CULTURAL PROJECTS FROM ACROSS THE BORDER SPATIAL FEATURES OF TENDERING VERTICUM OF THE NATIONAL CULTURAL FUND’S PUBLIC EDUCATION COLLEGE BETWEEN 2007-2011 KULTURÁLIS PÁLYÁZATOK A HATÁRON TÚLRÓL A NEMZETI KULTURÁLIS ALAP KÖZM ŰVELŐDÉSI SZAKMAI KOLLÉGIUM PÁLYÁZÁSI VERTIKUMÁNAK TERÜLETI JELLEMZ ŐI 2007-2011 KÖZÖTT

In my study I investigate the spatial characteristi cs of applications received during a five year peri od between 2007-2011 by National Cultural Fund’s Public Educat ion College. In the recent study, within my research topic I dea l especially with the tendering activity and effect iveness of settlements populated by Hungarians beyond the bord er, mainly based on quantitative data. Considering the five-year period according to my hypothesis the tendering activity has become one method of "staying alive" to the cultural institutions and or ganizations. However, the proposal writing potentia l and innovative capacity, which is necessary for efficie nt resource acquisition, is not necessarily accessi bl everywhere, especially in small communities and from several as pects disadvantaged regions. Regarding Serbia, exploring these experiences may h elp calling in EU funds.


INTRODUCTION
For a long time -as I was and still I am active in community culture -I am dealing with the issue of financing culture. First, because both the institutions and NGOs are trying to align resources of community initiatives behind their activities in some way and I am also an active participant in it as a tender writer. On the other hand, examining a different aspect, I believe that financing of culture, as well as education funding, is a social investment that definitely returns in longer term. DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.5 Issue 3 2013ISSN 1821-2506 47 'The economy is part of wider culture ....in short term, niche culture depends on economy, ... financing and operating cultural sector. In longer term, the economy and the broader culture are defined by a narrow culture.' (Koncz, 2004.) I narrowed my investigation on spatial characteristics of applications received during a five year period between 2007-2011 by National Cultural Fund's (NKA hereinafter) Public Education College. Within this, the present study shows especially the tendering activity of Serbian municipalities, particularly processing and analysis quantitative data.
For me, the topic is especially relevant because in addition to the proposal writing practice, lately I had the possibility to teach proposal writing and project management skills on several occasions -partly on accredited courses and non-formal education too.
During these courses, I personally experienced that the needs and intent of fund acquiring is associated with the lacking of knowledge, often mystification and sometimes rejection of application methods.
I had the possibility to learn about the applications of NKA Public Education College from another approach. As a delegate of the Association of Hungarian Adult Educators I was involved in the evaluation of tenders as a board member between 2009-2011.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS
The concept of this study is the following: I present quantitative characteristics of the applications received by NKA Public Education College in the investigated period. Concentrating on Serbia -with the comparative analysis of some key data -I present the spatial characteristics of the period 2007-2011 and of course touch upon the effects influencing and affecting public education.
Although collectively I mention as Serbian applications, on the NKA's calls for proposals all Hungarian abroad organizations were invited to submit project plans, so obviously the research aims at this segment.
Since the data collection is finished, but the majority are still waiting for analysis, I intend to present my study goals and methods outlining further research directions.

Research objective and hypotheses:
My goal is to study the funds acquiring potential of community education, concentrating on analyzing the spatial aspects of the applications received during the five year period between 2007-2011by NKA Public Education College. In addition -though it is not directly pertinent to the study of regional differences, I planned to analyze the calls for DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.5 Issue 3 2013ISSN 1821-2506 48 applications and applications received, setting in focus innovation, novelty, and ability to react.

Hypotheses are as follows:
-The most disadvantaged regions have poor skills in involving sources.
-More than 50% of distributable funds was used by cities (mainly by county seats), small municipalities submit applications in small numbers, and they are often inefficient.
-Involving grants are essential for the professional activities of institutions and organizations -Project ideas are given to organizations, but the quality of the applications submitted justifies the encouragement and support of proposal writing courses -Public education's statistical indicators show a correlation with the number and quality of applications int he examined settlements

Serbia, including Vojvodina's relevant data
According to census data of 2011, the country's total population is over 7 million, and within that the number of people declaring its nationality to Serb is nearly 6 million.   -This organization working 'within reach' but also independently from the State, provides support on realizing cultural programmes through tendering procedure by operating a socialized system of Board of Trustees.
-As a separate fund, this important element of financing culture is not exposed to

National Cultural Fund's and Public Education College
In the study period 2007-2011 one of the 17 technical college was the College of Public Education (hereinafter CPE), in which I was curator for three years. The membership term was originally 4 years, but with the reorganization of the NKA on the 1st January 2012 all appointed curators' mandate ended and colleges also changed considerably. The continuity of the colleges' values during the examined period were provided by a rotating system, which enabled the exchange of members so that they never simultaneously changed everybody, but always had members who were representing the permanency and training DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.5 Issue 3 2013ISSN 1821-2506 51 new members on working methods and evaluation principles. The work of colleges was led by its Presidents, and was not always visible, but one of the Directoriate's employee, who was acting as secretary of the college, assisted in significant organizational and administrative background tasks.
Among the nine -member college members there were director of educational institution, managing director of nonprofit Ltd, NGO's official, local cultural referent.
During the examined period two consecutive President directed the college's work, Csatlósné Komáromi Katalin, director of the Community Center in Sárospatak, and she was followed by Dr. Koncz Gábor, who was director of Hungarian Culture Foundation.
The National Cultural Fund Committee prepared its strategy in 2010, and to join in this, the professional colleges, including public education college, also formulated their own strategy. The strategic objectives focused on the three main tasks (these were also in the center of the objectives of the National Cultural Fund Committee), creation, dissemination and preservation of culture. Among the priorities there was reducing regional disparities,

Available resources of National Cultural Fund's Public Education College
In terms of available resources in the examined period it is seen that the annual funding

Number and rate of applications
If we show on a chart the number of applications submitted during this period will be seen that the share of applications from across the border in each of the five years is

Complicating factors in submission of applications from beyond the border
Although it was possible to submit applications without application fee for pre-financed sources cross-border organizations also could have difficulties.
To contract a financial management body was an essential requirement to submit application. Since municipalities submitting applications are located within 100 km of the Serbian-Hungarian border, I assumed that to contract their financial administrator they use their extant cross-border organizational relations. After studying the applications received, it was not what I experienced. Approximately one-third of organizations undertaking financial performance is registered office of in the South-Plain region, one-third in Budapest, and the rest one-third countrywide.
My experience as a curator confirms that cross-border candidates often had difficulties in understanding the range of potential candidates in the applications as far as the institutional network and classification of organizations are not identical in the two countries.
Complete attachment of obligatory legal documentation was also difficult because these documents of institutions and civil organizations not necessarily correspond to each other

Classification by purpose of the applications received
The National Cultural Fund's Public Education College displayed every year in the tenders the willingness to support traditional activities (events), amateur art activities and their tool demand and also cultural journals. It was important to support the renewal of the profession (professional publications, education and training). Cultural equality (cultural institutions and organizations of disabled people could present joint application), advertising, and public relations (preparation of spots on institutional activities and groups) appeared as innovative elements during this period. The last two calls only appeared in one year (2011).
The 50% of Serbian proposals aimed at implementing the events, and another 36% applied for support on amateur art activities and cultural communities. Nearly 9 % of applications were submitted to maintain Hungarian cultural journals beyond the border.
These calls appeared annually, and with minimal changes in their requirements contributed to make the planning easier and strengthen tendering intention. At the same time there were not applications submitted from Serbia on the novel calls. (Table 4) 58
The reason for invalidity is due to the complicating factors as indicated previously, not adequate interpretation of eligible applicants and deficiencies of legal documentation. With applications submitted with financial organizer, it was necessary to attach legal documentation from both the applicant and the responsible entity which could include double error possibility.
In most cases, the reason for rejection was the lack of resources, since the demand in the applications received multiply exceeded the distributable source of the college.

Figure 5. Effectiveness of Serbian applications
Source:  To obtain EU funds and get acquainted with the application methods, submission of simpler (in requirements and also documentation) Hungarian applications, realization of projects, accounting for grants and recieve monitoring provides good practice.
During the reporting period about the applications received from Serbia in general can be formulated as follows: Related to the low willingness to apply and small number of applications considering possibilities, we should raise that the first and most important is the exploitation of application possibilities. Regular monitoring of applications has special importance too.

Among the applications submitted to the National Cultural Fund Public Education
College traditional and annually organized events are dominant, innovative, new initiatives are not, or only very small numbers were revealed. This may be due to the primary of conservation values but in the future is definitely thought-provoking phenomenon in my opinion.
The diversity of cultural and public education applications are good example of the sector and further on can appear as a comparative advantage in relation to EU Member States.
Reviewing the proposals received can be stated that the technical and financial elaboration of the proposals varies widely, many of them are brief, schematically formulated project and rough, not fairly detailed budget. In the future, brief, concise, straightforward presentation of project may be considered as positive, but in the case of EU DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.5 Issue 3 2013ISSN 1821-2506 60 projects the budget justification and underpinning are specially emphasized, and thus particular care should be taken on planning and making it visible.
Organizations must put emphasis on demonstrating the organization's activities for the decision makers. Not replace the presentation of the activities with the annual work plan, from which may not be clear the organization's wealthy past, appearance of traditional and novelty items in activities structure or the references.
Relatively high proportion of invalid applications is a warning signal. If the applicant organization fulfills the terms and conditions defined in the calls and guidelines precisely, has the chance to get source to accomplish its project. The prescribed presentation of required attachments and documents is indispensable. Between 2007-2011 the number of applications received by the college is uneven, undulating, this might be caused by changes in the system of conditions. One part of the tenders appeared in the following topics (which can be considered as traditional ones) year by year: supporting events, the expansion of the operating conditions of small communities and assist in the organization of vocational camps. Another part of the tenders was for purposes of events, trainings, courses and publications. And the third part was to encourage innovation, not a recurring grant targets such as cultural equality, institutional advertising and public relations. The number of applications received by the College was the highest in the first group, and the the lowest in the third one. The number of applications submitted by the Serbian Hungarian institutions and organizations during the five years was a total of 104. Much higher, more than double was the number of applications submitted by the Hungarians in Romania, although in Romania, according to the latest census data, the proportion of Hungarians is over 6%, compared to 3.53% in Serbia. The 14% of Serbian settlements populated by Hungarians took the advantage of presenting applications. All applications from Vojvodina were submitted by 30 organizations of 15 settlements. This is quite low considering the 107 municipalities in Vojvodina, where the proportion of Hungarians is above 20%. Today, they have to pay application fee to the National Cultural Fund, but this has not yet had in the study period, so it could not appear as a retentiveness. But it made definitely difficult the application for cross-border organizations that in Hungary they had to have financial administrator. Among the 104 applications received 11% (11) were invalid, 29% (30) were refused, and 60% (63) were supported.