For the period 13 November 2017 – 7 October 2018
Presented at the Annual General Meeting of the Esperanto Federation of NSW, 7 October 2018, by the president, Jonathan Cooper
Governance
At the 2017 Annual General Meeting, Jonathan Cooper was elected as both president and interim treasurer. At the December 2017 board meeting, Dmitry Lushnikov agreed to become treasurer if he could get support from Jonathan Cooper and Alan Turvey. This was consented to and Dmitry was duly appointed treasurer.
Events
During the 328 days since the last Annual General Meeting, 101 advertised Federation events were held at Esperanto House:
- Monthly meetings: the first Sunday of every month, except January
- Esperanto Learning and Pizza Nights: Saturday evenings, once each month, except for January
- Public Esperanto Learning: seven extra Saturday evenings since 28 July 2018, plus the two monthly Pizza Nights
- Wednesdays:
– Esperanto House was open to the public every Wednesday afternoon (3–5pm, from 20 December 2017), with weekly themes led by member Rainer Kurz, from 13 December 2017 to 28 March 2018.
– From 13 June, 5–7pm, free Esperanto lessons for beginners (later titled “Conversation Club”), led by Richard Delamore.
– On 12 September 2018, Dr Amri Wandel, from Israel, spoke in Esperanto on the search for extra-terrestrial life. - The annual Zamenhof Day celebration was held on Sunday, 17 December 2017
- Chess Club: every Monday, 6pm, from 8 January 2018. Although not strictly an Esperanto event, the organiser, Dmitry Lushnikov, takes any opportunity to speak to participants about Esperanto.
Other clubs affiliated with the Federation also held a total of 31 meetings:
- Manly Esperanto Club: on the first and third Saturday of each month, 10am, at Bavarian Bier Cafe, Manly Wharf, hosted by Roger Springer
- Central Coast Esperanto Club and Newcastle Esperanto Society: on the third Sunday of each month, 11:45am, except December, at Albert’s Cafe, Railway Square, Wyong, hosted by Joanne Cho
Riverlights Multicultural Festival
On Saturday, 10 February 2018, several Esperantists (including five Federation members) went to the Riverlights Multicultural Festival in Maitland. Member Eckard Roehrich demonstrated wooden word-blocks, which he made for teaching the language. The team also taught many people at the “Language Lounge”.
Language Festivals
Language festivals, organised by the Language Festival Association and sponsored by the Federation, were held as follows:
- 9 December 2017: Sydney Language Festival, The University of Sydney
- 10 March 2018: Parramatta Language Festival, Information & Cultural Exchange, Parramatta
- 28 July 2018: Burwood Language Festival, Burwood Library
Buildings
On 15 November 2017 building and pest inspections of the main building and ‘factory’ (artists’ studios) were carried out. The most significant finding was evidence of previous termite damage in a roof truss in the factory. In June 2018 Jonathan Cooper spoke to the tenant, Hugh Ramage, inside the factory. Hugh said that, when the termite activity was first detected at least eight years ago, steps were immediately taken to ensure that the termites and their nest were exterminated and, in his opinion, the roof truss is still structurally sound. At the July 2018 meeting the board decided that Dmitry Lushnikov would personally inspect the roof truss, make measurements of the affected part(s) and report back to the board. This has yet to be done.
At the November 2017 board meeting it was agreed to renovate the guest room, as follows:
- Bathroom: cut a new aperture, fill in the old doorway, rendering, install a new jamb and door, tiling, a new sink, painting
- Bedroom: new flooring, a wardrobe, install blinds and flyscreen, painting
- Kitchenette (in bedroom): install wall and floor cabinets, a bench-top, a new sink with a mixer tap and splashback
The work was carried out and supervised by Dmitry Lushnikov, with assistance by Richard Delamore. The renovations were completed by 30 June 2018.
On 4 December 2017 a new (small) refrigerator was installed in the kitchen of the main building. This has since been swapped with the older refrigerator in the guest room.
Use of the (main) building by other groups
The Russian language school, Mosaica, has been using Esperanto House on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. Dmitry Lushnikov has collected $5 per student. This money is to be used for building maintenance.
In April 2018 it was agreed that member Milada Kondratieva be allowed to use Esperanto House on Friday mornings for rehearsals for her new musical group, which performs songs in various languages including Esperanto. No payment would be required, as long as the group would be available to perform for free at Esperanto House for Esperanto Day and Zamenhof Day events.
Guest room
The guest room was occupied a total of 83 nights since the last Annual General Meeting:
- Rainer Kurz (Germany): 9–29 Dec 2017, 15 Jan – 8 Feb 2018 (43 nights)
- Junĝi Choi & Kung Won Kim (South Korea): 31 Dec 2017 – 4 Jan 2018, 14–15 Jan 2018 (5)
- Terry Manley (member, Armidale NSW): 9–11 Feb 2018 (2)
- Godeleine Logez (France): 19–24 Apr 2018 (5)
- (Closed for repairs: 26 Apr – 21 Jun 2018)
- Orlando Raola (USA): 5-6, 9–13, 16–18 July 2018 (7)
- Kristian Quintero Mejia (?): 21–26 Jul 2018 (5)
- Amri & Gila Wandel (Israel): 10–15 Sep 2018 (5)
- Albert Mitchell Ayala (USA) & Sesti Kusmayati (Indonesia): from 26 Sep 2018 (11)
Archive, Book service and Library
Archive:
Riccardo Obletter, an Italian archivist currently living in Sydney, set up a process for properly organising and cataloguing the Australian Esperanto Archive. He worked at Esperanto House most Wednesdays from December 2017 to February 2018. Although he now has full-time work, which prevents him from continuing this work, Riccardo expressed his willingness to be consulted if someone were to volunteer to continue the organising and cataloguing.
Library:
Members Harriffan Conshertini and James Nguyen continue to catalogue the Federation Library when they are able.
The late Julie Regal, an Esperantist from the Central Coast (originally from Chicago, USA) donated, through her daughter, Diane, a number of Esperanto books and other material to the Federation. Those items in good enough condition will be added to the Library and any items of historical significance will be donated to the Archive. Daniel Kane has also donated 33 Esperanto books to the Library.
Book service:
Jonathan Cooper finished the first stage of the cataloguing process in February 2018, producing a spreadsheet of 415 books and 32 non-books (such as badges and music cassettes). Well over 200 books were found to be represented by only one copy each, and at least 90 books by only two copies each. These books, and possibly others, will be incorporated into the Federation Library. The plan is for some of the books and other material to be offered free to Federation members, perhaps as an incentive to rejoin.
In March 2018 Melbourne Esperanto Association requested ten copies of the book The Esperanto Teacher, by Mason Stuttard. These were provided free of charge, including postage.
The Board decided in August 2018 that a 30% discount would apply if at least 3 copies are being bought in a single transaction and a 50% discount would apply to everyone on books for which we have more than 10 copies. No extra discount for multiple copies would apply.
Promotion and communication
In March 2018 the Board agreed to continue supporting Esperanto en Suda Kivuo, paying $150.00 (AUD) every 3 months to the organisation Esperanto Plus, to support the work of Jeremiah Kahindo, teaching Esperanto to young people in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This will be reviewed at the next Board meeting.
In April 2018 a half-page article appeared in the national newspaper, The Senior, about Esperanto (featuring members Joanne Cho and Eckard Roehrich), and an online article on the Honi Soit (Sydney University student union) website about Esperanto and Esperanto House. Joanne has since received a number of enquiries about Esperanto, including two from people who are keen to start learning. These two people have each been given a free copy of The Esperanto Teacher.
In February 2018 the Esperanto House website was updated with a new design and some new content. Powerful security software (WordFence) was also installed, which has successfully blocked many attempts to insert malicious code into our system.
On 6 June 2018 a journalist from SBS visited Esperanto House to interview a number of Esperantists. So far three stories have been broadcast on SBS radio, one each in English, Serbian and Italian. These were also published as podcasts on the SBS website (see esperantohouse.org.au/sbs-2018).
On 22 September 2018 a film crew from Northern Pictures visited Esperanto House to interview member Kiah Morante for an upcoming television documentary on people with disabilities seeking employment. Kiah was also filmed leading an Esperanto lesson for beginners.
In June 2018, “Esperanto NSW” was registered as a trading name for the Federation, to take effect from 1 July 2018. The Federation’s logo and website have been updated accordingly.