Fraternity-Testvériség, 2001 (79. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2001-07-01 / 3. szám
FRATERNITY Page 5 A Few Words from the Chairman... Dear Members and Friends! First, let me wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year to come. I am happy to inform you that we now have a new senior management team. Our new President/Chief Executive Officer elect is the Rev. Stefan M. Torok, who is currently the pastor of the Magyar Reformed Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and Vice Chairman of the HRFA Board. After a transition period, Rev. Torok will officially assume his duties on April 1,2002. As you read in the last issue of Fraternity, we hired a new Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer, namely William Béla Puskas, Jr. Fie began his duties on August 1. We have also hired a National Sales and Marketing Director, S. Thomas Szilassy from Kendall Park, New Jersey. Mr. Szilassy has a background in sales and insurance, and began working in the Home Office on December 5. I warmly welcome these three gentlemen to their new positions at the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, and look forward to working with them. I wish them success in meeting the challenges that they will face. I would like also to report to you that the Board has chosen Teri Pflum to be our Fraternal Coordinator on a part-time basis in the Home Office. She will officially begin her duties in this capacity in the spring. However, she will already be coordinating some of our fraternal activities before this time. We congratulate her on her new position and wish her well. During the next several months, you will have the opportunity to meet these individuals personally at area district meetings. I expect that these meetings will be fruitful and will promote an exchange of ideas between the field force and members and the management of the Federation. However, this can only happen with your cooperation. I encourage all of you to attend these meetings when they are scheduled and to voice your concerns, opinions, and suggestions. I anticipate that the new leadership will bring innovative ideas to our beloved Hungarian Reformed Federation of America during the year 2002. Some of these ideas may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable to us, but I ask that you be fair and open minded so that we can work toward building a stronger and more productive Federation. Remember, there are many ways to accomplish our goals. We must look for the best ways to promote and nurture the Federation for the future and to live up to our mission, knowing that with God’s help all things are possible. In closing, let me again wish you a very Happy and Blessed Holiday Season! Boldog Karácsonyt és Új Evet kívánok testvéri szeretettel: Priscilla (Piroska) Hunyady KOSSUTH’S VISIT TO WASHINGTON, D.C. On Monday, January 7,2002, the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America will commemorate the 150th anniversary of Louis Kossuth’s speech at the Legislative Banquet to the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. on January 7,1852. Below is a quotation from the speech, which will be reenacted in its entirety at the anniversary celebration: “Happy is your great country, Sir, for being so warmly attached to that great principle of self-government. Upon this foundation your fathers raised a home for freedom more glorious than the world has ever seen. Happy is our great country, Sir, that it was selected by the blessing of the Lord to prove the glorious practicability of a federative union of many sovereign states, all preserving their state-rights and their self-government, and yet united in one. Every star beaming with its own lustre, but altogether one constellation of mankind s canopy. ” Daniel Webster, as Secretary of State, was instrumental in arranging for Kossuth’s departure from Turkey. He also was one of Kossuth’s ardent American supporters during the American tour. The former Senator Webster was asked by the Congress to address Kossuth at the Legislative Banquet.
