TARAS ZALUSKY

Executive Director, National Office, Ukrainian Canadian Congress

Date and Place of Birth: 1967 in Montreal, Quebec

Date of Interview: July 28 2016

Place of Interview: Ottawa, Ontario

Interviewer: Kassandra Luciuk

Length of Interview: 01:32:34

(Excerpt):

KYK’s strength comes from the fact that it’s an umbrella organization. And that happens at two levels at the same time. On the one hand, we have good national coverage, with branches now from, I understand, from Halifax to British Columbia, you know, and there’s a strong presence. It also builds consensus views among its member organizations – so, be that CYM [Ukrainian Youth Association], or League of Ukrainian Canadians, or Plast [Plast National Scout Organization of Ukraine], or UNO [Ukrainian National Federation of Canada], or the P’s and B’s [Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association]. And through its policy committees, it’s able to build consensus positions. And so it may not be the exact position of each of the individual member organizations, but it’s a consensus position that the member organizations had heard, had voted on at board meetings, and had adopted. So it was ground up, but it was also being shared widely across member organizations. And so I think that the success is attributable to the…KYK will only be as successful as its ability to work with its own grassroots and within its own member organizations. And some of the things that were done – not sexy at all, but very important – were things like leadership skills, conferences on how to comply with not-for-profit corporations, how to do fundraising, and doing the things that you need to do in Canada to build professional organizations that will be credible and listened to.  

CROSS REFERENCES:

• Ukrainian Canadian Congress Press Release announcing Taras Zalusky appointment as Executive Director of UCC  

• Geddes, John. “Paul Martin’s Ottawa – Mum’s the Word.” November 19, 2003 in Canadian Encyclopedia