Verhovayak Lapja, 1947 (30. évfolyam, 1-24. szám)

1947 / Verhovay Journal

PAGE 8___________________________________Verhovay THE CONVENTION STORY (Continued from page 7.) number to push the compro­mise proposal. The pressure is terrific from all sides. Obvi­ously, however, the recom­mendation of the administra­tion is lost. This is realized by the officers and directors, too. A hurried conference is held while the battle continues on the floor. And before the vote is taken, the Supreme President announces that the Board of Directors withdraws its recommendation and moves that the number of members constituting a district be in­creased to 400. The compromise offer is fervently applauded by the apparently relieved as­sembly. A standing vote is taken. 93 delegates vote in fa­vor of the directors’ recom­mendation while 54 vote in favor of retaining the original provision. The chairman an­nounces that, in the future, the districts of the Association will elect one representative for every 400 members assign­ed to them. A difficult problem has been settled to the apparent satis­faction of all parties. The meeting adjourns in complete harmony for the week-end. The Seventh Day. Monday, September 15th! The de­legates, refreshed from a pleasant wek-end, assemble in the English Room. Chairman*" Kolozsvary calls the meeting to order. Roll call is read. Charles Schafnitz, delegate from St. Louis, Mo., is sick in his room. Everybody else is present. The Minutes are read and ap­proved. A telegram from Mrs. Ste­phen Szabó, President of Branch 361, Cleveland, 0., is, gratefully receiv­ed by the assembly. Several visitors are requested to rise and are warm­ly applauled. The Committee of Ap­peals withdraws to hear the minutes, the transcription of which has been completed over the week-end. In the meantime, the assembly proceeds with the amending of the by-laws. Who can be delegate from an American district? According to the amendment adopted by the Conven­tion, only American born members or those who had attended element­ary school in this country. The pro­visions that they must be members of the Association in good standing for at least 2 years, hold at least a $500 membership certificate in the life-insurance department and a membership certificate in the Sick Benefit department, are left un­changed. In fact, these provisions are extended to representation at the district meetings, too, which up to now was not tied to membership in the Sick Benefit Department. A special provision is enacted in favor of maimed war-veterans. Those who had been members of the Sick Benefit department before entering the armed forces and, because of their disability, could not be readmitted upon their return, are eligible as delegates to both the district meet­ings and the National Convention. Each of the four supreme officers is granted the right to vote at the National Convention. Up to now, only the Supreme President and one of the officers had the vote. The adoption of this amendment, actual­ly, amounts to a vote of confidence. It is only fitting and proper that it was adopted. The Supreme President will not act as chairman of the Board of Di­rectors, in the future. The chairman of the Board will be elected by the directors from among the members of the Board. No officer of the Association, nor anyone deriving his main income from the Association, is eligible to be delegate to the National Conven­tion. The above amendments were calm­ly presented and smoothly adopted. Now the assembly arrives at ano­ther hotly contested issue . . . The Auditing Committee. Motion is made to eliminate the Auditing Committee. In view of the Association being regularly examin­ed by the Insurance Department and that a complete audit is made be­fore every Convention by a certi­fied Public Accountant, .many dele­gates feel that the necessity for such a committee has ceased. There are others, however, and their num­ber is great, who maintain that re­gardless of how many times the Association’s business is examined, the 'membership must not be de­prived of its right to examine the Association’s records through its own elected officials. This argument the opposition counters by pointing out that the Board of Directors, also, check the receipts, disburse­ments, and records of the Associa­tion. The come-back, however, is that the Board cannot conduct a complete examination, because if it would do so, its meetings would last for three weeks and no sav­ings would be effected. It is a fluctuating battle. Appar­ently, many of the delegates are undecided. As they are swayed back and forth, speakers of both sides are applauded. Some rather sarcastic re­marks are heard which do not con­tribute 'to the calm disposal of the subject. Supreme Auditor John Sabo is re­quested from the floor to express his opinion. He is on the spot. He is convinced that economies must be effected by eliminating unneces­sary expenses, yet, he feels it is incompatible that he should speak against the Committee which ex­amines, among others, his .depart­ment, too. His embarassment, how­ever, does not keep him from frank­ly expressing his opinion according to which $8,000 could be saved every four years if annual audits would be made by a Certified Public ac­countant replacing the examinations by the Auditing Committee three times a year. Of course, the Audit­ing Committee does its job honestly and thoroughly, but so does the Certified Public Accountant. He is on the best terms with the mem­bers of the present Auditing Com­mittee but he feels that this com­mittee could be eliminated without a loss to the Association. In fact, substancial savings would be ef­fected by such action. Warm applause is the reward for frankly revealing his opinion. But those who wish to maintain the Au­diting Committee come back with more arguments. One is that the Auditing Committee spends 12 weeks each year checking the records of the Association while the C.P.A. would make only one audit, hence the difference in cost. The other is that only a member of the Associa­tion is able to determine of some disbursements whether or not they were justifiable. The issue still is undecided. Mr. Szalanczy is asked to express his opinion. The Supreme Treasurer en­dorses the principle of the motion before the assembly but he empha­sizes that confidence is of even greater importance than savings. If the confidence of the delegates and the membership of the Associa­tion would be weakened by the elimi­nation of the Auditing Committee, then no further progress could be made. On the other hand, if the membership is able to fully confide in the examinations conducted by the Insurance Department and the Certi­fied Public Accountant, then no loss would be suffered by the elimina­tion of the Auditing Committee, since the Association is under con­tinuous expert scrutiny, anyhow. Confidence is the key to the pro­gress of the country, to the suc­cess of every business enterprise and, therefore, the key to the ad­vancement of the Association,. too. Thus, even if it involves seeming­ly unnecessary expenditures, every effort and even sacrifice must be made to maintain confidence in the management of the Association. This argument sets the delegates to thinking. They are further im­pressed when Mr. Bencze follows the same line of thought is his ex­planation of the issue. Then Ernest Kunstadt, chairman •of the present Auditing Committee arises. Apparently, he is deeply af­fected by the issue. He explains the method followed by the Auditing Committee in its examinations. He points out that its task is not a duplication of effort but a necessary complement to that of the Certified Public Accountant. He feels that it is in the interest of the membership that its own representatives should have the right to examine the books of the Association. He concludes as­serting that he is not defending the position which he has held for the last years. “Elect someone else, but maintain the Auditing Committee.” After concluding his address, he leaves the floor. At the door he col­lapses. Fortunately, three doctors are on hand to relieve a heart­­attack . . . The debate is nearing its end. The issue already is settled in the minds of the delegates. Still, Mr. Nyirati, a member of the Commit­tee, and others, add their arguments. A roll call vote is on order. The result? 109 vote in favor of retain­ing the Auditing Committee while 35 vote for its elimination. The Convention decides to main­tain an Auditing Committee for the strengthening of the confidence of Verhovay’s 60,000 members . . . The debate lasted for two full hours. Still, it was necessary. This issue had been brewing for a long time. Now it is settled — for ano­ther four years, at any rate. The reading of the By-laws con­tinues. The recommendation that a roll call vote be called upon writ­ten request signed by at least 15 delegates (instead of 5) is adopted by majority vote. Salaries of the delegates. The Supreme Secretary states that the decision that delegates be paid $20 per diem fees was mad only in reference to this convention. The assembly, however, has the right to amend the By-laws so as to fix the salaries of the delegates to future conventions. The original recommend­ation of the Board of Directors again is presented. Another hot debate develops and the motion is lost. The provision pertaining to the ex­penses incurred by the Conventions remains unchanged. Representation at the District Meetings. The recommendation of the admin­istration is that only branches hav­ing at least 25 members shall be entitled to representation at the dis-Joamal______________ September 24, 1947 trict sessions. Each representative shall have an additional vote for every additional hundred members of his branch. The first recommendation is car­ried, but the second loses after a hot verbal battle. Finally a compro­mise proposal is offered. Representa­tion at district meetings shall be limited to one delegate for every 100 members. Thus, a branch hav­ing 399 members, shall send 3 dele­gates to the district session. (Branch­es having at least 400 members, constitute districts by themselves.) The Darago case. At last the Committee of Appeals is ready to render its long awaited report. The Minutes are ready. The delegates are ready. Tensely the opening of the afternoon session is awaited. The meeting is called to order. Stephen Nyers, chairman, and Ernest Palos, secretary of the Committee of Appeals, are called to render their report. They step up to the speakers’ table. The assembly waits in deathly silence. The assembly hall is filled to ca­pacity. The news that the appeal of Mr. Darago will be discussed at this session must have spread like wild­fire. Scores of visitors from Pitts­burgh and vicinity have arrived for this event. Suddenly things begin to happen with dramatic rapidity. Motion is made to hear the entire case in a closed session. Mr. Darago requests the privilege of the floor before the case is heard. Motions are fired at the chairman in rapid, succession. Mr. Darago is granted the privilege of the floor, but he is unable to speak. Legal Counsel Matassy ob­jects to the legally impossible situa­tion. The body reverses itself. A heavy battle is on for the closed session, bitterly contested by those who fear the repercussions to which such a ruling would give cause. A vote is taken. The overwhelming majority votes in favor of an open session. Again legal counsel Matassy protests. Again the assembly re­verses its decision. A closed session is declared. The assembly hall is cleared of the visitors and the re­presentatives of the press . . The closed session lasts for ap­proximately two hours. Apparently it is very quiet. The Minutes of the Committee of Appeals are heard. Mr. Darago is given the privilege to take the floor for presenting his arguments. He speaks for nearly an hour. Considering the time he takes for his speech and the time consumed by the reading of the more than 100 pages of the minutes,, the dele­gates take remarkably little time for arriving at their decision. The appeal of Mr. Darago is rejected by 76 against 69 votes. After a week’s hard labor, the last case before the Committee of Appeals has been dis­posed of. As the delegates emerge- from the assembly hall their satisfaction is apparen*. The case, which had too many ratifications, was not as se­rious as it was assumed by many observers. Of that the close vote is the most convincing proof. Ap­parently, it was more for the pro­tection of Mr. Darago, than of the Association, that a closed session was requested. The Eighth Day. Following the roll call, the min­utes of the previous session are read. Then, in behalf of the entire assembly, Chairman Kolozsvary ex­tends his sincere thanks to> the mem­bers of the Committee of Appeals for the unselfish and devoted man­ner in which they have discharged their duties and completed their dif­(Continued on page 9>

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