
In a press release issued by the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame last week, Ron Urbanczyk of the New Direction Band was named to its class of 2011 inductees. Renowned Western New York Polka musician Ron Urbanczyk is a veteran band leader, musician, promoter and author who works as the concertina player with the New Direction Band. Urbanczyk will be honored along with his fellow inductees at the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame Gala, to be held on October 6th at the Tralf Music Hall.
The Buffalo Music Hall of Fame Class of 2011, will be introduced to the public in downtown Buffalo on Wednesday, July 27th in front of the M&T Plaza at noon.
Ron is only the fifth “polka musician” to be honored by the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. His nomination was presented to the selection committee in March and after their review and scoring process, Ron was selected.
The BMHOF selection committee judges nominee’s based on their musical talents and tenure, community service activities, professional achievements, career highlights and the performers public visibility on the local and national levels.
Amongst Ron’s musical talents of playing the accordion, bass guitar, concertina and keyboard, his dinner theatre brainchild, Stas and Stella’s Mostly Traditional Polish Wedding, and his song writing abilities, six new originals will be featured on the New Direction’s first CD which they hope to record late this summer, were recognized.
He has played polkas for almost 50 years with the Jolly Jesters, Pole Cats, Steel City Brass, Buffalo Concertina All-Stars, Honky Hoppers, Bedrock Boys and City Side prior to forming the New Direction Band in 2009 with Jim Raczkowski, Bob Krupka, Frank Zeczak and Bill Barnas.
Ron put a trip together after receiving an invitation by the Chemnitz Mueseum of Art & Culture for the Buffalo Concertina Club in 2001. They traveled and performed in Chemnitz and Gruna, Germany, and Krakow and Rzeszow, Poland and visited Prague in the Czech Republic. He found sponsorship from the Deutsche Bank, PUA and Buffalo-Rzeszow Sister Cities Organization to cover the bands expenses.
In conjunction with WXRL 1300, a children’s clothing drive and cash donations for the Children’s Orphanage in Rzeszow was held. Boxes of clothing and $2,000 were collected and given to the Orphanage.
When little Timmy Gusevich was diagnosed with leukemia and Ron found out Greg Gusevich, Tim’s Father had lost his job and health insurance, Ron rounded up fellow Buffalo Polka Musicians at the Potts Banquet Hall to run a benefit dance for Tim, that event earned over $4000.
Ron also brought polka music into venues that were once thought off limits, the New York State Fair, Hamburg Casino, Batavia Casino, Miss Buffalo, town concerts in East Aurora, West Seneca, Orchard Park, Lackawanna and even to Club Lorelei an exclusive German club to name a few.
Ron is an active member of the Buffalo Polka Boosters, United States Polka Association, International Polka Association, Concertina USA, and is responsible for airing It’s Polka Time a one hour polka show on Time Warner Cable outlets in the Suburbs of Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Lockport. Ron and his wife Kathy have also escorted, polka fans from Buffalo on four Caribbean Cruises and to all inclusive vacations at resorts on several Caribbean islands.
Most recently, Ron started as an IJ on the Polka Legacy Network on Tuesday nights from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Listen in. Ron’s format features Buffalo Bands and Musicians.
So Ron is well deserving of his induction into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and we look forward to the October induction ceremony.
The Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese of the PNCC will be hosting Convo 2012: Confirmed to Walk on Water from July 23rd-27th, 2012 at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY. As we hit the one year count-down to Convo 2012, keep all of the youth of the PNCC in your collective prayers.
For more information, visit the Convo website on Facebook or the Convo 2012 website.


God, full of mercy, who dwells in the heights, provide a sure rest upon the Divine Pressence’s wings, within the range of the holy, pure and glorious, whose shining resemble the sky’s, to the soul of Leiby Kletzky son of Nachman Kletzky, for a charity was given to the memory of his soul. Therefore, the Master of Mercy will protect him forever, from behind the hiding of his wings, and will tie his soul with the rope of life. The Everlasting is his heritage, and he shall rest peacefully upon his lying place, and let us say: Amen.

But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
The contemporary American workplace is susceptible to numerous federal, state, and local laws that impose strict obligations on businesses (e.g., wage and hour legislation, nondiscrimination legislation, etc.). Most companies, especially smaller businesses, tend not to know the scope of such obligations and, consequently, frequently (albeit inadvertently) violate what the law states. These violations can result in costly lawsuits, and also civil and criminal penalties. In my experience of being a defense attorney in addition to being a plaintiff’s lawyer, the most frequent employment law mistakes done by corporations are the subsequent (in no particular order):
- Misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Generally speaking, only workers who operate their particular separate corporations are “independent contractors.” Few workers meet this test; the truth is, most personnel are considered “employees” for the law, this means they’re eligible to the complete variety of workplace protections.
- Misclassifying non-exempt staff members as exempt. Generally speaking, all personnel are eligible for minimum wage and overtime pay, unless they’re “exempt” under state and federal law. The exemption rules (e.g., for executive, administrative, and professional employees) only apply in limited circumstances, however; therefore, many workers that are claimed by businesses to get “exempt” actually have entitlement to minimum wage and/or overtime pay.
- Not complying with state wage payment legal guidelines. i.e. New York imposes several specific rules regarding how businesses be forced to pay their personnel. These rules include providing new workers with written notice of these rate of pay and regular pay date; prohibiting deductions from wages unless to the employee’s benefit and authorized in writing; requiring written contracts for commissioned salespersons; and providing terminated employees with written notice of the last day’s work, their last day’s benefits, and their right to make an application for unemployment benefits.
- Not owning a personnel handbook. A laborer handbook is a vital tool for effective employer-employee relations. It notifies workers of the company’s values, policies, and procedures; promotes compliance with labor and employment legal guidelines; so it helps create an orderly, efficient, and transparent workplace.
- Not documenting personnel job performance. A well-managed organization clearly communicates its employees’ duties and responsibilities (e.g., through written position descriptions), trains and supervises workers to be sure they are meeting these requirements, and gives regular, objective, consistent feedback (e.g., through written evaluations and, where necessary, disciplinary actions). A deficiency of accurate, complete, contemporaneous documentation can cause liability in case of a case by a staff member.
- Not training supervisors regarding EEO legislation. Federal, state, and local equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws and regulations prohibit businesses from taking adverse actions against employees (e.g., demotion, termination) for reasons not associated with an employee’s job performance, including those determined by an employee’s race, color, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, and marital status ( to mention the commonest “protected characteristics”), plus retaliation for an employee’s good faith complaints of discrimination. It is imperative that supervisors learn the way to manage staff members without violating (or appearing to violate) these laws and regulations.
- Not providing reasonable accommodations for disabled staff members. Most EEO legislation prohibit businesses from taking adverse actions against employees according to certain protected characteristics, but disability discrimination legal guidelines also impose an affirmative obligation on businesses to “reasonably accommodate” disabled personnel in order to assist them to perform the primary functions of the jobs. Such accommodations can sometimes include restructuring job duties, modifying work schedules, or providing assistive devices. Businesses must give a disabled laborer with needed accommodations unless doing this would cause an “undue hardship” for the company (e.g., very costly, too disruptive).
- Not obtaining releases from terminated personnel. When terminating a worker, businesses need to get a release that waives the employee’s potential legal claims against the enterprise. The simplest way to get a release is in exchange for an offer of severance (where appropriate). Generally, organizations are not essential to pay for severance to employees (unless essential to an employment contract or perhaps a collective bargaining agreement). If they opt to do this (e.g., associated with layoffs), they ought to require employees to sign a release in substitution for the payment.
- Not protecting confidential business information. Every company depends upon certain vital, often confidential, specifics of its organization operations, including trade secrets, marketing and advertising practices, and customer and client lists. Access to this information must be tied to employees with a “need to know” and may be protected by appropriate non-disclosure, non-compete, and/or non-solicitation agreements (depending on the nature of the information along with the employee’s position).
- Not consulting a certified employment law attorney. Perhaps the only most crucial point to take away from this discussion is always that businesses should consult an experienced employment lawyer to ensure they are in compliance with all the increasingly numerous and complex laws and regulations that carpet work just like a minefield. Large companies most often have attorneys and hr professionals within the company to help them in this field. Small- and medium-size businesses often tend not to. Their biggest mistake is attempting to navigate this minefield automatically.
So you? Exactly what are your top mistakes made in employment law?
About the writer: Stacia Abner, Esq. writes for labor law training courses, her personal blog, where she discusses her experience as an attorney assisting workers and corporations in coping with the elements of employment law.