There is perhaps some truth to what Se is saying. There is no real evidence of the results for the 2013-2016 plan of the UEA. They talk about it being disseminated via esperanto.net, but that website is woefully out of date in many areas. They still direct people to the Lernu Tujmesaĝilo...

I'm sceptical of the UEA's real influence as opposed to the image of it being a professional world body. The HQ is here in the same country as I am now and they spelt my address wrong on correspondence; the writing was near illegible.
Where is the data of how they are coordinating with other organisations to further Esperanto usage? And if it does exist, why is it not easy to find?

Are the Kongresoj really conducive to actually furthering Esperanto or are they more like a sci-fi convention? I'm sure lots of people get to interact, but it seems to me a lot of money goes into the congresses, which no-one in the Esperanto world really has (or so I keep hearing). I get the impression that it is merely the upholding of a tradition and a sort of fear that the whole enterprise will crash and burn if a UK didn't take place.

Why is the UEA, and other bodies, not running and supporting local organised classes or persuading schools/colleges (not universities) to run evening classes? It surely can't be any less of a money loser than the nth congress that thousands of people can't afford to attend, because let's be clear the "fee" is merely the right to participate minus costs for travel, accommodation, food etc. Which is pretty discouraging for someone arriving from a distance with limited resources.

Se, I am having trouble understanding you. Maybe we should move this discussion to the Esperanto forums.

The Esperanto conventions have more in common with a science fiction or a trade show than with an academic conference with presentation of papers. There is a day of each convention focused on education and another based on academic topics, where people do present academic-style presentations in Esperanto on research or other academic topics. But the main purpose of the large international conventions is (a) to give the UEA board a time and a place to meet, and to interact with other Esperanto speakers, (b) to give the various international Esperanto clubs a time and place to meet, most international clubs have their annual meeting at UK, (c) to give Esperanto speakers from all over the world a time and place to meet and get some things done (a lot of active Esperanto speakers spend much of their time at UK at meetings rather than doing tourism or attending concerts), and (d) to give a time and a place for a lot of Esperanto speakers to meet. Don't go to UK if it's not your thing but it isn't going away. We need a large meeting of Esperanto speakers. All of the various Esperanto clubs (vegetarians, cat lovers, atheists, bicyclists, entrepreneurs, etc) are not going to suddenly decide to all attend the Tibetan Esperanto Congress to have their annual meeting, and then that would be a big problem if this club chose the Tibetan congress and that club chose the Bulgarian congress and a third chose the South African congress, and the UEA held their annual board meeting in San Francisco. You could not possibly attend all of those congresses if you wanted to attend all of those meetings.

I am hardly a big fan of the UEA but they do have specific funds dedicated to supporting the Esperanto movement of poor countries, they support classes and provide resources to small associations. They rely on locals to come up with projects and apply for support, so rather than complaining that the UEA doesn't do enough to support regional movements, the solution is to plan an event in your region and apply for support.

If you feel that whoever is speaking for your local Esperanto movement is not a good representative, then you should improve your Esperanto and become active so that it is you speaking for the movement and not that person. I personally see Esperanto culture as international so it is not a problem for me if I am represented by someone who lives in my country but isn't originally from there. Our Esperanto-USA president was born in Cuba and came to the US in 1994. I do not know his citizenship and I do not care. But if you don't like the direction that your local movement is taking, the solution is to become active yourself, not to complain about others. Let them do what they want to do (you can't control other people in any case), and you work on what is important to you.

se:» It should be called the universala kongreso en turismo.

For 2000 attendees, there are probably 1999 reasons for attending. Some people who attend have no time for tourism because they are so busy attending meetings for all of the international Esperanto associations and projects that they are involved in. I have only been a couple of times, but I have definitely noticed that when I went, I sometimes needed to meet with someone and it was hard to find space in their schedule because they were already booked up with many important meetings for their other activities.

erinja:All of the various Esperanto clubs (vegetarians, cat lovers, atheists, bicyclists, entrepreneurs, etc) are not going to suddenly decide to all attend the Tibetan Esperanto Congress to have their annual meeting, and then that would be a big problem if this club chose the Tibetan congress and that club chose the Bulgarian congress and a third chose the South African congress, and the UEA held their annual board meeting in San Francisco. You could not possibly attend all of those congresses if you wanted to attend all of those meetings.

Why would it be a big problem? If these sub-groups (whatever an Esperanto Entrepreneur or Esperanto cyclist is supposed to be) wanted to meet, why do they have to go to any congress at all? It would probably be cheaper for them to meet up informally. They can't be all that large.

Maybe if people stopped automatically paying to go to a UK and funding the endless meetings of the bigwigs, the latter might replace chatter with action.

I find the 'kotizoj' for the UK extremely high. We went to the UK in Lille. We are still paying off our credit card from that trip. I like the idea of the UK - but sometimes UEA doesn't think of some things that are truly impractical. When the UK was in Cuba we were not allowed to attend because our government, at that time, did not permit travel to Cuba. Having the 100th UK near Boulogne-sur-Mer was a great idea except that it is hard to get to Lille from outside of Europe. (I am glad that we went to Lille because it is a surprisingly beautiful city and the people there are very hospitable.) I am on the committee planning the North American LK here in Miami this July. I am glad that it iwill be in Miami because 1) it is easy to get to Miami from many places; 2) the place of the congress (University of Miami) is easy to get to from the airport or the main highway; 3) Miami (except for the beach) is not an expenssive place.

Vestitor:Why would it be a big problem? If these sub-groups (whatever an Esperanto Entrepreneur or Esperanto cyclist is supposed to be) wanted to meet, why do they have to go to any congress at all? It would probably be cheaper for them to meet up informally. They can't be all that large.

Maybe if people stopped automatically paying to go to a UK and funding the endless meetings of the bigwigs, the latter might replace chatter with action.

?

These are international interest groups. It's hardly a matter of showing up at your local cafe to meet all of your fellow vegetarians who live in 4 different continents. Or, while attending UK, seeing that there is a club of Esperanto vegetarians and deciding to attend their session to see what they're all about. Most people are not willing to pay for an international trip solely to meet up with the Esperanto vegetarian club (the club would not last long under those circumstances, I think) but putting a ton of this stuff together increases incentive to attend. The bicycle enthusiasts do sometimes plan Esperanto bike trips but that kind of thing is not so obvious and clear for something like the atheists' society.

Not to mention giving an opportunity to be in an atmosphere where Esperanto is pretty much the only language. I don't even like UK that much (too big) but I see value in its existence. There is no other time and place where you have so many Esperantists in one place, and I see a lot of value in that. A lot of business gets done, you see people you haven't seen in years, you see people you knew from many different Esperanto contexts, not just the one or two local Esperanto vegetarians you know. National and local congresses don't even come close. Most national congresses consist of mostly people from that single country, with perhaps a couple of foreign guests, sitting around and talking in maybe half Esperanto and maybe half the local language. Most small congresses could never afford to bring even one Esperanto musical group to their congress (especially if they are outside Europe). If this is all there is, then there is less point in learning, because frankly I can hang out with lots of people from my country and speak my national language for free at home, no need to travel for it.

UK is not cheap but I have seen people attend from poor countries who surely do not have the money to attend. I am sure someone is sponsoring them to help the connections needed to boost their country's movement.

I'm not at all utopian in outlook but there is something cool about being in a place where you hear Esperanto spoken on the streets and on the local public transport, in the airplane or the train on your way to the event, etc. It was cool in Reykjavik to see that some restaurants posted Esperanto flags on their doors to indicate that they had an Esperanto translation of their menu available. You need a critical mass of people to get that kind of thing and it's part of the reason why I generally support holding UK in smaller cities, not in the capital city of a large country, where the Esperanto group gets lost in the crowd and no one notices or cares that there's a big Esperanto convention going on.

se:...

se I see from your many posts that you are passionate about the spread of the Esperanto language.

However expecting that "someone (in this case the UEA) should do this" or "someone should do that" will achieve nothing except to make yourself and possibly others feel frustrated and upset.

If you do not like what someone is doing ignore them, and think of ways that you personally can implement or encourage the things you would prefer.

erinja:...you see people you knew from many different Esperanto contexts,...

Yes, thats very cool. It also makes clear that nothing consolidates better than face-to-face meetings/events. At least I feel this valid for Esperanto- Interlingua-Lidepla conlang triple.

erinja:Most national congresses consist of mostly people from that single country, with perhaps a couple of foreign guests, sitting around and talking in maybe half Esperanto and maybe half the local language. Most small congresses could never afford to bring even one Esperanto musical group to their congress (especially if they are outside Europe).

Hhm. To me, concept 'congress' I relate with something what is 'over-ceremonially', proabably an non-easygoing event. I would feel very non-comfortable at such kind of congress event. Furthermore E-o congresses are much to expensive to test it. It also seems to be need of congresses to rent expensive representative buildings. Probably that also was reason why some congress of another conlang community were canceled. So, it also seems to be very risky to book traveling in advance for some congress event.

erinja:If this is all there is, then there is less point in learning, because frankly I can hang out with lots of people from my country and speak my national language for free at home, no need to travel for it.

For me the traveling in itself into countries where English isn't very helpful at streets, thats already adventure which motivates me to attend the event. Okay, maybe thats personal preference, because I like location changes (wandering) which inludes onsite exploring a lot. But I prefer to do this in summer not in winter. So I can make it everytime some outdoor adventure which I mostly enjoy a lot.

erinja:You need a critical mass of people to get that kind of thing and it's part of the reason why I generally support holding UK in smaller cities, not in the capital city of a large country, where the Esperanto group gets lost in the crowd and no one notices or cares that there's a big Esperanto convention going on.

I agree, best festoj happening in back province and smaller cities which provide much less 'ignore culture' in the streets than in metropolitian areas.

robbkvasnak:I find the 'kotizoj' for the UK extremely high. We went to the UK in Lille. We are still paying off our credit card from that trip. I like the idea of the UK - but sometimes UEA doesn't think of some things that are truly impractical. When the UK was in Cuba we were not allowed to attend because our government, at that time, did not permit travel to Cuba.

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Impractical for who? It would be hard for a Cuban to attend an event in Miami (though it is getting easier), though they are geographically close. The UEA tries to spread events over the world to give people a chance to attend, and not everyone can attend each one.

It's sad that you're in credit card debt but if you couldn't afford to go to Europe, you could have waited until the next time it comes to North America (Montreal has been putting itself forth as a candidate and I have to believe it will continue to do so until it wins), or else go to the one in Nitra, which is not hard to access from Vienna or Bratislava, and is in a very cheap country.

Smaller cities tend to be cheaper. You could have a UK in London but in order to make the cost acceptable you'd have to make it in such a distant suburb that it might not be any easier than Lille. Lille is a 2 hour ride from Brussels, and you could easily spend 2 hours getting from one London airport to a distant suburb on the opposite side of town.

UK in Vietnam was not so easy to reach for many Esperanto speakers but of course it was important to have it there to make it cheaper and easier for other Asians to attend, not to mention local Vietnamese.

We made it to Lille but our flight to Brussels arrived so late that we had to spend the night there and continue on to Lille the next day.
Montreal .... yes, Montreal - I was hoping for Montreal. There has not been a UK on the North American continent since 1984 in Vancouver and not in the USA since 1972 in Portland (44 years ago), so almost half a century. The one previous to that was 1910 in Washington. There has never been a UK in Mexico (sigh).
People have been discussing Montreal for a while. I visited Montreal in 2007 and met with a bunch of wonderful Esperantists there.
I encourage people to attend the Nordamerika LK en Miami this year. It will be at the University of Miami. I think you will find our region fascinating and very open to speakers of different languages. There is DEF no arrogance here about using English (like there is in Brussels) - to the contrary. It is sort of a badge of honor to speak Spanish, Portuguese, Kreyol or French.
If I had a chance to rename Miami, I would choose the name: Alegria!
Oh, another Esperantist and I are willing to sponsor Cubans if they need it. In fact, one of our big hopes is that Cubans will come. There are now many direct flights and there is talk about a ferry - maybe this spring already! There are direct flights to Miami from Toronto and Montreal as well as from Caracas, Bogota, Rio, Sao Paulo, Manaos and all of the cities in the Caribbean basin.