All California Esperanto Conference
TKEK 2006
(TutKalifornio Esperanto Konferenco)
Davis, California, USA. March 24 - 26 2006
Esperanto
English
The conference was in the "Sequoia" room, at the "Hallmark Inn" hotel, in downtown Davis, university and agricultural town, 15 miles west of Sacramento, the capital city of California, on the west of USA.
You can see 40 pictures: 1 2 3 4
Follows a report by Donald Harlow:The Tut-Kalifornia Esperanto-Konferenco for this year was held in Davis, California, over the past weekend. I write about it because I was there. It seems to have been a rousing success.
I'm not sure how many people registered -- I've heard figures ranging from 52 to 56. Certainly a couple of those who signed up ahead of time didn't show, but there were also the usual few "sovaĝuloj" (late registrants) who showed up unanticipated at the door. I really doubt whether Sean L.'s two small children or little Aŭtuno Schmidt were registered in their own names. Among the participants were at least two members of Auxlang (I don't know about possible lurkers).
One major problem arose at the opening: people were standing in the back of the room and at the sides because there weren't enough chairs, and the hotel maintenance people had to be called in to bring in more chairs (for which, all things considered, there wasn't really enough room ...).
Presentations spanned a wide range, from Amanda Higley Schmidt's "Speaking Esperanto with your children" (in which three-year-old Aŭtuno also participated) through Andrea Monticue's talk on aviation maintenance technology to Orlando Raola's demo on the present and future of nanotechnology.
At recent TKEKs I've noticed a (what to my 63-year-old mentality is a disturbing) trend -- the number of people who show up that I've never met before, and, worse, those of whom I've never heard before, including folks who seem to speak perfectly competent Esperanto.
My main interest, this time, was financial -- most notably, the ELNA book service sales (for which I was responsible) and the results of the traditional auction at the banquet (from which ELNA generally receives the proceeds for its General Fund). The gross income from both events resulted much better than anticipated.
Some participants went on a Sunday-morning excursion to a museum of old-time machinery at the University of California; apparently, it was very interesting. Others stayed at the conference room, listened to some final presentations, and bought books before the latter were all packed away.
The conference closed with a noontime picnic in one of the city parks -- luckily, we were in a hiatus between episodes of storm which have troubled Northern California since late February. Last time we had the conference in Davis (1999), the picnic was "intimate" (i.e., at most ten people showed up). This time, maybe because of the rousing success when a picnic was held at the ELNA national congress in neighboring Sacramento in 2002, about forty people appeared to scarf down hamburgers (both real and vegetarian), roasted chicken drumsticks, pasta salad and Chinese chicken salad. If you put on a conference, and can turn out someone who knows how to do a picnic, I heartily recommend this program item. Weather permitting, of course.
No decision on where the conference will be held next year: Santa Barbara (in southern California) and Milpitas (outside San Jose, at the south end of San Francisco Bay) were both proposed. I guess we'll find out later. Usually, the conference oscillates between Northern and Southern California, but Southern California (in the person of San Diego) is likely to be preoccupied with preparing the 2007 ELNA national congress at that time.
-- Don HARLOW
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Updated by Enrique, March 28 2006