Fraternity-Testvériség, 2007 (85. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2007-04-01 / 2. szám
President’s Corner This issue of Fraternity is dedicated to the 100 million Victims of Communism and the past and continued struggles of Hungarians to maintain their culture and heritage in the lands that were tom apart by the infamous Treaty of Trianon. Our Fraternity cover shows the Memorial to these victims that was over ten years in the making, and that lies in sight of the US Capitol. HRFA’s Board of Directors elected John Morey as its new Chairman at its April 2007 meeting. Many thanks go to Priscilla Hunyady who acted as Chairperson since the Fall Board meeting. Priscilla, who always has HRFA at heart, did a wonderful job in getting everyone to cooperate and to help your President move HRFA forward. Ms. Hunyady who chose not to run for Chair, was elected a Vice Chair. László Hamos was elected as the second Vice Chair. The April Board meeting set a number of goals to keep HRFA moving forward. First among these was a strict compliance with the spirit of the bylaws, including cooperation and working together. The bylaws require this of all our officers, all the Directors and all of the branch managers and agents. Hopefully the serious issues we have had in this regard have been resolved. The Sales and Marketing Committee was assigned responsibility to research new products and new incentives, and a Consultant was hired to identify and recruit new agents. The insurance industry as a whole has difficulty in recruiting agents, so please give us your help in finding the younger generation to take over. As we move forward I believe it is important to recognize and reward those that have cooperated with your President to move HRFA forward, and those who have contributed to HRFA either through new sales or through their fraternal activities or both. The last issue of Fraternity praised our two leaders in sales, Mr. Fabri and Ms. Zambo, but there is a “new kid on the block”. I would like to give special praise to our young new agent, Robert Kovács of New Brunswick, who sold over 25 policies in his first few months on the job. Robert was born in the US but speaks fluent Hungarian, and bubbles over with enthusiasm for his new job as Branch Manager and agent for HRFA. There really are young people out there who can take over the wonderful work that the “old timers” have done. We need to identify more of them and we need to make sure we don’t turn them off through old line thinking and politics. So please listen to what the young people have to say and encourage them to join us. On the Fraternal side we have had many new activities and successes. We had numerous veterans activities and a successful Join Hands Day effort across many branches. We participated in the American Hungarian Federation’s Memorial Day Celebration which including laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on behalf of Hungarians who died for America. HRFA helped homeless victims of a fire in Pennsylvania, sponsored a statewide martial arts tournament, gave a scholarship to a state fraternal congress. At the HRFA Kossuth House we sponsored discussions with Hungarian parliamentarians, including Janos Horvath representing Fidesz, and the President of MDF, Ibolya David. Our branches had some wonderful activities outlined in Branch News section. We hosted a moving picture show on our website of the NFCA Annual Fraternal meeting, which was linked to numerous fraternal societies’ web sites. This gave HRFA national recognition for leadership in fraternal cooperation and Web technology, and thanks from leaders of major fratemals (see www.HRFA.org). Fraternally yours, Jules G. Balogh, President Fraternity - Testvériség / Summer 2007 3
