LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (07/24/05)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Community groups do utilize synergy

Dear Editor:

I commend The Ukrainian Weekly for its editorial "Where is our synergy?" (July 10) for gently chiding the Ukrainian American community for its sluggish response to the example set by the successful 1999 Joint Conferences of Ukrainian American Organizations. The original event was a result of the vision, sheer will, and rock-solid determination of one individual, Dr. Roman Goy. Since then, few have come forward to match his zeal. As mentioned in your editorial, "it was an exciting time for our community, a time when we looked forward to a more effective hromada with a bright future." You suggest that it might be time for another Joint Conferences event, asking "where has our synergy gone?" Let us support this suggestion, and urge our current community leaders to seriously accept this proposal. However, I submit that our synergy resonates and our hromada's future sparkles.

Consider the following examples. May 2000 - The Washington Group (TWG) in Baltimore tours the Scythian Gold exhibit with the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA). July 2000 - the Ukrainian Gold Cross Chapter 12 partners with UMANA to distribute first aid manuals to children's camps. October 2001 - UMANA joins the Ukrainian Business and Professional Group of Northern California for "Ukrainian Weekend." March 2002 - the Ukrainian Engineers' Society of America (UESA) organizes a successful Summit of Ukrainian Organizations at Soyuzivka. May 2003 - the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Philadelphia holds an HIV/AIDS Awareness Forum supported by Miss Universe Justine Pasek and UMANA. May 2003 - the Ukrainian Institute of America, UMANA, the Ukrainian Women's Fund and commercial companies present a fashion show to support women's health in Ukraine. February 2004 - in New York, the Shevchenko Scientific Society and UMANA discuss medical practice and education in Ukraine and the U.S. June 2004 - TWG Leadership Conference in Washington includes UESA, UMANA, UNWLA and UABA. September 2004 - The Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA) hosts a joint conference with UMANA in Miami.

How about lately? UMANA has just concluded a major scientific conference in Edmonton, encompassing health care professionals from the U.S., Canada and Ukraine, including Ukraine's Minister of Health. Embraced in the conference activities were representatives of local Canadian industry, arts and crafts, cultural museums, churches and area professionals and universities. Plans are afoot for the 2007 biennial conference with the involvement of perhaps even more community and professional groups.

Ukrainian American organizations are learning. They continue to strive for more collaboration, and the results show. Perhaps the time is ripe for another mega-event.

A future editorial might read, "How's that for synergy!"

George Hrycelak, M.D.
Chicago

The letter-writer is executive director of UMANA.

Where does UNA go from here?

Dear Editor:

I'm responding to the column written by Taras Szmagala Jr. in the June 5 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly titled "Where do we go from here?"

Mr. Szmagala provided a brief history of the UNA but failed to mention some important factors regarding UNA membership and its 25-year decline. For years, there were many reasons to belong to the Ukrainian National Association. In the past, members received annual dividend checks and community organizations were given financial support. Although the UNA continues to provide subsidies for Soyuzivka, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly, membership benefits such as the dividend checks and donations to Ukrainian organizations has been eliminated by the past leadership. I believe decisions such as these have contributed to the UNA's decline in membership.

For many years, leading up to the mid-1990s, the Ukrainian National Association donated millions of dollars to other Ukrainian organizations. Plast, SUM, ODUM, Ukrainian museums and other community organizations received financial donations on an annual basis. The amount of the donations was decided by the UNA Supreme Assembly, (today known as the General Assembly) whose members were elected by delegates to the UNA conventions every four years. These donations created an incentive for members of other community organizations to join the UNA because the better the UNA's financial status was, the larger the donation would be to their organization. The UNA was able to represent the community because these community organizations had their own UNA branches and sent delegates to the convention to elect members to the Supreme Assembly. For example, Plast members in Chicago would join the UNA Plast Branch. Members of the local Ukrainian soccer team, Lions, had their own UNA branch. The UNA acted as a national insurance version of a local Ukrainian credit union because they gave back money to the community just like the credit unions do now. Both major Ukrainian political factions also had their own UNA branches and worked to influence the direction of the community.

However, once these donations started to be pared back and reduced, the incentive for being a member also was reduced. In 1995, nearly all donations to community organizations were eliminated. In 1997, the UNA Executive Committee, without getting approval from the UNA General Assembly, decided to completely eliminate the dividend. Not surprisingly, the UNA suffered large declines in membership after these two actions. How many people would stay members of a Ukrainian credit union if they stopped donating money to the community?

Mr. Szmagala was completely off the mark with the statement "I firmly believe that the decline of our association is not the fault of its leadership, either current or former." There are many members of the UNA who may try and rewrite UNA history, but the facts are the facts.

I do agree that the current leadership can't be blamed for the past decline in membership and financial issues that are facing the organization because they have been leading the organization for only three years. In fact, we have seen some positives come out of this administration. If anyone has been to Soyuzivka over the past couple of years, you can see the dramatic and positive changes that have taken place. Led by UNA Treasurer Roma Lisovich, Soyuzivka has seen many positive steps and is a great vacation destination. Soyuzivka alone can demonstrate what a difference leadership can make.

The problem with what Mr. Szmagala wrote is that he implies that there was nothing that the leadership could have done to avoid current UNA problems. Well, Ukrainians are not the only group that has a fraternal benefit society. There are dozens of fraternals out there just like the UNA. There is the Polish National Alliance, Sons of Norway, Sons of Italy and Greek Catholic Union among others. Some organizations are doing better than others. But the common theme has been leadership. In the early 1990s, the Polish National Alliance had a healthy surplus, just like the UNA. However, the late President Eddie Moskal convinced the PNA to purchase a couple of local banks that would cater to the needs of the local Polish community, which was growing due to the new immigration. Today, the Polish National Alliance is financially sound because the leadership thought strategically and looked toward the future.

What did the UNA leadership do during the 1990s to increase membership? The UNA General Assembly, at the direction of the UNA president, spent many hours arguing about a mission statement and by-laws changes. The UNA has a terrific brand story that has not been marketed effectively. Instead of working on a marketing program and promoting our history and obvious strengths, they wasted our time on a mission statement that just stated the obvious. The by-laws changes also were an unnecessary diversion from what they truly needed to be focusing on. For the past three conventions, UNA delegates debated by-laws changes and other insignificant issues. Was there any time left to discuss a marketing strategy or how to increase membership? Was there any time left to discuss why the organization was losing hundreds of members a year? The leadership did not want to discuss the membership issue because it would have highlighted their failures. Therefore, they created these distractions.

So what does the future hold? Not enough has been done by the UNA to market itself to the new wave of Ukrainians. In the past, the leadership of the UNA explained that the burst in membership in the 1950s was due to the third immigration wave that came over after World War II. However, thousands of new immigrants have come to the U.S. and Canada since 1991. Has the UNA mounted any large-scale effort to enroll them as members? The only words of wisdom that ever came from the UNA leadership in the 1990s were that the secretaries needed to enroll more members.

Meanwhile, other Ukrainian financial institutions have had a different strategy. In 1998 the Ukrainian American Federal Credit Union in Chicago sponsored free lunches and seminars to explain the benefits of belonging to the local Ukrainian credit union. Hundreds of members of the Fourth Wave attended these lunches as they were introduced to the local Ukrainian credit union. The UAFCU was able to enroll many new members.

In order for the UNA to succeed, a coordinated effort to enroll the Fourth Wave of Ukrainian immigrants must come from the UNA Executive committee. This marketing strategy needs to be different than the campaign to enroll American-born Ukrainians. We can't just use the same marketing strategy in both the Ukrainian and English languages.

The UNA also needs to invest money into recruiting members of the Fourth Wave to become UNA representatives. It's not enough to tell the current local UNA representatives to put together a talk over coffee at the local church about the benefits of UNA membership. We need to recruit the Fourth Wave within their own groups. This immigration needs the UNA more than the previous one. Many of them work part-time or at odd jobs that don't offer life insurance as a benefit. We owe it to past generations of hard working UNA'ers to make a coordinated push to enroll this new generation of Ukrainian Americans.

The UNA has been in trouble before, especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Leadership, not mission statement changes, made the difference. Our membership rolls during that difficult decade almost doubled. It was during the 1930s that the UNA gave birth to The Ukrainian Weekly, helped establish the Ukrainian Youth League of North America (UYLNA), was involved in the construction of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Chicago World's Fair, and published an almanac of Ukrainian communities throughout North America that is still a marvel to behold. History has much to teach us.

Stefko M. Kuropas
Schaumburg, Ill.

The letter-writer served as a UNA advisor in 1994-1998 and as UNA vice-president in 1998-2002.

More on celibacy and Catholic Church

Dear Editor:

Father Ivan Kaszczak's response (June 26) to my letter to the editor (June 12) does point out the difficulty in obtaining verifiable data on Ukrainian married and celibate clergy in the U.S. and worldwide.

Nevertheless, as explained in the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Greek Catholics in America") the papal decrees "Ea Semper" (1907) and "Cum Data Fuerit" (1929) insist on a celibate clergy for Greek Catholics. These decrees led to defections in the U.S. to the Orthodox Church.

These two decrees have never been rescinded or amended; yet, consistent enforcement appears to be a complicated matter.

Alec Danylevich, M.D.
Worcester, Mass.

We welcome your opinion

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and commentaries on a variety of topics of concern to the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities. Opinions expressed by columnists, commentators and letter-writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either The Weekly editorial staff or its publisher, the Ukrainian National Association.

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