Verhovayak Lapja, 1950 (33. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1950 / Verhovay Journal
PAGE 4 Verhovay Journal October 18, 1950 Verhovay Journal Journal of the Verhovay Fraternal insurance Ass’n. OFFICE OF PUBLICATION U7nn4a lAffnwcinn Jl 1 THE AIMS AND METHODS OF FIELD MANAGEMENT A statement of policy by Verhovay’s new Field Manager. — Verhovay Journal Journal of the Verhovay Fraternal insurance Ass’n. OFFICE OF PUBLICATION 7907 West Jefferson Ave. Detroit 17, Mich. PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association Managing Editor: JOHN BENCZE Editor: JOHN SABO Editor’s Office: 436—442 FOURTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH 19, PA. Telephone: COiirt 1-3454 or 1-3455 All articles and changes of address should be sent to the VERHOVAY FRATERNAL INSURANCE ASSOCIATION 436—442 FOURTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH 19, PA. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States and Canada .................................... $1.00 a year Foreign Countries ..................................................... $1.50 a year Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Office at Detroit, Michigan under the Act of March 3, 1879. OFFICIAL COMMENT A CHANGE OF NAME The first Official Comment “Changes Mean Progress” published one year ago called attention to the growth of the Association from a small benefit society to a large legal reserve iraternal insurance organization made possible by the leaders of the society, who had the courage and the conviction to make changes from time to time as were necessary to give the membership a sound and strong organization. The article also informed the membership that as the progress and welfare of the •Association required, other changes would be made. The present day leaders of the Association, the members of the Board of Directors and the National Officers recently gave evidence that it meant to do just that. The Board of Directors at its September meeting made history when it unanimously approved a resolution making it possible to set the wheels in motion to change the name of our organization. After hearing from the National Officers and the Field Supervisors, also acting upon the dictates of their own conscience, they declared that after sixty-five years of existence under the name of Verhovay Aid Association and Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association it was now necessary, in the interests of the Association, to effect a change of name. Consequently, the National Convention in September, 1951 will be assigned this task. No one will deny the fact that there is history and sentiment behind the grand name which we have used till now. Down through the years, especially so in the Hungarian circles, it has served us well and under it we have compiled an enviable record. Up to recent years the field for new members was nearly a 100 bf Hungarian field. Our prospects were in the overwhelming majority members of the Hungarian first generation. The name Verhovay was known by most of these people, and it was an easy name for them to pronounce. Today, however, the Hungarian field is very limited, and as a consequence we have been moving into the American field at an increasing momentum. The recently introduced program of better qualified and better trained insurance men has been a part of the movement to the American field. The full-time insurance men of our society have gone on record that vve have now reached the time for a change of name. They feel that in the American field, which also includes the second and third generation of Hungarian Americans, a new name will help considerably in putting across The aims of our Association and our program for solicitation of new members. They foresee great possibilities for increased membership in this new field. In connection with this proposed change of name, the Board of Directors also directed the National Officers and the Legal Counselor to set up rules and regulations for a contest among the members of thé Association for the purpose of receiving suggestions as to what our new name should be. A prize will be awarded to the member who suggests the name which will be selected by the National Convention at its September, 1951 meeting. Details of this contest will be announced later. Between now and the time of the next National Convention there will no doubt be much discussion on this subject. After the contest is set in motion there will be many new name suggestions The Board of Directors, at their last meeting in September, elected, me Field Manager of the Association. Conscious not only of the great honor but even more so of the immense responsibility placed upon me by this appointment, I departed from the branches I had managed and the Field I had supervised, to assume the duties of my new position on October 1st. During the time I worked in the field, I was most fortunate for having bad an opportunity to face all of those problems that confront every branch manager and organizer, and to put to actual test the solutions of these problems ,as they have been gradually developed during the years I had served the Verhovay in the Home Office in other capacities. The success I was fortunate enough to attain in these tests proved to me beyond a shadow of doubt that the solutions to our organizing problmes have been found and need only to be applied to the entire field to assure the continued progress of our Association. On the basis of personal experiences gathered in the branches I have managed myself as well as in branches where I had done actual field work, I must go on record with the statement that the presently effective organizing (system of the Association has proved successful wherever it has been honestly put, into operation. It has failed only where it has been simply ignored by those responsible for the progress of the Verhovay or where our organizing program has met with definite resistance which, in all cases, was due solely to a lack of understanding of the real aims and the actual scope of our organizing system. Therefore, as I am entering upon my duties as Field Manager of the Association, it is important that I make a straightforward statement, addressed to the officers and active members of all branches, outlining the policies which I am by duty bound to follow in this position and the reasons that . make it imperative that these policies be pursued with the utmost consistency. NO BRANCH IS DIFFERENT In every branch where for a prolonged period of time no new members had been secured, I met the argument that “nobody can write new business lor the Verhovay in this town.” In each case I was told that “it is easy in Cleveland, it is easy in New York, it is easy in South Bend, but impossible here because conditions are altogether different.” The reasons brought up in support of this argument are immaterial because in a great many instances I was fortunate enough in being able to prove that the opposite was true. Applications written sometimes Within a few hours, sometimes after a day or two of honest work, made it perfectly obvious that THERE WERE PROSPECTS. Good prospects. Interested and willing prospects. It was impossible to write them before either because they were never approached, or they were approach«! too late, or they were approached in the wrong manner. It is perfectly understandable that a branch manager or any other officer, confined within the limits of his ow'n territory, should consider the difficulties confronting him as exceptional, exclusive to his territory. To a man, however, who is constantly on the go from one branch to the other, doing actual field work among members and non-members alike, it soon becomes apparent that there really is very little difference among branches as far as conditions determining opportunities for securing new members are concerned. In the interest of the progress of the Association let me be very frank about this: the real obstacle to successful organizing work in the Verhovay is not a lack of opportunities but in many cases the attitude of the branch managers and in just as many cases the attitude of the branch officers and active members who exert a discouraging influence on the manager. Our organizing problems are not the result of conditions beyond our control. They are litan-made problems. They are made by members unable to tear themselves away from outmoded conceptions of fraternalism and incapable of rising to the self-evident demands of our times. NEW MEMBERS OF VITAL IMPORTANCE I have met quite a number of branch managers who maintained that the securing of new members is of secondary importance and that they are fully meeting requirements of their office if they preserve the business on their books. Some managers go even further insisting that having been elected by the branch-meeting they were not obligated to produce a certain volume of new business and as long as the branch is satisfied with their services, the Home Office has no right to expect more of them. The truth is, however, that a provision of the By-laws never eliminated I.or amended by any convention makes it mandatory for every branch manager to secure new members in addition to retaining the membership already acquired. It is obvious, therefore, that a manager who does not secure any new members, has failed in meeting the requirements of his office. Furthermore: each and every branch manager has been informed years ago of the production quota requirements which have been fairly and scientifically evolved. Each and every branch manager has been fully aware of these requirements when accepting his office. By accepting this office he automatically accepted the obligations entailed therein. Therefore, if he has written less than the required amount of new business, then he has failed in meeting the requirements of his office. And lastly: anyone who takes this attitude in regards to'the requirements of securing new members, proves himself unfit for the office of branch manager. He should never have accepted the office. No insurance organization would keep a man on the payroll who maintains that new business is not an absolute necessity. New- business to an insurance organization is what food is for man. Without food a man must starve. Without new business any insurance organization is doomed to slow starvation. Anyone disputing- this point, proves Continued on page 5. received from the membership. The climax will be reached, at the National Convention and the new name of the Association will begin its journey in the new field, and we firmly believe that it shall be among the leaders in that field, just as the grand old name of Verhovay has been in the Hungarian field.
