My trip to san Francisco came off without a hitch. I caught the shuttle from the sofitel and got to the airport in good order. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the BART station, but it wasn't actually difficult: there is a little train that goes between the terminals that takes you right to the BART station. From there, I caught the train to Ashby and arrived about an hour ahead of schedule. I called Don when I got in and he came to get me early and took me back to the ELNA office. I was able to browse the libroservo and picked out two books to read on the flight. One is the Postdomo, a satire about the recent political maneuverings in the Universala Esperanto Asocio -- kind of like Primary Colors, where the names have been changed, but it's still obvious who is being referenced. The other is called Avo Biciklas Ĉirkaŭ la Mondo, about an older guy who cycles across Europe and Asia to the Pacific Ocean. It was expensive, because the exchange rate is so bad, but it looks like something to help me stay focused on my training. While I browsed the bookshelves, Don was getting ready to set up to take a box of books for people to browse at the SFERO meeting later. Once he was done, we sat down and chatted about ELNA and it's challenges.
Don has been involved with ELNA for decades and really has a good sense for what the problems have been. It sounds like a bunch of the obvious problems that had contributed to the decline in membership have been addressed. There are sociological trends that have contributed to the decline as well, which aren't simple to address, but I got the impression that things are generally better at the moment. I have a much clearer picture of what the organization does. Trying to figure out how to improve things is going to be a challenge.
The bridge we were planning to take was reported to be closed until 12:30, so we didn't really set out until around 1pm: we left a bit early to go the other way and pick up a couple of other folks, but arrived at the bridge. The traffic was horrendous, but not significantly worse than I remember from 15 years ago. We arrived at the Golden Gate Park in plenty of time and were among the first into the community room.
There were about 12 esperantists at the SFERO meeting, including the usona ĉefdelegito Bill. Some tasty snacks had been provided and the meeting had a full agenda. I was asked to introduce myself and to discuss my guerilla marketing ideas. Some people who'd attended a recent conference reported on their experiences. There was a lingva angulo, where we tried to think up good translations for commonplace english expressions like "under the weather" (we decided malsaneta was pretty good) and "carry a tune" (of the various options we considered, I liked malkantaĉi the best).
After the meeting, I was invited to an early espermanĝo at a local Thai restaurant in the middle of the Haight Ashbury district. I got a bowl of tom yum seafood soup, which was delicious. I don't care for the tom yum that our local Thai restaurant prepares, so it was a treat to get some good stuff. After dinner Bill gave me a lift to a BART station and I made my way back to the airport. I arrived with a few hours to wait, but I don't mind: I can write a bit and, eventually, get out my books and start reading. Unfortunately, SFO has stupid T-Mobile networks. It would be nice if you could buy an hour or two of network connectivity for some reasonable rate, but I don't see a good way to do that. Scumbags.
The flights came off without a hitch and I arrived home in the late morning, in time for lunch and a long nap. Back to work tomorrow.
StevenBrewer