Explore the cultures of the world – right here! ★ Esploru la kulturojn de la mondo – ĉi tie!
Lecture and discussion by Katalin Kováts
Wednesday, 18 January 2023, 6pm, at Esperanto House
Katalin Kováts was invited by the Australian Esperanto Association to teach and lecture at the Australian and New Zealand Congress and Summer School in Melbourne. She will later visit Sydney, especially to speak at Esperanto House.
NOTE: The lecture and discussion will be in Esperanto.
For more information and to RSVP, visit Meetup.
On Saturday, 10 September 2022, 12 members of the Federation participated in the annual general meeting (AGM) – five at Esperanto House, and seven via Zoom (including Terry Manley from Armidale and Rainer Kurz from Germany).
Jonathan started the meeting with an “acknowledgment of country”.
After we approved the minutes of the last AGM (12 September 2021), Jonathan read the president’s report aloud. (See below.) Next, Dmitry read aloud a summary of the treasurer’s report for the 2021–22 financial year:
Since the “new” (2017) constitution states that someone who has been a board member for at least nine years can only be re-elected by a special resolution, a vote was held on whether Alan Turvey, Nicole Else, Dmitry Lushnikov and Jonathan Cooper should be allowed to be re-elected as board members. The meeting unanimously voted in the affirmative.
All members of the previous board were re-elected unopposed. Later, those board members decided unanimously that the following seven people should have the following roles:
President: Jonathan Cooper
Vice-president: Andrew Spannenberg
Secretary: Nicole Else
Treasurer: Alan Turvey
Ordinary board members: Chris Betcher, Adam Levy, Dmitry Lushnikov
Finally, each member in the meeting had the opportunity to discuss the current state and future of the Federation. Terry Manley spoke about the rear studio and gallery, and about major problems with the roof and water ingress during rain. The board agreed that we should seek professional advice on how to resolve these issues.
After the official end of the AGM, the board decided to invite the head of edukado.net, Katalin Kováts (and hopefully also her husband, Sylvain Lelarge) to visit Sydney, spend the night in the guestroom and present something at a meeting at Esperanto House, on Wednesday, 18 January 2023. This would be shortly after the Australian and New Zealand Esperanto Congress in Melbourne, where Katalin will be a special guest.
Three new members joined and were welcomed during this period: Andrea Dobles, Christopher (Kit) Kelen and Jurgen Barth.
Long-time Federation member, Volo Gueltling, died on 13 December 2021. His funeral service was held at Leura Memorial Gardens Crematorium on 22 December 2021. Jonathan Cooper attended and spoke on behalf of the Federation and the Australian Esperanto Association.
Unfortunately, the process of finalising Margaret Chaldecott’s bequest is still ongoing. Her apartment in a retirement village in Lindfield (from the sale of which the Federation was to be given 1/5 of the proceeds) has still not been sold. The complication is that the entire complex is on the market. It appears that there is nothing at this stage that can be done to expedite the process.
In response to the passing of Hazel Green, an active and much loved Esperantist from Toowoomba (23 August 2021), Jonathan wrote a letter of condolence to Hazel’s husband, Paul, on behalf of the Federation.
Esperanto House opened to members and the public for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, on Saturday, 18 December, for a celebration of Zamenhof Day. Jonathan Cooper bought a cake and made the icing. Chris Betcher organised an activity, which was well received, with boxes, locks and clues to find a “treasure”.
Saturday evening meetings (“Public Esperanto Learning”) recommenced on 29 January 2022. On 23 April, the name of these were changed to “Esperanto Book Club”.
Adam Levy has agreed to teach Esperanto to beginners on Saturday evenings at 6pm.
Manly Esperanto Club recommenced its fortnightly meetings, outdoors opposite Manly Beach at South Steyne, on 16 October 2021.
Central Coast and Newcastle Esperanto Clubs recommenced its monthly meetings, at Wyong Milk Factory, on 15 May 2022.
An Esperanto camping weekend, at Wyee, was held on 11–12 December 2021.
The Australian and New Zealand Esperanto congress and summer school, which was supposed to be held in Sydney (Sancta Sophia College, Camperdown) in January 2022 was entirely virtual, via Zoom.
A successful joint language festival (Sydney and Surabaya, Indonesia) was held on 19 February 2022. Jonathan Cooper presented Esperanto by Zoom. Ario Bimo Utomo from Indonesia wrote a thank-you message.
The Federation bought 20 copies of the new book Enjoy Esperanto. One copy was put into the library, another was given to director Nicole Else, and the remaining copies made available for sale.
There have been discussions about how to effectively promote Esperanto. Buying a block of land and creating a temporary (or permanent) “Esperanto village” was one idea, although this raises the question, how best to promote an Esperanto village. Another possibility was to buy a campervan, have it covered in signage promoting Esperanto, and hire it out.
In November 2021, the Federation bought 100 green pens, with “ESPERANTO NSW / Esperanto House, 143 Lawson St Redfern / esperantonsw.org.au” inscribed on them. One is to be given to each member and others donated as promotional gifts.
The chess club, which has been operating on Saturday evenings, at the same time as the weekly Esperanto event, had another tournament. This time, instead of a cash prize, the Federation bought a trophy and had it engraved with the name of the winner.
The board welcomed the idea of having some magnetic signs (60cm x 30cm) made to promote Esperanto, suitable for placing on a car door. Jonathan Cooper also presented this idea to AEA, the Australian Esperanto Association (in his role as vice-president). AEA ordered 3 signs at $29 each, as a test. These were delivered to the treasurer of AEA, Heather Heldzingen, in Melbourne, because Jonathan was going to be in Canada when they arrived.
In December 2021 Nicole Else contacted a Melbourne journalist about Marcel Leereveld, and subsequently an article, ‘Use your brain’: 103-year-old radio host still going strong, appeared in the newspaper The Age .
Nicole Else also joined a Facebook group for NSW language teachers, and has interacted with other members to present to idea of using Esperanto as a “springboard” language, as well as a valuable language in its own right. There has been limited interest so far.
Two new domain names for the website have been added: “esperantohouse.au” and “esperantonsw.au”, mainly to stop them being hijacked and held for ransom. The Federation may change the website to one of these as the canonic address, once the public becomes more used to domain names without “.org”, “.com” etc.
Only one issue of Telopeo has been published since the 2021 Annual General Meeting, on 31 December 2021.
A styleguide, in Esperanto, Stilgvidilo por Telopeo kaj aliaj komunikiloj, was created by Jonathan Cooper and put onto Google Drive
Two Ukrainians stayed in the guest room for two weeks. The board previously agreed to let them stay free of charge if they spent at least an hour a day studying Esperanto. Dmitry Lushnikov nevertheless thinks it should only be a suggestion as they have experienced many difficulties during the war in Ukraine. If future Ukrainians request accommodation, the Federation will just ask them to speak at one of our meetings, either in Ukrainian with translation provided by Dmitry Lushnikov, or in English.
Apart from these two, the guest room has not been used by overseas Esperantists, presumably because of the pandemic, but occasionally by members, including Terry Manley from Armidale, and Jonathan Cooper, en route to Canada.
Work was carried out to the upper floor of Esperanto House, including fixing the locks on the balcony doors, painting, and the installation of LED lights. Three white bookcases were also bought and assembled for the library.
Jonathan arranged for a commercial real estate to give a market appraisal for the studio and gallery on Little Eveleigh Street. Alan Turvey wrote to the tenant, Hugh Ramage, and Hugh answered, listing things that should be fixed or renovated. It was discussed that it would be much better if the premises were vacant, so that the renovations could more easily take place. Chris Betcher suggested that a list of things to be done should be made with estimated cost. Chris also suggested that we hire a project manager. It was decided to give Alan authority to negotiate with Hugh.
Much discussion has occurred among board members about how best to invest the money in the Federation bank accounts ($686,480 as at 31 July 2022). Options include:
Several board members expressed doubt whether buying land would really be a wise decision. Chris Betcher contacted a friend for financial advice. The friend stressed the importance of considering the mission of the organisation. Maybe $50,000 could be invested in shares. Bank deposit is the safest. He pointed out that property prices will probably fall.
The Federation bought 20 copies of the new book Enjoy Esperanto. One copy was put into the library, another was given to committee member Nicole Else, and the rest made available for purchase.
Junulara Esperantista Burunda Organizo asked the Federation for a donation towards equipment for video-making. The amount of $1100 was paid shortly after 3 October 2021, via UEA (Universala Esperanto-Asocio).
Jonathan Cooper
10 September 2022
Presented at the Annual General Meeting Sunday, 12 September 2021, 11:00 am
By Andrew Spannenberg
Maitland RiverLights 2020 multicultural festival went ahead via a video stream. The Federation was represented in the Language Lounge section. President Andrew gave a lesson in Esperanto in front of a whiteboard and flag. It went OK and was well received.
Our Zamenhof Day celebration (13 December 2021) saw another “inclusion cake”: vegan, gluten-free, and decorated in the Esperanto flag. Yes, we went a little overboard and over budget. We gave it a damn good shot as a “we welcome our members!”
On the actual Zamenhof Day (15 December), Josh Szeps interviewed Jonathan Cooper on ABC Local Radio Sydney Breakfast, about the significance of Zamenhof Day and Esperanto.
In March 2021, a new Board member took over as editor of Telopeo. A styleguide for this and other forms of public communication was developed by Jonathan and uploaded to Google Drive for comments by the editor and other board members.
On 3 March 2021, Jonathan visited Newington College to talk to students in years 9 and 10 about Esperanto. Then, on 31 March, ten students from Newington College visited Esperanto House.
In a reminder that even Esperantists are mortal, we lost Professor Daniel Kane, linguist and expert on China. We have lost a voice of reason in these times of strained relations, as our politicians export unhelpful comments and innuendos. We need a new generation of Daniels.
With fewer language festivals happening, our exposure in the media was less than in previous years. Virtual meetings, coordinated with the MeetUp platform, occurred. In-person meetings were small by courtesy of COVID restrictions. A COVID-safety QR code was arranged for Esperanto House, with Service NSW.
The Manly and Central Coast/Newcastle clubs also maintained a presence on the MeetUp platform. Some physical meetings happened between lockdown times.
A small chess tournament was held at Esperanto House. Some small prizes were donated by Esperanto NSW, and partially offset by entry fees.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the awaited national congress did not materialise in Sydney in 2021. And, given more recent population dynamics and lockdowns imposed to bring infection numbers down, an Australian and New Zealand congress will happen as a hybrid event at Esperanto House in 2022, or perhaps totally virtually again. We are in a new world where virtual events are becoming the norm.
The bequest from Margaret Chaldecott is still not finalised, due to matters beyond our control. This was our largest source of income of recent times.
This year we continued the renewal of Esperanto House. Both toilets are now renovated and fully functional.
The guest room has a smoke detector. (The Esperanto language instructions to guests on what to do when the alarm sounds still have to be updated.)
Repairs to the commercial building at the rear of Esperanto House have been ongoing. We have investigated a possible termite presence. Leakage has been addressed, with the installation of two new windows.
We continue to receive requests for funding assistance, for Esperanto projects. Some international projects proved difficult to monitor for quality and efficacy. We continue, as this is part of the Esperanto culture – to have diverse input from many points of origin.
The Board has recognised a need for further skills development. I personally studied how to manage conflicts of interest. We have started a register of interests as a result, based on a template from the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. The conflict of interest policy is still in draft.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the rules of social distancing, regular meetings of Esperanto clubs have had to stop. Instead, a new form has been set up: the virtual meeting – most often via the video group chat system, Zoom. While the older Skype system works like a telephone conversation (one person calls others, who already must be connected to the caller), Zoom works in a way like a traditional meeting place: Anyone with the link and password is allowed to enter. [1] In addition, Skype is free for conversations with no time limits, and theoretically no limit on the number of participants [2], while a free Zoom account allows meetings only up to 40 minutes. [3] The paid Zoom account removes that limitation and has other options that may be useful.
Before the pandemic, I used the Skype system (without video) for AEA board meetings, and the Zoom system for occasional NSW Esperanto board meetings, when one or two board members for some reason could not travel to Esperanto House. Currently, every Esperanto NSW board meeting takes place with Zoom for everyone.
Of course, a real, physical meeting has advantages over a virtual one: there are no “technical problems”, you can see and hear each other much better, you can more easily talk on the side to one or more others if you want, and, very importantly, people can eat and drink together! However, for me, a virtual meeting has two real benefits:
I live somewhat far from Sydney and Esperanto House. By public transport, the journey for me takes more than two hours in each direction. That’s why I didn’t often attend the Saturday evening meetings, “Public Esperanto Learning”. However, since the start of virtual meetings, I now just have to walk to my study and turn on my computer.
Second, meetings at Esperanto House usually have people who live quite close to Sydney, and from time to time, Esperanto speakers who visit Sydney from other countries or states. However, distance is not a limitation for a virtual meeting. For example, it was a pleasure to meet an Esperanto speaker from Orange (a NSW regional city) in some Zoom meetings in which I participated. In fact, during these meetings, it is not uncommon to have more people from overseas than from Australia.
Are there any other limitations or problems of virtual meetings, apart from those mentioned as advantages of real meetings? Yes:
Because people can come – and in fact do come – anytime, from anywhere in the world, there’s no opportunity to really meet new people. I was sometimes aware that some already knew others I didn’t know – perhaps during a UK or overseas trip. And often, during a two-hour meeting, there were even people who never spoke.
Another problem is that sometimes two or more people start talking at the same time, due to the inevitable time delay.
These two limitations are more or less natural results of the technology. However, another is more evident due to the other limitations: So far most of the ordinary (ie, non-board) meetings I have attended have been unstructured. Sometimes a topic is proposed for discussion, but this is not infrequently ignored, or the discussion/chat wanders off. During one meeting, to celebrate Trevor Steele’s 80th birthday (shown here), everyone had the opportunity to say a few words to Trevor, so there was some structure.
An interesting experiment like this will take place very soon: a virtual one-day Australian “congress”, on Sunday, 7 June 2020, from 8:30am to 8:00pm (NSW time zone). It will feature contributions from leading Esperantists from Australia and the world, including Duncan Charters (president of UEA), Renato Corsetti, jOmO, Katalin Kováts, Keyhan Sayadpour (president of the Iranian Esperanto Association) and our own Trevor Steele. There will also be some language sessions for beginners. You can participate in the whole day or individual sessions and it will be completely free. AEA is paying for a Zoom account that will enable unlimited sessions and other features. (Visit the AEA website for more information. This will be an interesting and useful experiment because, while we hope that the upcoming Australian and New Zealand Congress and Summer Course in Sydney (January 2021) will still take place at Sancta Sophia College, it is possible that people from overseas – and possibly residents of some Australian states – will not be allowed to travel to NSW then. That is why we are preparing to hold a “hybrid” congress: both physical and virtual.
– Jonathan Cooper, treasurer of Esperanto NSW and vice president of AEA
Notes:
1. Zoom also enables the organiser to allow each person in individually.
2. “Theoretically” because, in my experience, if more than a few participate with video, the quality of the connection noticeably degrades.
3. After 40 minutes, the meeting has to be restarted and everyone has to rejoin.
(This article originally appeared in the June 2020 issue of Telopeo.)
On Sunday, 1 March 2020, during the monthly meeting of Esperanto NSW, we had a special guest from Croatia: Damir Matašin, the great grand-nephew of John Matasin, whose hard work and generosity enabled the purchase of Esperanto House in the 1960s. Damir brought with him gifts, including a beautiful book on the history of the Esperanto movement in Bjelovar, Croatia, written by Josip Pleadin.
On the blank first page of the book was pasted a letter from the president of Bjelovar Esperantist Society, to Esperanto NSW.
The text, translated into English:
BJELOVAR ESPERANTIST DRUŠTVO
BJELOVARIAN EXPERANTIST SOCIETY
43000 BJELOVAR, Vlatka Mačeka 14, Croatia
Email: esperanto.bjelovar@gmail.com
To the esteemed
Esperanto Federation of New South Wales
143 Lawson St
Redfern, Sydney
Esteemed fellow-thinkers of Sydney,
We greet you from a Croatian town, Bjelovar, located in the area from which Ivan Matašin, who is known in Sydney as John Matasin, emigrated over 90 years ago. The merits of our fellow countrymen for the Esperanto movement in Sydney and Australia are immeasurable, but the most important is the purchase and care of your Esperanto house in Redfern. Although Ivan Matašin has never been a member of our society, which celebrated its 110th jubilee last year, he hails from our area, and we consider him a Croatian Esperantist, just as he was an Australian for many years of his life. In collaboration with Nicole Else and our member Josip Pleadin, many details of Matašin’s life were explored and his bibliography completed.
In 2019 we inaugurated the new house of Dokumenta Esperanto-Centro, the national Esperanto archive in our country, and ”the tradition of Esperanto in Croatia” has acquired the status of non-material cultural heritage. Several Australian Esperantists also contributed to the construction of the house of Dokumenta Esperanto-Centro, thus symbolically assisting the Croatian Esperanto movement in the same way that Matašin helped the Australian.
For that occasion, we published a comprehensive monograph on our jubilee. Although written in Croatian, we send it to your Federation for free as a symbolic sign of the unbreakable bonds that Ivan Matašin has made between us.
With sincere greetings,
Franjo Forjan
president
Bjelovar
30 January 2020
The next Pizza night will be Saturday, 17 February 2018.
Join us at Esperanto House for music, videos and pizza. Don’t worry if you’ve never studied any Esperanto before; we can explain what it’s all about. Beginners and the simply curious are absolutely welcome!
The Esperanto lesson will start at 5pm, followed by the actual Pizza night at 6pm.
Unfortunately, the quorum of 10 members, as required by our current constitution, was not reached yesterday, so we were unable to make any decisions (including the election of directors). However, the constitution allows us to adjourn the AGM for a week, when the quorum will be reduced to 2. Because 4 (maybe 5) members were going to meet next Sunday at Wyong anyway, we have changed the location.
So, the reconvened AGM of the Esperanto Federation of NSW will be:
Date: Sunday, 19 November 2017
Time: 11:45am
Place: Albert’s Cafe, western side of Wyong railway station (turn left as you exit). [View on Google Maps]
There will be a vote to accept the proposed new constitution, which can be downloaded from the About Us page (under the sub-heading “Proposed constitution”). To see what has been changed from the ACNC* template, you can read the “Guide to constitution changes” document, also available on that page.
If you will not be attending but would like to participate, you can appoint someone who will be attending, to be your proxy.
[* ACNC: Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission]
To every member of the Esperanto Federation of NSW (EFNSW):
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of EFNSW will take place at Esperanto House on 12 November 2017 at 11 am. The board will resign and the positions will be assigned during the meeting.
Please note that due to the AGM, there will be no meeting on the first Sunday of November.
We hope you can attend the AGM, and please let us know if you can help the Federation in any way.
If you CANNOT attend but would like to vote, you can ask someone vote on your belaf (as a proxy). Please contact us if you would like more information.
We would also like to hear your comments, ideas, etc. for the coming year.
Chris Holliss reports:
Thirty people came to the very successful celebration. It was wonderful to meet long-time friends. We chatted about the past year, even past years. We also enjoyed delicious food. This was evident by the empty plates strewn about the tables afterwards. Two special cakes were saved from the hungry hoard: gifts for Eunice Graham (for her birthday) and Margaret Chaldecott (for her many, many years of secretarial work for the Esperanto Federation of NSW).
The good atmosphere continued with three interesting talks:
Richard Delamore showed a video about his studio and collaborators. He explained the production and publishing on YouTube of videos, which he creates.
Daniel Kane spoke about the first Esperanto museum in China, which is situated in a tiny village far from anywhere, in fact in “the middle of nowhere”, but its exhibition has many different items. Daniel said that it was a delightful surprise to discover the museum.
After a break to take photos, Rainer Kurz showed us a video of his interview with Reinhard Selten, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for game theory. That video is now available via Amazon.com.
Lyudmila Kelloway crowned the program. She and her musicians, with their beautiful songs and costumes, transformed Esperanto House into a concert hall.
An excellent Zamenhof Day! As Eunice said, “Ĉiuj feliĉas kuniĝi (Everyone is happy to meet).” I agree.