## **Scottish Esperanto Association (SC042398) Trustees' Annual Report, 2024**
## Trustees in 2024
|Trustees in 2024||
|---|---|
|**Name**|**Post**|
|Mia Casey||
|Peter Cleaves|Secretary
President(→June 2024)|
|Hugh Reid|Editor,_Esperanto en Skotlando_
Membership Secretary (→ June 2024)
President(June 2024 →)|
|Ed Robertson||
|Duncan Thomson|Treasurer
MembershipSecretary (June 2024 →)|
## **Overview**
In 2024, we ran our congress, study day, and the Glasgow Club. The council (trustees) also met several times over the year, online.
## **Events**
## **Glasgow Club**
The Glasgow Club met 10 times over 2023, 7 times in our our usual meeting place on Elmbank Street, and three further times in a restaurant to use the the language more informally (including once when we planned the Glasgow activities for the coming year).
Our Glasgow programme included a mix of events. Some of these allow all members to contribute and practice the language, including our September meeting when members talk about their summer activities, and others such as "Libravole" (talking about a recent book they have read) and "Tri Strangaj Vortoj". In other cases these were talks about subjects in Esperanto designed to let members exercise the language in an unfamiliar field — these included talks about the Rubic Cube, poetry, and voting systems. We also had an evening playing (language) games.
## **Congress 2023 — Aberdeen**
In 2024 our annual congress took place in Aberdeen — for the first time in many years. Our guest was a native speaker of Esperanto, who led some icebreaker games on the Friday night, as well as giving lectures about her
early life as a native Esperanto speaker and her job as a translator, mainly involving French, English and Welsh — though also occasionally Esperanto.
Over the weekend Esperantists from Scotland and other places took part. While there were other talks too (for example on Aberdeen, the maths of music, and other themes) there were also chances to practice the language more informally with a trip to Stonehaven and Dunottar castle, and a meal together on the Saturday night.
During the Congress, the Annual General Meeting also took place. Some discussion around a new constitution began there, and the trustees expect to bring a new constitution to the membership in 2025 for approval.
## **Study Day**
We invited Robert Garcia as a guest for our study day, which took place in Edinburgh. As might be expected from the name, our study day was spent mainly learning and practising the language. Robert had prepared many exercises for attendees to practise fine points of Esperanto grammar.
## **Events — General**
Our calendar of events hosted on our website has made it easier to see upcoming events and attract new attendees to our meetings, both local and more widely.
## **Publications**
Hugh stood down as editor of our _Esperanto en Skotlando_ ("Esperanto in Scotland", our biannual magazine) at the end of 2024. Hugh edited his last EeS in the sping, and David Guerin edited his first from his home in France, having returned there after spending a year in Scotland. "EeS" provides members with high quality text of all kinds to practice their reading. It also accepts articles from both members and others allowing those to practice their writing skills.
The epic novel _La Granda Kaldrono_ by the eminent Scottish Esperantist John Francis was republished in paper form in 2024. This was published following an agreement between SEA and the British Esperanto Association in 2024, for which SEA received a fee.
## **Management of the Charity**
There were a small number of changes in personnel in 2024. Hugh Reid stood down as membership secretary, and Duncan Thomson took on this role alongside his treasurer role. Hugh took over the role of president from Peter Cleaves for the coming year, and will organise next year's congress.
The trustees began discussions around a number of planned changes to the constitution. The aim is to reduce the number of required roles and to limit the time trustees may spend in a particular role. We also wish to make the
use of online meetings for management in line with the constitution. Discussion around this began at the AGM and is expected to continue into next year.
## **Trustee Meetings**
The trustees met 4 times over the year, discussing a range of issues (see below).
## **MonthMain Agenda Items**
Mar Congress 2024, Committee Roles May Congress 2024, Committee Roles, old Minutes Sep New Constitution, Congress 2025 Dec Kosmo, empty posts, payments via EAS, Congress 2025
## **Finance**
The charity made a small loss in 2024, partly owing to the higher than expected costs of hosting an external facilitator for our Study Day in the autumn. The printing and distribution of _Esperanto en Skotlando_ continues to cost more than the membership cost, and it is expected that we will need to change this soon.
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