EDITORIAL: The UNA takes stock (11/24/96)

EDITORIAL

The UNA takes stock

The Ukrainian National Association's General Assembly recently concluded its annual meeting at Soyuzivka. After the quadrennial UNA convention of delegates (who are elected by UNA members on the local level), the Assembly is the most important decision-making forum for this oldest and largest Ukrainian fraternal benefit insurance company. Thus, it is worthwhile to take a minute and examine the ramifications of the General Assembly's latest meeting.

It may seem, at first glance, that there was not much to report from this meeting, that there were no monumental decisions as there were, say, at the May 1995 session, which made several difficult decisions in order to ensure the financial strength of the UNA. However, this year there were intense discussions at plenary sessions, at committee deliberations, and in discussions among the UNA's officers, advisors, auditors and honorary members of its General Assembly. These were a much needed follow-up to the Assembly's November 1995 special meeting at which members checked on progress made in implementing the decisions made six months earlier.

The 1996 General Assembly session reviewed the status of proposed mergers involving the Ukrainian Fraternal Association and the Ukrainian National Aid Association of America. Though stalled by certain technicalities and requirements of various insurance departments, these mergers - which will result in an even larger and stronger Ukrainian fraternal organization - are still on track.

The 1996 annual meeting was a session at which the UNA began to take a serious look at itself, where it stands today and where it hopes to be tomorrow. The resolutions and recommendations proposed by the Assembly's committees, and subsequently adopted by the entire body, reflected that atmosphere. (The full texts of the resolutions and recommendations will be published in The Weekly.) To wit, as a result of a proposal by the Resolutions Committee, the General Assembly resolved that the UNA consider and adopt "a concise mission statement setting forth with specificity the role the Ukrainian National Association intends to play within the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities," and it advised that a specific time slot be set aside at the 1997 meeting of the General Assembly to compose that statement.

At the same time, the Assembly passed a resolution that recommitted the UNA "to supporting and working with Ukrainian Americans and Ukrainian Canadians, Ukrainian educational institutions and religious and civic organizations" in "preserving, promoting and developing our rich Ukrainian heritage, language, culture and the arts."

For that same reason, the Assembly voted to continue supporting and subsidizing the UNA's most important fraternal assets, its two newspapers, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly, and its year-round resort, Soyuzivka. Assembly members also approved continuation of the UNA's support for schools of Ukrainian studies and pedagogical courses for their teachers, student scholarships and the Kyiv Press Bureau, as well as projects that provide aid to Ukraine.

Indeed, these resolutions jibed with a statement made by the UNA's president, Ulana Diachuk, who had pointed out in her opening remarks to the General Assembly that the UNA must proceed in its activity, but that it must take note of the spirit of the times, while staying true to its time-honored tradition - its 102-year record - of caring for the well-being of its members and the Ukrainian community at large.

Therein lies the strength of the UNA: it cared and it cares. It is and will remain more than an insurance company, for a fraternal organization's raison d'être is to provide for its members and to act on their concerns.

And that, dear readers, is why the UNA will remain strong for years to come. As long as the Ukrainian community exists, as long as there are Ukrainians who join the UNA and work on Ukrainian projects, there will be a UNA to stand behind them like a caring father figure, known as "Batko Soyuz."