UNA General Assembly meets at annual session (12/09/01)

UNA General Assembly meets at annual session

by Roma Hadzewycz

KERHONKSON, N.Y. - The Ukrainian National Association's General Assembly held its annual meeting here at the UNA resort, Soyuzivka, on November 30-December 2.

A special focus of attention was Soyuzivka, which has been experiencing serious deficits for many years, and the report of the General Assembly's Standing Committee on Soyuzivka, which delineated several options for the resort's continuing operation.

The assembly also discussed collaboration with Ukrainian credit unions throughout North America, a renewed proposal from the Ukrainian Fraternal Association for a merger with the UNA; the future direction of the UNA in general and its activity in Canada in particular; and the issuance of membership cards to all UNA members.

The General Assembly, the UNA's highest decision-making body between the organization's quadrennial conventions, adopted a budget for 2002 that foresees $5,625,000 in income and disbursements of $5,563,800.

Participants of the three-day meeting - the UNA's executive officers, advisors, auditors and honorary members of the General Assembly - heard and discussed reports on the UNA's business operations and fraternal activities for the past year, and adopted a number of resolutions aimed at guiding the UNA's activity for the next year, with a view toward the UNA convention scheduled to take place on May 24-28, 2002, in Chicago.

The annual meeting's sessions were chaired by UNA President Ulana Diachuk. Participating were the following members of the General Assembly:

First Vice-President Stefko Kuropas, Second Vice-President Anya Dydyk-Petrenko, National Secretary Martha Lysko and Treasurer Stefan Kaczaraj;
Auditors William Pastuszek, Stefan Hawrysz, Dr. Alexander Serafyn, Yaroslav Zaviysky and Myron Groch; and
Advisors Taras Szmagala Jr., Tekla Moroz, Halyna Kolessa, Wasyl Szeremeta, Vasyl Luchkiw, Stephanie Hawryluk, Andre Worobec, Eugene Oscislawski, Barbara Bachynsky, Andrij Skyba, Al Kachkowski and Roma Hadzewycz.

Also attending were four of the 10 honorary members of the General Assembly - Mary Dushnyck, Anna Haras, Dr. Myron B. Kuropas and Taras Szmagala Sr. - who take part in an advisory capacity but have no vote at General Assembly meetings.

Director for Canada the Rev. Myron Stasiw and Advisors Alex Chudolij and Nick Diakiwsky excused their absences.

Present, both to cover the proceedings and to report before the General Assembly, were the editors-in-chief of Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly, respectively, Irene Jarosewich and Ms. Hadzewycz. Soyuzivka Manager John A. Flis delivered a report before the assembly.

Opening of annual session

The annual meeting opened on Friday morning, November 30, with the traditional ceremony in tribute to Taras Shevchenko, patron of the UNA. A wreath was placed at Soyuzivka's monument to Shevchenko by the women members of the General Assembly, after which the ceremonies continued inside the Veselka auditorium, where the American, Canadian and Ukrainian national anthems were played, and Vice-President Dydyk-Petrenko delivered a presentation about Shevchenko.

Ms. Dydyk reflected on the meaning and the power of Shevchenko's works - which spoke of the belief in a better future for Ukraine - and the fact that today Shevchenko's message still is relevant and he is revered by the Ukrainian nation. She quoted works by 19th century poet Halyna Komarivna and contemporary poet Ivan Drach that underscored Shevchenko's significance for the Ukrainian nation as the awakener of its national consciousness.

Ms. Dydyk-Petrenko continued her presentation by underlining that Shevchenko's prophecy has come true: Ukraine has arisen and its people have been freed. "Perhaps it is not the Ukraine that Shevchenko would have liked to see, but we believe ... it is on the path to progress and that Shevchenko will steer it onto the true path." She concluded by expressing the hope that "Shevchenko will be a guiding light that will also lead the UNA and safeguard this fortress," especially now, "as the UNA looks ahead to its 35th Convention."

The brief ceremony concluded with the singing of the bard's "Testament" (Zapovit).

After a prayer led by Advisor Moroz, General Assembly members observed a moment of silence in memory of current and former UNA officers, both on the national and local levels, who had died during the past year. Three honorary members of the General Assembly have died since the last annual meeting: Walter Sochan, former supreme secretary (May), John O. Flis, former supreme president; and Stepan Kuropas, former supreme vice-president (August). Also recalled were nine UNA branch secretaries: John Pryhoda, Peter Wrublivsky, Jennie Zawerucha, Stepan Kosonocky, Helen Chornomaz, Volodymyr Luchkan, Wasyl Leschuk, Mychajlo Nakoneczny and Leon Hardink.

After adoption of the agenda and approval of the minutes from the 2000 meeting of the General Assembly, the first order of business was to establish the Financial Committee that would meet during the annual meeting to prepare a budget for 2002. The members of the committee were: Vice-President Stefko Kuropas, Auditor Pastuszek, and Advisors Szeremeta, Luchkiw and Skyba, as well as Treasurer Kaczaraj, who chairs the committee ex officio.

Also called into being was the Pre-Convention By-Laws Committee, composed of Advisor Szmagala (chair), Vice-President Kuropas, National Secretary Lysko, and Advisors Hadzewycz and Luchkiw, whose task is to prepare and review any amendments to the by-laws for presentation to the UNA Convention's By-Laws Committee.

Officers' reports

As all members of the General Assembly had prepared written reports for the meeting, only addenda to those reports were delivered during the session.

The UNA's three full-time executive officers presented highlights of their reports before the entire assembly.

Treasurer Kaczaraj led off the reports with good news about growth in the UNA's surplus: during the first nine months of 2001 the surplus increased by $1 million to $7,791,225. In comparison, for the year 2000 the surplus had declined by $187,856.

Other positives noted by the treasurer included the UNA's very strong solvency ratio of 114 percent (that is, $114 to cover each $100 of liabilities, as compared with the $105 average for the top 25 insurance companies); the expectation that the net profit of the UNA's building corporation, the Ukrainian National Urban Renewal Corp., would be $350,000 in the year 2002; and the reduction of the UNA publications' deficit to the "manageable level" of $86,455 for the first nine months of this year.

Mr. Kaczaraj tempered his optimism, however, as he spoke of Soyuzivka, which recorded a deficit of nearly $462,000 during the first three quarters of 2001. He concluded his report by underscoring that "we have to solve Soyuzivka's problems and increase sales of insurance."

National Secretary Lysko reported a total UNA membership of 48,536, with a net loss of 2,170 members as of the end of the third quarter of 2001. She noted that the UNA now has no professional sales forces and that branch secretaries are aging and are no longer as active as they once were in enrolling new members.

She listed the organizers who had enrolled 10 or more members: Myron Pylypiak, 39 members; Lubov Streletsky, 24; Stephanie Hawryluk, 18; Steven Woch, 15; Oksana Trytjak, 14; Michael Felenchak, 11; Eugene Oscislawski, 11 and Julian Kotlar, 10.

President Diachuk reported that compliance issues took up an extraordinary amount of time and effort as insurance regulators impose ever-increasing demands on fraternal insurance companies.

She devoted special attention to the UNA's business in Canada, which, according to the UNA's Canadian actuary, "is barely sufficient to be self-sustaining." She noted that the UNA has three options: to aggressively pursue more Canadian business, to let its business in Canada gradually dwindle, or to withdraw from Canada while there still is a surplus on the UNA's Canadian books.

The president also spoke of the fact that only 93 UNA organizers were active in enrolling members during 2001, bringing in 326 members insured for $5,823,000. Of that number, only 20 were signed up in Canada, where the UNA has 31 branches.

Ms. Diachuk reported that the Chicago Convention Committee is chaired by Dr. Kuropas and is actively preparing a program for delegates, including a concert and a tour of the city, especially the Ukrainian Village section. In addition, she revealed that the president of the Ukrainian Fraternal Association, Ivan Oleksyn, had once again contacted her in regard to a merger of the UFA with the UNA, and that a meeting to discuss the matter is to take place shortly.

She concluded her report by suggesting that the UNA By-Laws should be revised to decrease the size of the General Assembly and to spell out the duties of advisors, and by noting that the next convention will have to consider the UNA's future in Canada.

Reports were also delivered by the editors-in-chief of the UNA's two newspapers and the manager of its resort.

The afternoon session of the General Assembly's first day of deliberations was devoted to questions about and discussion of the reports. Among the topics broached: the UNA's vision for the future; its intentions regarding Canada and the input of the Canadian members of the General Assembly; re-chartering the UNA in a state outside New Jersey that is more favorably disposed toward fraternals; affinity cards and membership cards for UNA members; and the need for a balance of power on the Executive Committee, which is composed of in-house officers and outsiders.

Also touched upon were gratis subscriptions to The Ukrainian Weekly for members of the U.S. Congress, with the assembly's Honorary Member Szmagala underlining that it is important to maintain these subscriptions and suggesting that perhaps individuals could sponsor subscriptions for their senators and representatives. He declared that he will sponsor subscriptions for his senators and representative, and expressed hope that others would follow suit.

It was noted that The Weekly covers the cost, some $30,000, of these free subscriptions, and that the editor-in-chief has written to leading Ukrainian community institutions and organizations to solicit donations for the "Copies for Congress" project.

At the conclusion of the discussions, the chairman of the Auditing Committee, Mr. Pastuszek, made a motion to accept all the reports; the motion was unanimously approved.

Saturday's session began with a report from the Standing Committee on Soyuzivka, chaired by Vice-President Kuropas, with Advisor Szmagala providing a summary of that body's detailed report on options for the resort, which had been submitted to the UNA Executive Committee earlier this year. The consensus was that Soyuzivka should be transferred to a 501 (c) (3) foundation that would be able to both accept charitable contributions and attract strategic capital.

The next step is to seek professional guidance from lawyers and resort consultants on the issue of a foundation and other options, as well as on third-party management of the resort. Soyuzivka Committee members and their fellow General Assembly members underlined that the intent is to keep Soyuzivka Ukrainian, though it is recognized that the resort's rooms cannot be filled by Ukrainian guests alone.

Also discussed was an offer from the Open Space Institute, which buys land in order to preserve it from development and to reserve it for public use, to purchase the 50-acre property acquired by the UNA in 1982 and owned by the Halychyn Foundation, a UNA subsidiary, as well as another 152 acres that are part of Soyuzivka (the mountaintop area of the Little Stony Kill Falls). The institute recently purchased a large parcel of land from the Shevchenko Scientific Society that is adjacent to Soyuzivka. After some discussion, the General Assembly rejected both proposals.

On Saturday assembly members also focused on the future of the UNA during an open-ended session whose goal was to discuss where the UNA is headed. Among the questions considered were: Is the UNA more a fraternal, or an insurance company? Is the UNA fulfilling a need in our community? What are the reasons that the UNA should exist? How should the UNA reach out to new immigrants? Is collaboration possible between the UNA and Ukrainian credit unions?

The brainstorming session led to a number of resolutions that were adopted the next day by the members of the General Assembly.

Assembly members attended a special liturgy and panakhyda for the repose of the souls of recently departed UNA members offered at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church on Saturday afternoon by the Rev. Iura Godenciuc.

During the traditional Saturday evening banquet, assembly members were entertained by the singing duo of Lidia and Gabriela Oros. In addition, Advisor Moroz presented a humorous declamation, while the team of Honorary Members Kuropas and Szmagala and Auditor Hawrysz, assisted by Advisor Luchkiw provided a hilarious and good-natured insiders' look at the people involved with the UNA and its subsidiaries. The evening raised $180 for the press funds of Svoboda and The Weekly.

Adoption of resolutions

Sunday's agenda included adoption of the budget proposed by the Financial Committee, as well as approval of resolutions.

Following is a list of the resolutions approved.

The General Assembly authorized the Executive Committee, together with the Standing Committee on Soyuzivka, to obtain legal counsel and engage a resort consultant regarding options for the future of Soyuzivka, and to report back to the General Assembly by mid-January.
The General Assembly resolved to continue paying dividends to cover the annual premiums of all eligible members age 79 or older (all whole-life policies through the 1958 CSO mortality tables). This resolution will stand until the General Assembly or the Convention revokes the resolution on the advice of the UNA's consulting actuary.
The General Assembly approved the lease of 4,900 square feet of land at Soyuzivka to the Nextel Corp. for the erection of a cell tower.
The General Assembly directed the UNA president or her designee to contact the presidents of Ukrainian credit unions in North America to determine any possible collaboration.
The General Assembly authorized the Executive Committee to discuss the Ukrainian Fraternal Association's renewed proposal of a merger with the UNA.
The General Assembly established a Standing Committee on the Future of the UNA (comprising its younger members, Advisors Szeremeta, Skyba, Kolessa, Kaczkowski, Diakiwsky, Chudolij and Hadzewycz, Vice-President Dydyk-Petrenko, as well as Ms. Jarosewich, editor-in-chief of Svoboda).
The General Assembly directed the Executive Committee to issue membership cards to all UNA members and to distribute them before the 2002 convention.
The General Assembly directed the Executive Committee to pursue issuance of a UNA credit card with Ukrainian credit unions.
The General Assembly resolved that direct mailings of dues notices should include a brief newsletter informing members about UNA news.
The General Assembly established a committee to raise funds for a monument to the late Patriarch Mstyslav, leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to be erected at Soyuzivka (Vice-President Dydyk-Petrenko, chair; Advisors Skyba and Szeremeta, and Auditor Pastuszek, members).
The General Assembly resolved that a meeting of the UNA's Canadian representation be convened by the director for Canada by the end of January 2002.

The 2001 annual meeting of the UNA General Assembly was concluded at midday on Sunday, December 2, with the singing of the Ukrainian national anthem.

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