UNA executives review finances, discuss mergers
JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The Ukrainian National Association's Executive Committee held its regularly scheduled meeting here at the fraternal organization's Home Office on March 8. Uppermost on the agenda was a review of the UNA's financial status, continuing merger discussions with two other Ukrainian fraternals, the sale of the UNA's headquarters building in Jersey City, and selection of a hotel for the UNA's next convention scheduled to take place in Toronto in May 1998.
The meeting was chaired by the president, Ulana Diachuk. In attendance were: Vice-President Nestor Olesnycky, Secretary Martha Lysko, Treasurer Alexander Blahitka, Director for Canada Peter Savaryn and Vice-Presidentess Anya Dydyk-Petrenko. Also present to report on the meeting in their respective newspapers were Editors-in-Chief Zenon Snylyk of Svoboda and Roma Hadzewycz of The Ukrainian Weekly.
First on the agenda following a review of the minutes of the previous Executive Committee meeting was the treasurer's report.
Report of UNA Treasurer
As of December 31, 1995, the UNA's ledger assets rose to $75,535,225 - an increase of $1,412,009 or 2 percent. This compares with an increase of only $531,794 a year earlier, noted Mr. Blahitka.
On premium income of $4,720,553 from the UNA's insurance operations in 1995 netted a profit after dividends of $1,246,711. However, fraternal expenses, although reduced, amounted to a deficit of $1,691,451. This compares with sales of $5,292,190 and net profit of $958,486 for 1994, and a deficit of $2,618,488 for fraternal expenses.
As of the end of 1995, the UNA had a surplus of $8,664,912. Therefore, there is considerable improvement in the UNA's bottom line, noted the UNA treasurer. The final statistic is a loss in surplus of only $881,158, compared with $2,969,134 in 1994 and similar losses in the past two years. More than half of the loss in surplus, he added, was due to the building operation, which showed a loss of $447,209 for the year 1995.
Annuity sales declined by approximately $200,000, and bond interest declined by about $600,000, due to decreasing interest rates. Mortgage loan interest, on the other hand, increased by approximately $100,000 due to increased volume.
Interest received from the building corporation decreased to $880,051 from $888,861 a year earlier. Even though the building operation had a loss of $447,000, as reported earlier, the building corporation did credit the UNA with more than $800,000 of investment income, Mr. Blahitka pointed out. This does not include the $440,000 the Ukrainian National Urban Renewal Corp. paid to UNA members on their promissory notes.
The UNA showed a deficit of approximately $300,000 in its Soyuzivka operation, compared to a deficit of about $400,000 a year earlier.
In 1995, the treasurer reported, the UNA had a loss of $106,000 on the publication operation with a subsidy of only $542,884, compared to a profit of $26,000 with a subsidy of $1,046,326 for 1994.
The UNA paid its members a dividend of $503,873 in 1995, compared to $1,019,720 in 1994.
As regards the UNA's headquarters building, Mr. Blahitka reported that total revenue from the building decreased by $37,032, or 1.07 percent, in 1995.
Total operating expenses also increased by approximately 1.74 percent, mainly due to incurred payments of real estate brokers' commissions for leasing in 1994 and 1995.
Due to the success of the UNA's aggressive leasing program, the building is 97 percent occupied. However, a full-floor tenant, Mayer & Schwietzer, will not be renewing its lease in 1996. This may be a blessing in disguise, Mr. Blahitka said, since the UNA had wanted a longer-term tenant to benefit its rent roll and this has a large impact on the sales price of the building. The UNA now has the capacity to lease this space for a long term and at a higher rate, he added.
Mr. Blahitka said three real estate brokers had been interviewed in order to ascertain the market rate and terms for a building the size of the UNA headquarters.
In keeping with the General Assembly's directives, the sale of the building is proceeding, and the UNA is simultaneously looking for a new building, the treasurer reported, adding that the sales price of the UNA building would be enhanced if the UNA could vacate its space and lease it long-term prior to the sale in order to increase the building's rent roll.
Secretary's report
The UNA reported the following statistics as of December 1995 to state authorities: 61,126 members with a total of $164,967,525 in insurance. In comparison, in 1994 the UNA claimed a membership of 62,301 with insurance in force of $145,088,257, said the UNA secretary.
As has already been reported, over the last 10 years there has been a steady decrease in members, while the amount of insurance has been increasing. This year's membership attrition is less than what had occurred in recent years. In 1995, membership declined by 895 members, whereas in 1993 and 1994, the UNA experienced a loss of over 1,000 members.
While still cause for concern, this reduced attrition is an encouraging development, Mrs. Lysko noted. The UNA is continually searching for new ways to curtail the loss of members. One possible solution, which is beneficial to both the UNA and its members, is the Additional Insurance Program (AIP), which has been implemented since September 1995. Since that time to the end of January of this year, 923 members with paid-up policies have exchanged these policies for new single premium insurance plans, for a total of $2,380,733 of insurance. From this amount the UNA has received $240,800 in new premiums plus $851,894 in cash reserves on the old policies. For the month of February the UNA gained 176 additional policies for the face amount of $456,885, and total premiums of $203,426. Of this amount, $45,800 represents new premiums and $157,626 is the existing cash reserve, Mrs. Lysko added.
At the end of December 1995, the newest class of term insurance was approved by all appropriate state authorities, reported the secretary. This new product will interest the younger generation because of its extremely competitive premiums, and Mrs. Lysko is now preparing materials to inform the branch secretaries and our membership about these new term insurance products.
In response to the requests of many branch secretaries, a brochure detailing the Universal Life Insurance offered by the UNA since 1992 is now available in Ukrainian. All branch secretaries will receive this brochure as an addition to the bimonthly newsletter, which is due in March.
The UNA secretary reported the following mergers:
In Canada, Branches 480 and 426 have joined with Branch 461; in the United States, Branch 191 has merged with 13; Branch 504 with 341; Branch 151 with 137; Branch 454 with 412; Branch 502 with 444; and Branch 23 with 67. Branches 250 and 501 have been dissolved due to lack of minimum membership.
Mrs. Lysko expressed sincere thanks to all branch secretaries who have given years of dedicated service to the UNA and its members. Additional praise and thanks go out to all those branch secretaries who have ensured a legacy of lasting leadership by recruiting a new generation to service.
In addition to continually working with branch secretaries and recruiting new secretaries in branches where the current secretary is no longer able to perform his or her duties, Mrs. Lysko said one of her primary concerns is the training of new personnel. On February 17- 18, a workshop was held in the Home Office for professional insurance salesmen and branch secretaries with professional licenses. Ten secretaries who are either in the process of completing licenses or who are already licensed were in attendance. The workshop was conducted by Mrs. Diachuk, Joe Binczak, Mrs. Lysko and Lon Staruch.
Secretarial courses, which are offered to all new secretaries, will be held in June at the Soyuzivka estate. Invitations will be sent to all new secretaries and secretarial aspirants, Mrs. Lysko added.
In January, three long-time exemplary branch secretaries passed away. Their obituaries were posted in the UNA's newspapers. Peter Pitner, the secretary of Branch 231 for 16 years, died on January 5; Stephen Evannitsky, secretary of Branch 276 for 33 years, died on January 11; and Peter Babych, who was the secretary of Branch 115 for 40 years, passed away on January 22.
As of December 31, 1995, Mrs. Lysko reported the following figures for UNA membership: Juvenile - 9,099 certificates for $32,130,159; Adult - 19,234 certificates for $74,497,945; ADD - 4,981 certificates for $24,905,000; Active Total - 33,314 certificates for $131,533,104; Paid-up total - 27,812 certificates for $32,155,660.
Report of Canadian director
Dr. Savaryn reported that he had written an article on the UNA to all Ukrainian-language newspapers in Canada. He also noted that he is in the process of searching for younger persons to take on the responsibilities of branch secretaries, and is actively looking for ways to promote the UNA in Canada, for example by running advertisements in various publications and anniversary books.
Reports of vice-presidents
Mr. Olesnycky noted that since the last meeting of the UNA Executive Committee, as legal counsel he had been involved in both the merger negotiations with the Ukrainian National Aid Association of America and the Ukrainian Fraternal Association, and in examining the brokerage agreement for the UNA headquarters building, which has been put on the market.
As well the vice-president noted that he had participated in the first meeting of the UNA's newly organized investment committee.
Ms. Dydyk Petrenko reported that she had attended a meeting of the Chornobyl Challenge '96 committee held at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington. Many issues were discussed, including costs involved with the planned commemorative concert scheduled for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts featuring the Odessa Philharmonic, a national ecumenical service, rally and a candlelight vigil, plus topical conferences.
On February 21 the vice-presidentess attended a banquet sponsored by Freedom House honoring the president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, which was held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. (She did not attend the banquet as a UNA representative.)
Ms. Dydyk went on to note that on March 2-3 she traveled to Soyuzivka to meet with Resort Manager John Flis and Office Manager Sonia Semanyshyn regarding summer 1996 entertainment programming. The trio discussed various possibilities, viewed promo videos and listened to audio cassettes of groups interested in performing at Soyuzivka. Several acts and bands have been booked, while others are still under consideration.
"It's a juggling process and will take several more weeks to complete, but we hope to have a varied and entertaining program for our guests and still keep within our budget," said Ms. Dydyk-Petrenko.
A strong show is planned for the season opener (July 4-7) with three of the most popular bands providing the music: Tempo, Fata Morgana and Burlaky from Montreal. A teaser ad will appear in April. Dates for all the camps have been set, and those ads are already running in the UNA's papers.
While at Soyuzivka the vice-presidentess said she had the opportunity to see the Q-Cafe for the first time. "It looks great. Hopefully, it will be in full operation by this summer," she noted.
President's report
Mrs. Diachuk began her report by focusing on organizing matters. She underlined that life insurance sales in the United States and Canada amounted to $18 million in 1995 - with that total nearly evenly split between the two countries.
In the United States, 844 life insurance certificates were issued for a total of $9,365,544 of life insurance coverage. In all, 229 branch organizers enrolled 699 new members insured for $3,308,544; 145 members insured for $6,057,000 were signed up by nine professional organizers. The latter also sold 72 annuity certificates for a sum of $1,261,678.
In Canada, 187 new members were enrolled - 144 of them, or 77 percent, by the UNA's five professional organizers who work out of the Toronto office. The other 18 members were enrolled by branch organizers, among them Tekla Moroz, Branch 465, who signed up seven members; and Alexandra Dolnycky, Branch 434, who had six new members.
If one looks at the statistics for both Canada and the United States, Mrs. Diachuk continued, it is clear that the UNA's 15 professional insurance salespersons are successful: they sold 289 certificates for insurance coverage of $12,237,914. This means that a full 28 percent of new certificates and 65 percent of the total amount of life insurance are sold by professional organizers.
Among branch organizers in the U.S., the following were the top organizers: Miron Pilipiak, Branch 496, who enrolled 36 members; and Auditor William Pastuszek and Michael Turko, Branch 63, with 25 members each. Between 10 and 20 new members were enrolled by Paul Shewchuk, with 18; Christine Gerbehy, 15; Advisor Stefanie Hawryluk, 13; and Joseph Chabon, Anna Haras and Dr. Atanas Slusarchuk, 12 each.
Maritime Life, with whom the UNA is affiliated in Canada, is pressuring the UNA to increase the number of new certificates to 2,000 per year. Mrs. Diachuk said she had met on March 5 with the UNA's Director of Insurance Operations Bob Cook in order to prepare a three-year plan. An earlier meeting was held in Toronto on January 30, with the participation of Mr. Cook, Maritime Life representatives and Mrs. Diachuk to review the enrollment figures for the past year.
As regards the UNA's publishing operations, the president reported that the year-end figures showed income of $1,168,182, and the UNA subsidized the publications to the tune of $502,289. Together this amounts to $1,670,471. In comparison, in 1994, income was $784,719, and the UNA added $908,866 - a total of $1,774,585.
Income from subscriptions to Svoboda was $486,154, which was an increase of $287,441, or 145 percent more than in 1994. Subscriptions to The Ukrainian Weekly amounted to $240,674, an increase of $102,951, or 75 percent more than the previous year.
Income from advertising was $315,102, a figure higher by $13,931. Donations to the press fund amounted to $26,555, or $16,403 more than in 1994.
In general, expenses were lower in 1995 than in the previous year. The only exception was the cost of postage. All expenses totaled $1,694,716, a sum $67,135 less than in 1994. Notable decreases were seen in salaries ($67,578), correspondents' payments ($9,335), newsprint/paper ($18,416), and in the costs of printing ($9,155).
Postage costs, grew to a total of $564,116, an increase of $42,447. Postage costs for one year's subscription to Svoboda are $47.70; this means that in the case of a single member's subscription fee, a sum of only $27.30 is left over to cover all other expenses associated with producing Svoboda.
In terms of subscribers, the news about the newspapers was not as good, as the number of Svoboda subscribers fell by 1,240, while the number of Weekly subscribers decreased by 1,063 during the one-year period between February 1995 and February 1996.
Mrs. Diachuk also reported on the operations of Soyuzivka. In 1995, she noted, the costs of accommodations was separated from the cost for meals and, in general, this has proved to be successful. Income increased by $76,000 and expenses decreased by $267,356. The resort's snack bar has been rebuilt at a cost of $82,000 and has been transformed into the Q-Cafe.
Other developments reported by Mrs. Diachuk included the following:
Executive Committee decisions
The Executive Committee reviewed information presented by Mrs. Diachuk on four hotels in downtown Toronto that could host the UNA's 1998 convention. A decision was made to hold the convention at the Hilton International.
As regards mergers with two Ukrainian fraternal organizations, the UNA officers reported that several meetings had been held with the Ukrainian Fraternal Association and the Ukrainian National Aid Association of America and that negotiations are continuing. The discussion of conditions for the mergers was off the record.
Finally, the executives turned their attention to the matter of selling the UNA headquarters building. Several potential buyers had viewed the premises, but no bid has been accepted. In the meantime, the UNA is looking for a new home, probably in Morris County in New Jersey.
At the conclusion of their meeting, the UNA officers voted to financially support the two Florida concerts that will honor Ukrainian composer Mykola Kolessa.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 24, 1996, No. 12, Vol. LXIV
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