"CHANGING TO MEET THE CHANGING NEEDS OF FRATERNALISTS" Take time to enjoy to share to love as a family!
Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas, Founded 1897 BENEVOLENCE
HUMANITY
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P. 0. Box 100, Temple, Texas 76503 ISSN-07458800 VOLUME 73—NUMBER 4 JANUARY 23 1985
S
Howard Leshikar
The President's Annual Report Dear Members: In 1984 the members of the Supreme Lodge urged all officers of the Society to make their annual reports at the same time in the Vestnik. (The apparent reason being to give you the members a better overall picture of the major events of the year.) To begin, let me take this opportunity to thank all of you for making this a very special holiday season for my family and me. We enjoyed the many functions to which we were invited, the cards and special greetings. We wish once again to extend to each of you our best wishes for the coming year. I would also like to thank the other officers, the members of the Board of Directors, and the staff at the Home Office for their help in making the transition a very smooth one. In January we welcomed our two new directors, Brother Willie Kohutek from District II and Brother Jerry Prochazka from District V. We are looking forward to working with them in the future. It has been my pleasure to help install officers in many of the local lodges recently. I have been impressed by the work that is taking place in the many lodges I've had the opportunity to visit. To all of you who have recently assumed new duties, congratulations; to those who have completed terms of office, thank you. You are all to be commended for your devotion and dedication to our
Society. It is your continued hard work . and involvement that will keep our Society strong. As you know from reading the Proceedings of the XXIVth Convention, many changes were made in our Society. Three hundred fifty four delegates debated the many proposals submitted by your committees. Their decisions must now be implemented. We here at the headquarters have been working diligently to make these changes. We hope that as these changes are implemented our Society will benefit greatly. The Youth Department of the SPJST is one of my major concerns. It was my privilege to spend July 1, my first day on the job, at the District III Youth Achievement Day. Since then I have attended as many of the District Camps and YAD's as possible. I commend all our District and Local Youth Leaders and the youth for their part in making our camping program a success. For the first time in fourteen years the State Youth Achievement Day and the State Royalty were held jointly on August 12th at the Temple Conventon Center. Although hosting these events on the same day made for some long hours, a fine performance was turned in by the youth and the workers. Because of the favorable response we will try this arrangement again in 1985. In October our SPJST Youth distinguished themselves further at the Texas Fraternal Congress in Kerrville. We, who attended were extremely proud of them and their fine performances. January 15, 1985, Mrs. Carol Sue Meadows joined our staff as the State Youth Director. (There is an introduction elsewhere in this Vestnik.) We welcome Mrs. Meadows to our Society and look forward to her working with our youth. We feel that an exciting time is at hand and with the cooperation of all we can make our youth program a shining example for others to follow. (On Page 10.—ED.) As most of you know there are two new youth oriented SPJST projects. These, also, deserve our attention. Our Scholarship Program was designed to recognize and reward the talents of our younger members and help them gain the training they will need in the future. We are proud of each of the recipients and trust that the success of this program will be
apparent in the future as these youth take their places in positions of leadership in their homes, lodges, and communities. Many donations have been received to help with this project and make it a success. We wish to thank all who have made donations and encourage our members to continue their good work in this area. Our Child Abuse Project, designed to provide awareness of the problem and assistance to the agencies dealing with the children, has been widely received. Many lodges now have a contact person and are providing funds, food and clothing as the need arises in their local areas. Child abuse is not a pleasant subject, but it is a sad fact that many children are subjected to abuse and neglect. We feel that as you in the local lodges make aid available to these unfortunate victims, you are expressing the true fraternal spirit. We are extremely proud of the work that is taking place across the state. Our SPJST Library, Archives and Museum continues to be a popular attraction in the headquarters. This year we are especially proud of the acclaim Brother Otto Hanus has received from the news media. The article published in "Southern Living" was a fine tribute to Brother Otto, the facility, and the effort being made to preserve our Czech heritage. We hope those of you who have never had an opportunity to enjoy a tour will find time soon. Local lodges continue to deal with many of the same problems attendance at meetings is waning; cost of utilities, bands, and food are rising; finding workers is sometimes difficult; there are new requirements in the tax laws; liability insurance is needed, etc. We at the Supreme Lodge want to urge you to rise to these challenges as you have in the past and must in the future. There are many who are willing to help if you will ask them. On the positive side, we were privileged to attend the dedication of Lodge 183, Mid - Cities in Arlington. We want to wish them continued success and growth in the future. Also, we attended the merger ceremonies which saw Lodge 173 Galveston and Lodge 172 Pasadena join to create a stronger Lodge 172 Pasadena. We wish them well in their new endeavor. It is apparent that some lodges are experiencing difficulties in functioning as a lodge entity. However, we
encourage them in their plans for the future and hope that all find viable solutions so that the benefits of SPJST programs - insurance, fraternal, youth - are available and may be enjoyed by all. Finally, remember to order your family a copy of A History of the SPJST. So far we have shipped 425 copies of this worthwhile book, and we hope to have enough copies so all who wish may enjoy this account of our Society. Again, a good year to all. Fraternally, Howard Leshikar ***
Bernard M. Gebala
Vice President's Report To Membership Of The SPJST Article 38 of the SPJST Bylaws directs that the Vice President is responsible for the Insurance Department. The following are highlights of a very productive 1984. Insurance Sales Once again the SPJST volunteer sales force produced in excess of twenty million dollars of business this past year. The insurance market has become very competitive but because of a dedicated group of producing Continued On Page 3...