From our publisher: On the path toward unity (06/14/98)

From our publisher

On the path toward unity

by Ulana Diachuk
UNA President

Tomorrow (June 15), the Ukrainian Fraternal Association begins its 24th Convention, at which delegates will make decisions of great importance for the membership of that organization. Delegates will decide the fate of their organization: whether to merge with the Ukrainian National Association, or to continue on its own path and thereby prevent a merger from taking place in the future.

The Ukrainian National Aid Association of America held its convention back on May 2 in Windsor, Ontario. Delegates voted unanimously to merge with the Ukrainian National Association.

What has the UNA itself done regarding these mergers?

The UNA's 34th Convention, which was held on May 15-19 in Toronto, had to decide many very significant matters, one of which was the question of mergers with two Ukrainian fraternal institutions, the Ukrainian Fraternal Association and the Ukrainian National Aid Association.

The first steps toward agreement on a merger were taken years ago. The UNA discussed a merger with the UFA back in 1982, and even many years earlier; the idea of a merger consistently came up at nearly every convention of the UNA. Laws regulating the fraternal system provide no way to bring about unity of two organizations other than a merger. In response, the UNA established a special committee composed of three members of the Executive Committee (the president, the secretary and the treasurer), plus one honorary member of the UNA General Assembly, which was charged with the task of conducting negotiations toward an agreement of merger.

On the basis of several personal meetings of UNA representatives with representatives of the UFA and the UNAAA, and subsequent agreements, our attorney, Nestor Olesnycky, prepared two separate agreements of merger, which were reviewed by the attorney for the UNAAA and the Executive Committee of the UFA. These two documents were approved by the UNA General Assembly at its annual meeting in November 1997; afterwards, in accordance with legal requirements of the state of New Jersey as well as Pennsylvania, where the two other fraternal societies are based, the proposed agreements were published 60 days before the UNA Convention in our official publications, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly. Each member of our organization had 60 days to react to these proposed agreements, to pose questions and to seek clarification. At all spring meetings of UNA district committees, branch representatives had an opportunity to discuss the mergers and to take positions on the issue in order to prepare themselves for the final decision that had to be made at the 34th Convention of the UNA.

Merger with the UFA and the proposed name change

Representatives of the UFA demanded that after the merger of our two organizations the new entity be called Ukrainian National Fraternal Association, i.e., that the word "Fraternal" be added to the name Ukrainian National Association. The UFA representatives said they were seeking this name change because, though their organization would cease to exist after the merger, the name of the new organization would retain at least a part of their name, which would encourage UFA activists to continue to work devotedly and faithfully toward the growth of membership in the united fraternal society.

The proposed name change was considered by delegates to the 34th Convention of the UNA as the first point in the discussion about mergers with the UFA and the UNAAA. Those who supported the name change were allotted 20 minutes to make their case; another 20 minutes were allotted to opponents of this idea.

Since the name change is an amendment to the UNA By-Laws, in order for the change to be legal the measure had to pass by a two-thirds majority, or 66.6 percent of the votes. In a secret-ballot vote utilizing voting machines 137 delegates voted for the change, while 87 voted against. Thus, the name change was approved by 61.2 percent of the voters and did not pass because it did not have the required two-thirds support.

We should underline the fact that we were only 12 votes short of approving the name change. The convention delegates approached the issue of the name change very seriously, conducting a well-reasoned and equitable debate about this very important matter.

Approval of the agreements of merger

At the beginning of the discussion about the mergers, first regarding the Ukrainian Fraternal Association and then the Ukrainian National Aid Association, delegates received copies of the proposed agreements of merger that had been published in our press. Attorney Olesnycky explained that each agreement could either be accepted or rejected in its entirety; individual provisions of the agreement could not be changed as they were approved by the designated representatives of both parties and approved after debate by the UNA General Assembly.

Afterwards I reported to the delegates about the financial status of both fraternals involved in merger negotiations with the UNA, offering a comparison with the UNA's standing as regards assets, liabilities, reserves, membership, branches and investments.

Following a question and answer session and a discussion, the delegates voted on the merger agreements, once again using voting machines. The merger with the Ukrainian Fraternal Association received 196 votes for and 22 against. The vote regarding the Ukrainian National Aid Association was 192 for and 25 against. In both instances the vote was more than the required two-thirds; thus, the UNA delegates approved both mergers.

Although the final decision on both mergers is subject to the approval of the insurance authorities of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Canada, the UNA fulfilled all its legal requirements to bring about the mergers.

The UNA hopes that the 24th Convention of the Ukrainian Fraternal Association will follow in the footsteps of the Ukrainian National Association's 34th Convention and, taking into consideration all points pro and con, will approve the merger and at the same time elect its representatives to the joint leadership of our merged fraternal society: one representative each on the Executive Committee and the Auditing Committee, and three advisors. They will become members of the General Assembly and will represent the interests of the united membership during the next four years.

The union of our fraternal societies will have a very beneficial effect on the Ukrainian community and no doubt will stimulate increased activity to organize new members, which is very important to the growth of any organization. We hope that delegates will realize this is a time of mergers involving large businesses throughout the world which unite for their own good. That is why now is time for us also to unite for the good of our membership and in order to maintain all those fraternal activities that our organizations so generously provided throughout their long years of service to their members and the entire Ukrainian community.