SERBIAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY AND JOVAN CVIJIĆ

Serbian Geographical Society was founded on April 7th, 1910. Since its foundation until 1927, the president of the Society was Jovan Cvijić, who was, at that time, a full-time professor at the University of Belgrade, a full member of the Serbian Royal Academy, and its president from 1921 to 1927. After Jovan Cvijić, there were 16 presidents of the Society, among whom the majority were university professors. Due to the wars, the Society did not work from 1914 to 1919 and from 1941 to 1946. Almost all its assets were destroyed in the wars. The Society has had both full-time and part-time members, as well as member-benefactors (donors). In 1911, the Society had 100 full-time and part-time members. During the 1980s, it had more than 1,300 members, and today it has only 300 members who pay the membership and participate in social activities. Scientific and professional work of the Society members has been performed in the scientific and educational sections. Special attention has been dedicated to the publishing activity. The first volume of the journal “Bulletin of the Serbian Geographical Society” (“Glasnik of the Serbian Geographical Society”) was published in 1912. The publishing activity of the Society comprises 190 volumes of “Bulletin of the Serbian Geographical Society”, 75 books of Special editions, 73 volumes of the journal “Zemlja i ljudi”, 48 books of “Globus”, 45 proceedings, scientific monographs, textbooks and manuals, 13 atlases, 12 books of “Mala biblioteka”, 12 books of Memoires, and three geographical maps. The main office of the Society is in Belgrade and branch offices are in several larger cities in Serbia. Besides the regular annual assemblies, accredited seminars, events such as “Cvijićevi dani” and professional excursions, the latest activities of the Society also include the competition in geography (regional and state level) of the students of the seventh and eighth grades of elementary schools. Since 1935, for the greatest accomplishments in science and education, the selected individuals and institutions have been rewarded the Medal of Jovan Cvijić by the Society. All the work in the Society is performed on a voluntary basis, with no compensation. The subsidies of the competent state ministries, which used to be sufficient for the work of the Society 30–40 years ago, are now reduced to 10 to 20% of earlier ones, and they are paid several months later, which considerably makes the work of the Society very difficult.