The Council of Estonian Societies in Australia (Austraalia Eesti Seltside Liit – AESL) board meets monthly to discuss initiatives that support Estonians all over Australia. March marked the first board meeting of the year, following the AGM, where we confirmed board member positions and determined plans for the year ahead. Where will we be at the end of 2024? What are our directions? What is our strategy for the year? We go through our “Timeline” monthly works list, but our 2 hour monthly meetings tend to just run with upcoming issues at hand.
During the March 2024 board meeting, the issues at hand were the Suurpõgenemine event and donations, support for Sõrve and language teachers, the establishment of Western Australia’s new eesti team with fresh initiatives, Adelaide Eesti Päevad organising progress, and language groups progress. The board resolved that Juho Looveer will report on the AGM held in January 2024, while Siiri Iismaa will start an article about Sõrve Camp. This leaves us with the task of documenting AESL’s involvement in other domains – Archive, Media, Language, Eesti Päevad, and eesti societies in cities.
This is the time to get AESL media right. The Australian Estonian Media Project is going independently strong. Once the AESL board has the material ready, we hope for their help to set up in a unified online space. A space that makes us easy to find; one space for all that is Estonian in Australia, having also AESL covered – what we stand for, constitution, AGM news, Annual Booklets, and above mentioned “timeless” articles, with contact details for each area. In the meanwhile, we will also continue to host our Zoom Get Togethers over Australia, a regular event for any Estonian to Join The Conversation! The next open meeting is April 3rd 2024.
Our board will meet again next month to continue our collective efforts.
