The Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation

NEWSLETTER

OCTOBER 1997 REPORT :
 

Your convention committee has almost completed its windup affairs.
Co-chair Doris Watson and Marlene Mysak of Calgary and Andy Hladyshevsky of
Edmonton and our treasurer Ron Malashewsky are still awaiting a few
receipts, but the financial picture is encouraging, thanks mainly to careful
budgeting and to the astute fundraising efforts of your Convention
committee.  Nearly $1900 was raised from corporate and individual sponsors.
Congratulations and thanks to the efforts of all the volunteers.


	We've begun work on the implementation of the convention resolutions.
Morris Cherneskey in Saskatoon has been designated to begin revision of your
Federation constitution.  We're working out details for leadership training
for our young people as per the resolution presented by our youth; we have
written a letter of support for Borys Sydoruk's efforts through the
Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association to place a Ukrainian academic
on the advisory board of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. I have
personally begun a dialogue with the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce
(Toronto), the Canada Ukraine Business Initiative (CUBI, Edmonton), and the
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (Edmonton).


I had the opportunity to pay a visit to our Winnipeg association and I
also met with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress staff to discuss areas of
interest, including the new UCC constitution and the 1998 convention. Doris
Watson, Nadja Piatka and I spent an afternoon in Calgary with the Ukrainian
Ambassador to Canada, Volodomyr Furkalo. It was "productive and informative".


Keeping in mind a goal of our convention to raise the profile of our
Federation, I wrote a letter of encouragement to Premier Ralph Klein in
Alberta on the eve of a "Growth Summit" to consider "re-investment" in
Ukrainian language education.  Since Alberta is used as an example for so
much that happens in the rest of the country, we thought this was as much a
national issue as simply a provincial one.


We thank Iris Bradley from Ottawa and Bill Tretiak from Montreal for
representing our Federation at a dinner in Kingston sponsored by the
Department of National Defense. Guests were officials from the Ukrainian
Defense and Foreign Ministry who were attending a "high-level seminar ... to
engage Ukraine in discussions about the future European security order."



We have just received very good news from Regina.  Premier Roy Romanow has
confirmed his attendance at a dinner November 24th, at the Regina Centre of
the Arts, where he will receive his award announced at our convention.
Congratulations Ed Lysak and your team! Doris Watson and I will be attending.


Donna Korchinski

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