The Weiser Center for Europe & Eurasia and the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan partnered together to sponsor a workshop in Bratislava, Slovakia, on leadership for civil society organizations. The event took place from 6th to 9th December, and the program welcomed participants from 25 CSOs from developing countries. Both of these centers missions have strengthening democracy and civil society at their core, and with the host of the workshop – Pontis Foundation from Slovakia, they provided instructors to train participants with the goal of improving the managerial capacity of the organizations.
Activities and workshops targeted four different areas: Planning and Sustainability of NGO’s, Essentials of NGO management, Marketing Strategy for the NGO, Advocacy, and Public Policy Building. Participants from other developing countries joined the workshop: Albania, Kosovo Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Tunisia, and Ukraine. The workshop welcomed several distinguished professors and recognized CSO leaders, such as Pavol Demes, John Beauclerk, Linda Gasser and Tracy L. Tuten. The former U.S. ambassador to Slovakia and Weiser Center founder, Ronald N.Weiser helped to fund the boot camp and was also a guest speaker together with Martin Butora, former Slovak ambassador to U.S and a current Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic. BCSDN’s Administration and Finance Officer, Voislav Pangov, participated in the workshop.