Ĉeestas

• Filipo Dorcas
• Charlotte Burton
• Tim Boronczyk
• Jane Shevtsov
• Tim Rice

Ĉeestas sen voĉdonrajtoj

• Vilĉjo (Bill) Harris

The meeting is called to order, and Esperanto-USA’s mission statement is read. There is no quorum. The minutes of the previous meeting have been approved per board procedures and placed on the website.

Reports

Central Office

ILEI has held their annual meeting, so Bill is no longer the treasurer of ILEI. This is a quiet time of year in the office. Phil points out that, as the LK will be occurring in certain meetings at the UK this year, but the meeting rooms at the UK would still generally have a cost. So, while we will not be able to charge our own LK registration, there may still be a cost. Action Item: Phil will contact Ĵenja Amis to ask about the cost of meeting rooms at the UK next year.

Treasurer’s Report

The treasurer is unable to participate this time, but the board briefly reviews a draft report he provided for us to review in his absence. Our budget is still expected to be met, although many of our income pieces, such as investments and donations, are expected to come later in the year, as they usually do. The topic of fundraising campaigns is again brought up. Bill reports regarding the planned sale of our plot(s) of land in El Paso, TX. Bill has been in communication with the potential buyers, and he is still waiting on further information from them. Bill will follow up on this later this month. Phil clarifies that, due to the way E-USA’s accounts are organised, any donation to the General Fund will proportionally benefit all other funds via investment income. The topic is brought up again of how to simplify donations, especially to the general fund. This is a project Tim B has previously spoken on, one which the board acknowledges as important, and it is currently a matter of resources and priorities.

President’s Report

See President’s Report. Action Item: Phil will organise a brainstorming meeting with William Morton at his pleasure, regarding publicity. Action Item: Phil will organise a meeting with ESF. Tim R and Jane offer to help out with some of Fred’s tasks as he recovers. Action Item: Phil will contact Brian Harmon to join the board of directors groups.io mailing list.

New Business

List of Responsible Parties

The board moves on to discuss a plan for organizing and tracking action items. A shared spreadsheet called “Action Items” is brought up. Many other systems used for non-profits require quite the computer program to track our emails, zoom meetings, and all other board communications for action items, which seems like overkill. Each month, the secretary would add action items from meeting minutes to the spreadsheet. However, Bill clarifies, and several others agree, that we also need a list of responsible parties for committees, but also for specific interests. If a member contacts the Central Office asking who to talk to regarding a particular task or interest, we need a list the CO could refer to. Action Item: Phil will create a Responsible Party list for the CO.

Concluding

The board discusses again how to take further steps regarding CRM software.

Appendix A: President’s Report

We have a new leader for the Publicity Committee. The new chair is William Morton who has experience with non-profits. Also serving for publicity are Charles Germany, who is experienced with social media, and Alex Miller, who remains as our leader for videos. William’s first request is to hold some brainstorming meetings for publicity. The board and other leaders will assist him in this great step forward.

Our new volunteer coordinator is Marcus Griep. We will always need people to step up to fill new roles and do new tasks, so thank you Marcus!

The board, committees, and other leaders will work closely with the Publicity Committee and the Volunteer Coordinator.

There will be a joint meeting between leaders of Esperanto USA and Esperantic Studies Foundation to prepare the plans for 2022 and strengthen our cooperative efforts to support the Esperanto community. We will plan that date in the next few days following the board meeting today, August 14, 2021.

Plans for the Community Groups are moving along well, despite some notable absences and illness of key players. Many of the details have been worked out and we look forward to a launch within the month.

Amike, filipo
Phil Dorcas, president, Esperanto USA