La kunsido malfermiĝas. La estraro akceptas la tagordon. The minutes of the previous board meeting are reviewed, updated, and adopted by acclamation. 

Reports

President/VP

Brandon, Amanda, and Matt discussed fundraising strategy on October 11th with Pat Egan, an Esperantist who has experience in fundraising for nonprofits, who recommended some strategies for raising our score with outside agencies who rate nonprofits, such as Propublica.  These included the creation of three policies: a Whistleblower Policy, a Conflict of Interest policy, and a policy on Document Retention and Destruction. These policies have been drafted and will be presented to the board at this meeting. Esperanto-USA is already doing well at considering longevity and sustainability of the organization. Brandono aldonis la tutan raporton pri donacoj al Salesforce, do la organizaĵo nun havas tiun informon.

Central Office

Amanda has been working primarily on the bookstore, and has not been as focused on updating finances, due to the urgency of getting the bookstore up and running again. The bookstore is mostly ready and will be presented during this meeting. There are some other pending items, such as a bookmark grant request and a draft agreement with KEA and E-USA. [La estrarkunsido ĉi tie re-esperantiĝis.] Amanda volus krei komitaton pri rilatoj kun prizonuloj. Fred kaj Charlotte volus partopreni tian komitaton. La intenco estas respondi al leteroj de prizonuloj kaj ankaŭ diskuti kiel protekti la privatecajn rajtojn de niaj membroj, kiuj ne sentas komfortaj dividi siajn kontaktinformojn kun prizonuloj. La estraro konsentas, ke tia komitato povus diskuti la aferon. 

Treasurer

The Treasurer reports in English. First, a Statement of Financial Position is presented, which is a year-to-date picture of where the organization is financially at the present moment. Currently, the organization has most of its assets in investments, but the investment account and the checking account are now linked, which allows any liquid cash in the investment account to be accessible on a relatively instantaneous basis, which was not previously the case, and caused problems this summer with funds not being available to pay for conference expenses. Amanda and our bookkeeper Deepika have met in the past week to work on making progress towards ensuring that the financial statements for the present year are accurate. Amanda estimates that the accounts will be accurately represented in all areas by the end of the current year. A separate tax accountant will need to be hired to file the forms for the Reed Trust and for Esperanto-USA. 

Next, the Treasurer presents the Statement of Activity for the previous month. Net Operating Revenue is one of the most important lines within this statement, which shows actual income versus expenditures for the month. At the present, these reports are presented to the board to assist in their understanding of the reports themselves, and as the board gains familiarity with the reports, this section of the board meetings will address more specific board questions.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee met to discuss new procedures for budgeting, clarifying that since the budget previously included only operating expenses and will now include project and fund expenses, the records on project expenses have in the past been less precise. As such, next year’s new Comprehensive Budget process will include estimates at first but will increase in precision as the years progress and more thorough data is collected. Additionally, the Executive Committee is planning a semi-in-person strategic retreat as a first stage in a strategic planning strategy. This would consist of East Coast executive committee members meeting in person locally and West Coast Executive Committee members meeting in person locally, while Charlotte, who lives in the middle, would be flown to whichever coast is cheapest. The two groups would then meet virtually with one another, to get the benefit of in-person meetings for strategic purposes, with limited costs.

Old Business

Bookstore

This was created on Square for free but can be upgraded at a cost of $30/month if determined necessary. Amanda provides a tour of the new online bookstore, which is now live but has not yet been publicized. The bookstore will include the three most popular magazine subscriptions, books, and other merchandise items, such as pins or conference merchandise. Descriptions are in Esperanto and English. Members can be given a coupon code to provide 10% off of bookstore expenses. Brandon asks the board’s opinions on this discount. Enrique asks about the security of a coupon code and recommends that the discount be continued as a membership benefit, to ensure members feel they are getting something for their money. Kuo agrees with this and suggests that the finance committee may be able to offer support in determining prices. Peggy and Shneur also agree with Enrique, that continuing the membership discount is wise. Shneur asks whether this discount could be marketed as partially or fully waiving shipping. Brandon recommends that the discount only apply to items in our inventory and suggests that free shipping may be possible over a certain price point. Usage of the code could be checked against current membership records, to encourage those with expired memberships to renew. An “About Us” page has been included, in case users come across the bookstore without knowing E-USA. Matt recommends adding the non-profit ID to the bookstore’s about page as well, in case people wish to take advantage of employer matching for donations. An update will be sent to the membership within the next couple of weeks, to inform them that the new online bookstore is now open.

Bookmark Grant Request

E-USA has received a grant request from the Promotions Committee. The committee will hold a contest for bookmark designs, which will be judged by a panel. The winners will be awarded a cash prize, and E-USA will then create bookmarks with the submitted designs, for promotional purposes. Most of the expenses will be in 2025 and can be included in that budget, and the total requested cost of $1000 is well within the availability of the publicity fund. Matt moves that the Bookmark Project requested by the Promotional Committee be approved to move forward, with expenses coming from the Publicity Fund and included in the 2025 budget. Quintyn seconds. Brandon requests that printing be done locally (relative to whoever would be holding and distributing the bookmarks) and with priority given to sustainable materials where financially feasible. Designs will cover two sides of the bookmark. Motion passes by acclamation.

Dankrezolucio al Alekso

Quintyn has drafted a dankrezolucio al Alekso MILLER for his work on the Usona Bona Film-Festivalo for the first 5 film festivals. Quintyn presents the draft dankrezolucio to the board and moves that the board publish a dankrezolucio to Alekso MILLER for his work on the Usona Bona Film-Festivalo. Matt seconds. Motion passes by acclamation. Quintyn will post the draft in the board’s Slack channel for grammatical review before publication.

New Business

Policies

Matt, Brandon and Amanda recently met with Pat Egan, an Esperantist with experience in fundraising for nonprofits, and she mentioned that, in order to improve E-USA’s grades on nonprofit rating sites, the organization should adopt a whistleblower policy, a conflict of interests policy, and a policy on document retention and destruction. The drafts of these documents are posted in Slack and are linked in these minutes. Matt asks the board to take a week to look through these documents, and a vote will be begun in about a week via Slack. The goal is to get these policies approved ASAP to support our reporting for 2023 and 2024. This would also allow us to file earlier in the year for 2024 instead of filing for an extension for our tax forms as we have consistently done in the past. 

Budget Process

The 2025 budget will be a full comprehensive budget, including numbers for income and expenses in all categories, rather than just showing zero income and zero expenses for lines that are expected to break even, such as the Landa Kongreso. Partial numbers are available for 2023 and 2024, and these will allow for a more thorough budget to be presented, including estimates in areas that we do not have historical numbers for. 

Draft Agreement with KEA for Dulanda Kongreso

KEA has presented the E-USA board with an agreement for expenses and income for the Dulanda Kongreso, wherein KEA will cover costs upfront, and after the Kongreso, E-USA will reimburse KEA for expenses, proportionate to the percentage of participants in the Kongreso which come from E-USA and from KEA. E-USA would take in registration income for registrants from the USA throughout the year and would use this income to reimburse KEA for our portion of expenses after the Kongreso ends. Brandon recommends that the agreement be shared with the full board and that the Executive Committee be granted the authority to discuss needed changes with KEA and sign the agreement. The board would provide comments prior to November 3. Charlotte recommends that, if the Executive Committee is to determine this, the board vote to give the Executive Committee this authority. Peggy moves that the board review the draft agreement with KEA and provide comments prior to November 3rd, and that the Executive Committee be given authority to sign the document by November 10. Matt seconds. Isabel will look over the document and provide feedback from a legal standpoint. Motion passes unanimously. 

Tabled Items

Tabled for next month were discussion on Google Workspaces Administration and TAKE 2026. The meeting was adjourned.