From: bhelm@sisters.cs.uoregon.edu (B. Robert Helm)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.esperanto
Subject: Re: Recruiting Esperantistojn
Summary: More discussion of Esperanto recruiting
Keywords: recruiting novice
Date: 2 Sep 92 22:11:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Sep2.221144.20873
Organization: University of Oregon Computer and Information Sciences Dept.

(What follows is an e-mailed reply to my question about Esperanto
 recruiting.  I am posting it with the permission of the author.
 -- BRH)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

In article <1992Sep2.170504.9202@cs.uoregon.edu>, s-ro Helm skribas:
>(stuff deleted)
> I was struck by the fact that all of the recruiting methods of the
> Esperanto movement seem to be "client-initiative."  Organizations like
> ELNA and the Lingva Servo will provide novices with learning materials
> and assistance, but those novices have to contact the organizations.
> It appears to me there may be many potential Esperantistoj who will
> never contact any E-organization, simply because they (a) have never
> heard of Esperanto, or (b) have heard of it, but don't know it still
> exists.  I fell into category (b) until recently.
> 
> A "server-initiative" recruiting strategy would try to make Esperanto
> more visible to its potential users.  For example, one might set up
> booths at science fiction conventions; attendees of such conventions
> are typically willing to try out weird, futuristic ideas.  Or one
> might make small mass mailings to subscribers of magazines which often
> focus on international affairs, e. g. Foreign Affairs or The Atlantic
> Monthly.
> 
> Is the "client-initiative" strategy a conscious choice of the
> Esperanto organizations?  Would more agressive marketing of Esperanto
> violate the philosophy of the "movado?"  Or is the strategy simply the
> result of limited resources (volunteer time, money)?

Welcome to Esperantujo!  I have a few comments about this.

In my opinion (which I tell the ELNA Estraro at every opportunity :-),
it's (a) lack of resources and (b) lack of skills.  There's no "movado
philosophy" against being effective :-)

In the US, for example, ELNA has approx 1,000 members.  We've been able to
do some good things -- we raised $20,000 to do the Richardson book, for
example -- but we have two paid employees, and the rest of us normally
have jobs, families, etc.  So we do what we can on weekends, evenings, etc.
ELNA's annual budget is about $100,000 -- that leaves nothing for real
advertising (which is *expensive*).

We do some "real" recruiting -- for example, I've spoken or manned tables
at peace fairs, science fiction conventions, etc -- but again, we have
limited resources.  I have a finite amount of time and it's already
oversubscribed :-).  If we can attract more people with expertise in
organizing, recruiting, fundraising, etc, I think we can accomplish a lot.
As it is, very few of our activists have any real expertise in any of
these fields...

So it's a slow, bootstrap operation.  But if you have tons of money, that
would help us a lot!  A large part of ELNA's current efforts are sustained
by a large donation that we received a few years ago:  a member left her
house to us in her will, we put the proceeds in a capital fund, and the
interest every year is about 25% of ELNA's income -- it has helped us
in every way.

"Ec^ guto malgranda, konstante frapanta, traboras la monton granitan!"

(PS: I won't be able to respond to mail, etc for a week or so... see you
later!)

David Wolff

dwolff@RES-C4.Prime.COM (works from most places)
dwolff%res-c4.prime.com@relay.cs.net (alternate)

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