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2025 Annual Meeting Held

On Thursday, April 10, 2025, the regular annual Assembly of the DDS was held at the headquarters of the Association of Demographers of Serbia.

The most important conclusions, decisions and announcements:

  • In the period after the Extraordinary Assembly held on October 30, 2024, the number of regular members was determined and the reactivation of the category of honorary members of the Association was initiated.
  • Thanks to the existing financial resources, as well as the influx of new ones based on the reactivation of membership and the joining of 13 new members, a completely new, modern DDS website has been established at the current web address, which is designed as a virtual DDS hub, where DDS members, as well as all other interested parties, can find everything they are interested in regarding demography – from data and activities of the Association, through relevant publications and information in the field of demographic statistics, academic news, calls, population policy documents and media presence of DDS members.
  • The unanimously adopted work program of the Presidency in the coming period envisages directing the development of the Association in three main directions in accordance with the basic goals proclaimed by the current Statute of the DDS:
    1. Strengthening the scientific capacities of demographers and working on a better perception of demography as a science;
    2. Improving the teaching of demography through the design and organization of accredited programs of professional development of primary and secondary school teachers in the form of professional conferences (congresses, round tables and forums);
    3. Participation of DDS in project calls.
  • It is planned to gradually introduce new functionalities on the DDS website – membership register, which includes the availability of content created by the members themselves on their profiles (such as publications that are not open access, etc.).
  • On the new website, the possibility of making a donation to DDS has been reactivated.
  • In addition to the regular annual assembly, the plan is to continue the implementation of the Demographic forum, which, in a new format, would be held at least twice a year live in new spaces and in front of a wider audience.
  • In order to ensure the basic functioning of the DDS, the Assembly unanimously adopted the proposal of the Presidency that the annual membership fee for regular members, starting from September 1, 2025, is RSD 2,000, while students and pensioners are provided with a preferential amount of RSD 1,000. Regular payment of the annual membership fee enables the status of a regular (active) member, which covers a period of 12 months starting from the date of renewal of membership (payment of the membership fee).
  • The proposal of the Presidency on the introduction of DDS awards for contribution to demography or population research was accepted in principle in the discussion, but it will need to be further elaborated in the coming period before it is in the form necessary for the Assembly to be able to vote on it. The plan is for the awards to be introduced from 2026.
  • From the end of 2024, after 20 years, the DDS again has its representative in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Prof. Dr. Mirjana Rašević, which was especially marked at this Assembly by presenting her contribution to the development of demography and unanimously appointing her as an honorary member of the DDS. On this occasion, Prof. Rašević shared with the attendees her thoughts on the status and future of demographic science, the level of its development in Serbia, as well as the role of DDS and other institutions in promoting demography. Finally, the Assembly was informed that the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts has renewed the work of its Committee for Population Studies, of which Prof. Dr. Mirjana Rašević is the new president.
  • The second part of the Assembly was traditionally in the form of a panel discussion, which this time was held under the title “National Minorities and the Census – Controversies and (Mis)uses”. The introductory speaker was Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Knežević, Head of the Department of Demography at the Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade. He introduced the participants to the debate, opening some of the most interesting questions he has encountered during his many years of dealing with ethnostatistics and related disciplines.
    During the lively debate, the members of the Association reviewed the introductory topic from different angles, with the emphasis on experiences, dilemmas and challenges in conducting research, as well as on possible solutions for improving and overcoming the limitations of statistics that collect the identity features of the population.