Board Meeting Minutes – April, 2024

Ĉeestas

Ĉeestas sen Voĉdonrajtoj

The meeting is called to order. No new items are added to the agenda. The minutes of the previous meeting are automatically approved, as are the minutes of the special meeting held on 3/16 regarding the bylaws.

Standing Reports

CO

Amanda reports that we are making progress. The financial situation is complicated, so Brandon and Q have approved for Amanda to participate in a training regarding QuickBooks for Nonprofits. This has allowed her to learn how to use the program more effectively, in order to make the information easier to find and easier to transfer to QuickBooks Online. E-USA has met with two accountants who will be helping us with the transfer to QuickBooks Online. Amanda reports she has learned about 60% of what she will need to know, but that Bill is still working on the financial reports. However, after the switch to QuickBooks Online, the financial reports will be unnecessary, as the treasurer will be able to look directly at the financial information. Margo asks about the timeline for getting QuickBooks Online. Amanda has a goal to finish the training by April 30, and at that point, she will be able to determine whether we need to hire an expert from QuickBooks to help us make this transfer, as we will get a discount on hiring such an expert if we are able to make that decision within 30 days. Her hope is to have the transfer done by May 15. Jane and Amanda clarify that, while the CO will no longer need to provide reports to the treasurer, the treasurer will still be providing reports to the board. Bill himself is absent today as he is not feeling well. 

Brandon reports that the CO now officially has an address in Sacramento, with Amanda. Brandon, Quintyn, and Amanda meet twice a week to discuss the CO transition.

President’s Report

Brandon has to temporarily leave the meeting, and Quintyn gives the President’s Report, that Salesforce is now set up, which can help us better analyze the data. In terms of membership, this is the best quarter in the past three years, which Quintyn attributes to the board being more active. Additionally, Quintyn reports that the Bulteno was officially shipped out this morning and that it will be a very impressive physical copy of the bulteno moving forward. 

Quintyn reports that he had the opportunity to present at PER in North Carolina. He led a discussion on an ecosystem of events which Esperanto-USA could support. The PER event included a wide range of ages among participants, who were extremely enthusiastic to be part of a conversation about the future of Esperanto-USA and were happy to hear that E-USA supported the event. Less interest exists on the national level concerning events, but there is a lot of interest on the regional level. This group wanted more events and more intimate events – events which allow for opportunity to connect with people via small groups and casual conversation, in addition to the usual discussions about the language and culture and history of Esperanto. The discussion there encouraged more regional events as preferable to more online events, and events with smaller numbers of participants, to allow for more intimate discussion between participants. Additionally, the preference was to somewhat separate the events that are geared more towards learning from the events that are geared more towards social interactions. A Volunteer Coordinator was recommended. Charlotte mentions that Marcus Griep is our volunteer coordinator. As a result of these discussions, Quintyn would like to reassess our regional coordinator system and meet with our regional coordinators, our volunteer coordinator, and perhaps some members of the board, to discuss what our regional activity should look like moving forward. 

Amanda suggests that it may be helpful to create a network of people interested in creating regional events, so they can share resources and ideas. Quintyn proposes the creation of a working group to reassess our regional coordinator system and our relationship with regional groups with the goal of providing recommendations to the board on how to support regional groups and how to utilize regional coordinators and other resources at our disposal. Fred joins in the conversation and is recommended as a helpful resource for such a working group. Mateo mentions some current regional events, including PER (run by Chuck Mays), ARE (run by Tomaso Alexander), and a new regional event in Arizona.

Brandon returns to the meeting and recommends that Quintyn’s proposal be moved into the agenda to be discussed later. Brandon reports that Quarter 1 this year also had more new members than any other quarter for the past three years, including the quarter that included the UK in Montreal.

Treasurer

David sent the treasurer reports to the board. Margo asks about the reports, saying it looks like we’re losing money on catalog sales and on subscriptions and memberships, such as UEA memberships. The General Fund is still showing as being negative by over $4000, so she expresses some concerns regarding cash flow in the general fund. Amanda expresses that some of these issues may be due to confusion in the books, as some numbers may be getting entered improperly. The new system should allow us to better understand the state of cash flow into and out of the organization. 

LKK

David reports that the LKK has been working to get meals and meeting rooms clarified with the university. We have agreed to several related costs, but no money has officially been paid yet for these steps. Vilĉjo Morton, Amanda, and David’s mother have all supported the work with research. Wes built a website, and Ramai has been working on designing and pricing some merchandise, as well as sourcing towels. David is doing everything else. Jane offers to get more involved and will communicate with David via email. Ruth inquires about when the board should arrive, which is clarified to be later on the agenda. Quintyn recommends some names for David to reach out to regarding scheduling sessions. Charlotte mentions she is a part of the DKK, which would help with locating possible kongresejoj, and that she would also like to help with scheduling sessions for the LK. Brandon clarifies the LKK will meet tomorrow at noon Pacific time.

Old Business

Website

A company will be taking everything from the Internet Archive from the old website and will have that website remade as a WordPress site within a couple of weeks. Quintyn comments that having this on WordPress will allow us to apply new themes which will allow for the same content to be given a more modern look.

Funds Working Group

The Funds Working Group will schedule an actual Zoom meeting to determine what needs to happen next, but Margo suggests that we may want to wait until the QuickBooks Online transfer has been completed, but the working group could get started before and be ready to present by June. Mateo agrees with Margo on this. Action Item: Ruth will schedule this meeting and will include Mateo, Brandon, Amanda, Quintyn, David, and Bill.

New Business

Membership Committee Proposals

Peggy presents on behalf of the Membership Committee, with proposals of simplified membership categories, for the board to vote on and determine whether these should be presented to the membership on the ballot. Proposals include making the membership year go from Jan 1 to Dec 31, which would allow for joint memberships with UEA, reducing the number of membership levels, and increasing dues. The proposed new levels of 12 month memberships would include a change in dues, as it has been 10 years since membership dues have changed, and inflation has caused our costs to increase. New proposed levels and dues would be: Intro ($15), Youth ($30), Limited Income ($30), Individual ($60), Family ($90), Combined UEA+E-USA ($100), Patron ($120), and Life Member ($1200). 

Mateo recommends keeping the Zamenhof Society of America, but as an add-on donation, on top of any of the regular membership levels, rather than a separate member level. Jane comments that having an option to add a donation on when signing up for memberships is a common structure. Margo also expresses a concern about removing the Zamenhof Society category, as two people since 2021 have signed up for this level of membership. Amanda clarifies that having these as donations would simplify the fundraising. Margo also expresses concern that the higher dues amounts would not significantly increase our total income. The online membership would go away, because the bylaws state that all members should get the newsletter without having to pay more for it. Jane agrees that the higher dues amount may change the number of renewals of memberships. Mateo agrees with Margo’s point that we may need to know when the higher membership levels were last used. He also states that, if we can show where we are providing more value, this higher dues amount would be worth it to many. Charlotte expresses concerns about the lack of an online membership level and discusses the pros and cons of sending out a physical newsletter to all members. Enriko states that, for what we’re asking people to pay for membership, the newsletter would provide them with a physical, tangible benefit to members. He also expresses support for the idea of having the higher paying membership levels being as donations. Quintyn agrees that this is an issue of why people should join E-USA, and suggests that this will come down to tangible benefits like this, as well as the storytelling components that Mateo had mentioned. Peggy asks whether it would be beneficial to post somewhere a list of donors at a particular level. Jane also discusses the pros and cons of paper bulteno. In the interest of time, this item is tabled for a later time.

Bylaws Proposal

It has been suggested that we create a document comparing the current and proposed bylaws. David suggests that someone call Lee to discuss with him why we don’t have such a document yet. Quintyn says that we have offered to meet with him, and he has declined. Ruth agrees with Lee’s point that rewriting the bylaws is a big move and that having a side by side comparative document is a reasonable request. Jane agrees that having a document with the current version and the new proposals side by side would be helpful. Quintyn says that the proposed bylaws next to the current bylaws are both available in the newsletter, but that a section by section table would be difficult due to the scope of the changes. Charlotte suggests that Lee is often an indicator of the opinions of other members as well, and recommends that we plan on this proposal being on the schedule for next year, rather than this year, in order to allow for more and more membership discussion. Brandon states that we do not have evidence that Lee is speaking for others beyond himself. He states that we have been open by posting information in the newsletter about this. Peggy states that members outside of these board meetings do not know as much about what the board is doing as the board may think they do. Ruth agrees with Charlotte that Lee’s opinions may be indicative of a need for more communication generally and that we may want to wait until next year to put such changes on the ballot. Amanda suggests that we wait to see what the reaction is at VIA to determine whether to make this move this year or next year. David suggests that, if someone does talk to Lee about this, they should be very open about why some of these changes are being proposed, such as disclosing what happened in January.

LK Board Meetings

The board needs to discuss when board meetings will be, in order to know when to schedule flights. The time from 12-4 on Friday is available during the mini-NASK. 4-6 or 5-8 would be available after the mini-NASK, so that board members could participate in mini-NASK and also have dinner together. The board agrees that the Friday Board meeting will not begin prior to 4 PM Friday, which means that board members should be permitted to arrive by 4 PM on that Friday. The plan is 4-6 on Friday for the board meeting, and a Sunday evening event to be determined. No events will occur for the LK on that Monday, but there will be excursions available on that Monday and Tuesday.

The meeting is adjourned.