Ĉeestas

• Filipo Dorcas
• Alex Miller
• Jordon Kalilich
• Charlotte Burton
• Fred Meyer III
• Timothy Boronczyk
• Hoss Firooznia
• Timothy Rice
• Hans Becklin

Ĉeestas Sen Voĉdonrajtoj

• Vilĉjo Harris

President calls the meeting to order and declares a quorum. A change to the agenda: Due to a vote from the previous month, Robert’s Rules of Order will be removed from the agenda.

Submitted Reports

• Google Ads Report 2021-03
• Operations Budget Report 2020-12
• Operations Budget Report 2021-02

Standing Reports

CO Report

Nothing to report. The Director opens the floor to board questions. Hoss asks about moving our file repository to a Google Drive. Bill explains that the difficulty is in making the files themselves appear in the Google Drive, even if they are removed from the original owner’s drive. Bill, Hoss, and Tim discuss the relative merits of using Dropbox vs. Google Drive. Fred requests if any expenditures have been made from any of the funds in the past month, and the Director confirms that no, there have been no expenditures as yet.

Treasurer’s Report

The treasurer summarizes the written reports he had submitted to the board. All is well. Esperanto-USA ended 2020 with an overall gain of $526.67.

President’s Report

Action Item: Charlotte will begin discussion in Slack on the Special Interest Group Rules, to move towards an official vote. Regarding the Landa Kongreso, Phil suggests that we need a LKK that does not consist purely of board members. We need to reach out through Discord, Facebook, etc. Action Item: Phil will create a survey for Bill to send out to members, in order to determine interest in participation in the Landa Kongreso. Action Item: Fred will reach out to local groups via coordinators, to determine interest in participation in the Landa Kongreso. Charlotte says the technology we used last time was effective. Hans also recommends HopIn, which was used highly successfully by the JES event recently, and which would cost $100/month. Phil reports that the nominating committee has done an excellent job, helped both by the use of Discord on the part of the nominating committee, and by the availability of the board handbook for the nominating committee and prospective candidates. The president ends his report and calls for committee reports.

Regional Coordinators

Fred reports the regional coordinators will meet tomorrow and discuss items brought up here. The biggest struggle for the regional coordinator is lack of response by local groups, short of the regional coordinator personally contacting each individual group at the cost of much time and energy. 6 of 10 regional coordinators already host Zoom accounts for various reasons. Only one regional coordinator reported that they might participate in host training if it were available. Fred suggests that Zoom host training for local groups would be the more productive area.

Membership Committee

Tim reports the committee met last Tuesday and discussed how to send the information out to members in a more appealing way. More volunteers will be needed. Tim suggests we put more into the Volunteer Bank. He reports that there has been discussion of changing the membership categories, but no official proposals. This has been brought up also in Slack.

Publicity

Alex reports on the ways that the new video contest has been publicized. He predicts that films won’t be turned in until late April at the earliest. Upfront work has included getting rules published, making a sample video, etc. Alex further asks the board for feedback regarding why the levels of board involvement have been what they are. Charlotte and Tim confirm that they do feel welcome to collaborate but have less energy than normal. Tim again suggests more of a push toward recruiting volunteers to ease the burden. Charlotte volunteers to work with Alex on creating a judging rubric for this contest. Alex and Phil suggest that we need more input in Slack discussions, even as little as a statement of opinion, support, or suggestion when we each do have the energy.

Old/New Business

In the process of our standing reports, we have touched on all our new business and old business items. Phil asks if anyone has a subject to bring up or a report to give.

Tim Rice requests an opportunity for the board to look over his draft response to a member, who had previously complained of a lack of neutrality on the part of E-USA by our having allowed support of certain UN activity but not having allowed his own presentation that he wished to give during last year’s LK. Phil comments that the neutrality issue is being addressed by our creation of Special Interest Groups. Tim posts a link to his draft response to this effect, and the board helps with proofreading. The board agrees that the CO can send this email out to the member, signed by the board, with the rajtprotektanto email address in the signature.

Appendix A (from Slack)

Fred Meyer III:

I move that the minutes of 9 January 2021 meeting of the Board of Esperanto-USA be approved.

Charlotte Burton: I second.

Hoss Firooznia: I vote “yes.”

Filipo Dorcas: I vote yes.

Filipo Dorcas: I call for the vote.

Alekso Miller: Yes

Charlotte Burton: Yes

Fred Meyer III: Yes

Jordon Kalilich: Yes

Tim Rice: Yes

Timothy Boronczyk: Aye

Filipo Dorcas: The motion has passed with 8 yes votes out of 8 votes submitted.

Appendix B (from Slack)

Hoss Firooznia:

Proposal 1: Whereas it will improve transparency, I propose that we move the “Minutes of Board Meetings” link on our website one level up, out of the password-protected “Members only” folder and into the public “Documents” folder.

Timothy Boronczyk: I’m conflicted on this. I abstain.

Charlotte Burton: I second.

Filipo Dorcas: I call for the vote.

Hans Becklin: I vote yes.

Hoss Firooznia: I vote yes.

Brian Harmon: Jes

Tim Rice: Jes

Jordon Kalilich: I vote no.

Alekso Miller: I vote yes.

Fred Meyer III: I vote no

Filipo Dorcas: The proposal passes. 6 in favor, 2 no, 1 abstained, one not voting (the president.)

Appendix C (from Slack)

Hoss Firooznia:

Proposal 2: Whereas it will improve transparency, I propose that we move the “Fund descriptions and statements” link on our website one level up, out of the password-protected “Members only” folder and into the public “Documents” folder.

Timothy Boronczyk: I vote yes

Charlotte Burton: I second

Filipo Dorcas: I call for the vote.

Hans Becklin: I vote yes.

Hoss Firooznia: I vote yes.

Brian Harmon: Jes

Tim Rice: Jes

Jordon Kalilich Yes

Alekso Miller: I vote yes.

Fred Meyer III: I vote yes.

Filipo Dorcas: The proposal passes. 9 voting in favor. 1 not voting (the president).

Appendix D (from Slack)

Hoss Firooznia:

Proposal 3: Whereas it will improve transparency and keep the membership better apprised of the Board’s activities, the procedure for approval and distribution of the minutes shall be as follows, lasting seven days and having both “edit” and “objection” phases:

• As soon as feasible following each monthly, in-person board meeting, the Secretary shall share the recorded minutes (containing proceedings of the in-person meeting as well as any board reports and Slack activity) with the other board members via Google Docs (or another agreed-upon service that allows collaborative editing and email notification of changes), and the President shall call for unanimous consent within seven days.

• At this point the “edit” phase begins, and board members have two days to suggest any desired corrections, additions, or deletions to the minutes. The suggested changes shall be made with the service’s “comments” or “suggested edits” features; i.e., they shall not change the actual text of the minutes. Any conflicts during this phase should be resolved through negotiation, if possible, for example via Slack or email.

• On day three the “objection” phase begins. The Secretary shall apply the suggested changes and freezes the minutes from further changes, leaving members five days to review the minutes in their final proposed form.

• If an objection is raised during the “objection” phase, the approval process shall begin once more, returning to the “edit” phase.

• If an “objection” phase ends without objection, the minutes shall be considered approved by unanimous consent. If any unresolved objections remain after two iterations of the process, approval of the minutes shall be resolved by a vote as soon as possible.

• Once approved, the Secretary shall send the final form of the minutes to the editor for distribution via the official organ, as soon as is feasible.

Timothy Boronczyk: I vote yes

Charlotte Burton: I second.

Filipo Dorcas: I call for the vote.

Hans Becklin: I vote yes.

Hoss Firooznia: I vote yes.

Brian Harmon: Jes

Tim Rice: Jes

Jordon Kalilich: Jes

Alekso Miller: Yes.

Fred Meyer III: No

Filipo Dorcas: The proposal passes with 8 votes in favor, one opposed, and one not voting (the president).