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OUR LIFE MONTHLY, published by Ukrainian National Women's League of America VOL. XXXVIII ______________________________ JUNE, 1981______________________________________________No 6 OPENING ADDRESS OF XIX CONVENTION OF UNWLA by President Iwanna Rozankowsky During the last three years we took a big step forward. We were active in every Ukrainian community in the United States. In the smaller Ukrainian communi ties UNWLA Branches very often are the most active organizations in community life. In the last three years nine new Branches were organized, for new pre-kindergarten ’’switlychky” were set up and there were probably thousands of events such as literary evenings, various exhibits, Christmas and Easter bazaars, etc. UNWLA continued its scholarship program, helped elderly women "babusi", one more welfare center was established, our members were very generous with their contributions for the Ukrainian dissidents and their families who arrived on American soil and contributed to the fund to help the families of the dissidents. Two Regional Councils and 16 Branches became Patrons of the Ukrainian Meuseum, of which three Branches became Patrons for the second time, and six Branches became Benefactors. The activity of the Branches during the last term can be seen from their cash flow which was over $375,000. As you can see we achieved a great deal and at this time I would like to thank all our members for making this possible. We have a lot of shortcomings which can be eliminated only by joint efforts and cooperation as well as a change of attitude by our members toward the organization as a whole. We also have a great responsi bility towards our community. The present situation demands our immediate attention but, at the same time, we cannot lose sight of the future. In order for the various chairpersons of the National Board to be effective in their work, they need the cooperation and understanding of the Branches and Regional Councils by following the directives in the various bulletins. We have 175 delegates to this Convention — the largest number in the history of UNWLA. Our orga nization today is large and strong but this fact cannot deter us from thinking about the future. We have to ask ourselves the question ’’what will happen in ten years’’? Who will be our members and who will be the leaders of UNWLA? Our vision into the future should enable us to formulate our plans for today. New membership drives should become a reality — not just a phrase. We all should strive to achieve our goal of doubling our membership, and if we all join forces,we will accomplish this. Recently a survey was undertaken in the United States about the volunteer work. Eighty percent of those who answered in the negative gave as the reason ’’nobody asked me”. How many thousands of women there are amongst us who were never asked or invited to become members of UNWLA? Is there an excuse for our not caring? In 1974 Detroit’s Regional Council had 484 members, today there are 590. If every Regional Council had the same result, today we would have had 1,000 new members. In 1971, Dr. TeodoziaSawycky, the Welfare Chair person of UNWLA reorganized the previously started scholarship program by directly involving the Ukrainian community with this program. Unfortunately, even though this program is in existence for the last ten years, some of our Branches have not yet understood this program. We still get letters from Branches stating that they would like to become sponsors of a scholarship. In reality what they should be doing is finding sponsors within the community and using the Branch's money to support the various goals of UNWLA. Anna Majuch, the Welfare Chairperson of Branch 49 in Buffalo, N. Y., has collected since 1973 $20,000 for the scholarship program from various sponsors. If all of our Branches had shown this type of understanding of our scholarship program, we would have collected during the last eight years approximately $2,000,000. Anna Makuch has also shown us her great trait of generosity because she, her husband and her three sons are sponsors of the scholarship program. In April of 1977, the Executive Committee sent a bulletin to all Branches with a request to enlist individual members for the Ukrainian Museum. Very soon there after, Branch 16 which is located in Minneapolis, sent a list with nine names together with their dues. If all Branches had shown such an interest and under standing, we immediately would have had 1,000 members and the Museum, founded by us, would not have had the financial problems with which it still struggles till today. During the last four years, our large Regional Council in Detroit was able to enlist 16 members, Chicago 13 and the New England Regional Council, located nearby, 14. With the help of some of our Branches and the Board of the Museum, New York State was able to get 295 members, New Jersey 144 and Philadelphia 49. I only cite these sad examples in order to show our members how important it is to have a feeling of cooperation and responsibility, fast action and enthusiasm. The fact is that a lot of our Branches are
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