This year our society has continued our efforts to help foster awareness of Slovak cultural and current affairs. The following are the highlights:
Membership
- As of October 19, 2019, we had 107 paid memberships (57 Individual and 50 Family).
- In October 2018, we had 100 paid memberships (54 Individual and 46 Family).
- In October 2017, we had 85 paid memberships (42 Individual and 43 Family).
Financial
Our financial status is stable. Our total assets at September 30, 2018 were $14,790.02.
These assets are deposited in the following accounts:
- Bank of America business checking account: $8,701.09
- Lafayette Federal Credit Union CD account: $6,088.93
City University
In May 2019, we donated $3,750 to City University of Seattle, which supported five partial scholarships for needy students in Slovakia.
In the spring of 2020, we plan to hold our 6th annual Café Night scholarship fundraiser at Bistro Bohem in Washington, DC.
Programs
The following events were held or have been scheduled for the 17th year of our Speakers’ Series.
We teamed up again with the Friends of Slovakia to bring in speakers for a series of talks about the prominent years of 1919, 1939, and 1944 in Slovak history. We also partnered with the Carpatho-Rusyn Society to host a speaker on genealogy.
- May 4 — Kevin McNamara spoke about Milan Štefánik in a talk titled Six Events that Made Milan Štefánik a Founding Father of Czecho-Slovakia.
- September 28 — Prof. Susan Mikula, Benedictine University, spoke about the events of 1939 in a talk titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Slovakia in 1939.
- October 10 — Dr. J. Luke Ryder, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, spoke about the Slovak National Uprising of 1944.
- October 19 — Genealogist Paul Valašek presented a talk titled Immigrant Steamships: 1890–1950.
Service Recognition Award
To recognize the outstanding contributions of our members to the promotion and growth of our society, the Board has created a service award dedicated in memory of Stephen Matula. This award will be formally presented at the upcoming Svätý Mikuláš party.
Membership Initiatives
Over the past year, the SASW has continued several initiatives to attract new members. The Board continues to explore strategies for attracting new members and improving procedures concerning membership renewal.
We are working to increase both the quantity and variety of content available to SASW members and visitors on our website dcslovaks.org.
We are actively maintaining public pages on social media to raise our public profile and generate interest in Slovak topics.
Please follow these pages and share them with your friends and colleagues to help boost the society’s online presence.
Social and Cultural Activities
- March 9 — We held our inaugural Slovak Souper Bowl social evening event.
- September 14 — Our annual picnic was held at the home of SASW member Ludo Hintos.
- December 8 — Our annual Svätý Mikuláš party will be held at the Slovak Embassy. After a long break, Patajši will provide the musical entertainment.
The SASW has continued to support a social group on Meetup to attract younger members and more recent Slovak émigrés.
2019 Board of Directors
Officers
- Brian Belensky, President
- Marcel Lorincz, Vice President
- Georgene C. Chastain, Treasurer
- Rich Palaschak, Secretary
At-Large Board Members
- John Husovsky
- Helen Fedor
- Virginia Sorkin
- Marta Szotakova
- Valerie McNeill
