Fraternity-Testvériség, 2006 (84. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2006-10-01 / 4. szám
President’s Letter 2007 will be an exciting year for us at HRFA. It marks the 100th Anniversary of our incorporation by an act of the U.S. Congress that was approved by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Congressman Abraham Lincoln Brick’s concluding speech that he delivered that day to the Congressional meeting is “one of the most beautiful declarations that an American public figure has ever spoken about Hungary and the Hungarian nation, and it will be a glory for the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America that these wonderful lines are recorded in the Congressional Record forever.” (59th Congress, 2nd session, fourth volume, Chapter 3, pp. 2231-2232.) If you would like to read it, please go to our website: www.hrfa.org. Once there, go to About Us and click the History link. We have many plans for the New Year to increase our membership and to continue to create excitement in being part of HRFA. This includes continuing our alliances such as with the Hungarian Scouts (see picture above of your President selling HRFA benefits and Fraternity? at the Scout Bazaar), reviving the social memberships, which will be available starting at $10 per year for 2007 and will have as one of its benefits a complimentary copy of our publication Fraternity. Please invite your relatives and friends to become social members as well as insurance members. We also plan to support Táncház (dance programs that teach Hungarian folk dancing) across various venues, tours of Hungarian musicians, and numerous cultural events. In 2006, we recruited a number of young new agents for HRFA, and we now have an agency who will carry our insurance products. This occurred despite the fact that the entire insurance industry is experiencing difficulty in obtaining new agents. We also managed to turn around the financial picture at HRFA. While we are not at the point where I want us to be, we did obtain a 30% improvement in new members in 2006, insurance amounts improved by 73%, as well as the economic value of new business improved by 19% over the previous year. The latter value improvement was calculated by assuming a 15-year persistency in the new business. From a regulatory financial statement perspective, our success was muted because we moved from selling single premium policies to multi-year payment policies (i.e. 20-pay). The regulatory figures only include the first year’s premiums of a multi-pay policy in 2006 revenues (i.e. on a 20-year payment policy, the regulators only recognize the first year). We are in the process of reorganizing the branches and to recognize those branch managers that have contributed to HRFA either in terms of fraternal activities or sales or who have provided us with moral support in making needed changes in the organization. A few of us have been working six and seven days per week in order to keep HRFA moving forward. Due to our limited resources, which have been used to institute new cultural programs, expand our alliance partnerships, expand in Florida, create sales training programs, find new agents, and to overcome the significant governance issues at HRFA, some other programs, such as publishing Fraternity have been delayed. If you want the 100th anniversary year of the signing of HRFA’s charter to be successful, please write to your directors supporting our turnaround efforts, and send me a copy of your correspondence and any helpful suggestions you may have. Fraternally yours, Jules Gyula Balogh, President & CEO Fraternity - Testvériség Page 3
