Official Organ Of the Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas. Founded 1897. BENEVOLENCE
VOLUME 56 — NO. 5
HUMANITY
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 with Undeliverable Copies to: SUPREME LODGE SPJST, POB 100, TEMPLE, TEX. 76501
JANUARY 31, 1968
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER
THINK IT OVER . . .
Convention Issue Time. As the time of the convention draws nearer and nearer, we want to call our readers' attention to the fact that we will again be putting out an enlarged and special convention issue of 64 pages. This issue will come out the week preceding the convention. There is no Vestnik the week of the convention. As always, we are asking our readers and lodge historians to send us items of interest for that issue. If your history has appeared before, there is always information that will bring the facts up to date. If it never has, this will be a good chance to give your lodge some valuable exposure. We ask that contributors to this issue double-space their articles, and if they write it in longhand to skip a line. Leave at least a 1-inch margin on all sides. Photographs will be welcomed if they are clear and sharp, even though they may be aged. Do not write on the back of the page — ever! Do not put this off. Assign this task to someone soon and don't wait until the last minute to get this material in. (Pictures of current lodge officers would be timely).
A classmate of Stuart T. Saunders, Chairman of the Board, Pennsylvania Railroad, told him, "You always were a lucky guy." "Yes, I suppose I was," replied Saunders, "but I have also noticed that the harder you work the luckier you get."
Organizational Work In 1967. Members should take a close look at Broth-
er Joe B. Hejny's report in this issue, in which he re-caps total production of the various districts and organizers for 1967. All the districts except two exceeded their 1967 quotas, some more than others. The final tally is not yet complete, but Brother Hejny feels that the 1967 quota of 6 million will be placed on the books. The insurance quota for 1968 has been set at 6 1/2 million. A number of sales contests will be held throughout the year and with everyone's cooperation, this figure should be met. (One of the items agreed upon recently and approved by the directors and the entire Supreme Lodge is that organizers must attend meetings of their respective lodges and districts). More new members bought the 20Fay Life policy than any other, and the average age buying that policy was a little over 20 years of age. Pre-
ferred Whole Life and Whole Life ranked next in popularity. • • Other Supreme Lodge Meeting Items. The end of each year preceding a convention year is an especially busy year for the officers in Temple. There is a lot of extra work making rosters of all the lodges, counting the number of eligible voters, etc. Most of this work was completed in October. At the present time, there are 16 lodges with less than the 20 required qualified voters. Lodge 166 in Beaumont officially disbanded on Oct. 29th, and the members transferred to other lodges. The Beaumont lodge is in District Five. This leaves us with 138 active lodges. The 6 per cent refund was mailed early in the year, and amounted tto $53,093.50. In 1967, 3,144 new certificates were issued in the amount of $6,494,177. At the same time, there were 1,760 terminations in the amount of $3,051,891, which leaves us a gain of 1,384 certificates and $3,442,286 in insurance. 296 death claims were settled in 1967 in the amount of $315,236.50. There were 199 certificate holders who applied for loans against their policies in 1967; 216 members surrendered their policies for cash value in the amount of $84,290.00. Eighty-six new mortgage