1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The UNA: mergers, mission statement (12/29/96)

1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The UNA: mergers, mission statement

For the Ukrainian National Association the year began with a report that it had initiated merger negotiations with the Ukrainian Fraternal Association, which is based in Scranton, Pa. Officers of the two fraternal benefit life insurance societies met on January 11 at the UNA Home Office, and the major topic of discussion was whether the two associations could effect a merger before waiting for the regularly scheduled conventions of both, slated to take place in 1998. The meeting came after the UNA's General Assembly in November 1995 had voted to go ahead with merger negotiations with the UFA and the Ukrainian National Aid Association of America. (The first meeting with officers of the UNAAA had taken place in mid-December 1995.)

By year's end several more meetings about the proposed mergers had been held by representatives of the UNA, UFA and UNAAA, as well as with representatives of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, which oversees insurance companies in the state where the UNA is chartered. As President Ulana Diachuk reported at the November 6 meeting of the UNA Executive Committee, both mergers have encountered problems that need to be resolved before a merger with the UNA can take place (in the case of the UFA, the sale of the Verkhovyna resort must be accomplished by the owner; in the case of the UNAAA, the UNA is trying to satisfy requirements of regulatory authorities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ontario). However, Mrs. Diachuk emphasized that both are still on track.

As regards the UNA headquarters building (which was put up for sale last year following a vote to that effect at the May meeting of the UNA General Assembly), at its 1996 annual meeting in November the General Assembly voted not to revisit the issue of its sale. Thus, the building remains on the market (it is being handled by Cushman & Wakefield, the largest commercial real estate company in New Jersey), and the UNA still plans to move its Home Office to a smaller, more suitable space, probably in Morris County, N.J. In fact, New Jersey's insurance authorities have indicated that sale of the building would be desirable in view of the fact that the UNA's loan to the Ukrainian National Urban Renewal Corp. (i.e., the headquarters building) has a negative effect on the surplus of the UNA.

The 1996 meeting of the General Assembly was marked by intense discussions at plenary sessions, at committee deliberations, and in discussions among the UNA's officers, advisors, auditors and honorary members of its General Assembly. These were a much-needed follow-up to the Assembly's November 1995 special meeting at which members checked on progress made in implementing the difficult cost-cutting decisions made six months earlier.

This year's annual meeting was a session at which the UNA began to take a serious look at itself, where it stands today and where it hopes to be tomorrow. The resolutions and recommendations proposed by the Assembly's committees, and subsequently adopted by the entire body, reflected that atmosphere. To wit, as a result of a proposal by the Resolutions Committee, the General Assembly resolved that the UNA consider and adopt "a concise mission statement setting forth with specificity the role the Ukrainian National Association intends to play within the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities."

At the same time, the Assembly passed a resolution that recommitted the UNA "to supporting and working with Ukrainian Americans and Ukrainian Canadians, Ukrainian educational institutions, and religious and civic organizations" in "preserving, promoting and developing our rich Ukrainian heritage, language, culture and the arts." For that same reason, the Assembly voted to continue supporting and subsidizing the UNA's most important fraternal assets, its two newspapers, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly, and its year-round resort, Soyuzivka. Assembly members also approved continuation of the UNA's support for schools of Ukrainian studies and pedagogical courses for their teachers, student scholarships and the Kyiv Press Bureau, as well as projects that provide aid to Ukraine.

Another noteworthy development within the UNA during 1996 was the activation of the Ukrainian National Foundation Inc., which had been chartered four years earlier, after the May 1992 meeting of the Supreme Assembly voted to created a non-profit tax-exempt foundation to support charitable, religious, educational and scientific projects. This past June the UNF was granted tax-exempt status. [That's a 501 (c) (3) entity for all you accountants and tax specialists.] The Executive Committee meeting on July 12 voted to expand the foundation's board of directors, and the first meeting of that board was held in November, following the General Assembly meeting.

The directors are: the UNA President Ulana Diachuk, Vice-President Nestor Olesnycky, Vice-Presidentess Anya Dydyk-Petrenko, Secretary Martha Lysko, Treasurer Alexander Blahitka, Auditor Anatole Doroshenko, Advisors Roma Hadzewycz and Eugene Iwanciw and Honorary Member of the General Assembly Walter Sochan. More on this foundation will be forthcoming soon.

The UNA Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine continued to support the work of the UNA Press Bureau in Kyiv, and it gave donations to schools in Donbas and Luhansk regions of Ukraine ($1,000 allocated in July). But the bad news was that donations to the fund slowed down in 1996. In 1995 they totaled $33,424, while in 1996, as of September, they stood at $16,663.

UNA assets continued to grow in 1996 and as of September 30, 1996, stood at $75.7 million. However, the number of members declined; as of the end of September the UNA had 59,813 members in the United States and Canada.

There was good news and bad at the UNA's publishing house as income for Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly increased and expenses decreased, while the number of subscribers declined markedly. The General Assembly did give a vote of confidence to the papers, however, as it passed a recommendation to continue publishing Svoboda as a daily newspaper, in keeping with last year's vote by subscribers and previous decisions of both the UNA Convention (1994) and the General Assembly (1995).

The UNA's trail-blazing Teaching English in Ukraine program marked its fifth year in 1996. More than 4,500 students in Ukraine have benefited from the English language courses organized in conjunction with Prosvita, the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society, annually since 1992. This year also marked the fourth year of a companion program called the Summer Institute on Current Methods and Practices in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). That program has established resource centers, outfitted with the most current audio-visual materials and equipment, in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia and Lutsk. Both programs are run by Prof. Zirka Voronka. But the real key to the programs' success is the many volunteers who travel to Ukraine at their own expense to impart knowledge to students of all ages and backgrounds.

Other notable happenings around the UNA in 1996 included the following.

The 1996 edition of the UNA Almanac - the 86th annual release - was dedicated to the fifth anniversary of Ukraine's independence and the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.
The UNA donated a set of books on Ukrainian history, politics and culture to the Foreign Service Institute Library to augment the institute's teaching materials on Ukraine. The institute, part of the U.S. State Department, offers courses on Ukraine to foreign service officers and other government officials who will be serving tours of duty at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
During the first few months of 1996, the UNA took its longtime role as patron of the arts to Poland, via Kyiv. With the assistance of Victor Kytasty, the director of America House in Kyiv, and a $500 donation from the UNA, the Kyiv-based Christian Arts Fund, whose aim is to promote young artists, revitalize Ukrainian culture and promote spiritual rebirth, organized an exhibit in Krakow of works by Ukrainian artists. The theme of the exhibit was "Good News: Christian Motifs in Contemporary Ukrainian Art."
A newsletter for members called The UNA in Focus (U poli zoru - UNSoyuz), which focuses on UNA insurance offerings, membership benefits and fraternal activities, was inaugurated in 1996. Some 26,000 copies of the premiere issue of the bilingual (English-Ukrainian) newsletter, dated March 1996, were mailed to UNA members in the United States; subsequent issues of the four-page newsletter were published in June and November.
Dividends paid out to members in 1996 totaled $300,000.
The UNA Scholarship Committee met at the Home Office on July 11 to review 234 applications for student scholarships submitted by its members from across North America. The committee awarded 203 scholarships totaling $65,400, including several special memorial scholarships awarded in larger amounts to deserving college/university students.
As it was an Olympic year, the UNA urged its members to help support the Ukrainian Olympic movement. In September The Weekly reported that the UNA and its members had raised more than $15,000 in donations to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, which was duly acknowledged in a letter to the UNA from Valeriy Borzov, president of the NOC-Ukraine and minister of youth and sports.
In November, the beginnings of the Ukrainian National Association's homepage appeared on the Internet. It now contains information describing just what the UNA is and what it does, as well as special sections on fraternal activities, membership, aid to Ukraine (where the UNA's new Christmas cards may be viewed in full-color) and insurance. The homepage was set up through the work of an Internet Committee established by the UNA General Assembly and consultant Bohdan Peter Rekshynskyj. Readers may find the UNA site - still under construction - at http://www.tryzub.com/UNA/

Meanwhile, the UNA's upstate New York resort, Soyuzivka, hosted its 43rd annual season, which opened as is traditional on the July 4 weekend. Even before that, however, the UNA estate hosted a Memorial Day weekend event dubbed "Springfest '96," the 22nd annual conference of the UNA Seniors' Association and the 12th annual Fathers' Day program sponsored by the UNA, a.k.a. "Batko Soyuz." It should be noted that the seniors conference was attended by 108 members who unanimously re-elected Anne Chopek as president.

The summer brought the usual array of camps and campers, concerts and art exhibits, entertainment programs and dances, and, of course, sports - most notably the tennis competitions on the opening and closing weekends and in between, and the swimming championships and volleyball tournament during the Labor Day weekend.

A new Miss Soyuzivka was crowned on August 18. Tanya Kost , 22, of North Royalton, Ohio, was chosen from among nine young women who competed in the UNA's 41st traditional contest. Ms. Kost is a summa cum laude graduate of Case Western Reserve University with two bachelor's degrees, in physics and German. She is an active member of Plast and is director for "novatstvo" (children up to age 11) of the U.S. National Plast Command. She traveled this summer to Zalischyky, Ternopil Oblast, as part of the UNA's Teaching English in Ukraine program.

The following weekend, August 24-25, was dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the proclamation of Ukraine's independence. The season closed the weekend afterwards, that is during the Labor Day weekend, with the traditional programs and sports competitions, plus special events commemorating the fifth anniversary of Ukraine's independence.

At year's end, Soyuzivka played host to its owner, as the Ukrainian National Association held its annual Christmas party for employees of the UNA Home Office and its publications, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly. It was a beautiful snowy weekend in the Catskills enjoyed by all.

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