President Ulana Diachuk delivers acceptance speech (05/31/98)

President Ulana Diachuk delivers acceptance speech

With God's will, and your assistance, this convention, so crucial for our institution, is coming to a close.

A convention can never be successful if it is not well prepared in advance, and if the delegates who are elected to the various committees do not work appropriately. I must say that at this convention we had many dedicated and hard-working delegates who applied their knowledge, their time, their good will and their fraternalism to ensure that this convention be crowned with the success it now enjoys.

Therefore, I thank all of you who agreed to serve in the many varied offices of the convention. I wish to thank the By-Laws Committee, which began its meetings two days prior to the convention.

I wish to thank Taras Szmagala Jr., who devoted a considerable amount of time far in advance of the convention - preparing briefs for the annual General Assembly meetings of 1996 and 1997. He very ably conducted the presentation of proposed changes so that you would know exactly what kind of decisions you would be making.

I wish to thank the Credentials Committee, who arrived at our head offices prior to the convention to audit the legitimacy of the delegates elected to it. Here at this convention they were ready to assist and exercise their function every time we called upon them.

The Financial Committee worked hard to present resolutions to you. It's not that easy. They rose early, met long into the night and devoted many hours to their work.

I wish to extend special thanks to the Elections Committee, which during the primaries strove to give you a record of all votes cast. I wish to state the following for the record: for the next convention, we must be better prepared to conduct the vote with the help of voting machines. Only in this way will the Elections Committee not be subjected to intense pressure to finish at all costs, finish as quickly as possible. We all know that if a task is hurried, it is not always well carried out.

I thank the Secretaries Committee, the Press Committee and the Petitions Committee for their contributions to this convention. All of our thanks are also extended to the presidium of the convention: Ben Doliszny and his two co-chairs, Taras Szmagala Sr. and Ihor Hayda, who so ably, quickly and skillfully shepherded the convention to its conclusion.

As always, a convention requires considerable planning and effort, and so in the name of all delegates I again thank the Toronto Convention Committee, which the Rev. Myron Stasiw chaired. I wish to mention the work of Anna Burij, who handled ticket sales to our banquet and who endeavored to satisfy even those who came to her with last-minute requests.

To Yaroslawa Zorych, I offer my sincere thanks for having sold out the concert - our delegates told me that it brought them great pleasure. We had considerable difficulties in deciding whether to book a church or a commercial hall, and in the end I believe the decision taken was correct. Mrs. Zorych, please extend thanks to all of the ladies and gentlemen who worked on your concert committee.

You know that the proceedings of our entire convention have been recorded on tape. The gentleman who assumed this task is Michael Komichak of Pittsburgh, the former head of the [33rd Convention] Committee. Throughout the convention, Mr. Komichak sat at his station and listened to what you had to say. From all of us, I offer thanks for his dedicated work.

Our convention secretaries were manacled to their chairs during the proceedings, and here they continue to sit until their job is done. Our thanks to them also.

I believe that our banquet was successful, and very well conducted. I wish to thank the two masters of ceremonies, Nestor Olesnycky and Anya Dydyk-Petrenko, for taking on this responsibility and professionally carrying out their duties.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, my thanks to you.

At the outset of this convention, I was 100 percent certain that I would not be a candidate. Many circumstances contributed to this conviction. But only at the last minute, when I saw your desires, your support and your confidence in me, did I decide to continue to lead this organization.

I thank you sincerely for your confidence and for your votes.

Roma Hadzewycz, my opponent, knew that I would not be offering my candidacy, and thus agreed to be the only candidate [for president] at this convention. I thank her for her understanding and for her love for this organization.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will now ask you to raise your hands, right or left, and pledge before all that you will faithfully organize members for the UNA in the coming four years. Ladies and gentlemen, our organization will grow in membership and in assets if each one of you brings 10 new members to us each year - 10 members, I ask you.

My wish is that, at the next convention, if God grants us that we live to see it, all of us may be proud of what we accomplished here and of the difficult decisions we made. Our success is your success. If branches are not successful, then our organization cannot be successful.

Another matter: when we merge with other organizations - and God grant that this take place - I want you to greet them warmly into your districts and your branches, if branches are asked to merge. These are our brothers, these are our sisters. We all come from the same roots, and we must relate to one another fraternally and love one another. Only if there is mutual understanding will there be cooperation and success.

And now, I wish you health, great success in the next four years, and a safe return home.

From you, I ask for prayers that your new executive, myself included, will be in good health and be gifted with God's inspiration to work for the betterment of our institution. Thank you all.

Ulana Diachuk, president