Fraternity-Testvériség, 1974 (52. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1974-04-01 / 4-6. szám
English Section SECRETARY'S REPORT for the vear 1973 j Mr. President, Members of the Board of Directors: In 1973 our Federation quietly celebrated its 77th birthday and at the time I am writing my report the Federation already entered into its 78th year of existence. The Federation will celebrate its 80th birthday in 1976 which will be a Convention year also. During the past almost eight decades the Federation had the privilege to give fraternal, charitable services and financial aid to four generations. In the last few decades it extended and expanded its services to a larger degree to our Catholic brethren and to other ethnic and racial persons who joined the Hungarian diaspora communities either by marriage or through friendship. The trend is that their number will increase in our fellowship during the future years. This I interpret as a healthy pattern pointing toward the sign of the possibility of growth. It is a challenge to a well trained bi-lingual Field Force member to reach these unreached prospects to assure the volume of our production, the growth of our membership and an increase in the amount of our insurance in force. Gone are the days when our Federation appealed solely to the reformed members of the Hungarian communities. We have opened the door and welcome into our membership all the Hungarians irregardless of their religious affiliation. We also extend our fellowship to all our American friends without discriminating against their nationality or racial background. I wish to thank Miss Clara Acs and Mrs. Jane Szász full time secretaries for their secretarial work. Miss Acs resigned on June 15 to continue her education. Mrs. Szász started to work on July 23. I also thank Mr. Dezső Garanyi, Mr. Tibor Baksy and Mr. Gyula László for working in the underwriting department with dedication. Mr. Garanyi resigned as our senior underwriter on August 31 because of illness and old age. He served in many departments of the Home Office with distinction. His departure was a loss to all of us. We wish him joy, happiness and good health during his retirement. Mr. Baksy, junior underwriter stayed in my department until September 30th. He exchanged positions with Mr. Gyula László on October 1st. There was complete cooperation between the Controller’s Department and my department to break in the two persons into their new positions. Since October Mrs. Katalin Galanthai Nagy is also working regularly half days in my department. She worked in my department before and has a thorough knowledge of the work of the underwriter department. She does all the beneficiary changes. The last three months were the most productive months during the whole year. Mr. László was heavily loaded with work. He felt the extra burden when Mrs. Nagy was on vacation for 21/2 weeks and Mrs. Szász had to stay home because of illness for two weeks in December. All the certificates requested to be issued in 1973 had to be mailed out before December 31st. Thanks to the hard dedicated work of Mr. László and the help of Mrs. George the work and mailing was done in time. I often came to the office at 8:00 and a few occasions at 7:30 A.M. I always found Mr. László working at his desk on his 300 branch management work, or on his underwriter’s accumulated work. Even after 5:00 o’clock, he was often willing to stay to mail the certificates to the branch managers without delay. Despite the change in personnel, we were able to do the work with the cooperation of my staff members and the help of Mrs. Palma George who always came with her skilled knowledge as an accurate typist and dependable fraternalist doing her utmost efficient services and offering her helping hand to my department. I. ADMINISTRATION 1. State and Provincial Licenses The 1973 and 1974 Annual Statements and all other documents were mailed by the thirteen states and the Ontario Province in which the Federation operates. The Federation received licenses to operate in the thirteen states and the Ontario Canadian Province for 1973. 2. Board of Directors During the year two regular and one special meetings were held by the Board of Directors. The first regular meeting was held from March 26 through 31 in Washington, D. C. and the second regular meeting was held on September 6 and 7 in Ligonier, Pa. Special meeting was held on January 12 and 13 in Ligonier, Pa. 3. By-Laws During 1973 no revisions or changes were made in the By-Laws of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. 4. Executive Committee During the year 47 Executive Committee meetings were held. Mr. Paul St. Miklossy, Recording Secretary took the minutes in January. Since his illness, I substituted for him from February and mailed copies of all the minutes to the Board of Directors complying with the resolution passed at the Spring Board meeting. 5. Disciplinary Matters During the year there was no need for any disciplinary action. 6. Fraternity Our Official Paper was edited by Dr. Zoltán Beky, President and published at the Bethlen Freedom Press, Inc., Ligonier, Pa. During the year I co-operated with the President by writing promotional and fraternal articles in English and Hungarian. I must emphasize again the necessity of publishing more articles and pictures illustrating the charitable projects and the fraternal activities of our branches. After the number of our branches will be reduced perhaps it would be wise to publish a column stating the dates of the monthly and annual branch meetings and a calendar of the social activities of the branches. By this service to our branch managers we could save them much precious time in addressing the envelopes to the members and also save the mailing expenses. This would also eliminate the complaints of many members that they were not notified about the time and place of the branch meeting. 14
