. Deceased in 1968 ................... 365 1969 _________372 The above figures demonstrate that the past year showed remarkable results in certain areas above our hopes. Our insurance in force reached almost 48 million, our assets increased almost to 16 million. Our Federation has a firm foundation, which must be to the reassurance of our Board and also to our membership, especially in these changing and uncertain times. In the area of the field-work I wish to single out the excellent contribution of our Secretary, who with un- paralled dedication and truly “fraternal” love and if need be with strength led, guided, exhorted and encouraged our field force. I can report with assurance that there is enthusiasm and loyalty, discipline and order in our field force. Since the new quota system was introduced a certain satisfaction has been experienced. IMPLEMENTED RESOLUTION We have implemented the resolutions of the last year meeting of our Board. The automation and the KEOGH PLAN remained pending as the September meeting referred these items to our present meeting. 11
