Representatives of nine Slovenian associations from BiH took part at the round table, namely from Tuzla, Kakanj, Breza, Zenica, Vitez, Sarajevo (»Cankar«), Prijedor, Doboj and Banja Luka, and it was facilitated by Janja Žitnik Serafin, PhD, from the Institute for Slovenian Emigrants and Migrations.
Central topics of the seminar were challenges of the future, the way they are perceived by individual associations in mutual cooperation and networking, in cooperation with local community and both countries, BiH and Slovenia. Attention was also paid to the activities of the associations which, simply speaking, are joined by a number of different interests and activities, from cultural and educational ones to sport and others. In that regard, participants spoke about the cooperation of individual associations with similar stakeholders in BiH and Slovenia as well as in other countries of the then Yugoslavia, relations with Slovenian diplomatic offices, the Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians Abroad as well as Slovenian businessmen in their surroundings. As an important issue there was a mention of the ways to preserve identity and amending activities which would incite current and future members to more active participation in the work of associations; primarily, the attendees agreed it was important to think about how to attract young people to associations.
Round table was organized within the project of the Institute for Slovenian Emigrants and Migrations ZRC SAZU »Qualified migrations of Slovenians to the territory of the former Yugoslavia: from settlers to transmigrants«, and it has been designed as an upgrade of a poll sent to all Slovenian associations active in the target area. The poll collected basic details about their activities, and especially good and quick was the response from the Slovenian associations in BiH. Seminar in Banja Luka was the first of three planned on that topic; soon there will be two more, in Serbia and Croatia respectively, where the rest of majority of Slovenian associations are active in the territory of a formerly common state. The planned discussions will also include associations from Macedonia and Montenegro, whose representatives took part at the joint introductory conference entitled »Multicultural society: experiences of the present – challenges of the future« which was held on 16 May in Novo mesto.
Metka Lokar, MSc
