NEWSLETTER No. 4

KRAGUJEVAC

Presentation of on-going programmes

In quite a lot of discussions nowadays, one of the inevitable civic sector strategic issues is the future sustainability and role in the transition process. The termination of the classical humanitarian phase in the work of international donor organisations, the beginning of the new, development phase and the announcement of the future corporation and investment phase are slowly directing serious NGOs towards wider exploration of, primarily, opportunities for new, material resources. On the one hand, big international organisations, along with corporation foundations impose themselves as future international partners, and on the other, due to the lack of a developed national economic sector, NGOs can expect additional income sources only after the adopting of a suitable legislative programme in self-financing programmes. There is always one natural and constant source, or, we should say, partner. The first one, the public or state sector, in its most acceptable form for most organisations, is the local management. This is a partner that will not only impose itself through decentralisation and implementation of the new law on local self-management, but also a partner that is increasingly directed towards the civil sector by the on-going development programmes (in case of Kragujevac – the Local Self-Management Reform by DAI & USAID, Promotion of Pluralism by strengthening NGOs and the Civil Society by the European Commission and European Perspective, New Cultural Policy by European Cultural Foundation & the Fund for an Open Society, the Police Reform by OEBS, Community Revitalization through Democratic Action by ACDI/VOCA...), but also by the nature of their work. For, who would better identify and respond to the community needs but the active civic initiatives and associated representatives of the local community.

Since it was founded, the NGO MillenniuM has developed a quality partnership and cooperation with the local management in the form of programme support, lobbying for community development, enhancement of civic activism and similar programmes, and nowadays, the cooperation continues at mutual pleasure for more reasons. We shall herewith present the most topical programmes.

• Since the middle of 2002, the NGO MillenniuM has been involved in the the work of a special supervisory body appointed by the Executive Board of the Culture Council, as the first of its kind in Serbia that has developed the tenets of the new cultural policy of the town in the form of the culture development strategic plan for the period from 2002 until 2007, to be publicly presented at the beginning of the upcoming year. Apart from that, at the invitation of the local management, our representatives have recently participated in the public discussions on the town budget for 2003 and the development of the local strategic plan for all domains.

• As continuation of the programme financed by the European Commission and European Perspective, a public debate was organised by the NGO MillenniuM and the Culture Secretariat on 18 December at the Town Hall, titled «Kragujevac – the cultural capital», where the possibilities and obstacles regarding Kragujevac as one of the regional cultural centres and transformation of culture into a profitable development field were discussed by the representatives of the selected focus group of local cultural leaders – managers of cultural instititions and organisations, cultural editors from the local media and authors belonging to both older and younger generations. The future organising of trainings was agreed upon with the local management representatives from the field of communications management (PR & Fundraising) for the local culture management, within the programme "Promotion of pluralism by strengthening NGOs and the civil society".

• At the tender issued by the Town Assembly for the programme activities in 2003, which, for the first time and in precise words, invited NGOs to also participate with their projects, the NGO MillenniuM applied and obtained the support of the town budget for the programme " Management school in culture".

• Apart from the representatives of Vojvodina Bank in Kragujevac and local sponsors, the Town Assembly was the main donor in the first publishing project of the NGO MillenniuM – the book "Urban chronicle of Kragujevac 1950-1970, the hot sixties" by the author Vladimir Paunovic, out of which we herewith present part of the review by a well-known Belgrade journalist and publicist Petar Janjatovic: 

"...The book by Vlada Paunovic provides a special perspective of the town throughout the fifties and the sixties, through a prism of changes, brought about by the clash of Eastern and Western politics, the old and the new, and the rural and the urban. In a pedantic manner and with love, Paunovic writes a parallel town history by conversing with the crucial social actors at the time.

With the help of rare newspaper articles, faded photographs and deceptive memories, he conveys the smell of barbecue,the roaring sound of black and white TVs, the fair play codes of the young, exciting promenades and the first encounters with the charms of the big world. Constantly evading the tiring pathos, Paunovic occasionally and discretely compares the values and infatuations of the time with today's confusing parameters, keeping the role of a chronicle writer and not of a moralist. For Kragujevac citizens who like to look back in time, this is the book that will remind them of the time when anything was possible. Actually, this book is not only for them, but is, due to its topics, applicable to almost any bigger town of ex Yugoslavia. Because all those people listened to the same records, watched the same films and TV series, read the same books and fought against the similar through the policy of mentality...''.

Five steps to a business plan

The period of transition and property transformation that our society is going through is increasingly reaffirming private enterprises and entrepreneurship.

Considering  that founding small and medium enterprises is becoming a trend, and more and more people will be able to find work there, education and training for entrepreneurship are becoming very important, especially in our territory, where entrepreneurship has been repressed for decades. For those reasons, the NGO Centre for the Development of Democratic Society organised a two-day seminar titled «Five steps to a  business plan» in November, within the project «Promotion of pluralism by strengthening NGOs and the civil society in Serbia. The goal of the seminar was for the entrepreneurs, young people, women and everyone ready to "sail" into waters of their own businesses, "reinforce" their production and gain basic knowledge about it. 

The seminar attendants, along with the trainers from Novi Sad, Danica Todorov and Teodora Vlahovic, defined the five steps to their own businesses.

• The first step is the vision of business, that helps create a clear picture of what someone would like to do, or is already involved in a business, and consider all pros and cons of the future business and field of work.

• The next step is the marketing. Which are the best ways of advertising and presentation on the market, so that people would hear about the new enterprise and use its services or buy its products.

• Next, attention should be focused on the legal aspect – legislative principles the enterprise is subject to, as well as which legislative rules should be adhered to in order to keep the business legal and compatible with all the legal regulations.

• The next step - finance, points to important issues regarding money transactions so that the enterprise would operate successfully.

• The final step is writing a business plan, which unites the preceding four steps in the sense of serving as a guide in all issues relevant to the operating of the future firm.