William Penn Life, 1987 (22. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1987-10-01 / 10. szám

31st General Convention____________________________________________

The President’s report

An explanation of past actions; a vision of future realities

Page 6, William Penn Life, October 1987

By Stephen G. Danko

National President

It is with great honor and humble appreciation that I come before you to report as your president. Four years ago you elected me and eleven others as directors to serve and guide the Association into our second century. Little did we realize, then, the trials and tribulations that lay ahead. Like the adolescent growing into adulthood, our centennial years have been marked by turmoil, disagreements and restlessness resulting in a multiple turnover of our national officers. After four presidents, two national secretaries, two national treasurers and pages after pages of criticism in the Hungarian press, rest assured the Association survives, and now, the time has come to respond and explain.

First, we heard that the William Penn did too little, too seldom, to preserve and encourage our Hungarian heritage. We sponsored trips to Hungary and entertainers to come to our country and share the music we all love to hear. Then we heard our sponsoring of these trips to Hungary and the inviting of cultural groups to visit our member branches was wrong because of the Hungarians we had to deal with to make the necessary arrangements and to insure the best possible service for our members. This was somehow equated with being un-American and un-Hungarian.

In response, let me make on thing perfectly clear — our Association does not and will not embrace any political faction or philosophical concept except for our belief in the American ideal. Our heritage, culture, literature and language come from and live on in Hungary. We will accept assistance from everyone, everywhere to bring, teach and promote our heritage to our members and continue to take our members back to our ethnic history and homeland. As American Hungarians we can not, we must not, forget from where we came nor allow politics and philosophical differences to interfere with our desire to learn and maintain contact with our heritage. The only principle we will follow is Magyarnak születünk, Magyar vagyunk mamma, Magyar lesünk holnap.

Now, we read, most recently, severe criticism for the removal, recently, of our former president. I question the journalistic professionalism of the author of that article because no attempt was made to obtain or present the facts from those involved in the removal. It is an obvious attempt to sway opinion based on incomplete information rather than to present all the facts to its readers. Let us look at the facts.

Our most recent former president came to that position by orchestrating the retirement of our previous president, national secretary, and, ultimately, the national treasurer. After his appointment in February 1986, it soon became apparent that the Board could not get answers from the new president although he worked, as he said, "twentyfive hours a day.” However, how busy a man is, is not as important as why he is busy.

Knowing the current financial status of one’s company is an absolute necessity in today’s business world. Yet, the Board could not be informed nor given a mid-year financial report as to income or profit. The Board had to beg for a persistency report on the business being written by our full-time agents. Elemental questions about the president’s own budget could not be answered, clearly indicating that someone else had' been responsible for its preparation. Action on a Board directive to present an offer to purchase real estate for the Association was not acted upon for over one and one-half months. Resolutions of the Board of Directors recommending national officers to the new Board after this convention were refused to be published in the

William Penn Life. An article written by the chairman of the Board was withheld from the paper. One month before the start of the delegate elections in May, members were transferred from one branch to another without the approval or knowledge of the national secretary, as required. Then, those individuals voted at the delegate elections in their new branches and in some cases were candidates for delegate. Conversations with a long time and trusted employee were recorded without her knowledge, apparently in an attempt to discharge her.

We must reach out with open arms to all Hungarians and sister Hungarian societies to put aside our differences and to unite as one with a common cause — to preserve our heritage. The time has come, the time is now and we stand ready.

While serving as the full-time president of the William Penn, he also maintained an appointed position with the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court requiring his presence and attention away from the William Penn offices several days each week during the regular hours of the Association.

For this he was compensated, as he said, with "a fulltime pay for a part-time job” plus fringe benefits.

This continued even after several promises to sever all his outside and appointive responsibilities. It became clear that something had to be done and before the convention.

In April one of the Board members contacted several other Board members about the possible removal of the president. He later contacted me and requested my support. I agreed to assist. Contrary to the newspaper article, I was not the organizer of the contemplated removal and had no thoughts about becoming president in June. Near the end of May, I was requested to assume the position of president after the removal took place but declined because of my personal business interests. I was not prepared to make a change in my career until after this convention if the circumstances called for it. After several meetings, telephone calls, and the urgings of several Board members, I agreed to accept the responsibility to provide the necessary leadership and needed management of the business affairs of the Association. The president was then removed from office on June 4 and I was elected president and Frances Furedy treasurer.

It is important to tell you now what we found. The financial records for 1986 had not been closed as of June 1987 because they could not be reconciled with the bank records. Input to our computer of information on the purchase and sale of our securities was over three months behind. Delinquent mortgages, some of them over one year delinquent, had not been acted upon.

By July 15, the delinquent mortgages had been turned over to our attorney for collection or foreclosure, the financial records were balanced, and the

input of our securities information on the computer was brought current and continues to be so today. The mid-year financial report was prepared for the Board showing our income, expenses and profit as was the persistency report on our agents and provided to the Board at its August meeting.

Plans had been formulated by the former president to create new branches by transferring members from existing branches rather than signing up the necessary amount of new members to form a new branch. This will not be done. It is my firm belief that you shouldn’t attempt to break apart existing branches but encourage them to become or continue to be active. Our objective is to get new members not merely to reshuffle the deck.

Then, of course, came the law suit to reinstate the former president, not because of the lack of cause, but because the By-Laws had not been followed, and the court reinstated him on August 19. The Board immediately notified the president that a hearing would be held on August 24 for his removal and the Board again removed him after hearing his testimony admitting his employment with the court of common pleas and the recording of a conversation without the employee’s knowledge.

The Board comes to this convention asking for your approval of its actions in removing the previous president. They ask you to say to our members and anyone else concerned enough to write a newspaper article that the Board of Directors definitely and without question acted for the good of our Association.

Now let us turn our attention to the future. Our Association has grown tremendously since 1983 and now stands near $82 million in assets. We have grown in dollars but, unfortunately, not in members. While our full-time career agents have performed admirably, we can not rely on them alone. We need people like you to spread the word and bring in more members, more Hungarians. We challenge each and every one of you to bring in at least one new member by the end of this year and at least one new member each year until our next convention. You can become a part-time agent and we will furnish you with competitive products and training. All part-time agents will be asked to come to Pittsburgh for a one-day training session with their expenses paid. Or you can recommend a new member to one of our branch coordinators, part-time agents or full-time agents. We must encourage these people to seek out Hungarians to join us in our common heritage. The Board has authorized incentives on all new Hungarian members. We must reach out with open arms to all Hungarians and sister Hungarian societies to put aside our differences and to unite as one with a common cause — to preserve our heritage. The time has come, the time is now and we stand ready.

I see in the future plans to assist our branches and to rejuvenate our fraternal activities for our members. The development of Penn’s Scenic View into an active fraternal site for our youth and adults. To take advantage of its location near the Seven Springs recreation area and develop a recreational facility. To promote our youth activities and home for the elderly in Wellsburg, West Virginia. To purchase property in Florida and develop a Hungarian community for our members with townhouses, condominiums or cluster housing.

These would be sold to our members at special rates.

All these are not just pipe dreams but realities we must strive to achieve. Diversification is the key today to financial growth. The list can go on and on, but we have to take the first step. With your assistance we will take that first step at this convention. This Association is yours: promote it; support it; sing its praises to others. But above all, love it as our parents and grandparents did during its first hundred years. Our future is in your hands, grab it and don’t let go of it.