Ĉeestas

Filipo Dorcas, Alekso Miller, David Beck, Charlotte Burton, Fred Meyer III, Timothy Boronczyk, Tim Rice, Hoss Firooznia.

Ĉeestas sen voĉdonrajtoj

Vilĉjo Harris

Opening

The meeting is opened by reading the mission statement of Esperanto-USA. A quorum is declared. The previous minutes were approved automatically per procedures. Action Item: Phil will research a list of current board procedures for online meetings and approval of minutes, to be sent out to members.

Reports

CO Report

All is going as expected.

Membership Committee

Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday night.

Treasurer’s Report

The CO prepared a report on the budget to date. We are currently back in the positive, due to the standard arrival of expected dividends. The board inquires as to the nature of certain specific line items of expenditures from various funds, and the director of the CO responds as best he is able and prepares to send an email with more details.

Short Film Festival

Alex reports on the current status of our second film festival, the entries for which are due by tomorrow.

President’s Report

See Appendix. The President is also looking to improve board efficiency by use of a spreadsheet shared among the board, which can include action items, responsible parties for committees, etc. Action Item: All board members are to look at the links provided in the President’s emailed report - both the task list, and the list of who is responsible for what. Assume that the UK in Montreal will happen. If it is moved to virtual again, this is likely to be announced in Spring, but until then, we should expect it to happen and should prepare to attend. Our Landa Kongreso would occur during that event, and we are also expected to partner with KEA as hosts. We should expect to pay a fee for the use of meeting rooms. Action Item: Phil needs to select a Komitatano A, and to determine what duties Komitatano A is expected to perform. In the past, this has been done by Orlando Raola, who is now a board member, and his term as Komitatano A is expiring.

Old Business

Community Groups (Special Interest Groups)

The regional coordinators themselves will perform the duties regarding community groups. If a question arises as to whether a given group should be listed on the Esperanto-USA page, the listing will be forwarded to the Board, who will make the decision whether to approve or deny that listing. This is due to the fact that, while regional coordinators are appointed, the Board has been elected by the membership of Esperanto-USA. A form has been created for Community Group applications. Any submissions will automatically populate a spreadsheet. Action Item: Fred will edit the Community Group form to use the term “Special Interest Group” instead. Action Item: Hoss will collaborate with Fred to add required extra column to the spreadsheet, so that new listings will not appear until the regional coordinators review and approve it. Once this column is added, Hoss will create a program to automatically populate a new “Special Interest Groups” page, which will appear under the “regional groups” tab on our website. Action Item: The Publicity Committee will create and enact a plan to advertise the launch of this new initiative.

Responsible Parties List

A discussion arises of how to best post our Responsible Parties List (mentioned in the President’s report), and how to best keep this list updated. This list would be primarily used internally by the board and the CO, so that we can make sure tasks are being directed to the appropriate people, and that tasks are not being doubled unintentionally. In order to have maximum transparency, we will also put a version of this online, so that members can see to whom they should direct inquiries on various topics.

Fundraising/CRM

See Appendix for results of voting on a price change in the store. Basically, for members, nothing will change about pricing, but non-members will see a slight increase in pricing for certain tangible items from our store. Tim reminds the Board that membership and fundraising are the role of the entire organisation, not just a certain committee, and that relationship-building is an important part of that. He encourages all Board members to continue to be active in any way we can as a part of the Esperanto community around us, and to encourage those we know to become members. A discussion is raised of whether to keep the $5 introductory membership level or present a proposal to the members suggesting that membership level be removed. A discussion is raised of whether to speak in the Duolingo communities regarding the value of the introductory Esperanto-USA membership. A discussion arises of what services should be restricted for members and which should be available to all people in order to best promote membership.

Appendix A: President’s Report

1. Who does what? (following the excellent ideas from Hoss on this topic).

   1. Task list internal to the board.
      1. Editable by any board member.
      2. Current tasks, status due dates, and what depends on what else.
      3. Link in separate email to the board and CO.
   2. Who is responsible for various committees and projects.

2. Pri la UK en Montrealo.

   More and more, it looks like the Delta and Mu variants are threatening the return to “normalcy.” However, we have the right to proceed with plans for the UK. It is usually in the early spring that a go-no go decision is made by UEA on cancellation.

   Our participation in that UK is at several levels:

   1. Personal: We should attend and we should encourage members of EUSA to attend.
   2. Our LK: We should plan the necessary meetings at the UK for our own Landa Kongreso.
   3. Our help: We should encourage members of EUSA to help out before, during, and after the UK as much as possible. What this looks like will become more apparent as the dates approach.

   The cost for our meeting rooms at the LK depend on what we want to reserve. We might possibly have:

   1. Board meeting
   2. Solema Malfermo for EUSA (separate from the Solema Malfermo of the UK itself)
   3. Business meeting #1
   4. Business meeting #2
   5. Solema Fermo for EUSA (separate from the Solema Fermo de la UK)

   Each of these can have its own requirements for number of seats and technology requirements.

   We are to submit our request to Jxenja Amis and their organizers, and they will give us costs.

3. I need to select / appoint / recruit our representative to UEA for “Komitato A”. This post has been filled in the past by Orlando Roala (previous president of Esperanto USA). Orlando is now on the board of UEA, and feels he can no longer serve also as the rep from the USA. I as chief delegate to UEA have a slightly different role in UEA. I am mainly responsible for leading the other UEA delegates in the USA, and the committee A rep is responsible for being our voice in UEA. It is my job as president to name the committee A rep, and must do this prior to the UK in 2022.

4. Community Groups / Special Interest Groups

   1. Status, needs to move forward. No obstacles in sight.

   2. Remaining tasks will be found in our task list, with dependencies and assignments.

   3. What should the name be? “Community Groups” was my suggestion for supporting the suggestion by ESF. We are free to use whatever name we choose.

Appendix B: Slack activity

Timoteo Boronczyk: The Membership Committee is also asking the Board to approve increasing price of items in the retbutiko for which the discount can be applied by 5%. This potentially increases revenue from the store with non-member purchases and offsets any financial concerns of the previous proposal. I motion again.

Charlotte Burton: I second.
Jane Shevtsov: Jes
Filipo Dorcas: Jes. And I call for the vote.
Charlotte Burton: I vote yes.
Hoss Firooznia: Yes.
Alekso Miller: Yes
Timoteo Boronczyk: do I vote for my own? If so, yes.
Filipo Dorcas: I declare that the motion passed.