In calendar year 2006, the committee purchased for $300 an ad at a popular website, Boing-Boing, promoting Esperanto Blogfest on December 15, 2006. This was a great success, with 60 participants. Unfortunately, we did not put the same level of effort into the 2007 event (despite proddings from international participants who wanted to participate again). The result was an embarrassing lack of participation.

Hoss Firooznia created an attractive ad which we placed in The American Prospect at a cost of $540. Unfortunately, we were not able to measure any great response.

At the annual meeting in Tijuana, Mexico, a budget of $4,000 was approved to purchase ads for various kinds directly advertising Esperanto. This is the first time in many years that we have tried to do this.

I requested help in designing a physical layout for the ad as attractive as the previous one that Hoss prepared. Since this is a different audience, we should have a different approach. The attempt to design a new ad generated significant discussions in my blog.

I propose that we purchase an ad in Language )(, a magazine aimed at language instruction professionals. Although there are many points for and against this approach, it remains our plan.

Unfortunately, I still need a skilled volunteer to design the ad copy. I am personally aesthetically impaired, and if I were to design the ad myself, it would simply be wasting E-USA’s money.

I repeat my plea for someone semi-skilled in graphic design, ad copy, and producing PDFs to please, please, design an attractive ad based on the comments and discussion in my blog. Esperanto-USA will pay $200 for this service if satisfactorily performed.

I intend to resign as the head of this committee at the annual meeting in Montreal. It would be a great service to Esperanto-USA if an energetic, skillful volunteer would head the committee and effectively create an ad campaign to directly promote Esperanto.