Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history (09/26/04)

Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history

A special yearlong feature focusing on the history of the Ukrainian National Association.

The Ukrainian National Association's last convention of the 20th century - its 34th - was held in Toronto on May 15-19, 1998, marking yet another milestone in the history of the oldest and largest Ukrainian fraternal organization.

It was the first convention held in Canada, where the UNA has been active since the beginning of the 20th century, and it was in Toronto where the first Canadian UNA branch had been established in 1916.

It was a milestone also because the convention had weighty matters to consider during its deliberations: changes to UNA By-Laws, mergers with two other Ukrainian fraternal organizations and the fate of UNA fraternal benefits.

The major by-laws change provided for a vote via mail on issues that normally would have to be brought before a convention. Thus, delegates would be able to vote by mail instead of gathering at a special convention if necessity dictated that a decision be made on such issues in between regularly scheduled quadrennial conventions. In fact, delegates to the 34th Convention approved a proposal which directed the General Assembly elected at that convention to prepare a referendum to amend the Charter and By-Laws of the UNA to provide for a governance structure consisting of an 11-member board of directors - in place of the 25-member General Assembly - to be elected by the 35th Convention.

Delegates approved mergers with both the Ukrainian Fraternal Association and the Ukrainian Aid Association of America by the required two-thirds majority. However, a related measure, that would have changed the name of the new entity to the Ukrainian National Fraternal Association (a move sought by the UFA), failed to get the two-thirds majority and thus was rejected.

In an effort to lower UNA expenses, UNA delegates approved the transformation of the Ukrainian-language newspaper Svoboda from a daily (published five times per week) to a weekly. They also approved a proposal to shorten the season at the UNA resort, Soyuzivka, to three and a half months, a change that was to go into effect for the 1999 season.

The 34th Convention was attended by 227 delegates representing the UNA branches in the United States and Canada, who re-elected Ulana Diachuk to her third term as president.

Source: "UNA concludes 34th convention; Ulana Diachuk re-elected to serve third term as president," by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj, Toronto Press Bureau, and "The 34th Convention" (editorial), The Ukrainian Weekly, May 24, 1998, Vol. LXVI, No. 21. The border used for this special feature is reproduced from a UNA membership certificate dating to 1919.

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