VĚSTNÍK
Monday, May 23, 2022
2022 SPJST Advisory Council Meeting Summary of the 2022 SPJST Advisory Council Meeting via Webcast ● May 7, 2022 The SPJST Advisory Council was established as the result of the corporate governance by-law provisions that were approved by delegates at the 2021 SPJST Convention. That provision appears as Article 11 in our current bylaws: ARTICLE XI SPJST ADVISORY COUNCIL Section 57. Convention delegates shall serve as members of the SPJST Advisory Council between conventions. SPJST Advisory Council members shall serve on a volunteer basis and meet annually each spring with the Executive Committee with the objective of keeping the SPJST Advisory Council members engaged and responsive in matters relating to the growth and development of SPJST. = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Opening of the Meeting The meeting opened with a prayer led by Vice President of Sales and Marketing Delisle Doherty. * Executive Committee Participating in the Meeting Along with Advisory Council members, participating in the webcast were SPJST Board of Directors - Board Chairman/District Three Director John Engelke; Board Vice Chairman/District One Director Donnie Victorick; District Two Director Jesse Pospisil; District Four Director Bobby Davis; District Five Director Bradley Stavinoha; District Six Director Annie Vahalik; and District Seven Director Regina House. Executive Officers - President/CEO Brian Vanicek; Vice President of Sales and Marketing Delisle Doherty; Vice President of Communications Melanie Zavodny; Chief Financial Officer Leonard Mikeska; and Controller Roy Vajdak. * As a result of actions taken by delegates to the 2021 Convention, the directors and officers are now collectively referred to as the SPJST Executive Committee. Previously the term “Supreme Lodge” was assigned to that body. = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The following elements were addressed during the meeting: ➛ SPJST’s financial performance ➛ Review of SPJST’s investment performance ➛ SPJST sales and marketing initiatives achieved in 2021 and what to expect in the year ahead ➛ Review of SPJST’s fraternal engagement initiatives in 2021 along with some priorities in 2022 ➛ Overview of camp initiatives which were achieved in 2021 as well as some projections for the current year
this area had amounted to about $2.7 million so that resulted in a net increase to surplus of $200,000. More recently, in 2020, a $2 million spike in death claims negated what would have otherwise been a good year for SPJST. I believe it’s important that you know these kinds of things. It reflects well on the current team for taking the necessary actions to right the course for SPJST. The 2021 annual statement, I am happy to say, reflects the positive direction we are progressing. Rather than playing “clean up,” the emphasis is squarely focused on investing in the business end of operations. I’d like to share some numbers now. What I’ve done is construct charts in such a way as to illustrate the four most recent years of activity along with the results
posted from our first quarter 2022 statement. In that way, I believe you can get a more visual representation of the trends and where they may be leading. I will start with Total Society Assets. Total society assets increased from $243 million in 2018 to $250 million in 2021. As of March 31, 2022, our society assets stand at almost $256 million. That’s a substantial increase over where we were in 2018. Next, I’ll move on to General Operating Expenses. You can see that general operating expenses have declined from $3.2 million in 2017 to $2.8 million in 2021. This is due to the Home Office focusing on reducing expenses where we can and on a reduction of staff. The next two charts, respectively, illustrate the Death and Annuity Benefits
Total Society Assets
Controller Roy Vajdak’s Report The past year – 2021 – truly has been a turning point for SPJST in a lot of ways - a lot of positive ways. So many of the issues that SPJST had to deal with in the preceding years have been eliminated. I’ll give you a couple of examples: Going back to 2011, our internal accounting controls identified that SPJST’s universal life program was improperly crediting surplus payments to a number of accounts. Chief Financial Officer Leonard Mikeska worked diligently on this issue. While the crediting impacted membership in a positive way, the end result is that it necessitated that SPJST recompensate the Internal Revenue Service approximately $1.1 million. That resulted in a direct hit to surplus. Later, in 2016, our internal controls identified an actuarial flaw in the cash reserves set aside for SPJST’s Term 4 Life plan. That resulted in an additional $1.6 million that had to be reassigned from our unallocated surplus to reserves. In 2019, SPJST wisely made the decision to relieve its investment portfolio of some longstanding problem issues in equities and bonds. Equities had been carried on our books at fair market value. When those investments were jettisoned, that resulted in a substantial $2.5 million hit to net income. That impact was partially offset because we were able to relieve surplus of our unreserved losses. Unrecognized losses in
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General Operating Expenses
