First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Leadership Responds to Coronavirus

The President's Message:

As we enter the next phase of the coronavirus (COVID-19) national emergency, we at First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association are following the guidelines of our state officials and participating in the Restart Ohio program. The health and safety of our members, employees, producers, all officers, and everyone in our community continue to be our primary concern. Our home office in Beachwood, Ohio is now open as of May 4, 2020, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Most of our dedicated employees will gradually return to our office and the rest of the employees will continue to work remotely, so if a member, agent, recommender or visitor needs service please contact us by telephone so we can assist you. We appreciate your patience during these times, and are proud of keeping business as usual, as much as possible.

We recommend that branch and district leaders follow your state guidelines to see if events need to be postponed and/or cancelled and rescheduled. We encourage you to continue to communicate by phone or other electronic means until we return to a more "normal" state of affairs in this great country of ours, the United States of America.

Our Task Force made up of Karen Jakubowski (or designee), Head of Human Resources, Chair and the other key members of our management team are working with me on Restart Ohio as this emergency evolves. FCSLA has a Business Continuity Plan and a Disaster Recovery Plan that would be triggered in case of a natural disaster or a specific instance affecting our ability to conduct our operations out of the home office. These plans have been used in conjunction with our Task Force recommendations so we can continue to service the needs of our members and our producers.

My heartfelt thanks go out to all who have dedicated much time and effort to develop our phased in plans and for our conscientious efforts in their implementation so far. I am proud of all these efforts, especially of all those essential workers who have come into the home office for essential duties. I invite you to read the other messages from my colleagues on the website as well.

We are grateful for your trust, confidence, and loyalty as we navigate through this current crisis. We have weathered many storms and challenges in our 128-year history, including the 1918 Flu Epidemic, the Great Depression and World War II, we will weather this challenge with grit and courage too! We have been fortunate to have many great leaders and we are strong both financially and fraternally. With a membership base of 109,000 members, FCSLA's assets exceed $1 Billion and our surplus is over $107 Million.

May you and yours be safe and keep healthy in these challenging times. You can count on FCSLA to be here for you!

Fraternally Yours,
Cynthia M. Maleski
National President (CEO)

From the Desk of Our National President:
Cynthia M. Maleski

Dear fellow officers,

As this newsletter reaches you, I sincerely hope that each of you is safe, healthy and continuing to put into practice the steps that the National Center for Disease Control provides us as we combat the COVID-19 virus in various parts of our nation. Wearing masks, practicing social distancing and washing hands frequently are the new norms for all of us.

During this month of May, we celebrate our bonds with our dear mothers, and those in our lives who have served as mother figures. We commemorate them and honor them on the second Sunday in May in a special way, as we should do every day! A number of our branches are finding new ways to conduct branch meetings and hold branch events: sewing masks for nursing home residents, holding virtual meetings and conducting sing-alongs and telephonic meetings. We love to hear from you. We welcome all of you to send us the beautiful stories about what we are doing in our communities and how you are finding ways to cope in this new environment.

We encourage you to continue to refer family and friends to your branch recommender or producer or to contact the home office to sign up a new member. Remember our generous Family and Friends Referral Program, where you may have the opportunity to earn $25 for a proper referral.

We are pleased to inform you that we have been able to keep our wonderful Scholarship Programs on track and will be announcing the awardees soon.

At the end of the month of May, let us continue to find ways to honor those who gave their lives in the service of our country, even in these changed times!

Friends and Family

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