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TWG Annual MeetingOrest Deychakiwsky Elected TWG PresidentMembership at Record 415May 29, 1998 -- Orest Deychakiwsky, staff associate at the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, was elected TWG president at its Annual Meeting May 29. Mr. Deychakiwsky and an unopposed slate of candidates for the Executive Board and board members-at-large were elected unanimously. Mr. Deychakiwsky replaces George Masiuk, TWG's only three-time president. All of his predecessors had served two terms each. Also elected to the Board of Directors were: Tanya Stasiuk, vice president; Roman Stelmach, treasurer; Michael Drabyk, secretary; Adrian Pidlusky, membership; Ihor Kotlarchuk, public relations; Laryssa Chopivsky, Cultural Fund director; and Adrian Karmazyn, Fellowship Fund director. Ms. Stasiuk, Mr. Pidlusky and Mr. Kotlarchuk are new on the Board. The meeting elected eight members-at-large: Steven Boyduy, Oleg Jerschkowsky, Maria Kulczycky, former PR director John Kun, Anya Silecky, TWG's first president Natalie Sluzar, former vice president Marta Zielyk, and Maria Zmurkewycz. Andrew Charchalis and Ihor Procinsky are on the new auditing committee. All board members live in the greater Washington, D.C., area except for Mr. Stelmach, who is branch manager of the Philadelphia Ukrainian Selfreliance Credit Union. All of the annual meeting reports were upbeat about TWG's present and future. It was another good year, was the way Mr. Masiuk, the outgoing president, characterized it. "TWG staged high-quality events which were well-attended; we took in more money than we spent; we increased our membership by ten percent; and our 1997 Leadership Conference was successful from an attendance, customer satisfaction, and a financial point of view," he said. His successor, Mr. Deychakiwsky, noted in his acceptance speech that in this respect TWG "is somewhat an anomaly" in the Ukrainian-American community. "The sad, but virtually undeniable reality is that the community is steadily declining: organizations are losing membership, some rather rapidly," he said. "Many organizations have ceased to exist, including some fellow professionals organizations, while others have turned into paper tigers," he added. "TWG, to its credit, has bucked this trend," he said. "And precisely because the community is diminishing, it becomes all the more important to have a strong, viable organization such as TWG based in the nation's capital, where it 'enjoys a solid reputation' within the U.S. Government and international relations organizations, and its members have the opportunity to provide ideas and input to help promote closer U.S.-Ukrainian relations." As staff associate at the U.S. CSCE Commission (popularly known as the Helsinki Commission), Mr. Deychakiwsky's responsibilities include Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, and Hungary. He has served as a member on U.S. delegations to numerous meetings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in various countries in Europe, and has been an international observer at elections in Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria and Bosnia. Outgoing membership director Michael Drabyk reported that over the past year TWG membership grew from 366 to 415 thanks to an active campaign to get new members and regain those whose membership had expired. He also noted a marked increase, to 34, in the number of student members. The membership is almost equally divided between those who live in the greater Washington area (D.C., Maryland and Virginia) and those who live in 26 other states as well as in Canada, Europe (including Ukraine) and Australia. On the cultural side, Cultural Fund Director Laryssa Chopivsky noted in her report, the Fund was involved in bringing to Washington the Kyiv Chamber Choir, the Ukrainian Bandura Chorus, fiddler-mandolinist Peter Ostroushko, the winners of the Horowitz International Young Pianists Competition and Olenka Pevny of the Metropolitan Museum, who spoke about The Glory of Byzantium exhibition at the Met. Fellowship Fund director Adrian Karmazyn reported that the Fund this year will sponsor TWG's third annual summer internship at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington. The annual meeting approved all of the changes in TWG's by-laws as printed in the previous issue of the TWG News. Among them: dropping the requirement that a member or his/her spouse be of Ukrainian descent and updating some of the pre-Ukrainian-independence language in the document. A member must, however, support and promote the goals of TWG, which strive to establish a professional and business network of Ukrainian-Americans to promote closer ties and contacts, strive to eliminate discrimination and prejudice aimed at Ukrainian-Americans, promote close U.S.-Ukrainian relations, encourage the development of a pluralistic and democratic Ukraine, promote a greater understanding of Ukrainian history and culture in American society, and encourage active participation of Ukrainian-Americans in promoting the welfare of the community. The changes also stipulate that the Board of Directors, in addition to the Executive Committee and the membership, public relations, special projects and events directors, will also include the immediate past president, the chairpersons of the Cultural and Fellowship Funds and any other "special interest committees" that may be formed, and no more than 15 directors-at-large. The amended by-laws now also allow for corporate memberships, in addition to current full, associate, student and honorary memberships. For More Information Contact: |
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