1995: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The UNA: decisions to ensure viability (12/31/95)

1995: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The UNA: decisions to ensure viability

At the beginning of its 101st year, the Ukrainian National Association opened an office in the Toronto area to serve the UNA membership in Canada and to expand the membership base in that country. The fact that this metropolitan area was chosen to begin the UNA's latest venture in Canada reflects the fact that Toronto has a high concentration of persons of Ukrainian background - an estimated 100,000.

The official opening of the office located in Etobicoke, Ontario, was on January 27. "For some time now, at every annual meeting, at every UNA convention, our Canadian delegates clamored for a bureau, and now we have one. It is an operation with a purpose," said President Ulana Diachuk. At the helm in the Toronto office is Robert Cook, director of insurance operations. (In May, The Ukrainian Weekly, taking advantage of the UNA's office space, opened its Toronto Press Bureau manned by Andrij Wynnyckyj.)

The UNA Executive Committee held a number of meetings during the year. At its first quarterly meeting on March 17, the UNA's officers discussed a number of pressing issues, mostly the state of the UNA's finances, including the fate of its 102-year-old daily newspaper Svoboda, whose costs, according to some members of the Executive Committee, had become too much to bear.

The discussion at the meeting had treasurer Alexander Blahitka and President Ulana Diachuk arguing that Svoboda should cease to be published as a daily; Secretary Martha Lysko noting that the UNA's newspapers are its calling card and a most vital service to members; and Vice-Presidentess Anya Dydyk-Petrenko underlining that all the facts must be made known before any decision is made to cut back on Svoboda.

As well the officers spoke of the possible sale of the UNA headquarters building in Jersey City, N.J., voting to get an appraisal on the building, which could then be presented to the General Assembly at its annual session in May. A proposal to sell the building had previously been approved by the board of the directors of the Ukrainian National Urban Renewal Corp. (the building corporation).

And thus, the stage was set for debate by the General Assembly.

At the annual meeting on May 15-18, the General Assembly, which comprises executive officers, auditors and advisors, voted to slash the UNA budget for the current year and to sell the UNA's 15-story headquarters. The move came as a recognition of harsh economic realities as the UNA's surplus had decreased by $3 million per year in the years 1991-1994. Among the results of the budget cuts: the UNA Washington Office was closed, donations in support of community organizations and causes were cut; and scholarship awards were reduced, as were disbursements from the UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine, dividends to members, and the UNA's subsidy to Soyuzivka.

UNA publications also were affected. Veselka ceased to be published due to rising costs and the rapidly dwindling number of subscribers (the May-June issue was its last); The Weekly's annual subscriptions fee was doubled for both members and non-members; and Svoboda readers were polled about whether they wished the paper to remain a daily at a substantially higher cost to subscribers, or whether they would prefer a weekly similar in format and cost to The Ukrainian Weekly.

President Diachuk penned a commentary on "What the changes approved by the General Assembly mean to UNA members" which appeared in The Weekly on June 4. She noted: "At this meeting, the leaders of our organization made many important decisions that will enable our organization to adjust to the needs and demands of the 21st century." She underlined: "The UNA was and remains a solid financial institution."

What the results of the Svoboda poll would be was anyone's guess - particularly when one takes into account the fact that the U.S. Postal Service provides such poor delivery of second-class mail that the value of a daily is greatly diminished. A questionnaire was mailed to all subscribers at the end of May and the responses were due back by June 19. The results were counted on June 23 by UNA Auditor Iwan Wynnyk and Honorary Member of the General Assembly Walter Sochan. The vote: 60 percent for a daily, 33 percent for a weekly, 7 percent had no opinion. And thus, the readers were heard: Svoboda today remains a daily.

The UNA Washington Office, meanwhile, continued to work out of its office space near Capitol Hill through July 31. It had served the Ukrainian National Association and the entire Ukrainian American community as a powerful voice since it opened July 1, 1988, with the aim of making Ukrainian Americans heard in Washington. It told D.C. about Ukraine and Ukrainian Americans, established contacts with Congressional offices, worked in conjunction with Ukrainian organizations and created alliances with other ethnic groups. It even supported the work of the fledgling Embassy of Ukraine.

Its major success (and there were many accomplishments), according to the office's director, Eugene Iwanciw, was getting earmarks for Ukraine. "It was not so much the money that was granted, but that the Congress took on the administration and forced it to be at least somewhat more evenhanded toward Ukraine," he explained. Others who served in the office were administrative assistant Maria Lischak, who served along with Mr. Iwanciw during the seven years of the office's existence, John Kun, Adrian Karmazyn and Xenia Ponomarenko.

The closing of the D.C. office it should be noted, elicited a great response in letters to the editor of The Ukrainian Weekly. Obviously, there were many who felt the loss of the UNA Washington Office was a severe blow to the Ukrainian American community.

Officially, the UNA Washington Office ceased to exist at the end of September (Mr. Iwanciw continued to work alone out of his home in Arlington, Va., through the end of that month); unofficially, however, Mr. Iwanciw, who is also a UNA supreme advisor, continued to represent the organization's interests into November. If the truth be told, the UNA Washington Office was closed down at the time of its greatest successes: first, during fiscal year 1996, Ukraine will be the third largest recipient of U.S. assistance, passing Russia for that slot (Ukraine will receive not less than $225 million; Russia will receive no more than $195 million); second, the Central and East European Coalition, of which the UNA Washington Office was a founding member, was recognized by both government and the media as a growing political force in the nation's capital.

On August 4, the Executive Committee held another quarterly meeting, this one mostly to follow up on the decisions made at the General Assembly session. On November 17, the officers met literally on the eve of the special meeting of the UNA General Assembly that had been mandated by that body's annual meeting in May.

Reporting to the full Assembly during the next two days, the UNA's execs proposed the establishment of a special committee that would oversee the sale of the UNA headquarters building, as well as another special committee charged with negotiating mergers with two other Ukrainian fraternal organizations, the Ukrainian National Aid Association of America and the Ukrainian Fraternal Association. The special session approved these proposals, plus a budget for 1996, and it voted to hold the next convention of the UNA in 1998 in Toronto.

During 1995, the UNA continued its fraternal activities.

Among the projects supported during 1995 by the UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine were: exhibits and concerts at America House in Kyiv and the Educational Fund of the Ukrainian American Professionals and Businesspersons Association of New York and New Jersey.

The Teaching English in Ukraine Program, run by the UNA in cooperation with the Prosvita Society of Ukraine, was in its fourth year in 1995. Fifty volunteer instructors taught 53 courses in 22 cities in Ukraine. The companion project, the Summer Institute on Methods and Practices in TESOL, which is geared to teachers of English in Ukraine, was into its second year with 280 teachers attending the course in Vinnytsia. Both are directed by Dr. Zirka Voronka.

The Ukrainian National Association's dividends to members amounted to $500,000 in 1995, and the UNA's Scholarship Committee, meeting on June 23, awarded 237 scholarships amounting to $63,400 to college and university students who are members of the UNA.

In other UNA news, the UNA Seniors Association held its 21st annual conference at Soyuzivka on June 11-16, electing Anna Chopek of Arizona as president. The outgoing head of the organization, Gene Woloshyn, remains on the board as immediate past president.

Soyuzivka - perhaps the UNA's most-loved fraternal benefit - marked the 40th year of its tradition of crowning a Miss Soyuzivka. Tania Sawa, 22, a graduate of Syracuse University and an active member of the Ukrainian American Youth Association, was selected Miss Soyuzivka 1996. Ms. Sawa, who works with the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, said she sees a role for herself as a spokesperson for the UNA resort and a youth activist in the upcoming 10th anniversary commemorations of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

There was other news at the resort. Soyuzivka got a new chef, Andrij Sonevytsky, a graduate of the nearby Culinary Arts Institute, who has proclaimed a policy of perebudova (in more ways than one) in the Soyuzivka kitchen and snack bar. The resort also inaugurated a quarterly newsletter, Suzy-Q News; adopted new rates that allow considerable discounts for families and separated the prices for accommodations from those for meals; and welcomed news that Chemny, the resort's resident collie, became a father. Manager John A. Flis brought the 42nd summer season to its usual rousing close on Labor Day weekend.

We would be remiss not to mention insurance developments at the UNA - after all, it is the insurance business that allows the UNA to provide all those fraternal benefits to its members and the Ukrainian community at large. In mid-September the UNA announced a new program via which members with paid-up insurance could purchase additional coverage at minimal cost without any additional applications or medical examinations. The program is designed to upgrade the insurance coverage of paid-up members. There were new lower rates for single-premium life insurance policies, and the UNA heavily promoted its mortgage loan program as a very useful benefit to members. Meanwhile, in Canada, the UNA's professional sales staff was selling new products previously unavailable to members in that country.

The latest Soyuz development in 1995 came on December 16 as the first meeting between the negotiating committees of the UNA and the Ukrainian National Aid Association of America took place in Jersey City. Merger talks will continue in 1996.

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