On April 28 – 30, 2023, the Southwestern Ontario CYM Branches – Etobicoke, Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, and St. Catharines hosted this year’s Annual General Meeting of CYM in Canada. The AGM, held at the Taras Shevchenko Cultural Center in Etobicoke, was attended by 47 delegates and two guests, representing the membership of nine CYM branches, namely: Winnipeg, Hamilton, Edmonton, Etobicoke, Calgary, Mississauga, Montreal, St. Catherines, and Toronto. The AGM was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of CYM in Canada.
The meeting began with a prayer and a moment of silence in memory of the men, women and children, defenders including CYM members, and civilians, who have lost their lives in the genocidal war against Ukraine. In addition, the President of CYM Canada, Tamara Tataryn welcomed the delegates and participants of the Leadership Seminar and wished everyone productive meetings.
The Presidium of the Plenum consisted of: Yuriy Broda (Etobicoke) – chair, Zoya Shwec (Montreal) – deputy chair, Chrystyna Zagirska (Calgary) and Sonia Iszcenko (Edmonton) – secretaries.
The first part of the AGM included the reports of the CYM Canada leadership. President Tamara Tataryn reported for the entirety of the National Executive, informing the delegates and participants of the Leadership Seminar about the multifaceted activities of our organization during its first year in office. This was followed by the presentation by CYM’s Executive Director, Harry Nesmasznyj, of the audited financial statements, reports from the Charitable Trust and Michael Galandiuk and CYM Windsor Branch Capital Funds. Chrystia Moussienko and Ksenia Fedyna presented the Grievances and Audit Committee reports, respectively.
The first day ended with а presentation by the Chaplain of CYM Canada, Fr. Andrij Figol, on the topic “SUMivets Samaritan” which resulted in an interesting discussion among the delegates.
At the end of the first day, delegates and participants of the Leadership Seminar had the opportunity to meet with local CYMivtsi at the Ukrainian restaurant Korchma for a fun-filled evening.
Saturday, the second day of the AGM, started with a joint session on the topic of “Mentoring”, presented by Natalia Schturyn. After that, parallel working sessions began: educational – on the topics of best practices as well as needs and requests from the Branches led by Tanya Choly; a financial session to analyze and adopt updated branch dues, budgets for the National Executive as well as camp Veselka, chaired by Harry Nesmasznyj. In the communication session, Oksana Stech presented the advantages and differences of displaying materials on various social networks and the importance of improving our internal flow of information.
In the afternoon, a joint panel and workshop was held for all delegates and participants of the Leadership Seminar on the topic “Helping Ukraine” with the participation of the following speakers: Nadia Gerelyuk – Managing Director of the National Board of the Ukrainian League of Canada; Petro Shturyn – head of the Canadian Ukrainian Congress, Toronto branch; Lubomyr Beley – deputy. the head of the Regional Plastov Eldership of Canada; Orest Sklyarenko is the executive director of the World Congress of Ukrainians. Dr. Andrii Fendyk also gave a short report on the humanitarian work of Sumy citizens in Ukraine via video link.
On Sunday, April 30, the delegates and participants of the Leadership Seminar began with the Holy Liturgy in the Ukrainian Catholic Church of St. Yosif in Oakville, where Father Mykhailo Loza, the parish priest, greeted the SUM delegates in a particularly warm way and wished them further success in glorifying God and the good of Ukraine. Sincere thanks also to Fr. Boris Hemon – chaplain of the Mississauga Branch.
Early on Sunday, the Plenum program included a joint session on the topic “Personality of a SUMivtsi”, which was led by Dr. Tanya Cholii and ‘Directors & Officers Duties & Responsibilities’, which was presented by dr. Lida Narozhniak as well as short messages of individual sessions, including the adoption of budgets for 2023.
The Regional Administration thanks all those who, with their cooperation, contributed to the successful holding of the Plenum of the CU SUM, our guest speakers, who spared neither effort nor time to enrich our Plenum. We also express our sincere thanks to the hosts of southern Ontario and all members of the Organizing Committee for the famous organization of the Plenum.
You can find additional photos in our photo album: Plenum 2023.
