Executive Board Meeting - October 12, 1997

The SVU Executive Board met in President Mila Rechcigl's residence in Rockville, on October 12. with a sufficient number of members present to constitute a quorum.

The Board pent considerable time in discussing the forthcoming SVU World Congress and the involvement of the Executive Board members. It was agreed that each member of the Board will take responsibility for organizing one or more panels, in addition to trying to find other organizers who would arrange additional panels. Apart from this effort, invitation letters will be sent to a selected list of potential participants from within as well as outside the SVU membership. We need at least 200 participants from abroad in order to cover the major Congress expenses.

With reference to SVU finances, SVU Treasurer Frank Mucha commented that a number of members have not paid their dues and expressed hope that these individuals will respond promptly to the reminder letters. Although we do not have a complete accounting for all Kosmas expenses, generally speaking the expenditures follow closely our budget estimates. Regarding external donations, the SVU Executive Board noted with appreciation the gift of $5,000 from the Papanek Memorial Trust, as well as the grant of $2,800 from the Odbor pro kulturni a krajanske vztahy for the purpose of building up a subscription base for the periodical Kosmas.

As was referred to in the previous meeting of the Board, the next issue of Kosmas has been scheduled for publication in November 1997 and the subsequent issue will soon follow in early spring. There was considerable discussion at the meeting about the need to increase the number of subscribers in order to mate the periodical pay for itself. The Board expressed hope that individual members will assist in this matter, not only by themselves subscribing but also by publicizing the periodical in their universities and libraries. If
these institutions will express interest in seeing the periodical first, the Society will gladly send them a sample copy. Vera Borkovec informed the Board that this year's student prize was awarded to Bruce Berglund. The official presentation will be made at the next annual meeting on the occasion of the SVU World Congress in Bratislava.

Thanks to Rechcigl, the Society now has its own HomePage. A detailed report of this appears in the current issue of Zpravy SVU. In reporting on this, Rechcigl noted that the information on individual local chapters could not be brought up to date because several local chapters have not provided the requested information, despite several reminders, In this connection the Board expressed the desire that each local chapter appoint a responsible individual who has direct access to e-mail who would communicate promptly with the Executive Board.

With reference to local chapters, Rechcigl also proposed that an effort be made towards revitalization of those chapters that have lately been inactive, such as Toronto, Montreal or Cleveland. In addition, attempts will be made to establish new chapter in promising areas, e.g. Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin or Iowa. Furthermore, the Executive Board will consider reestablishing the system of SVU District Secretaries in places where no chapters exist, such as Latin America or Asia. Vera Borkovec, under whose jurisdiction this falls, will prepare specific recommendations.

Referring to earlier SVU Conference in Texas and the joint SVU-SPJST Proclamation regarding the "Preservation of our Cultural Heritage in America", Rechcigl proposed that SVU take the initiative in implementing this noble goal. He noted that precious archival material relating to Czech Americans, as well as Slovak Americans, is being rapidly lost, a number of
their organizations have ceased existing, while others have restricted their activities to mere socializing, and the Czech and Slovak languages are on the way out. There is a need for immediate action to reverse this trend. No one individual nor any organization can do this alone. This will require a concerted effort involving many organizations with the same  interest. The Executive Board wholeheartedly endorsed the idea and agreed that the Society should take initiative in this regard. A more detail discussion of this initiative is given in the Zpravy SVU.

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