Presented at the Annual General Meeting, 3 September 2023
Buildings
The most significant event in the 2022–23 financial year was the departure in February of our long-time tenant, Hugh Ramage, who had rented the Little Eveleigh Street building as a studio and gallery for over 27 years. Initially, a co-operative of artists (including Hugh’s daughter, Stella) expressed an interest in taking over the lease. However, it turned out that they would only be able to afford to pay $2,000 per month (Hugh had been paying $2,754.00 until the end of 2022, and we had increased the rent to $3,720 before his departure). The Federation took the opportunity to do some work on the building, including termite treatment, upgrading the electrical system, and demolishing some internal walls and a dangerous half-mezzanine level.
A sculptor, Valery Jelobinsky, has started to rent the rear half of the building (officially the rear quarter) for $1,000 per month, on a temporary basis. This arrangement has helped offset some of the Federation’s expenses.
The Federation also explored the possibility of converting the building into accommodation (as a boarding house) or mixed accommodation and commercial use. However, it soon became clear that the financial and regulatory requirements would be quite high, and would require the Federation to borrow money, so this idea was abandoned.
Two real estate agencies were also contacted, to see how much we might be able to rent the building for, with either basic renovations, or with a full commercial refurbishment. Both agents recommended that the previous use (studio/gallery) was probably the most appropriate.
In the meantime, Valery reported that, during medium-to-heavy rain, there was extensive leaking in a number of locations along the eastern wall. Leaking had also occurred when Hugh was renting the building, but to a much lesser extent. It is suspected that blocked guttering (caused by fallen leaves from a nearby oak tree) is to blame.
In August (officially outside the reporting period of this report), an independent school nearby expressed an interest in renting the building. Negotiations are ongoing.
Some minor improvements have been made to Esperanto House, including the construction of café-style seating outside the kitchen, with an awning and wood-like decking. A new double bed, and a single trundle bed have also been bought for the guestroom, to replace the double bunk, which had become uncomfortable.
Library
Starting in October 2022, Jonathan has been working on the library at Esperanto House every Wednesday from 10am to 5pm (except for the Christmas/New Year period). As at 30 August, all 2,708 books had been catalogued and 984 books given uniquely coded stickers to enable them to be sorted onto the shelves. As a side-benefit of this work, Esperanto House has been open to the public every Wednesday from 10am until 8pm (see next point).
The library collection is being divided into three sections:
- General (loosely based on the Dewey Decimal System, but much simpler)
- About Esperanto
- Esperanto literature
Membership
As at 30 June 2023, the Federation had 26 financial members. Members who joined in the 2022‑23 financial year are: Jurgen Barth (Cammeray NSW), Mark Rodowicz (Schofields NSW) and Chloe Yuen (London UK, currently living in Chatswood NSW).
Meetings
The weekly Esperanto meetings (and chess club) have been moved from Saturday evening to Wednesday evening. An attempt was made to start Esperanto lessons for beginners (Adam Levy taught one lesson in August 2022), but unfortunately the interest from the public has not continued.
Guestroom
Ten people used the guestroom over 130 days in 2022–23.
Two Ukrainian visitors stayed from 5 to 19 August 2022.
Member Rainer Kurz, from Germany, stayed from 1 December 2022 to 25 February 2023 (except for 15–18 January and 9–12 February), and opened Esperanto House to the public every Wednesday.
Katalin Kováts from the Netherlands stayed from 15 to 18 January.
Ario Bimo Utomo and Nafila Maulina from Indonesia stayed from 10 to 12 February 2023. They presented at the Sydney Language Festival on 11 February.
Member Eric Turvey stayed from 26 February to 25 March 2023 and gave a short presentation in Esperanto at a Wednesday evening meeting.
Jonathan Cooper stayed on two separate nights (19 April & 16 May 2023) to meet tradesmen the following morning at 7am.
Levi Hickey stayed from 17 to 20 May 2023.
Member Terry Manley stayed on 2 June 2023.
Summer school scholarship
In December 2022, the Federation decided to provide a scholarship of up to $500 to a member who would like to attend the Australian Esperanto Association (AEA) summer school and congress in Melbourne (January 2023). The successful applicant was Doris Chen, who unfortunately was only able to attend 6-8 January. An amount of $350 was paid to AEA on Doris’ behalf. Doris wrote a report for Telopeo.
Zamenhof Day
The annual Zamenhof Day celebration was held at Esperanto House on Saturday 17 December 2022. Activities included a jigsaw competition (using a custom-made jigsaw based on Esperanto stamps from around the world), a reprise of the treasure hunt game organised by Chris Betcher, and a talk about Ukrainian refugees in Germany, by Rainer Kurz.
Book launch
On 27 November 2022 in a small gallery in Glebe, there was a launch of a book of poetry by Kit Kelen, titled Rompitaj Labirintoj, written in both Esperanto and English, with an accompanying art exhibition, also by Kit Kelen. Jonathan spoke about the book and about Esperanto to an audience of approximately 20 people. Copies of the book can be bought at Esperanto House for $25.
Telopeo
The Federation e-newsletter, Telopeo, was revived at the beginning of 2023, edited and compiled by Dmitry and proofread by Nicole. There has been a new edition each month since January.
Sydney Language Festival
A very successful language festival was held at the State Library of NSW on 11 February 2023. About 60 people attended. Dmitry received a congratulatory letter from the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore.
Video project
In May 2023, artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro contacted the Federation for assistance in a video project involving Esperanto. They explained that they are interested in Esperanto because of its “global optimism” and because of the geographical proximity of Blackheath, where they live, to Mount Victoria, home of historical Esperantists Dietrich Rienits and Hermann Ritz.
Dmitry and Nicole did a translation for them, and Jonathan narrated the text. The video has been completed and was shown in Niigata, Japan, and is now part of an exhibition, Messages-in-the-sky, at the Mudgee Arts Precinct from 1 September to 26 November.
Here is an edited version of a text panel in the exhibition: “The work explores the different levels of community collaboration that we experience in our daily lives: local community collaboration and global collaboration. The video was filmed at the 2023 Shrione kite festival [in Japan]. Meanwhile, the voice-over is about people working together in Australia to raise money for a local charity, with a sausage sizzle. The collision of these two different community actions in the artwork highlights the difficulties involved in cross-cultural communication. Underscoring the ideas of cooperation and understanding is the language we used for our story. The language is Esperanto, a constructed language, created in 1887, created with the hope that all the people of the world could share a language and communicate together.”
Jonathan Cooper
President
30 August 2023