Fraternity-Testvériség, 1977 (55. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1977-07-01 / 3. szám
and 10 in Ligonier, Pa. Special meetings were held on January 8 and 9 in Washington, D.C. and June 24 through 27 in Ligonier, Pa. Also brief sessions were held during the Convention whenever consultation, discussion or decisions to be made were necessary. 4. By-Laws — Amendments and Revisions. In 1976 extensive revisions were drafted of our by-laws by the Executive Committee with the counsel of our Legal Counsellor. The Board of Directors reviewed the text and recommended same with minor changes to the 1976 Convention for adoption. The Convention’s Administrative and Organization Committee again made changes in the text and presented same to the plenary session of the Convention. Further changes were made by the delegates until the final text of each revised paragraph was approved by the Convention and the revised by-laws was adopted as a whole. The revised by-laws is published in the Fraternity, the official paper of the Federation and also in a booklet form. The revised by-laws were mailed to the insurance departments of the 13 states and the Ontario Province of Canada in which the Federation operates for official approval. 5. Executive Committee. During the year 31 Executive Committee meetings were held. Since the illness of Mr. Paul St. Miklossy, Recording Secretary, I started to substitute for him in February, 1973. I mailed copies of all the minutes to the Board of Directors complying with the resolution passed at the 1973 Spring Board meeting. 6. Disciplinary Matters During the year there was no need for any disciplinary action. 7. Fraternity Our Official Paper was edited by Dr. Zoltán Beky, President and published at the Bethlen Press, Inc., Ligonier, Pa. During the year I co-operated with the President by writing promotional and fraternal articles in English and Hungarian. I continued to write in the “Secretary’s Report” column fraternal activities on the. national, various areas and branch levels. The calendar of branch meetings stating the date, time, place and address of the meetings held was also published in a few issues. 8. Medical Director This was the fifth year I had the privilege to work with Dr. Paul Harsanyi, Medical Director. He cooperated with us in good spirit. He only approved those applicants whom he considered first class standard risk cases from a medical point of view. I thank him for his dedicated expert services and cooperation. I had the pleasant experience of working with him for the welfare and benefit of the Federation. The mortality ratio of the HRFA since 1967 was the highest in 1976. 53.44 is still very low and favorable when compared to the national average. 9. The Licensing of Agents Since I am the Secretary of the HRFA, I emphasized in my annual reports year after year the importance of licensing our Field Force members. The state life insurance examinations are becoming stricter. The state insurance laws are more demanding. We have all our Section and Branch Managers licensed in California, New Jersey, Ohio, and registered in Pennsylvania. I think that the same should be done in all the states the HRFA operates without delay. II. ORGANIZATION AND PROMOTION 1. National Annual Production We are still operating under the outdated obsolete quota system method. Year after year I emphasized that the amount of annual quota should be at least four million dollars. The Federation needs at least four million dollars annual quota in order to counter balance the loss of premium caused by the lapsed and cash surrendered certificates, the mortality cases and the paid-up policies. It would also assure an impressive annual increase in the amount of our insurance in force. We stubbornly checked and systematically followed the accounting of the second and third year lapses, I am happy to report that the 1976 quality production showed a definite improvement. In the future we must do our very best to reach the magic number of four million dollars annual quota. The sectionalization system was maintained effectively in 1976 in New Jersey and I hope that it will be followed in 1977 in Ohio. 2. Area Production The operation of the Federation may be divided into three geographical units which we call “areas”. Thus we have the Eastern, Western and Ontario Canada areas. The two great areas are the “Eastern and Western”. The highest amount of quota and the greatest amount of production comes from the Eastern area. It is followed up closely by the Western area. The Eastern area is greatly helped by its western border line section managed by Mr. Joseph Molnár, Jr. The Western area is likewise helped by its Western border line greater Chicago area managed by Rev. Dr. Arthur A. Ludwig and the California Section Managers of whom Dr. Tibor Köss has the highest amount of quota and production. After discontinuing the two supervisory positions and systems it was generally thought that it was the duty of the District and Section Managers to train the Branch Managers in their respective sections. It was also thought that it was their responsibility to recruit new agents and managers whenever there was a change in branch management. It took a few years to realize that in most cases neither the District, nor the Section Managers lived up to the performance of their expected responsibility. It was further realized that the Federation did not get the expected amount of production from the communities which had greater sources and potentialities. Changes in personnel was needed to reach the unreached. This meant systematic recruiting and constant specialized training. It was a difficult task. It would not be wise to recreate the two supervisory positions, nor to restore the discontinued supervisory systems. Time and experience was needed to define in exact terms the duties, responsibilities and work the Area Managers are expected to perform. Both Area Managers deserve thanks for the expert manner they audited the branches in cases of branch management changes. In certain cases they had to perform the branch manager services until they succeeded in recruiting and training new branch managers. Mr. Puskas started the training of the new Section and Branch Managers by introducing a new training course. 3. Section Production When the Hungarians lived in comfortable closed communities around their catholic and Protestant churches in the cities or mining towns the Federation had 5-6 full time persons working in the Field Force. They were all men, so were the branch managers. It was not a woman’s job to solicit insurance business or collect dues at the branch 7
