1983: A LOOK BACK

The Ukrainian National Association

Being a post-convention year, 1983 was a relatively quiet year for the Ukrainian National Association. The annual Supreme Assembly and district committee chairmen's meetings were held at Soyuzivka during June; the yearly grants of scholarships to deserving Ukrainian students in the United States and Canada were announced and merger talks with the Ukrainian Fraternal Association continued.

The hot issue this year was the UNA's position in regard to community disunity in the United States. The UNA Supreme Executive Committee, at its regular meeting on April 6, unanimously decided to support actions aimed at realizing "the formation of a representative community organization" that would function in the tradition of the pre-13th Congress UCCA. Pointing to the absence of willingness to compromise and of good will on the part of the "Ukrainian Liberation Front representatives in the UCCA," the UNA executive noted that "the continuation of this state of affairs is only an unnecessary waste of time that is injurious to our community" and charged its representative within the Committee for Law an Order in the UCCA with working toward the formation of a representative Ukrainian community organization in the United States.

The annual meeting of the Supreme Assembly approved this position of the Supreme Executive Committee by adopting a resolution that stated: "We approve all effort to date of the UNA Supreme Executive Committee and charge it with continuing these efforts until the successful re-establishment of representative institution that would satisfy the goals and wishes of the Ukrainian community in the United States."

The Supreme Assembly meeting did not pass without incident, however, as Supreme Advisor Askold Lozynskyj resigned, citing differences with the Supreme Executive Committee and especially Supreme President John O. Flis. The differences were in the realm of the UNA's position vis a vis the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. The Supreme Assembly acted quickly and replaced Mr. Lozynskyj with Roman Tatarskyj, chairman of the Detroit UNA District Committee and secretary of UNA Branch 94.

The Supreme Assembly also approved further steps toward a merger of the UNA and UFA.

UNA Supreme Advisor Walter Kwas, the former manager of Soyuzivka, was honored for 28 years of service to the UNA resort at a testimonial banquet held, of course, at Soyuzivka during the Supreme Assembly meeting. Among those gathered to honor Mr. Kwas were UNA'ers, Soyuzivka guests and employees, and local politicians who had come to salute one of their own, since Mr. Kwas is an Ulster County legislator (incidentally, he was re-elected legislator in the 1983 elections).

Soyuzivka marked another milestone this year as Chef Andriy Lesiw celebrated 25 years of slaving over a hot stove - all to please thousands of Soyuzivka guests through the years.

The UNA awarded a record $50,700 in student scholarships for the 1983-84 academic year to 178 students across the United States and Canada. The awards bring to $340,000 the total of scholarship aid distributed since the formal institution of the UNA's scholarship program in 1964. The details about the scholarship awards were featured in a special issue of The Ukrainian Weekly dated December 3.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 1983, No. 52, Vol. LI

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