The history of the Ukrainian National Association from 1894 to 1994 is documented in a book by Dr. Myron Kuropas, “Ukrainian Citadel: The First Hundred Years of The Ukrainian National Association,” published by The University of Toronto Press. In this special section of The Ukrainian Weekly dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the UNA, we offer excerpts from Dr. Kuropas’ manuscript, reprinted with permission from the author. (Please note that the Ukrainian National Association [UNA] was known as the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz [RNS] for the first 20 years of its existence.)
The sections covering the the years after Dr. Kuropas’s book was published are based on information published in The Ukrainian Weekly.
The 1890s
From its founding in 1894 to its centennial in 1994, the UNA and the Ukrainian community have been one. They are still inseparable. What happens to the Ukrainian community happens to the UNA. And what is good for the UNA has usually been good for the community.
Those Rusyns who laid the foundation for what was later to become the Ukrainian National Association were people of vision and high moral standards. They saw what needed to be done to improve life in the fledgling Rusyn community, and they did it. Given the sordid quality of life among Ukraine’s early immigrants, especially in the coal mining areas of Pennsylvania, and the competition which existed from older, more established fraternal societies, the very fact that an organization such as the RNS was established at all is in some ways a miracle…
Although the primary goal of the RNS was to provide burial expenses for members and their families, the organization was also committed to national enlightenment and personal growth. From its inception, the RNS emphasized national pride, collective resistance to exploitation and economic mobility through education. The RNS, more than any other single institution in the United States, transformed the Rusyn peasant into a Ukrainian patriot…
In many Rusyn communities, the creation of a local mutual aid society often preceded the establishment of a church building committee….
As with most organizations, internal strife was inevitable, especially when the membership consisted of people from various regions of Ukraine. Led by influential priests with different ethnonational orientations, Rusyn fraternals soon became political battlegrounds…
Rusyn fraternals functioning as “immigrant schools,” within which the membership learned to develop and operate democratic institutions, was another early theme of fraternal life. They were led by enlightened leaders determined to demonstrate to the American world that Rusyns understood and appreciated the democratic process…
The 1900s
The 1904 convention of the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz (Shamokin, Pa.) was a truly memorable event in the history of America’s Ukrainian community. In many ways it marked the end of an era of ethnonational searching and the beginning of an era of ethnonational development. From that moment on, the RNS was on its way to becoming an organization that was Ukrainian in both mind and spirit. It would take a group known as the American Circle 10 more years, but the goal was on the horizon….
The American Circle was initiated by seven Lviv seminarians, all close personal friends, who vowed to take up their pastoral duties in the U.S. and to organize the Rusyn community along Ukrainian ethnonational lines. …Politically active in Galicia, Circle members were part of a new generation of Rusyn priests who were sympathetic to the ideals of the Radical Party, a socialist group that included the poet Ivan Franko…
Composed of unusually competent, highly motivated and militant individuals, the American Circle led the Rusyn/Ukrainian fight against Latinization, Russification and Magyarization. Circle members were in the forefront of the struggle to establish an autonomous Ukrainian exarchy in the United States. And it was the American Circle that eventually took control of the RNS, and involved the organization in the establishment of reading rooms, enlightenment societies, cultural enterprises, youth organizations and ethnic heritage schools.
The 1910s
Whereas the American Circle priests were careful not to allow their Catholicism to dominate, this changed with the arrival of a new generation of priests. Allowing Catholicism to become the focal point of their efforts, they began to intimidate the laity within Soyuz (as the fraternal organization was known) and to push for de-secularization.
This end was briefly achieved at the 1910 convention when Soyuz came under the control of Bishop Soter Ortynsky. In retrospect, the convention was a step back for the community. Out of one fraternal benefit society emerged three. Out of unity came strife. Out of cooperation evolved irrational competition.
This end was briefly achieved at the 1910 convention when Soyuz came under the control of Bishop Soter Ortynsky. In retrospect, the convention was a step back for the community. Out of one fraternal benefit society emerged three. Out of unity came strife. [Bishop Ortynsky helped establish the Association of Ruthenian Greek Catholic Brotherhoods, Christian Love, in 1911; the next year it became the Providence Association of Ruthenian Catholics of America. Meanwhile, a committee that protested the RNS’s new direction a year later formed the Ruthenian National Union; in 1918 it became the Ukrainian Workingmen’s Association, which most recently was known as the Ukrainian Fraternal Association.]
After 10 years of Ukrainianization within the organization and on the pages of Svoboda, at the 1914 convention, the name of the RNS was changed to Ukrainian National Association.
The latter half of the 1910s was characterized by the UNA’s active role in attempting to unify the Ukrainian population in the U.S. into a political coalition. It also conducted a number of fund-raising efforts to aid its brethren in Ukraine, collecting monies to aid Ukrainian war victims, then an autonomous Ukraine, then a united, sovereign Ukraine, and finally, due to historic circumstances, just Galicia.
The 1920s
The 1920s represented a period of consolidation and expansion of the UNA mandate. Politically, the organization remained squarely and firmly in the nationalist camp, first rejecting, then condemning both the Communist and Hetmanist (Monarchist) ideologies. For Soyuz, a future independent Ukraine would be a pluralistic nation-state that respected the human and civil rights of all of its citizens. Having been burnt by too much reliance on other nations, the prevailing attitude within the UNA and other secular organizations in the community was on self-reliance, achieving victory “by our strength alone.” Since no one else was helping Ukraine, it remained for the community to do so.
Following a tradition established by its priest-founders, the UNA believed the laity should play a major role in governing the Catholic Church, a posture rejected by Bishop Constantine Bohachevsky, who was determined to re-establish discipline in what he perceived to be a somewhat rudderless institution. Once again a power struggle ensued between the religious and secular leaders of the community. …
The 1920s were also a time during which the UNA leadership, growing increasingly long in tooth, began to focus more of its attention on the younger generation. An orphanage became a prime goal of the membership. The juvenile department was reorganized to permit great hands-on participation by the younger generation…
But the UNA matured. Realizing that its organization was no longer the one and only secular organization in the community, the UNA leadership attempted first to unify the entire community into one large political coalition and later, all the Ukrainian benefit societies. Although it failed during the 1920s, the UNA concentrated its efforts on fund-raising efforts and coalition-building, major UNA activities for the next 70 years.
Svoboda, the official organ of the UNA, crystallized its position during this period. What emerged after much agonizing review was a national ideology which would sustain and nurture the Ukrainian American community during the difficult years that lay ahead – it was an ideology dedicated to the establishment of one sovereign and independent Ukrainian nation-state.
The 1930s
Although the 1930s were a time of great economic, political and social uncertainty in the United States, it was a decade when the Ukrainian National Association really came into its own. Bolstered by the so-called “military immigration” and the rise of Ukrainian nationalism within the community, as well as among the leadership cadres of the organization, the UNA was able to continue its focus on Ukraine, providing moral and financial support for nationalistic organizations in eastern Galicia; publicize, mobilize and support demonstrations throughout the United States protesting Polish pacification and Ukraine’s Great Famine; lobby the U.S. government regarding the Famine, an effort which resulted in the introduction of a congressional bill condemning Soviet actions in Ukraine.
Spencer & Wyckoff
Participants of the UNA’s 18th Convention in 1933 in Detroit.
It also provided economic assistance to members hard-hit by the Depression; increased the UNA base in Canada; enrolled some 10,000 new members, representing a phenomenal growth factor of 30 percent; published a history of the UNA and the Ukrainian American community; developed a youth outreach program which included the publication of The Ukrainian Weekly; and initiated the Ukrainian Youth League of North America.
The 1940s
During the 1940s, America’s Communist front intensified the defamation campaign against the Ukrainian National Association… Realizing that truth and justice were on their side, UNA leaders took on the enemy head to head.
…The UNA attempted to counter detractors of the Ukrainian cause with the truth. A number of scholarly publications were financed by the UNA along with lectures at Columbia University. … And the UNA financed the first and perhaps most significant English-language scholarly publication, a one-volume condensation of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s multi-volume history of Ukraine, published by Yale University Press.
The UNA played an important role in the formation of a national congress of Ukrainian Americans [the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America], whose founding convention was held on May 24, 1940, in Washington, D.C. The political platform reiterated Ukraine’s historical right to independence, emphasizing the “merciless oppression” of Ukrainians by Poland’s policy of colonization and pacification and the genocidal starvation, liquidation and imprisonment of Ukrainians by the Bolsheviks. The statement ended with the rejection of all totalitarian ideologies, such as Bolshevism and Nazism…
During the 1941 convention in Harrisburg, Pa., Supreme President Nicholas Murashko told the delegates: “We believe that they (our brothers and sisters in Ukraine) will break the chains that bind them; the day is near when the Ukrainian people will be free of any oppression… Ukrainian Americans will live to see the day when the bright rays of hope and faith in the great future of a free and democratic Ukraine will reach our shores from Kyiv.”
UNA members also took part in the U.S. war effort during the second world war, with thousands fighting in the U.S. military… Perhaps the greatest achievement of the UNA during the 1940s was the campaign to save Ukrainian displaced persons in Europe. The UNA helped establish, finance and lead the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC) in its monumental task of providing relief and protection for Ukrainian refugees…
The 1950s
Known as the “golden decade” of the Ukrainian National Association, the 1950s were an era of hope and renewal. Between 1950 and 1960, the membership of the UNA increased by some 20,000, while total assets more than doubled.
At the 50th anniversary celebration of UNA Branch 102 in Cleveland in 1952.
In the war for recognition of Ukrainian national aspirations, the UNA began to win a few battles during the 1950s. Under Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, Ukrainian aspirations were not ignored and the notion of liberation of the “captive nations” began to take hold among some Americans. Believing that the time was ripe to take the offensive against Soviet disinformation, the UNA funded a number of English-language books by Prof. Clarence Manning of Columbia University, who presented the Ukrainian perspective to American readers. …
Encouraged by Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly, “Ukrainian independence Days” became more and more common at American city halls and state capitols. Congressional passage of the Captive Nations Resolution in 1959, proclaiming the annual observance of Captive Nations Week, represented the pinnacle of Ukrainian political activity during the 1950s.
It was during the 1950s that the UNA was able to concentrate much of its attention on the younger generation. A resort was purchased in the Catskill Mountain region of New York state; cultural courses for teenagers were instituted in cooperation with the Ukrainian Youth League of North America. A children’s camp was started at the resort for 6- to 12-year-olds. The children’s magazine Veselka was born; The Ukrainian Weekly developed a solid stable of regular columnists and became more independent of Svoboda; and after years of cajoling and pleading, UNA branches began to elect younger delegates to the convention to carry on the traditions of the past. Ukrainian American youth remained high on the UNA agenda throughout the decade…
Sen. John F. Kennedy among delegates at the UNA’s 23rd Convention in Washington in 1954.
There was also the factor of an unusually talented Supreme Assembly which not only produced excellent think pieces for the “UNA Trybuna” page but also helped organize new members. Although most were Ukrainian-born, many had come here as young men and women and were sensitive to the needs of the younger generation. They supported youth initiatives and pushed for greater professionalization within UNA ranks. Full-time UNA organizers for the United States and Canada were subsequently hired to assist local secretaries in their search for new members.
Not everything, however, was rosy. The culture clash between old immigrants and their offspring and the new immigrants and their offspring that surfaced during the early 1950s never really healed. Animosities lingered well into the 1970s, affecting UNA growth.
Another blemish was the growing belligerence between UNA members of the Banderite camp of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and those of the Melnykite camp. Their combative attitude only increased in the years that followed, leading, in time, to a serious split within UNA ranks. During the 1950s, however, the OUN wars were a positive development. Both the OUN(B) and OUN(M) worked diligently to enroll new members so that their particular faction could control more branches and elect more Supreme Assembly members.…
The 1960s
After many bitter years of estrangement from the Ukrainian Catholic Church in America, the UNA was finally able to achieve a reconciliation which benefitted both the Church and the fraternal. …Catholic and Orthodox hierarchs were able to sit down together. …
Saul
The UNA Supreme Assembly’s annual meeting in May 1967 at Soyuzivka.
The UNA played a crucial role in the erection of the Taras Shevchenko monument in Washington, initiating the idea, garnering American Congressional advocates, establishing a communitywide base of support…
The struggle for Ukrainian recognition continued unabated. Both Svoboda and The Weekly supported political demonstrations, kept Ukrainian Americans informed about current issues related to Ukrainian aspirations and combated disinformation….
There was also an expansion of the UNA presence in Canada, beginning with UNA participation in the annual Ukrainian National Festival in Dauphin, Manitoba, during which the early pioneering role of the UNA in western Canada was recognized and celebrated.
At the UNA’s 75th anniversary banquet in New York in 1969.
Always committed to unity among Ukrainians in the free world, the UNA helped bring about the first World Congress of Free Ukrainians [1967], arguing that its creation was “a natural sequel to what the UNA set in motion” in 1894. …
All was not well, however. There were storm clouds on the horizon. The conflict between old and new immigration youth had never been resolved. There was no consensus on what constituted a Ukrainian identity in the United States. Political squabbling was alienating Ukrainian American youth. And no one, it seemed, knew what to do.
The 1970s
The 1970s began with the UNA responding to two tragedies, one in Europe, the result of a natural disaster, the other in the United States, the result of a human disaster. The earthquake in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia, killed hundreds of Ukrainians. The drug epidemic had the potential to kill thousands of Ukrainians, especially young people, responding to the temper of the times.
Supreme Advisors of the UNA at the Supreme Assembly meeting in 1975 at Soyuzivka.
The completion of a 15-story UNA headquarters building in Jersey City, N.J., was a significant milestone in the history of the UNA, but the fraternal continued having problems attracting youth to its ranks. …
It was during the 1970s that The Ukrainian Weekly really came into its own with reporting and commentary that was second to none in the Ukrainian community….
The UNA was also in the forefront of the ethnic revival in America and Canada all through the 1970s. Never before had there been as much UNA visibility in Washington, and the self-confidence which was generated was intoxicating. The UNA learned that it too could be a major player in political affairs related to Ukraine….
Perhaps the greatest disappointment of the 1970s was the Moroz debacle. After more than a decade of lobbying, campaigning and pleading on his behalf, Valentyn Moroz was released from the Soviet gulag to the UNA….For the UNA, enthusiasm faded within 11 days, Moroz became a tool of the Ukrainian Liberation Front…
The 1980s
The decade began on a sour note, with the UNA withdrawing from the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America because of domination of the right and helping to establish the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council. …
Throughout the 1980s, the UNA went on the offensive with a number of initiatives aimed at informing both the Ukrainian and the American public about the true nature of the calumny being penetrated against the Ukrainian people, as the Soviet Union intensified its defamation campaign against the Ukrainian community in the free world, resurrecting charges of anti-Semitism and Nazism which were so successfully applied in the 1930s and 1940s….
Roma Hadzewycz
Vice-President George Bush delivers a major policy address on U.S.-Soviet relations on May 28, 1982, in Rochester, N.Y., at the UNA’s 30th Convention in Rochester, N.Y.
A UNA office was eventually established in Washington and charged with the responsibility of defending Ukrainian American interests. …
Perhaps the single most significant contribution of the UNA in the struggle to promulgate the Ukrainian agenda during the 1980s, was the role “Batko Soyuz” played in educating the American public about the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, publishing a special issue of The Ukrainian Weekly, a monograph on the subject and financing Dr. Robert Conquest’s book, “The Harvest of Sorrow.”…
The UNA also paid more attention to senior citizens with the construction of a building that was meant for seniors’ housing at Soyuzivka…
The 1990s
At the 1990 convention in Baltimore, the UNA elected its first female supreme president, Ulana Diachuk, and established a Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine. Then, at its September 1990 meeting, the new Supreme Assembly voted to open a UNA press bureau in Kyiv. Marta Kolomayets, an associate editor of The Weekly, arrived in Ukraine’s capital in January 1991 to serve as the UNA press bureau’s first correspondent. She became the first accredited U.S. correspondent in Kyiv just over seven months before Ukraine would declare its independence.
Two centennials were marked during the decade: 1993 was the 100th anniversary of the founding of Svoboda, and 1994 was the UNA’s 100th, which was celebrated with a gala concert at Carnegie Hall that featured the world premiere of the specially commissioned work by Kyiv composer Ivan Karabyts titled “Jubilee Cantata.”
The 1994 UNA convention was notable for the adoption of changes to the organization’s by-laws that were meant to modernize the organization and the deletion of the term “supreme” from the UNA lexicon. Thus, the Supreme Assembly became the General Assembly, and officers were no longer “supremes,” but simply presidents, vice-presidents, etc. Also noteworthy was the recognition in the by-laws that the UNA had not one, but two official publications, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly.
At the beginning of 1995, the UNA opened an office in the Toronto area to serve its membership in Canada and to expand the membership base in that country (the office was closed at the end of 1998). Later that year the General Assembly voted to sell the UNA’s 15-story headquarters building in Jersey City. Due to budget considerations, the UNA Washington Office, headed since its inception by Eugene Iwaciw, was shut down and Veselka ceased publication. The General Assembly also voted to proceed with merger negotiations with the Ukrainian Fraternal Association and the Ukrainian National Aid Association of America.
In 1996, the UNA activated the Ukrainian National Foundation Inc., which had been chartered four years earlier, after the Supreme Assembly voted to create a non-profit tax-exempt foundation to support charitable, religious, educational and scientific projects.
The year 1997 was bittersweet for the UNA as it sold its headquarters building in Jersey City, N.J., and moved over the Columbus Day weekend into new quarters 30 miles westward in Parsippany, N.J. The blessing of the new HQ was held on November 9. Also that year, Dr. Myron. B. Kuropas’s book “Ukrainian-American Citadel: The First One Hundred Years of the Ukrainian National Association,” was released by East European Monographs of Boulder, Colo.
For the first time ever, in 1998, the UNA held its convention in Canada. The UNA emerged from the Toronto convention with its flagship daily, Svoboda, reduced to a weekly publication in order to cut expenses, and with a mandate to merge with two other Ukrainian fraternal organizations. The new weekly Svoboda made its appearance on July 3, 1998.
One month after the UNA convention, the UFA, meeting at its own convention, voted against merger with the UNA. The sticking point was the UFA’s insistence that the merged entity be called Ukrainian National Fraternal Association – a name change rejected by UNA delegates. The following year, mergers with both the UFA and the UNAA were put on hold.
The 2000s
When a coal mine disaster near Krasnodon, Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine, took the lives of 81 miners in March 2000, the UNA extended its fraternal hand to their families. The UNA and its members donated $9,405 through the Ukrainian National Foundation and that aid was delivered on September 29 by representatives of the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee and the UNA.
On the financial front, 2001 was a turnaround year. At the March 24 meeting of the UNA Executive Committee – the first of 2001, it was reported that the UNA had ended the year 2000 with the lowest deficit in over 10 years. The greatly improved financial status of the UNA was mainly due to the reduction in the deficits of its publications and a reduction in operating expenses. Meanwhile, UNA President Ulana Diachuk published an article in which she spelled out how much aid the UNA had given to Ukraine and its citizens since the county’s independence was proclaimed in 1991. The total: an amazing $1,171,511 for books, scholarships, aid to various organizations and more.
At the UNA convention in 2002, the size of the General Assembly was reduced from 25 members to 20, and two major issues were discussed: the future of the UNA in Canada, where membership had been declining steadily, and the fate of the 50-year-old Soyuzivka, which clearly was near and dear to the hearts of delegates. Much discussion at the convention was devoted to the Fourth Wave of immigrants from Ukraine, and, indeed, their influence was felt at the convention. The matter of a UNA-UFA merger came up once again during 2002, but once again it went nowhere.
The General Assembly voted in November 2003 to rejoin the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, which the UNA, along with many other Ukrainian organizations had quit in 1980 after irregularities at the UCCA’s ill-fated 13th congress. In a statement headlined “Let the healing begin,” the UNA Executive Committee noted: “The Ukrainian National Association Inc. recognizes the pressing need of our Ukrainian American community to stand strong and united. Only from a position of strength and cooperation can we, as a community have a powerful, united voice in the public arena.”
As the UNA celebrated its 110th anniversary in 2004, a Ukrainian-language edition of Dr. Myron Kuropas’s history of the UNA, titled “Ukrayinsko-Amerykanska Tverdynia: Pershi Sto Rokiv Ukrayinskoho Narodnoho Soyuzu,” was released.
At the 2006 convention, the three major topics of discussion were development plans for Soyuzivka, the status of the UNA in Canada and shaping the future of the UNA. The prevailing sentiment was that Soyuzivka remains important to the community and therefore must be saved; and that the UNA has great potential membership in Canada and, therefore, should not opt to pull out of doing business in that country. As regards the discussion of the UNA’s future, many delegates spoke about the importance of the UNA’s newspapers and noted the need to enroll members from the Fourth Wave of immigrants from Ukraine. At year’s end, the UNA announced a “reorganization” and “consolidation” at its newspapers: the two positions of editors-in-chief were combined into one.
The next year, the UNA sold its headquarters building. “After long and careful consideration, the Ukrainian National Association has decided to capitalize on a strong real estate market and to sell its corporate headquarters building in Parsippany, N.J.,” the UNA announced, while explaining that it would remain in the building as a tenant.
For the UNA, 2008 was a year of new beginnings and some notable successes. In early February it was announced that UNA annuity sales in January had surpassed the $1 million mark – the largest monthly growth in sales in a decade. By year’s end, the UNA reported that annuity sales in 2008 had topped $10 million. At the 2009 annual meeting of the General Assembly, President Stefan Kaczaraj reported “a record-breaking year for the UNA.” He was referring to over $20 million in premium income (including annuities) and the growth of assets to the highest level in the UNA’s history – just under $99 million. By year’s end UNA assets exceeded $100 million.
The 2010s
A week before the 2010 convention, the UNA presented its new logo, which includes updated elements of its historic emblem, while reflecting the UNA’s forward-looking perspective. At the convention, UNA executives were able to report stunningly good financial news during a time of worldwide economic crisis. “We have survived the worst the economy could throw at us, and we have thrived,” commented President Stefan Kaczaraj. Treasurer Roma Lisovich reported that UNA assets had reached a new milestone: $110 million. Later that year, the new logo of the Ukrainian National Foundation was unveiled, and the UNA’s redesigned website was introduced.
At the start of the 2013 Ukrainian festival season in North America, the UNA released a 32-page magazine called “UNA and the Community: Partners for Life.” The brainchild of National Secretary Christine E. Kozak, the publication aimed to reintroduce the UNA to members and potential members.
2013 also marked the 120th anniversary of Svoboda and the 80th anniversary of The Ukrainian Weekly, and in 2012, in advance of that major milestone, a new history of Svoboda – “Vilne Slovo Amerykanskoyi Ukrainy” (The Free Press of Ukrainian Americans) – by Petro Chasto was released.
The UNA celebrated its 120th anniversary in 2014, and the Almanac of the Ukrainian National Association commemorated that special jubilee, while The Ukrainian Weekly published a list of all UNA executive officers since the organization’s founding in 1894 through the present day. Another historical note was The Weekly’s May 18 editorial, which noted that 2014 also marked the 120th anniversary of a singular event: the first time that the anthem “Shche Ne Vmerla Ukraina” was sung in America. And it happened at the first Regular Convention of the UNA in Shamokin, Pa., held on May 30, 1894 – just over three months after the founding meeting of the UNA.
At the beginning of 2015, the UNA announced that it had realized its goal of charitable status for the Soyuzivka Heritage Center, as the Ukrainian National Foundation Inc. (UNF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization became the owner of Soyuzivka. In order to increase community involvement in the UNF, an affiliated company that performs charitable activities on the UNA’s behalf, its board of directors was expanded to seven members, including four independent members representing various segments of the Ukrainian community.
The UNA Almanac for 2018 – the 104th year that this annual volume has been released – was dedicated to the centennial of the Ukrainian Revolution and the establishment of the Ukrainian National Republic. The Almanac began with a chronicle of the historic events of 1918 and included an article by Petro Chasto about the year 1918 on the pages of the Svoboda.
The most recent quadrennial convention of the UNA was held in 2018; it was the fourth convention in a row to be held at Soyuzivka Heritage Center. A key topic of discussion was proposed amendments to the UNA By-Laws that foresee a corporate governance structure to replace the Executive Committee with a Corporate Board of Directors, with the financial competencies and fiduciary responsibility to run insurance operations in accordance with new regulatory mandates. A separate Fraternal Advisory Board is being proposed to handle the fraternal side of the UNA’s activity. Voting on the new By-Laws incorporating the new governance model was expected to take place in 2019; in the meantime, convention delegates approved changes in terminology whereby the UNA’s three full-time executive officers are now known as president/chief executive officer, chief operating officer/national secretary and chief financial officer/treasurer.
2018 was significant also for the milestones celebrated by the UNA’s two newspapers: the 125th anniversary of Svoboda and the 85th anniversary of The Ukrainian Weekly.
As the 125th anniversary of the UNA’s founding on February 22, 1894, approached, the UNA established a special committee to plan celebrations. A jubilee concert is planned for November 2, 2019, in New Jersey, where the UNA is headquartered.