Verhovayak Lapja, 1953 (36. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1953 / Verhovay Journal

FAgE 2 ________________Verhovay Journal ___________________November is, 1954 FRATERNAL SOCIETIES OF GREATER PITTSBURGH PLAY HOST TO MANY OUT OF TOWN FRATERNALS The follovnng report is made to our membership to show how important a role the Verhovay Fraternal insurance Association plays in the fraternal insurance field in this country. Verhovay recently spearheaded a move for an edu­cational meeting for a majority of the executives and key workers of the Fraternal Societies of Greater Pittsburgh and societies domiciled elsewhere in the country. National Auditor John Sabo, who is President of the Fraternal So­cieties of Greater Pittsburgh, conducted the program of the two-day seminar. National Secretary Coleman Revesz was a member of the committee thaf'helped arrange the seminar. National President John Bencze, National Treasurer John Szalanczy and Assistant to National Auditor Frances Furedy also attended the sessions. A very interesting and highly instructive two-day meeting was held by the Fraternal Societies of Greater Pittsburgh October 19-20, 1953, at the Sheraton Hotel, Pitts­burgh. The meeting was something new and unique — A NEW FRA­TERNAL ANNUAL STATEMENT SEMINAR —• which was attended not only by the societies affiliated with the Greater Pittsburgh group, but also various societies affiliated with the Pennsylvania Fraternal Congress and the Fraternal Section of the Insurance Accounting and Statistical Association. A total of 30 societies were re­gistered for the event — 16 from the Greater Pittsburgh group and 14 from without. The societies sending representatives were: Guest Organizations Aid Association for Lutherans, Appleton, Wise. Artisans Order of Mutual Protec­tion, Philadelphia, Pa. Brotherhood of Railroad Train­men, Cleveland, Ohio. Czechoslovak Society of America, Cicero, 111. Knights of Columbus, New Haven, Conn. The Ladies Catholic Benevolent As­sociation, Erie. Pa. Locomotive Engineers Mutual Life. & Accident Insurance Assn., Cleve­land, Ohio. Lutheran Brotherhood, Harris­­burgh, Pa. The Maccabees, Detroit. Mich. The Mutual Beneficial Assn, of P. R. R. Employees, Inc., Philadel­phia, Pa. National Council, Jr. O. U. A. M., Philadelphia, Pa. Pennsylvania Slovak Roman & Greek Catholic Union, Wilkesi Barre, Pa. Protected Home Circ e, Sharon. Pa. . Slovak Calvenistic Presbyterian Union, Aberdeen. Md. Host Societies (Members of F. S. of Greater Pittsburgh) Catholic Knights of St. George. Pittsburgh, Pa. Catholic Slovak Brotherhood, Braddock, Pa. Croatian Fraternal Union, Pitts­burgh, Pa. Greater Beneficial Union of Pitts­burgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. Greek Catholic Union of the U.S.A., Pittsburgh, Pa. National Slovak Society. Pitts­burgh, Pa. Polish Falcons of America, Pitts­burgh, Pa. Russian Orthodox Catholic Wo­men’s Mutual Aid Society, Pitts­burgh, Pa. Serb National Federation, Pitts­burgh, Pa. Slovak Evangelical Union, Pitts­burgh, Pa. Ukranian National Aid Assn, of America, Pittsburgh, Pa. United Russian Orthodox Brother­hood of America, Pittsburgh, Pa. The United Societies of Greek —Catholic Religion, McKeesport, Pa. Verhovay Fraternal Insurance As­sociation, Pittsburgh, Pa. Workingmen’s Beneficial Union,. Pittsburgh, Pa. Zivenna Beneficial Association, Pittsburgh, Pa. Gilbert Bassler, ACTUARY, Pitts­burgh, Pa. A summary of the guest organi­zations gives these numbers and states: 1 — Connecticut 1 — Illinois 1 — Maryland 1 — Michigan 2 — Ohio 7 — Pennsylvania 1 — Wisconsin The meeting was called to order by President John Sabo, who laid emphasis on how the meeting waa planned months ago. Mr. Sabo gave a large share of credit to Oscar Kottler, Deputy Insurance Commis­sioner of the Commonwealth of Penn­sylvania, who because of illness could not attend the seminar. In addition he stressed the fact thst< 'this meeting was solely the venture and responsibility of the Fraternal Societies of Greater Pittsburgh, be­cause the members of this group saw a dire need for help to all so­cieties of this kind in preparing ehe new fraternal statement blank. Pre­sident Sabo stated that, in his recol­lection, no other similar group in the country has attempted such an instructive seminar. Francis Taptich, well-known Pitts­burgh attorney and on? of the best fraternal lawyers in the country, was the first speaker introduced by Mr. Sabo. In his introduction of Mr. Taptich President Sabo warmly praised the Pittsburgh legal expert Cor his many worthy accomplish­ments. and recalled that approxi­mately fifteen years ago Mr. Taptich foresaw the necessity for the Greater Pittsburgh fraternal group, that he made his vision a reality by orga­nizing and carrying the society through difficult years to it's present enviable position. It is a known fact that the brilliant lawyer’s pian h.as spread to many parts of the country where similar fraternal groups have organized after ths? Greater Pitts­burgh pattern. Mr. Taptich effectively explained the difference between good fraternal societies and good life insurance com­panies. He reminded one and all, fraternal executives and co-workers, that they must continue to operate on the fraternal basis because of the advantages now enjoyed by the ::ra­­ternals, also that they continue providing the type of gjod fraternal Service which ‘ only a fraternal so­ciety can give. He further pointed out the need for such a meeting as this, just as in 1933 and 1934 similar meetings were held to help form the fraternal code now known as the 1935 Fraternal Code, under which the societies operate. Knowledge must be shared, and working together is the best way to reach our common goal. Next introduced was Samuel B. Black, Acting Chief of the Bureau -of Examinations of the Pennsyl­­'vanina Insurance Department. The assistant to Mr. Kottler expressed a warm welcome to the delegates from the Honorable Artemas Leslie, Insurance Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He reminded the audience that this was a meeting that would bring good to the Insurance Department as well as to the fraternal society repre­­. sentatives. The Greater Pittsburgh group was happy to see several insurance examiners on hand for these sessions. The presence of the representatives of the Insurance Department of Pennsylvania added to the interest of the two days. They were W. A. Bronder, J. Taylor, J. P. Walsh, T. Buckley and C. Bassler, The next to address the session was Robert E. Bruce, Actuary, of Harley N. Bruce & Associates, Con­sulting Actuaries of Chicago and Pittsburgh. Mr. Sabo informed the seminar that Mr. Bruce had helped prepare and would present the de­tailed program of the two-day meet­ing. Much work and effort by Mr. Bruce entailed the successful pre­paration and presentation of the program. It is noteworthy to mention here that all the endeavors of the actuary and his firm were done without charge in the in­terests of fraternalism. Mr. Bruce launched into his de­tailed explanation of the new fra­ternal statement and carried on throughout the remainder of the day. y,A thorough study was made of the new statement, page by page, item' by item, following a printed text* prepared by Mr. Bruce. Each society, in addition to this detailed printed text of instructions, which could really be called a “must” for all fraternal societies, received photo­static copies of the income and disbursement and asset and liabilities pages of the old 1951 and 1952 statements, as well as complete copies of all the new schedules and exhibits of the new statement. The. operations of one of the societies was entered in the new statement blank. In detail Mr. Bruce explained and showed where the items would appear in the new statement and where they came from in the old statement. This, we honestly believe, was a wealth of schooling for the fraternal bodies at the seminar. Rc<v. Stephen Lova of McKee­sport said grace at both the Monday and Tuesday luncheons. The dele­gates were afforded a fine treat by Messrs. A. Tomasic and F. Gerchak of Thomas and Company, Invest­ment Brokers, and the treating gentlemen v/ere given special thanks by the delegates. On Tuesday morning the session was devoted to speeches from spe­cially selected highly capable authorities. Nicholas Komlyn, of Komlyn & Company, Certified' Public Accoun­tants, Pittsburgh, long associated with various fraternal societies in the preparation of the fraternal yearly statements, addressed the­­group first. His subject was titled, “A Suggested Work Sheet for Pre­paration of the New Annual State­ment.” Mr. Komlyn’s newly-devised work sheet, to fit in with the re­quirements of preparing the new statement, made a big hit, to say .the least. Mimeographed copies were provided. Gathing Stewart, Associate Actuary of Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana, fol­lowed and addressed the group, going into detail about Exhibits 2, 3 and 4. Mr. Stewart gave the frater­nal societies the benefit of three years of operations of the life in­surance companies on the new life annual statement ,which is similar in most respects to the fraternal statement. Added to this was a special study that was made of the statement-preparation operations of 40 life insurance companies. Photo­stated copies of Mr. Stewart’s speech, and the three exhibits were dis­tributed to the group. Third speaker was Samuel Black of the Insurance Department of Pennsylvania, who made some in­teresting comparisons of Exhibits 5 and 6 of the new statement and the Expense Fund as provided under the old statement. Hugo Hinnenthal, Comptroller of the Aid Association for Lutherans, Appleton, Wisconsin, next spoke to the assemblage. His “Analysis of the New Annual Statement for the In­surance Executive” is a special sub­ject for the benefit of the many fraternal society executives who do not actually prepare the statement, but who must be familiar with it to analyze the operations for the year. Last to address the fraternalists was Frank E. Gerry, Actuary, who was specifically assigned to this speaking order to summarize all the matters which had been presented. Mr Gerry, who operates Miles M. Dawson & Son, Inc., Consulting ac­tuarial, auditing and accounting firm, Springdale, Connecticut, re­cently delivered a fine paper at the Fraternal Actuarial Association meeting, titled “Logical Steps in the Preparation of the New Fraternal Blank.” The widely known actuary not only summarized all the matters discussed the two days but came up with informative observations of his own. After luncheon there was a panel session. Members of the panel, con­sisting of the above speakers and Mr. Robert Bruce, answered written questions on the statement prepa­ration. An orderly method for questions was used. The' questions were written on a blank sheet of paper and turned over to the panel to give it time to come forth with proper answers. Many interesting questions were posed, and the an­swers merited the appreciation of the questioners After the conclusion of the panel session the meeting was turned over to President Sabo, who thanked the attending fraternalists for their ma­teria! contributions to the success of the meeting. A standing ovation was given Rob­ert Bruce for the tremendous re­sponsibility he shouldered and for work well done. President Sabo expressed apprecia­tion to all the speakers, with a spe­cial note of praise for his committee, especially for Joseph Porta, Secre­tary of the Greater Pittsburgh group, who spent many hours preparing the meeting by way of reservations, reg­istrations, financial acounting, report duplications, etc. Mr. Porta’s meas­ure of contribution to the success of the meeting can not be exaggerated. Particular, thanks went also to John Phelps, Assistant Vice Presi­dent, Lincoln National Life Insur­ance Company, for attending the sessions. There was no rush home after the adjournment of the meeting*. The close of formalities.saw the delegates consulting the various actuaries and accountants on personal society prob­lems. All in all the seminar of these fraternals was highly successful be­cause of the interest shown and the valuable contributions made.

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