Shevchenko Scientific Society holds its 17th general meeting (06/22/03)

Shevchenko Scientific Society holds its 17th general meeting

NEW YORK - The 17th general meeting of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the U.S. (NTSh) was held on May 24 at the society's headquarters. Prior to the meeting, morning session were held separately by three scholarly sections: philology (Prof. Assya Humesky, director); social sciences and history, (Prof. Martha B. Trofimenko); and mathematics, physics and technology, (Prof. Roman Andrushkiw).

The social sciences group heard a talk by Dr. Vasyl Lopukh on the demographics of the Ukrainian American community. The science section featured a presentation by chemist Dr. Swiatoslaw Trofimenko on scorpionates, a class of compounds that he discovered and has researched. Recently a symposium was devoted to the subject at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, and a chemical journal made the scorpionates its cover story, thus honoring Dr. Trofimenko.

The general meeting was opened in the afternoon by the society's president, Dr. Larissa Onyshkevych. She asked that the names of the society's members who departed in the last three years be read and for the assembly to honor their memory with a moment of silence. Greetings from NTSh branches in other countries were read.

Dr. Roman Voronka was elected chairman of the presidium for the meeting, with Drs. Wolodymyr Stojko and Orest Popovych as his deputies. Svitlana Andrushkiw, assisted by Prof. Vasyl Makhno, assumed the duties of recording secretary. Also elected were the nominating, by-laws and resolutions committees. Upon a motion by Dr. Stojko, the minutes of the 16th general meeting of the NTSh were accepted unanimously.

Dr. Onyshkevych was the first to report on the last three years of activity at the Shevchenko Scientific Society which began on May 20, 2000. She attributed the success of her term as president to the remarkable cooperation and work ethic of what she described as a unique team of officers and employees who have served with her. During the report period, the society's governing board met 19 times at its headquarters and a few more times at the president's home. Two of the meetings were televised. A new chapter of NTSh was launched in Pittsburgh, headed by Prof. Jaropolk Lassowsky. A new scholarly section, dedicated to arts and musicology, was established. It is chaired by Titus Hewryk. Many members have been elevated in rank.

However, the thrust of the society's efforts continues to be the promotion of Ukrainian studies in the United States, as well as the defense and promotion of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine, said Dr. Onyshkevych. In North America these objectives have been pursued through NTSh's participation in the scholarly conferences of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the Association for the Study of Nationalities, the International Association of Ukrainian Studies, and through cooperation with the NTSh in Canada, the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S., and the recently created Center of Ukrainian Studies at Columbia University, among others. During the academic year, NTSh hosted at its building in New York City almost weekly lectures and scholarly conferences open to the public.

The society supports Ukrainian studies in Ukraine awarding grants for scholarly research and publications, as well as scholarships for studies. Joint publications with the NTSh of Ukraine are also being sponsored.

Deserving special attention in the last three years have been the society's awards for publications on the Ukrainian Language and for monographs on the effects of the 1654 Treaty of Pereiaslav on Ivan Mazepa. Furthermore, Dr. Onyshkevych stressed the society's sponsorship of the publication of the "Atlas of the Ukrainian language," and especially, that of the four-volume reference work "The Concordance to the Poetic Works of Taras Shevchenko," 440 copies of which were donated to libraries in Ukraine. Of major significance in the defense of the Ukrainian language was the March 12 address delivered by Dr. Onyshkevych before Ukraine's Parliament in Kyiv which was telecast in Ukraine.

All present received a 52-page book containing the reports of the following NTSh officers and employees on their activities for the current three-year term: Onyshkevych, president; Dr. Andrushkiw, first vice-president; Dr. Trofimenko, vice-president and learned secretary; Dr. George Slusarczuk, vice-president and CEO; the committee chairs. Voronka (scholar-ships/grants), Dr. Daria Dykyj (membership), Dr. Myroslava Znayenko (institutional liaison), Tania Keis (library and archives), Dr. Popovych (press), Marta Tarnawsky (publications), Prof. Trofimenko (by-laws); the directors of the scholarly sections. Andrushkiw (mathematics, physics and technology); Dr. Humesky (philosophy); Mr. Hewryk (arts and musicology); Prof. Trofimenko (social sciences).

Additional reports were given by Dr. Popovych (terminological center), Ms. Andrushkiw (library director), Dr. Vasyl Markus, vice-president and chief editor of the Encyclopedia of the Ukrainian Diaspora, and by NTSh employees Prof. Andriy Danylenko and Dr. Lopukh. Separate reports were presented from the society's branches in Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington and Detroit. Authors of reports who were in attendance were allotted a few minutes each to present addenda or highlights, and several availed themselves of this opportunity.

The accomplishments of some of the committees can be expressed quantitatively. Ms. Tarnawsky's publications committee awarded grants for 32 separate scholarly works, disbursing the overall sum of $182,479. Dr. Voronka's grants and scholarships committee received 80 applications and made 38 awards, totaling $411,770. The press committee, composed of Dr. Popovych (chair) and Svoboda Editor Olha Kuzmowycz, published 77 articles and news reports on the activities of NTSh - 51 of them in Ukrainian and 26 in English. In addition, the committee procured and edited the 25 scholarly articles that appeared in the society's column in Svoboda, and edited five NTS bulletins. Dr. Dykyj's membership committee recruited 56 new members.

Dr. Andrushkiw updated the assembly on the successful intervention, initiated by the U.S.-based NTSh, which prevailed upon the Microsoft Corp. to make its computer software available in the Ukrainian language, thereby supplanting the distribution of some 60,000 Russian-language computers to schools in Ukraine. Dr. Andrushkiw is following up this effort by helping computer experts in Ukraine with the Ukrainization of Linux programming as well.

Following a discussion of the reports, the outgoing governing board was granted a vote of confidence by the auditing committee, whose report was read by Dr. Stojko. The nominating committee, co-chaired by Prof. Znayenko and Wolodymyr Baranetsky, presented a single slate of candidates for the new governing board, which in its composition didn't differ much from the outgoing board.

Following are newly nominated officers: Dr. Serhiy Levkov, deputy recording secretary (to Ms. Kuzmowycz); new committee chairs were Dr. Volodymyr Vasylaki (computers) and Dr. Roman Procyk (chapters). The old press committee has been replaced by a press group headed by Dr. Lopukh. However, it is not part of the governing board.

Via a show of hands, the new slate of NTSh officers was elected with three abstentions. Following the vote, the re-elected president, Dr. Onyshkevych, addressed the assembly, thanking all for their support and cooperation.

A new board of auditors was voted in, with its chairman yet to be chosen from among the members: Dr. Baranetsky, Drs. Volodimir Bandera, George Pawliczko, Leonid Rudnytzky and Wolodymyr Stojko. Drs. Andrushkiw and Trofimenko were chosen as delegates to the World Council of the Shevchenko Scientific Society.

Resolutions, formulated by a committee composed of Drs. Andrushkiw (chair), Trofimenko, Onyshkevych and Popovych, were adopted unanimously by the general meeting.

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