Turning the pages back... May 3, 1998 (04/28/02)

Turning the pages back...

May 3, 1998

Four years ago, as the Ukrainian National Association was preparing for its 34th Regular Convention, The Ukrainian Weekly carried an editorial about the upcoming conclave. Among the matters that awaited the attention and action of delegates representing branches throughout North America were mergers of two similar Ukrainian fraternal associations with the UNA, by-laws amendments and the election of a new General Assembly.

All of these matters, we wrote, were "vital to the survival of our Soyuz, which is now facing trying times." We explained: "The mergers have the potential ... of strengthening this community institution and unifying our community. Amendments to the by-laws ... can make the UNA structure more efficient and its officers more accountable. The election of new leaders will give them the opportunity and the power to lead, to truly lead, the UNA."

But we also drew our readers' attention to a very basic, yet fundamental question that would be posed at the convention: "What the UNA is to be?" The key questions that would be posed at the 34th UNA Convention were: "Will the UNA stay true to its founding principles? Will fraternalism continue to be the foundation of the UNA? Or will this be abandoned in favor of some corporate ideal?"

The decisions made by delegates to UNA conventions have ramifications that transcend the membership rolls of the UNA. After all, the fates of the UNA and our community here in the United States, and to a lesser degree in Canada, have always been intertwined, as anyone familiar with the history of our diaspora community can attest. Ergo, the quadrennial convention's unparalleled importance. If the 1994 UNA convention "held out the promise of taking the UNA into its second century of existence," the 1998 convention, we wrote, would "take the UNA into the next millennium."

Source: "The UNA's convention," editorial, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 3, 1998, Vol. LXVI, No. 18.

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