Fraternity-Testvériség, 1956 (34. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1956-04-01 / 4-5. szám
24 FRATERNITY about those 20 years during which they gave full-time service to the Federation’s cause. The Federation, when put on the modern business basis, needed mostly the rejuvenation of its promotional methods. During the 12 years immediately preceding the creation of a new Home Office, the entire “net” increase of the membership was 267 members, all told. In six years out of these twelve, the membership decreased. The meaning of the change is revealed by this single fact — during the first two years of the new Home Office, in 1936 and 1937, the number of newly written adult and juvenile members was 5,089. The new officers started their work on January 1, 1936, with $961,700.34 in admitted assets. At the beginning of August 1955, these assets were increased to $7,034,372.86. In the year 1935 all the branches of the Federation sent in $196,433.06 as dues, loan payments and interest. During the summer of 1955, based on the contributions of the members, the Federation reached a new milestone — the contributions of all branches in dues alone will be over one million dollars a year. A special headache was our Sick Benefit Department. For many years this department had been operating at a loss, steadily depleting the modest assets of the Sick Benefit Fund. During the eight years between 1932 and 1939 the total loss was $19,625.62, which meant an average loss of $2,453.00 per year. At the end of 1939 the total assets of this fund were $4,805.27. During the next eight years, beginning with the year 1940, the income of this department was $38,172.57 more than the disbursements, meaning an average gain of $4,771.00 annually over the amount of claims. The Sick Benefit Fund is now over $100,000.00. Much could be written in proving that the audacious step of 1935 brought forth very substantial gains in every respect. Without introducing the modern methods and without creating a new unified Home Office, only gradual deterioration would have been the fate of the Federation. During these 20 years the work of the Auditor’s department multiplied also. While at the beginning of 1936 we had to work with 12,720 members and certifificates, this figure grew to $34,980.00 by the end of August 1955. The Auditor has five co-workers in his department. Their duty is to settle all adult and juvenile death claims, all sick benefit and hospitalization claims, all loan, interest and surrender cases, and orphans’ deposits; to prepare all payroll and tax work; to do a great amount of statistical and bookkeeping work, auditing every bit of income and disbursement, and giving payment vouchers to the treasurer. The Auditor’s department enters all individual payments on the cards of the members and distributes the amounts according to the different funds. This department prepares the monthly report sheets for every branch in duplicate, with all the latest changes entered every month. It also carefully registers every small or large change in the membership roll and on the individual cards, and prepares a trial balance each month. All this work necessitates a great amount of correspondence in English and in Hungarian.
