Ukrainian National Federation, Montreal.
UNF Montreal’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held March 20, 2016, re-electing for 2016-2017 Dr. Artem Luhovy, as president.
Attending the Montreal AGM was national UNF president, Taras Pidzamecky, who chaired the proceedings.
This year, branches of UNF across Canada scheduled their AGMs abiding by the new UNF constitution adopted at the 38th national Convention held in Winnipeg.
Montreal’s AGM was officially opened by President Dr. Luhovy who welcomed all members and guests present. Most senior member was Mr. M. Wysoczansky representing “Strilet’ska Hromada”. Many of the new members, as youth, were members of the then flourishing dance, theatre or choir groups or had parents active in the organization. A revival of the branch was evident.
The president prepared a keynote presentation detailing the past year’s work coordinated by him with his outgoing executive. Some of the activities highlighted by Dr. Luhovy included sending delegates to the UNF national convention held in Winnipeg in October 2015, participating in the Paul Yuzyk Institute for Youth Leadership Networking event in Ottawa, hosting the Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter exhibit supported by Mr. James Termerty, supporting the McGill Ukrainian Students’ Association and their outstanding initiative and the fundraising event for the Canadian medical mission in Ukraine, providing support for and participation in the two-day bus excursion visiting the award-winning Spirit Lake Internment Centre/museum in northern Quebec, the continued efforts in organizing the branch library and archives which includes many early publications donated by Prosvita-Verdun dating from the beginning of the 20th century, supporting UCC-Montreal events, establishing meetings of a “literaturnyj hurtok” providing a regular forum to discuss various aspects of Ukrainian literature, and more. The president thanked his hard working executive. The financial report was presented by treasurer Adrian Kowryha. Andrij Hovorun presented the UCC-Montreal delegate report and an OYK report was presented by newly elected president Natalia Shulga for outgoing president Natalia Kisil.
At times, the meeting taxed the patience of most members. As occurred at last year’s AGM, individual members tried to disrupt the beginning of the meeting with inappropriate behavior. One member stubbornly ignored requests by the chair to stop filming, resulting in the priests that were present and others repeatedly requesting that he discontinue, even after a motion to stop filming was passed by the AGM. After creating forty minutes of chaos, the member left. This was later followed by a lengthy reading of the secretary’s 2015 AGM minutes. For nine months prior to the AGM, she refused to make any edits to the 2015 AGM minutes, which were chaired by National Executive Member Slawko Borys. Due to a multitude of inaccuracies in her reporting, which was interspersed by her personal commentary, a major amendment to the report was presented and an overwhelming majority passed the revised minutes.
In his closing remarks, President Dr. Artem Luhovy, maintaining his composure, shared his vision for the future and emphasized that the Montreal UNF branch must continue to revive and build on the positive foundations the branch stands for. He stressed the need to strengthen the work of the branch and the community at large, to continue to be inclusive and reaffirmed his willingness to work together with all well-intentioned members. Flowers were presented to Orysia Korol and a big thank you given to Evhen Struminsky, for their volunteer work caring for the hall and managing rentals. The president reminded members of the two active Quebec branches that once existed from the 1930’s in Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’or where descendants still live, and pointed out the historic importance of the Montreal building, which became even more famous with a scene in the recent Oscar nominated movie “Brooklyn,” filmed in the hall where the AGM was held. This was followed by remarks from national UNF president Taras Pidzamecky. The AGM concluded with sandwiches prepared by Montreal’s Zhytynsky Deli and a coffee reception, with ideas shared for the future.
The new expanded executive for 2015-16 includes Evhen Osidacz, Adrian Kowryha, Volodymyr Zelenko, Yaroslaw Holowko, Andrij Hovorun, Anastasia Kyva, Rostyslav Nemtsev, and Katrusia Smolynec. Several working committees were formed including the archive preservation committee.
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