Washington, D.C. – February 23, 2010 – The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) today announced that the Macedonian Patriotic Organization (MPO) is no longer part of the Macedonian-American 2010 Census Project Coalition for the 2010 United States Census.
“UMD led efforts to form the coalition so that several Macedonian-American groups could work for a common cause – an accurate count of Macedonian-Americans. Unfortunately, the MPO deviated from that goal by calling on its members to identify themselves as something other than Macedonian on U.S. Census forms,” said UMD President Metodija A. Koloski, who continued “After discussions amongst members, the Coalition determined that the MPO should no longer be included in the Coalition which is continuing its efforts to educate Macedonian-Americans of the importance of participating in the Census and to respond in a consistent manner to questions relating to race, ethnicity and national origin.”
Members of the Coalition now include Friends of Macedonia, the Macedonian American Cultural Organization of New England, the Macedonian American Friendship Association, the Macedonian Arts Council, the Macedonian Mission for Humanity, the Macedonian Orthodox Philanthropic Society of Columbus, Ohio, and UMD. The American-Canadian Macedonian Orthodox Diocese, has given its blessing to the Coalition’s efforts and Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Atseff (USA, Ret.), a first generation Macedonian-American, continues his service as Director of the Coalition.