Fraternity-Testvériség, 2006 (84. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2006-01-01 / 1. szám
Page 18 Fraternity- Testvériség the organization. The subject of youth raised by Mr. Balogh motivated the most enthusiastic reaction from the audience. We heard many magnificent ideas about possible activities, products, incentives regarding how we could get the younger generation involved in the life as well as in the future of HRFA. It was emphasized that the youth have always been an essential building block on all fraternal activities. We must get their ideas on their role in HRFA’s future. For this reason, Magyar Kalman and Mr. Balogh are organizing a brainstorming “táncház” with the Flungarian youth in the big cities of Toledo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Mr. Megyeri reported on the organization’s financial status. Our Treasurer also mentioned that according to the latest census data, there are almost 1.5 million people in the US who claim some Hungarian origin; we need to reach out to them with our website. If we could get only 10% of these people to join us as our members, we would have no membership issues. According to Mr. Megyeri, our annuities are the best in the market and we should have no problem selling those. In terms of being an insurance company, we are different from the “big corporations” in the simplicity of our contract. Mr. Megyeri is encouraging everybody to get their insurance license, and HRFA will pay for the associated fees. We all agreed with Mr. Ed Szabó that there are still communication issues to improve on in general, however, the majority of our area fraternal coordinators keep a close relationship with their branches locally and communicate with the National Fraternal Coordinator on a regular basis. Despite the efforts with the Branch Activity Report forms, our branches still do a lot more than what gets reported. Our organization’s fraternal life is very active, but we still need the data to be sent to the National Fraternal Coordinator so we can report to the NFCA the number of hours spent on fraternal and community events as well as the number of participants (members and nonmembers). Mr. Morey reported on the Appalachian project to the attendees. We need to commend those who worked tirelessly on this project: Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas for bringing the needs of the Appalachian community to our attention, Kati Levay for diligently helping to find the best organization to offer the collected donation to, Reverend Bertalan and the Bethlen Home for storing the bags and boxes for us until the day of delivery, and Deneice and Julius Oroszvary for transporting the clothes to Mission West Virginia. This seems to be the beginning of a long-term relationship and a regular annual project for us. Many branches were moved to joine the collection. Our thanks goes out to them as well! Mrs. Nicholas brought a new idea to the floor: she is planning to collect and send vegetable seeds to Appalachia so that the people can plant their own garden and grow the basics there for themselves. It all needs to be completed by early March. It is a very nice initiative for anyone else to follow. Branches can team up with their churches like Branch 227 does. We are going to name this project our “Victory Garden,” as Mr. Nicholas refers to it. He explains, “During World War II, the government encouraged people to grow their own produce so more of the commercially grown produce was available for the relief effort overseas. Also, many Americans could not afford to buy vegetables, so they planted their own gardens of basic vegetables like carrots, corn, beans, beets, cabbages, cauliflowers, cucumbers, eggplants, onions, parsnips, pumpkins, etc.” In times of need, it seems to be sensible to reach back in to history and renew this practice to help ourselves and our fellow- citizens in the present. What a marvelous idea! Thanks again to the Nicholases. A t noon, we were fed a delicious lunch thanks to Marge Jacobs, Sandy Pittaway, Ann Kovács and Zsuzsi Vizsolyi. Thanks to Director Nicholas and Marge as well as to Mr. Ed Szabó for their efforts in organizing the meeting. The afternoon returned to the scheduled agenda, and we learned about the new sales structure that was developed for HRFA. Mr. Balogh explained the theory of the selling process, and Mr. Fabri gave us practical examples on how to become successful with our sales efforts. Judit Zambo once again emphasized the importance of looking at communication as a two-way Cheerful participants in mutual understanding (1-r): Mrs. Marge Nicholas, Ms. Elizabeth Schmidt, Mr. Ed Szabó, Mr. Jules Balogh and Mr. John Morey Lunch—Zsuzsa Vizsolyi, Jolán Abel, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas and Elizabeth Schmidt
