1. Welcome and presentation of Annual Report by Petar Jankovic, President:
The President reported that considerable progress had made in 2007 to consolidate the management structure, increase membership and improve finances. The management structure has been strengthened by appointing Dr Milos Sefanovic as Vice President and Jelena Bosanac as the Administrator. A Public Relations Sub-Committee has also been set up, led by Nikola Cobic and Milos Stefanovic, to represent the Council in its dealings with the media and governmental organisations.
Efforts had been made to improve communications with members. This has been done by Jelena Bosanac's efforts to update and expand the website set up in 2006 (www.serbiancouncil.org), by the monthly calendar of events sent out by Maja Jordan to over 1500 Serbs living in this country and the Newsletter that was sent out to several hundred people and distributed at Serbian Churches throughout England.
In June 2007 the Ministry of Diaspora organised a meeting for the worldwide Serbian Diaspora , ‘Vidovdanski Dani Dijaspore’. Milos Sefanovic, Olga Stanojlovic and Vanja Karas joined one of the sessions by a video conference link. This helped to raise the profile of the Serbian Diaspora in Britain.
Attempts have been made to increase membership by visiting Serb communities beyond London – the President, Aleks Simic and George Tokos visited Ireland to meet the growing community there and Milos Stefanovic and Jelena Bosanac visited Serbian students and professors in Cambridge.
The Magic and Toys project was repeated in 2007 led by George Tokos and Maja Jordan. The toys were distributed to children in Bor and a basketball tournament was organised for the children, attended by two leading basketball stars Vlade Divac and Zarko Paspalj.
On the cultural side a number of concerts have been organised. In June, Marina Petrov and Lidia Scepanovic, played at a classical concert organised by Marina in association with some members of the Serbian community in Finland, a fine example of collaboration between diaspora communities. In November the Serbian Council represented by Maja Jordan, and the Serbian Society represented by Miki Stojiljkovic and Charlie Nikolic, joined together to hold a concert at St Cyprian’s Church featuring Suzana Suvakovic-Savic and Slavko Nikolic. It is hoped that this will be the first of many collaborations between the organisations. Finally, the Serbian Council collaborated with the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe, to enable Dejan Sinadinovic, a leading Serbian pianist, to play at a concert in London in November.
In November the President met with Milica Cubrilo, Minister for the Diaspora and presented the Interplov Project to her. The project, designed by Veljko Zizic was approved by the Ministry and is the Serbian Council’s first joint venture with the Ministry. The President was also able to discuss the laws governing the process for applying for Serbian citizenship and the acquisition of agricultural land by foreign nationals. Information about both laws is available from Mr Varadinovic, Serbian Embassy. Whilst in Belgrade the president also met with Dejan Popovic, the newly appointed Ambassador to Britain who should take up his post by the end of the month.
In January the President met with representatives of the Serbian Olympic Committee in Sheffield in order to help with the provision of training and other facilities during the London Olympics.
In voting for the Presidential election of the 652 registered voters in Britain 202 voted and the results were Boris Tadic(DP) 122 votes, Toma Nikolic (RP) 37 votes, Ceda Jovanovic (LDP) 28 votes, Velja Ilic (Our Serbia) 12 votes and Milutin Mrkonjic (the Socialists) 2 votes.
2. Apologies: Branko Brozovic and Misa Simic
3. Minutes from the last AGM and presentation of future projects by Milos Stefanovic,Vice President:
The Vice President said that the Serbian Council has four main priorities to be pursued in the next year – reaching out to Serb communities; raising our profile in Britain; working with other Serbian diaspora organisations and working with Serbia. With regard to each of these priorities:
• Reaching Serb Communities outside London: The Serbian Council helped arrange the visit by the Serbian Olympic Committee who is considering where to base their training camp prior to the 2012 Olympics. This could provide an opportunity to raise the profile of Serbia in Britain and the role of Serbs in British society and at the same time an opportunity for the Serbian Council to develop links with Serbian communities outside of London. There were also opportunities to focus on universities where there were large numbers of Serbian students and academics e.g. Cambridge, Reading and Oxford or cities which were twinned with cities in Serbia e.g. Coventry and Belgrade. It was also important to bridge the generational gap and bring together members from the different waves of emigration.
• Raising the profile of the Serbian Community: A meeting was scheduled to take place in February with John Randall MP and other members of the All Parliamentary Group on Serbia The PR Sub-Committee had issued a Press Release on Kosovo to the Press Association and the Foreign Press Association The Vice President thanked Djoka Novakovic for his advice in this area.
• Working with other Serbian Diaspora Organisations: The Serbian Council would like to work more closely with the Serbian Society, as well as with the Church, the Embassy, the student and academic community and analogue organisations in other countries.
• Working with Serbia: The Serbian Council wishes to work more closely with the Ministry of Diaspora. The first collaboration is the Interplov project, a free interactive website to help children across the world to improve their Serbian. Another possible collaboration is to send computers to schools in Serbia.
The Vice President hoped that the impact and reach of the Serbian Council could be enhanced by the development of partnerships with other organisations, self-funded projects and the co-option of members who wanted to contribute to the work of the Serbian Council.
4. Treasurer’s Report:
Aleks Simic spoke to the Treasurer’s report which had been circulated to the meeting. The membership had gone up to 85 and all projects were financially viable covered by income or donations. Savings had been forthcoming because it had not proved possible to fill the Administrator's post as envisaged.
5. Election of officers of the Serbian council of Great Britain:
Following individual votes the following were elected as officers of the Serbian Council:
President Petar Jankovic
Vice President Milos Stefanovic
Secretary Jelena Bosanac
Treasurer Aleks Simic
6. Election of 12 members of the General Committee:
Following individual votes the following were elected onto the General Committee:
George Tokos
Maya Momcilo- Jordan
Marina Petrov
Nikola Cobic
Olga Stanojlovic
Ivan Miletic
It was also agreed that Marta Jankovic, a former member of the General Committee, whose nomination had arrived after the closing date, would be co-opted onto the committee.
7. Changes to the Constitution:
Milos Stefanovic, Vice President reported that the constitutional changes agreed last year had been made so that members of the Serbian diaspora community in Ireland to be eligible to join. The post of Vice President had been established to manage the Serbian Council and to represent the organisation in the absence of the President. The amended constitution was available on demand and was on the website.
8. Any Other Business: None
End of Formal meeting
Presentations
Blythswood Care: Phil Shorthouse – Corporate Aid Logistics Manager, Blythswood Care
Phil Shorthouse had been involved in Yugoslavia since 1992 and Bltythwood Care works in all parts of Serbia – the Love Thy Neighbour Project in Krusevac, Kragujevac; Medical aid to Prokupac and working with the Red Cross in Kraljevo to help internally displaced people. Blythswood Care assists in a wide-ranging way which includes working with the Roma Community, schools, providing fire engines for the town, running a soup kitchen for 600 people a day, helping people get back to work, providing homes for the homeless, providing a Christmas Shoebox for children and setting up the first charity shop. In recognition of his charitable works Phil Shorthouse was awarded a silver medal and made an honorary citizen of the city of Kraljevo.
In 2006 Blythswood Care is putting in place emergency supplies in the event of developments in Kosovo. He is also organising a seaside holiday for 30 refugee children. He is seeking funding of £150 per child and hopes that representatives of the Serbian community in Britain will be willing to provide assistance.
Toys and Magic Project:
George Tokos reported that the project had gone extremely well and had been delivered in collaboration with the Red Cross in Kraljevo. The presence of the two basketball stars at the basketball tournament had raised the profile of the event.
The Embassy: The Embassy is encouraged by the work of the Serbian Council and would like to work with it to extend its reach into the Serbian community. This is particularly important at this point in time when the Embassy is very short staffed with only three members of staff. The Embassy covers Ireland and intends to appoint an honorary consul to help meet the needs of the Serbian community in Ireland.