The Serbian community hardly participates in American political life at all and it has no understanding of how the political process works, evaluated the Advisory Board of the first political organization of Serbs in the USA, the Serbian-American Voters Alliance /SAVA/, at a webinar /internet video conference/.

At the video gathering that presented the principles, mission and goals of this organization of the Serbian-American community, it was pointed out that Serbian Americans had been completely invisible in Washington and on Capitol Hill for decades.

The participants also assessed that influence of the Serbian-American community on US public and legislative policy at any level of government was nonexistent, announced the SAVA organization.

During the discussion on protecting their interests and improving their position, it was concluded that the Serbian-American community did not have a developed culture of financial support of political candidates and political representatives within donations, which was an integral part of American political life.

The gathering titled Are Serbian American voices being heard in Washington DC? Past lessons learned and a possible path forward was held on Sunday, 18 April, and the speakers answered questions from the audience.

During the gathering, SAVA was presented to a large audience from the USA, Serbia and other countries where Serbian population lives, and the key topic was the issue of mobilizing the Serbian-American electorate and active participation of the Serbian-American community in the US political process.

The discussion involved the members of the Advisory Board, i.e. the President of the Board, David Vujić, the former Congressman and the Chairman of the Serbian Caucus in the American Congress, Ted Poe, as well as Mima Nedeljković and Drew Hiatt.

The moderator of the webinar was the president and founder of SAVA, Olga Ravasi, who presented the mission and goals of the organization at the beginning of the gathering.

SAVA is a nonpartisan organization, founded in the US and registered with the Federal Election Commission.

SAVA has a mission to support individual candidates in the election process and to advocate public and legislative policies that are of interest to the Serbian-American community through all levels of government.

Source: SRNA