State of the SVU in the Year 2003

Report of SVU President Dr. Miloslav Rechcigl
Presented to the SVU General Assembly, Cedar Rapids, IA, 26 June 2003

It is a pleasure to present this year's report on SVU activities. Considering the time pressure under which we are, I have planned this report to be brief and to the point.

First, I would like to thank Kacenka Oslzly and the Nebraska SVU Chapter and our Iowa friends for making the necessary arrangements for the SVU Annual Meeting and the accompanying SVU Conference.

Upon my re-election to the SVU Presidency at the SVU General Assembly Meeting in Plzen in June 2002, I made several commitments which have become the blueprint for the action plan for the newly elected Executive Board. "Accent on Youth", assisting with the re-establishing civil society in the Czech and Slovak Republics and enhancing cooperation with their institutions, preserving Czech and Slovak heritage abroad and continuing publishing monographs have become our top priorities.

Among specific tasks that I pledged to carry out was the activation of the SVU Fellows program, the reactivation of the SVU Research Institute and finding of a suitable repository for SVU archival material. Faithful to these commitments I am pleased to say that we have made considerable progress in most of these areas. Other than that, we have given great attention to the preparation of our 2003 Conference in Iowa and to improving the management and administrative aspects of SVU periodicals.

Let me now turn to specifics. As far as our finances are concerned, thanks to the sound fiscal management policies, we are in the black and, as a rule, have drawn primarily on interest rather than on the principal. Being an SVU Treasurer is not an easy task and Frank Mucha deserves our sincere thanks for the job well done.

As for the new initiatives, we have established a new Civil Society Issues Committee which has among its members a number of important personalities, such as Ambassadors Martin Palous and Martin Butora and Senator Jaroslava Moserova. Thanks to Lois Herman, we now have a very active Women's Issues Group, comprised of some twenty activists from the US, Czech Republic and Slovakia. You can view their regular postings on the SVU Website, including news releases, statistical and research reports on the women's status in the Czech and Slovak Republics, job openings, conferences, etc. We have also reactivated our Youth Committee which has the responsibility for the SVU initiative Accent on Youth. Furthermore, the Executive Board appointed a special SVU Leadership Search Committee with the responsibility to search for new leadership, especially among the younger people.

One of the pressing SVU problems has been the question as to where the Society should deposit its archival material for safe keeping. This was a high priority for us since most of the SVU documents had been kept in cellars, attics and garages of various people for years and there was an imminent danger that they would deteriorate or inadvertently be destroyed. I am delighted to report that, after some negotiations, we successfully deposited most of SVU early documents at the University of Minnesota's Immigration History Research Center (IHRC). I would like to express my appreciation to Daniel Necas, who is at this meeting, who kindly transported a big load of countless boxes in the University van to Minneapolis.

Another unresolved problem was the SVU Fellows program which, according to our bylaws, falls under the jurisdiction of SVU Council. Although it had been on SVU books for years, the Society was unable to get it off the ground. The main reason for the failure had been a somewhat tedious selection process, based on the nominations of candidates by their peers, requiring laborious documentation. I am pleased to report that we overcame this difficulty by appointing a special Fellows Selection Committee whose function was to go through the SVU rolls and select suitable candidates for Fellows whose names were then presented to the SVU Council for voting. The outcome of the vote was the election of 41 SVU Fellows.

Emphasis on publications has always been an SVU imperative. The recent two SVU monographs, the Anthology of Czech and Slovak Exile Poetry and Zdenka Fischmann's Essays on Czech Music, edited by Vera Borkovec and Dagmar White, respectively, came off the press at the time of our SVU World Congress in Plzen. Copies of these two important publications can still be purchased and are available at the Registration Desk. We are in the process of preparing two other monographs, one relating to Czech and Slovak Theater Abroad and the other on Czech and Slovak Opera Abroad, under Vera Borkovec's and Dagmar Hasalova White's editorship, respectively.

You will be also pleased to know about the progress we have made regarding the Plzen SVU Congress Proceedings. Thanks to the efforts of Dean Ivo Budil, two volumes, containing selected Czech and Slovak papers, have just been published by the University of West Bohemia Press and can be ordered from there. As far as the English papers are concerned, Jan P. Skalny has edited and formatted all papers he has received. Unfortunately, they represent only a fraction of the papers presented. It is imperative that those speakers who have not submitted their papers yet, do so immediately, otherwise their papers won't be published.

I am sure you had an opportunity to see the new SVU Directory which is available for sale at the Registration Desk. This voluminous publication, containing basic information about our Society and biographies of over three thousand members throughout the world, is the result of very hard work and which would not see the light of day without the efforts and technical skills of Jiri Eichler. I would like to thank him publicly for all his assistance and devotion. SVU Directory has always been our top best seller and this edition won't be an exception, I am sure.

Thanks to our editors, Andrew Elias and Clinton Machann, respectively, the newsletter Zpravy SVU and scholarly periodical Kosmas are excellent, both in terms of their content and quality. We have made significant changes on the Kosmas Editorial Board, including the appointment of a new Associate Editor, Charles Townsend. In an effort to increase our subscriptions in Europe, with the help of Dean Budil, we are planning to send out sample copies to some five hundred addresses in the Czech and Slovak Republics. I hope this effort will bear some fruit.

The most important public activity the SVU has undertaken in the current administrative period was the organization of the present SVU Conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The site was selected following my wife's and my visit to Nebraska and Iowa last October. Accompanied by Kacenka Oslzly, who made the necessary arrangements for meeting the key people, we visited all the important places and negotiated the necessary details. As you have been able to see and experience, this is a great event and everything is going smoothly or, as we say in Czech, "jede to jako po masle". The success is unquestionably due to the one and only person Kacenka. Let's give her a big hand of applause.

I am also pleased to be able to convey to you the latest news about our 2004 World Congress. Upon exchanging correspondence with the Rector and other responsible officials of Palacky University, I am delighted to report that SVU Executive Board decided to hold the next SVU World Congress in Olomouc, Moravia with the general theme "Moravia from a World Perspective".There are lots of Moravians among our midst so I hope you will be delighted both with the site selection as well as the Congress theme.

I would be amiss if I wouldn't say a few words about our local chapters. You will be pleased to hear that our Cleveland Chapter has reactivated, under the Presidency of Dr. Stanislav Bohonek. Efforts are also afoot to establish a new Chapter in Spillville, Iowa, through the initiative of Michael Klimesh. Among the existing chapters - a big surprise - the Nebraska Chapter, under the leadership of Kacenka Oslzly, is again Number ONE, in terms of the number of activities and variety of programs.

A mention needs to be also made of the SVU part, in the Masaryk dedication ceremony in Washington, DC and in the farewells to Ambassador Martin Butora, on which occasion SVU presented him a special citation for his accomplishments during his tenure as Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the US.

Last but not least, I would like to say a few words about the SVU Website. The Website which is in the third year of operation flourishes and, in the opinion of many, is the best business card SVU has ever had. It brings information on just about everything you need to know about our Society and more. For many, it serves as an encyclopedia and Vade mecum on everything relating to Czech and Slovak history and culture, Czechoslovak Americana, Czechoslovak Genealogy on the Net, news releases, grants and aid and much more. Those of you who have not yet seen it please do so. Among the existing media, SVU website is clearly the most effective means of communication with SVU members and the outside world. Thanks to our diligent Webmaster Jiri Eichler, the website is systematically updated. He deserves our sincere thanks and appreciation.

In conclusion, let me thank again our Nebraska Chapter and especially their President Kacenka Oslzly for all they have done to make this meeting a success.

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