THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM (02/24/02)

THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM

The UNA-UFA merger: an update on negotiations

by Ulana Diachuk
UNA President

In the previous issue of The Ukrainian Weekly (February 17), I had notified the UNA membership and the Ukrainian community at large that only a slim possibility exists that a proposal for merger of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) and the Ukrainian Fraternal Association (UFA) will be on the agenda of the upcoming conventions of both fraternal societies.

As it stands today, such a merger proposal will definitely not be on the convention agenda. On Friday, February 15, UFA President John Oleksyn notified me that after polling all members of the UFA General Assembly, it is evident that for the merger of the UNA and the UFA to take place the new organization must have a new name.

At the January 11 meeting UFA President Oleksyn had insisted on almost the same terms as were presented for approval of the delegates of the UNA Convention in May 1998, namely:

1. The name of the new organization is to be changed to Ukrainian National Fraternal Association.

2. For the next four-year term one member of the Auditing Committee and two advisors will be designated by the UFA.

3. All honorary members of the UFA Supreme Council will become honorary members of the new organization's General Assembly, without any time limitation.

4. The UFA did not insist on creating the position of an executive vice-president on the Executive Committee to be filled by the UFA. This was the only major change from the terms demanded in 1998.

UNA representatives agreed that UNA delegates might approve inclusion of one auditor and two advisors designated by the UFA to the next General Assembly of the merged organization, and that all UFA honorary members will become without time limitation honorary members of the new organization because they had approved this at the past convention.

In addition, they agreed that the weekly newspaper Narodna Volya can continue its existence as an insert in Svoboda, and that Forum magazine will be published, too. All fraternal activities of the UFA presently in existence will be also maintained in the future and will be headed by present members of the UFA.

The stumbling block of the merger discussion became the UFA's demand to change the name of the new organization to "Ukrainian National Fraternal Association."

At the last UNA Convention that demand for a name change was presented for approval as a separate point. After a lengthy discussion on that point, the proposal did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority of votes as required and as a result was defeated. The separate proposal to merge with the UFA on the terms and conditions as presented did receive the necessary number of votes for approval.

At the UFA Convention of 1998, which followed the UNA convention by one month, UFA delegates rejected a proposal to merge with UNA because the name change did not pass at the UNA convention.

At the January 11 meeting with UFA representatives, UNA officers insisted that the name change proposal previously defeated at the UNA convention now has even less support in the UNA General Assembly and among UNA members than it had four years ago. Thus, it cannot and should not be a subject in the new merger negotiations. There is no good reason to once again put this question on the UNA convention agenda only to have it defeated again. Money has to be spent for legal and actuarial fees, and much effort has to go into many merger preparations, but there is no reason to expend both money and effort if there is no possibility of a positive outcome.

If both societies did decide to merge in 2002, and if the name change is of such major importance to UFA members, the matter can be taken up in four years at the next convention in 2006. Former members of the UFA will have a much stronger influence on former UNA members and, thus, it would be easier to win the approval of the delegates to the 2006 convention. Furthermore, in four years the delegates to the 2006 convention might prefer a different name for the new merged organization than the one being proposed at present.

At the January meeting the UNA's representatives also repeatedly stressed the many benefits of a merger to both UFA members and to the UFA as an organization. Among them was that UFA members would have access to all the new and very competitive UNA insurance policies and to several types of UNA annuities. After a merger of both societies their administrative expenses would be reduced by approximately $400,000. These savings could be diverted to payment of dividends or to support of new fraternal benefits.

Evidently, the arguments for a merger without the name change were not important enough for the members of the UFA Supreme Council, because they rejected a merger without the name change.

The Weekly's 2001 articles are now available online

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - The full texts of all 52 issues of The Ukrainian Weekly published in 2001 are now available online at www.ukrweekly.com, the newspaper's official website. The new addition is being unveiled, as has become tradition, on the anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian National Association, publisher of The Ukrainian Weekly. The UNA this years marks its 108th anniversary.

Included in the 2001 issues now online are 1,771 news stories and articles (not counting individual items in Newsbriefs) published during the course of the entire year. In comparison, in 2000 The Weekly published 1,740 stories. The Weekly's official website now contains 11,115 full-text articles.

The 2001 issues include the newspaper's special sections dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, as well 32 Ukrainian National Association Forum pages and 74 articles in the UKELODEON section.

The Ukrainian Weekly Archive opened its official website on August 20, 1998. (Previously, beginning in July 1995 excerpts of each week's top stories were featured on the Tryzub website.)

The Weekly's website is dedicated to archival materials published in the newspaper since its founding in 1933, among them The Ukrainian Weekly's inaugural issue dated October 6, 1933. The website also contains the largest collection of materials on the Internet dedicated to the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. The section was unveiled in 1998 on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Famine-Genocide.

Year-in-review issues of The Weekly published since 1976 when that feature was inaugurated (and the "Decade in Review" published at the end of 1979), as well as issues reporting on the Chornobyl accident (1986), Ukraine's declaration of sovereignty (1990), its proclamation of independence and national referendum on independence (both 1991) also are found on the archive site.

The archive now contains full texts of all issues published in 1996 through 2001, as well as excerpts of the top news stories published each week during the current year. All sections of the site are searchable.

The Ukrainian Weekly provides this website of archival materials as a community service. The site is maintained by the newspaper's production and editorial staffs.

The Ukrainian Weekly gratefully accepts donations to support work on its website; contributions will be acknowledged on the website as well as on the pages of The Weekly. Contributions may be sent to: The Ukrainian Weekly, 2200 Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054.

"Copies for Congress" project supported by Ukrainian Institute and credit union

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - The Ukrainian Institute of America has contributed $1,000 to The Ukrainian Weekly's "Copies for Congress" project. The donation arrived at The Weekly's offices in early February with a note from UIA President Walter Nazarewicz.

Also received at that time was a donation from the Ukrainian National Federal Credit Union, based in New York City, with branches in South Bound Brook and Carteret, N.J. A check for $100 for the "Copies for Congress" project was sent along with a letter from the credit union board signed by Vsevolod Salenko, chairman.

The Weekly's editor-in-chief had written to the Ukrainian American community's strongest financial institutions, its credit unions, as well as leading Ukrainian community institutions and organizations to solicit donations for the "Copies for Congress" project, whose annual cost is approximately $30,000.

Thus far, five Ukrainian American credit unions, one Ukrainian American institution (the UIA) and two individuals have responded to The Ukrainian Weekly's letter of November 16, 2001, soliciting donations for its "Copies for Congress" project, which provides free subscriptions to all members of the U.S. Congress. The Weekly has now received $6,100 in donations to this project.

The credit unions that previously contributed to "Copies for Congress" include: Self Reliance (NY) Federal Credit Union, New York; Cleveland Selfreliance Federal Credit Union, Parma, Ohio; SUMA (Yonkers) Federal Credit Union, Yonkers, N.Y.; and Selfreliance Baltimore Federal Credit Union, Baltimore.

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