Board minutes from May 11th, 2019

Mission Statement:

Esperanto USA is a non-profit organization that encourages and strengthens the Esperanto community in the United States and its territories by facilitating support and communication for local groups and providing a centralized set of resources for our members.

I. CALL TO ORDER 10:00 AM PDT

Board Present:

  • Phil DORCAS, President
  • Ben SPEAKMON, Vice President
  • Murray MERNER, Treasurer
  • Chris NELSON, Secretary
  • Timoteo BORONCZYK, Director
  • Charlotte BURTON, Director
  • Jordon KALILICH, Director
  • Nick WOODS, Director

Quorum satisfied: yes (8 of the 10)

Proxies: From Paige MILES FELDMAN to Charlotte BURTON

Staff Present: Bill HARRIS, Director of the Central Office

Visitor(s) Present: None

Reading of the Mission Statement – Phil

II. CHANGES TO AGENDA

Ben – Bertilo Winnergren has made request for support from E-USA.

III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Clarification made by Phil: Approval of minutes is for accuracy and completeness and not on whether all of the Action Items have been completed.

Motion to accept the Minutes of April 13, 2019 as written, by Charlotte and seconded by Ben: Unanimously accepted.

IV. STANDING REPORTS

A. Director of Central Office Report

  • Central Office running smoothly.
  • Membership now at 550, varies greatly from month to month - difficult to get a handle on average number of members. Concern that some long-term members have not renewed.
  • gets requests for information on people in area that speak Esperanto, etc.

B. Treasurer

Murray – highlights of report provided in email prior to meeting. Year-to-Date through April – expenditures and income – how it relates to budget. Book service covered specifically. - Starting budget planning for 2020 with Bill

Gary Grady – committee chair noted in e-mail to Murray that ther is not a procedure for naming funds after donors. Phil noted that we can keep memorial donations separately in an endowment fund

C. President

Phil: Efforts made to communicate with Regional Coordinators. Need for more exposure thru social medial. Charlotte’s has suggested a webinar for the Board candidates. Good to see people offering their own candidacy rather than them having to be recruited. Announcements to membership via multiple means - such as email, newsletter, social media, online groups, web site and other means. Caution against too many emails - may cause recipients to ignore them. Mailchimp or similar is good tool for managing email lists for mass e-mails.

D. Landa Kongreso

2019 (Boston) Bill purchased Special Event Insurance for Landa Kongreso for about $200 cost This is the first time since it has been covered by our liability insurance for the Central Office.

50 people have registered for the LK - expecting at least 10 more within the next week.

2020 (Montreal) Phil noted that the committee should consist of: 2 members from the current LKK (2020), one member from the previous LKK (2019), one LKK committee member of the following year (2021). There currently is no chair for the committee. Description of Chair position on web site. There is no site determined at this time for 2021.

E. Youth report - USEJ

Charlotte trying to get a hold of Hanso on that since he is the TEJO contact. Could Andy Rosenbaum (lives in Boston) be available to help? His plans? USEJ needs bylaws.

  • ACTION ITEM: Phil to get in touch with Hanso and Andy regarding TEJO and USEJ.

F. Regional and Local Groups – Timoteo

New group in Buffalo, NY

G. Marketing and Publicity

  • Google Ad Grants – Murray - Not discussed
  • Charlotte sent “Raporto pri Sociaj Medioj” to the Board covering activity on: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

V. OLD BUSINESS

A. “Esperanto in the USA” Campaign

Charlotte sent “Raporto de Monpeta Komitato” to the Board. Matched donations for the “Esperanto for the USA” effort recieved from ESF is about $6,600. Charlotte intends to get committee together before the Landa Kongreso 2019 - to discuss preparing “thank-yous” for donors, etc. and a way of listing donors.

B. UK 2020 (Montreal)

?enja Amis - recovering from operation.

Another Zoom meeting is needed - Charlotte suggesting better to wait until after 2019 LK.

C. Jarlibro - Phil - Not discussed

VI. NEW BUSINESS

Bertilo Winnergren requires financial support while he revises the POV and PMEG. He is using Crowd Funding but could use more income. Discussion on how that could be handled. We should let more people know what Bertilo is doing and what his needs are. Possibly use a grant or the Publishing Fund - Tim Westover is in charge of that fund. Determine what Tim needs and have Bertilo write a proposal.

VII. COMMENTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER BUSINESS

None

VIII. ADJOURNMENT

Adjourned 11:00 AM PDT

Next meeting is: June 8, 2018 at 10:00 PDT

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Nelson, Secretary

ACTION ITEMS

  • ACTION ITEM: Phil to get in touch with Hanso and Andy regarding TEJO and USEJ.