William Penn Life, 2004 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2004-01-01 / 1. szám
"I assure everyone that all future plans for the Association will not be completed without some direct input by you, the member." Taking care of business...and being held accountable for it by Steve Varga, Chairman of the board By the time you read this, another holiday season will have come and gone. We hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday, and the entire Board extends its warm wishes for a healthy and peaceful new year. We hope that this year brings all of our brave men and women serving abroad home safe and sound. The board held its last meeting of 2003 on Dec. 11 to 13. On our agenda for this meeting were several business-related items which needed Board approval. Items approved by the full Board were: • An increase in the fee paid to the Association's medical director. • The appointments of Arthur Barillo as branch coordinator of Branch 51 Passaic, N.J., and Margaret Antonasanti as branch coordinator of Branch 189 Alliance, Ohio. The Board congratulates both. • An increase in the office allotment for our three full-time agents. This will help our agents defray the increased costs of administering an office. • The continued funding of the Retired Employee Fund. • The merger of Branch 8330 Dundalk, Md., into Branch 8340 Baltimore, Md. Also on our agenda were two requests for financial support. The first request came from the American Hungarian Foundation. At our 35th General Convention held in September, the delegates voted to qontinue the Association's support of the Foundation. The Foundation has been providing archiving services to the Association for many years, and the Board voted to authorize the 2003 payment. The second request was received from Klaudia Kovács who requested financial support for a documentary she is producing entitled, "Torn from the Flag." The documentary will detail the 1956 Hungarian uprising. The feature-length film is scheduled to be released in 2006, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution. Several Board members see this film as an opportunity to promote the '56 Revolution, something the Hungarian community has failed to pursue in the past. The Board approved an initial contribution of $5,000. For more information about the documentary, you can email Ms. Kovács at klaudiainc@hotmail.com. Finally, I would like to discuss a topic that is very important to me and one that will help govern the future of the William Penn Association. Over the last several years, a new way of corporate governing has been the talk of Wall Street. We see this with new policies instituted by the New York Stock Exchange and many large corporations. Boards and management will be held strictly accountable for their conduct. More importantly, the accountability will be to stockholders, or, in the case of our Association, our membership. At the December Board meeting, the Association's legal counsel and I discussed such accountability with our directors. Over the next several months, the national president, legal counsel and I will be working towards bringing the Association and our Board of Directors in line with newly accepted governance policies and guidelines. The new Board will be accountable to the membership. In helping to prepare the future of the WPA and to fulfill requirements placed on the Association from outside agencies, the Board approved the hiring of a consultant to assist both the national president and the chairman in strategic development and corporate governance. I assure everyone that all future plans for the Association will not be completed without some direct input by you, the member. This Association will be open to all. I will provide more information about corporate governance in my next column. For those of you who can't wait and are interested in reading more on this topic, you can visit mow.policygovemance.com/model.htm. Once again, may everyone have a happy and healthy new year. I would enjoy hearing your comments on this topic or any other concern. My telephone number is 1-800-848-7366, ext. 125. You can also send me an email me at svarga@williampennassociation.org. Willi» Penn Life, January 2004 3
