Verhovayak Lapja, 1950 (33. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1950 / Verhovay Journal
Verhovay Journal PAGE 10 LET’S WRITE TO THE HOME OFFICE! For the information of Branch- Managers and all members corresponding- with the Home Office. Home Office business, for the most part, is carried on by mail. Each day hundreds of pieces of mail, many of them, containing half a dozen or more enclosures, are received from every part of the country. Each letter requires individual attention involving certain prescribed procedures, like bookkeeping, calculations, making out certain forms and documents and entering the data in the various records and files all of which precedes in most instances the writing of an answer which, under ordinary circumstances, is mailed to the correspondent within a day of the receipt of his communication. In other •words, replying to any kind of inquiry or request involves much more •than the mere writing of a letter, in the great majority of cases. This must be clearly understood if we are to realize the magnitude of the job done by the Home Office in addition to the innumerable basic operations entailed in the running of an insurance office. * * Obviously, Home Office correspondence cannot be carried on in a haphazard manner. Unless some system is followed, efficient management cannot be maintained. This system, on the other hand, requires cooperation on the part of the correspondents. If the simple rules assuring the smooth functioning of the system are disregarded, service will be delayed and efficiency reduced causing not only a great deal of annoyance but also an increase in the costs of Home Office operations. 15 DEPARTMENTS The system rests on the fact that the Home Office, like every large office, is divided into departments each of which is in charge Of certain operations. The mail, opened at the receiving desk, is separated according to departments. Each letter, report, inquiry, request, claim, application, etc., is assigned for processing to the department which is in charge of the operation required. Thus, 15 groups of mail result, which are distributed among- the following departments: 1.) National President, 2.) National Secretary, 3.) National Treasurer, 4.) - National Auditor — who personally conduct all executive operations and such correspondence as cannot be handled by any of the following sub-divisions: 5.) Senior Order Monthly Reports, 6.) Juvenile Order Monthly Reports, 7.) Remittances of membership dues, with treasurers’ slips, 8.) Loqns, 9.) Changes of Beneficiaries and Death Claims, 10.) Sick Benefit Claims, 11.) Application for membership, Senior Order, 12.) Applications for membership, Juvenile Order, 13.) Mailing list, changes of addresses, 14.) Supplies and forms, 15.) Editor. One of the most important rules to be observed in corresponding with the Home Office follows from the above: inquiries, requests, reports, claims, etc., involving several departments' should not be written on one piece of stationery. The following is a brief example of the type of letter causing'the most delay and confusion: “Dear National Secretary: enclosed please find the monthly dues of Branch 666, amounting to S255.66. — Also, please send me a statement of the payments made by member John Doe during 1949. — Furthermore: Mrs. Jack Oakie wishes me to inquire about the reason of the delay in. issuing her sick benefits. — Furthermore, please send me 15 applications for membership. — Furthermore: Robert Murphy wishes to surrender his certificate for cash and Joseph Brown applies for the maximum loan available on his certificate.’’ The above letter, (a fail; example of hundreds of its kind,) involves six departments, but it can be handled only by one at the time. And because each department receives scoi’es if not hundreds of communications, this letter, too, will have to await its turn in each and every department. As a result, even if there are no^delaying circumstances on any point, a week may elapse before all the matters mentioned will have been taken care of. The proper way, of course, would be to use as many sheets or pieces of paper as departments are involved. All inquiries, reports and requests will, then, be taken care of without delay. While time consuming formalities may be eliminated, each separate communication should bear the name of the Manager and the number of the branch. However, even if there are six or seven separate communications, all of them may be mailed in a single envelope. CERTIFICATE NUMBER Inquiries made in regards to the standing, or a claim, or a request pf any member should contain not only the full name of the member but also the number of his membership certificate. Suppose a member by the name of John Smith applies for the cash surrender value of his certificate. There may be several members by the name of John Smith in the same branch, or the member himself may have more than one certificate. In either case, the Home Office cannot act on the request without being furnished the number of the certificate which is to be surrendered. Whatever the subject matter, letters in regards to members of the Association always must contain the following three important data: 1. ) Member’s full name, 2. ) Number of Certificate, 3. ) Number of Branch. (Note: In the case of a member being transferred from one branch to the other at the time the request or inquiry is made, this circumstance should be indicated on the request or inquiry even if the letter of transfer is mailed together with the communication.) Answering the home office The samé rules should be followed when answering to an inquiry or a request made by the Home Office. The simplest procedure is to attach the letter of the Home Office to the reply or to the document requested. If the Home Office letter is not returned, the type of action required should be clearly indicated, like “application for loan,” or “change of Beneficiary,” or “change of certificate,” or whatever the case may be. Quite frequently, letters written in reply to some inquiry, contain no reference whatsoever to the subject matter involved. Like, for instance, the following communication: “Dear Mr. Secretary: In reply to your letter of such-and-such date, please be advised that the member does not feel that the solution suggested by you would serve his purpose and, therefore, he insists that this matter be disposed of in accordance with his original request.” The above letter, typical of a great number of communications, does not furnish any clue as to the source of the Home Office inquiry and the type of action required. 'As a result, time will be lost in tracing the department which made the inquiry over the signature of the National Secretary who, signing hundreds of letters, documents and papers each day, cannot possibly remember the subject matter of an inquiry made several days, or > perhaps weeks, previously. Incidentally, tracing such a request often is further complicated by the reply being addressed to a person other- than the one whose signature appears on the letter of the Home Office. Some people habitually address the' National President, others the National Secretary, regardless of the identity of the officer who signed the letter to which they reply. This is wrong not only as a matter of form but also from the point of view ©f efficient office procedure. Replies always should be addressed to the officer signing the letter of the Home Office. No document, like a membership certificate, or a birth certificate should be mailed without some indication of the reason or purpose for which it is sent to the Home Office. It frequently happens that a Manager mails an application for change of beneficiary and writes that he will send the certificate at some later date. A week or so later the certificate arrives^ without any explanation whatsoever. Then the hunt starts through every department. Was it sent for a change of certificate- For a loan ? For cash surrender ? Correction of Name or correction of age? For Changing the Beneficiary? Valuable time is lost in each department while the files are checked. All this could be avoided if the Manager had attached a note to the certificate: “Branch 666. Change of "Beneficiary.” This should be do'ne even in cases when the document was requested by the Home Office. Hundreds of such requests are made and no one can remember all of them. It only takes the Manager a fraction of a minute to take a slip of paper and to write on it after the branch-number “Loan,” “Cash Surrender,” “Death Claim,” “Correction of Age,” “Change of Name,” “Change" of Certificate,” “Change of Beneficiary,” “Paid-up,” “Matured Endowment,” or whatever the case may be. It takes even less time to simply return the Home Office letter requesting such a document. “HEREWITH . . .” Frequently the Home Office receives some forms, like applications for Change of Beneficiary, or loan, or cash surrender, or change of Certificate, with a letter stating; “I’m sending you herewith the application forms and certificates of such-andsuch members . . ."'The writer says “herewith,” but the certificates are missing. They may arrive under separate cover with a later mail delivery, perhaps on the following day, February 15, 1950 or they may have arrived on the previous day . . . If we mail something under separate cover, let’s say so in the letter rather than mislead the addressee by the use- of the word “herewith.” Obviously, people believe that if they mail two or three envelopes at the same time, they will be delivered at the same time. Whatever the reason, they are not. And if the documents are delivered first, the Home Office may have written an inquiry to the correspondent as to his reason for sending in the documents, by the time the supposedly accompanying forms arrive. Or if the forms with the letter are delivered first, the Home Office may advise the writer that he failed to enclose the documents which, in the meantime, will arrive under separate cover. It is best, therefore, to mail all papers pertaining to one subject matter in one envelope. If, however, any of the documents are mailed under separate cover, let’s say so but, in that case, let’s also attach a brief explanatory note to the documents as * suggested above. SUPERFLUOUS WRITING If the observance of these rules may occasionally cause a little extra paper work, the loss in time and effort is more than balanced if superfluous writing is avoided. Though courtesy is- commendable, it serves no useful purpose to attach to one of the Association’s official forms a letter in which the subject matter covered by the form is re-stated. Such communications like “Enclosed please find an application for membership,” or “for a loan,” or “for change of beneficiary,” or whatever the case may be, are entirely unnecessary. Each official form of the Association, if duly completed, speaks for itself requiring no further explanation (unless necessitated by unusual circumstances,) nor a request for action which will be duly taken anyhow, upon receipt of the form. SUGGESTIONS TO MANAGERS In conclusion we would like to offer a few suggestions to our Managers, especially those elected for the first time, (though compliance on the part of some of the old-timers will be just as sincerely appreciated). When mailing Monthly Reports, the pages of the report should be put in alphabetical order (and not in reverse, neither in disorder,) and, then, the pages should be folded together (and not separately, page by page). Checks and treasurer’s slips are properly mailed together with the monthly reports in the same envelope, but they should not be fastened with wire stitchers (staplers) to the monthly report. If the checks are not mailed together with the monthly report, the treasurer’s slips should accompany the checks and not the monthly report! All envelopes should be carefully sealed! (Scores of bulky envelopes arrive with open flaps at the Home (Continued on page 11)
