THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM (04/16/06)

THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM

Northern New Jersey District Committee meets

by Roma Hadzewycz

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - The 2006 annual meeting of the Northern New Jersey District Committee of the Ukrainian National Association was held here at the UNA Corporate Headquarters building on Friday, March 31.

The meeting was called to order by Stephan Welhasch, district chairman, with a moment of silence in memory of deceased members of the district. He then greeted all present, including representatives of the UNA Branches 25, 27, 42, 133, 171, 172, 214, 234, 269 and 287, and UNA National Secretary Christine Kozak, who represented the UNA Executive Committee.

Stefko Woch was elected to chair the annual meeting, and Roma Hadzewycz to record the minutes. Also elected was a Nominating Committee comprising Julian Kotlar, Michael Bohdan, Irene Jarosewich and Roman Pyndus.

The minutes of the 2005 annual meeting were read by Ms. Hadzewycz and unanimously accepted without any alterations.

Reports were then delivered by the outgoing district officers. Mr. Welhasch recognized three district members, Christine Brodyn, Mr. Woch and Oksana Trytjak, for their organizing achievements. He explained that the Northern New Jersey District had $2.9 million of new insurance business in 2005 and earned first place among all districts in terms of both the number of members organized as well as the face amount of insurance coverage written. Nonetheless, the district succeeded in meeting only 47 percent of its membership quota for the year.

Mr. Welhasch then offered thanks to all who had worked on representing the UNA at information tables and booths at various festivals held in the tri-state area of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, as well as in Maryland. He especially pointed to the efforts of Michael and Nancy Bohdan who organized and manned a table at the Ukrainian Orthodox Center in South Bound Brook, N.J.

Treasurer Walter Honcharyk reported that the district now has $1,842.81 on its books and that expenses exceeded income during the report period (April 1, 2005, through March 31, 2006) by $203.73.

During the discussion of reports, Christina Kotlar pointed out that members of the Northern New Jersey District were involved in putting together the highly successful exhibit about the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) that was shown at Soyuzivka and the UNA Corporate Headquarters. Ms. Kotlar's film about the experiences of her father, an UPA member, was screened at both venues. The film is a work in progress.

Ms. Brodyn reported that she and Lydia Ciapka of the Auditing Committee had found that all the district's books were in order and proposed a vote of confidence to the outgoing officers. (The committee's chairman, Eugene Oscislawski, was unable to be present.) They offered a special commendation to the district treasurer, Mr. Honcharyk.

The Nominating Committee then presented its proposed slate of officers for the coming year: Mr. Welhasch, chairman; Mr. Woch, vice-chairman; Neonila Sochan, secretary; Mr. Honcharyk, treasurer; Ms. Jarosewich, Ukrainian-language press liaison; Ms. Hadzewycz, English-language press liaison; Mr. Bohdan, organizational director; Ms. Kotlar and Lon Staruch, members at large; Mr. Oscislawski (chairman), Ms. Brodyn and Ms. Ciapka, Auditing Committee. The slate was unanimously elected.

Discussion then turned to other district activities, as well as the upcoming 36th Convention of the UNA. Mr. Welhasch reported that since the late Eugene Iwanciw, the UNA's second vice-president, had been a member of the Northern New Jersey District, the district's officers had approved a donation of $100 to the Eugene Iwanciw Heritage Scholarship Fund established by the UNA.

Mrs. Sochan then proposed that the district also take out a page in the UNA convention book in honor of Mr. Iwanciw. The district agreed to fund the $100 cost of the memorial ad. In addition, the district is placing its usual full-page advertisement in the convention book.

A discussion ensued about the minutes of the 2002 UNA convention, which have not yet been published. In response to Mrs. Sochan's question about when the minutes will be published, National Secretary Kozak said they would be available at the convention, as was the case with the previous convention's minutes. Mrs. Sochan then asked whether those who were delegates in 2002 and will not be at the 2006 convention would receive copies.

Meanwhile Daria Semegen, secretary of th e34th convention, explained that, in fact, the minutes of the 1998 convention were ready for publication in November of 2000 and copies were mailed to all convention delegates in January 2001. Copies were available to all who requested the minutes from the Home Office.

Ms. Hadzewycz noted that the minutes of a convention should be available before the next convention so that all can read them and make comments if corrections are needed.

Ms. Kozak replied to the above remarks by saying that perhaps the Home Office will be able to get the 2002 minutes out earlier than planned, before the 36th Convention is convened at the end of May.

The national secretary then went over the district's organizing achievements for 2005, noting that the district had enrolled 47 new members, thus meeting 47 percent of its quota of 100 members. She noted that the top organizers were: Ms. Brodyn, Ms. Trytjak and Mr. Woch, with Messrs. Welhasch and Oscislawski also making the top five.

She asked all branch secretaries to pitch in and enroll members. Furthermore, she noted that if a secretary is not able to do this, then he or she should prepare younger people to take over their roles.

She went on to note that UNA'ers who may not be able to enroll members themselves can give prospective members' name to the Home Office, whose staff is capable and ready to sign up members.

Finally, Ms. Kozak noted that the pre-convention sales blitz is now taking place and that the deadline for enrolling new members to qualify for its cash prizes is April 30. The top prize is $2,000; $750 will be awarded for second place and $500 for third.

Reacting to Ms. Kozak's report, Ms. Jarosewich pointed out that the Northern New Jersey District is responsible for insurance sales of $2.9 million, which is a major portion of the UNA total of $7 million for the year 2005. Furthermore, she noted that Ms. Brodyn alone is credited with over $2 million in face amount of insurance sold last year.

Mr. Welhasch seconded Ms. Kozak's remarks by calling on each of the district's branch secretaries to enroll at least three members in 2006, which would make it easy for the district to meet its quota for the year.

Ms. Kozak then proceeded to answer questions regarding secretaries' rewards, which are actually meant to serve as a refund of expenses incurred in enrolling and serving members. Also touched upon were issues related to the Fraternal Fund, branch dues and the mechanism of proposing changes in by-laws to be considered at the next UNA convention.

The final topic on the meeting's agenda was a discussion of district activities for the coming year. Several members expressed interest in a bus trip to Soyuzivka for the annual Father's Day program. Mr. Welhasch replied that the district needs 45 or even 50 people in order to cover the cost of chartering a bus, otherwise the district winds up paying a good amount of money to make up the shortfall.

Members of branches in the Passaic-Clifton area noted that there is a very active seniors' club at St. Nicholas Parish and that perhaps the club and the district could jointly charter a bus. Rostyslaw Halaburda said he would try to determine how many seniors would be interested in traveling to Soyuzivka for Father's Day, and Mr. Welhasch appealed to branch secretaries to also poll their members.

The meeting ended with the newly re-elected district chairman appealing to all in attendance to let the district know of events in their communities so that the district could go out and promote the UNA, Soyuzivka and its newspapers, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly.

UNA Branch 287 holds pre-convention meeting

by Roma Hadzewycz

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Members of Ukrainian National Association Branch 287, "Sons of Ukraine," met for their annual meeting on Monday, March 20, here at the UNA Corporate Headquarters building.

The meeting was called to order by the branch president, Walter Honcharyk. Neonila Sochan was elected to chair the meeting and the minutes were recorded by Dana Szymczyk .

At the outset, Mrs. Sochan noted that 2006 marks the 70th anniversary of Branch 287, which was founded on December 31, 1936. She then presented the minutes of the branch's previous elections meeting.

Mrs. Sochan then proceeded to report that Branch 287 had united for the purposes of electing a convention delegate and an alternate with Branch 340. In accordance with the UNA By-Laws, Branch 287, as the larger branch, elects the delegate and Branch 340 the alternate (Branch 340 had already elected its alternate delegate).

Roma Hadzewycz was elected as the delegate from Branches 287-340.

Also on the agenda was the election of a new slate of officers for the branch. The following were unanimously elected: Mr. Honcharyk, president; Ms. Szymczyk, secretary; Markian Hadzewycz, vice-president; Taras Sochan, treasurer; and Marko Derzko, auditor.

Branch members devoted much attention to the upcoming 36th Convention of the UNA, which convenes in May. In addition, branch members discussed proposed changes to the UNA By-Laws about which they had heard from fellow UNA'ers.

The members agreed that the downsizing of the UNA Executive Committee from its current composition of six members should not be supported as the current structure provides a balance between three in-house executives and three who are not full-time paid employees. It was felt that this six-member Executive Committee better represents the UNA membership. The branch proposed a change to the UNA By-Laws whereby, in the case of a tie vote at Executive Committee meetings, the chairman of the UNA Auditing Committee (or his designee) who is in attendance at the meeting casts the tie-breaking vote.

The branch members also voted to suggest several other amendments to the UNA By-Laws:

The minutes of UNA Conventions must be published within six months of the convention's conclusion. These should be available online within six months and in printed form within one year. Any member who requests a copy of the convention minutes must be supplied with a printed copy.
The editors-in-chief of Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly have all the rights accorded to delegates to a UNA convention.
Each UNA member is required to subscribe to at least one of the UNA's official publications, i.e., Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly.
The title of the UNA treasurer in the Ukrainian-language should be changed from "kasyr" to "skarbnyk" (in recognition of current proper usage).

As well, the branch members discussed the proposal to reduce the number of advisors on the General Assembly. No consensus was reached on this issue as some agreed that the number could be reduced since the advisors have no special assignments, while others argued that they should be used more effectively as the UNA's representatives in local communities.

The branch decided to suggest that all advisors should be assigned specific projects, for which they are responsible and about which they should report to annual meetings of the General Assembly and to UNA Conventions. Furthermore, the branch decided that it should inquire what projects were assigned to advisors during the past four years and what was accomplished. These questions should be answered at the upcoming convention.

Finally, the branch proposed two changes to the section on branches in the UNA Manuals:

Branches shall meet at least once per year (instead of monthly).
Five members shall constitute a quorum at the annual meeting of branches having less than 60 members. For branches having 60 or more members, a quorum is one-tenth of the membership.

The meeting was then adjourned and fraternal discussions continued over coffee and donuts.

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