Fraternity-Testvériség, 2006 (84. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2006-04-01 / 2. szám
Page 13 Fraternity- Testvériség Annual District Meetings Pennsylvania District Meeting - February 25, 2006 The annual HRFA Pennsylvania District meeting was held at the First Hungarian Reformed Church in Pittsburgh. The church was built in 1891 and is the oldest Reformed church in the US. Our meeting was a great success thanks to its pastor, the Rev. Ilona Komjáthy, and to Joe Fabri one of HRFA’s directors and the PA District Mentor. The meeting was notable for its open approach and ability for all to contribute their great ideas for change. The opening prayer by Rev. Komjáthy was followed by Joe Fabri’s moving account of how he started with HRFA, and how he wanted to emulate his early mentors who had the success of HRFA in their hearts. President Balogh followed with his vision of the future for HRFA which included improved communication among all parties, a positive can-do attitude, building pride in belonging to HRFA, and, of course, increasing sales through new products, new marketing and a rejuvenated sales force. He mentioned that he went to the same university as Jerome Bettis, Notre Dame, and told the story of a young man who ran out of money while attending there, and how the University gave him a job and paid for his tuition so he could continue his studies (Notre Dame in those days did not have a large endowment). This young man came back 20 years later and handed Notre Dame a check for $25 million. The point was that good deeds do get rewarded, so contribute selflessly to the success of HRFA. CFO Megyeri followed with the report on last year’s sales activity. He said we are solid financially but losing members and need to make a strong effort to attract new people to HRFA. Peggy Fabri followed by speaking about fraternal activities and how we need to publicize our good deeds. She also read a letter from Judit Zambo, our fraternal coordinator, who was busy at a large event in Naples, Florida, helping to jump start the sales process there. In her letter, our National Fraternal Coordinator asked that the branches communicate their fraternal and community events in a timely fashion using the forms that were developed specifically to help the reporting process. Forms are available on paper or over the internet for online submission. The collected data will be used for a report that has to be submitted to the National Fraternal Congress of America. HRFA Director Jim Szuch, introduced our new sales process, starting with how to recruit new members, and what to say during client interviews. He indicated that first you need to build trust with the client, by showing that you are really interested in helping them, then build on trust in HRFA, and then build confidence in your solution to their needs. Jeff DeSantes, who is our new part time sales consultant, followed with the steps needed to be done prior to meeting with the client (the pre-call process). Jim finished the presentation by discussing interview techniques, finding solutions, setting up next steps, closing the sale, and how to follow-up. Mr. Fabri followed with some real life examples of success stories and said not to give up at the first no. He told us of one client who said she was absolutely not interested in insurance. Joe kept in touch with this person and after two years the person approached Joe for a policy. A delicious lunch followed with hurka, paprikás chicken, uborka saláta, and, of course, a delicious dessert of two types of krérnes. The cooks were too shy to come up to get their congratulations, so our President went to the downstairs kitchen to give thanks on behalf of all. The afternoon started with a presentation of a plaque to Joe Fabri, HRFA’s top salesperson, honoring his extensive efforts at helping HRFA through both his
