esperanto asocio logo of uea individual members by countries 1 150 members 151 300 members 301 451 members abbreviation uea formation 1908 1908 founder hector hodler purpose promote the use of esperanto headquarters central office location rotterdam the netherlands coordinates 51 54 50 n 4 27 52 e 51.9138 n 4.4644 e 51.9138 ; 4.4644 region world official language esperanto president mark fettes vice president stefan macgill general director veronika po r key people ivo lapenna main organ central committee affiliations un unesco website uea.org esperanto language grammar phonology orthography braille vocabulary etymology history zamenhof proto esperanto unua libro fundamento declaration of boulogne montevideo resolution manifesto of rauma prague manifesto modern evolution of esperanto culture and media esperantist esperantujo clubs film la espero libraries literature music native speakers pop culture references publications symbols zamenhof day profanity esperantism national associations australia britain youth labour canada quebec new zealand usa organizations and services amikeca reto kurso de esperanto esperanto academy encyclopedia pasporta servo tejo uea sat plou zec meetings universal congress europe democracy esperanto european esperanto union panamerican congress european youth week skolta esperanto ligo youth congress criticism gender esperantido reformed vs. ido vs. interlingua vs. novial related topics auxiliary language constructed language ido interlingua novial occidental volap k anationalism wikimedia portal task force esperanto wikipedia vikipedio vikivortaro vikicitaro vikifontaro vikilibroj vikikomunejo vikispecoj vikinova oj v t e the central office of universal esperanto association in rotterdam the universal esperanto association uea also known as the world esperanto association esperanto universala esperanto asocio is the largest international organization of esperanto speakers with 5501 individual members in 121 countries and 9215 through national associations in 2015 1 and in official relations with the united nations and unesco . in addition to individual members seventy national esperanto organizations are affiliated with uea . its current president is the canadian professor mark fettes . the magazine esperanto is the main organ used by uea to inform its members about everything happening in the esperanto community . uea was founded in 1908 by the swiss journalist hector hodler and others and is now headquartered in rotterdam the netherlands . the organization has an office at the united nations building in new york city . contents 1 structure and affiliated organizations 1.1 youth section 1.2 national organizations 1.3 specialist organizations 2 activities 2.1 publications 2.2 conventions 2.3 international organizations 3 history 3.1 the founding years of the esperanto movement 1888 1914 3.2 uea in its first years 3.3 attempts of organization in the interbellum 1920 1933 3.4 the new uea and the schism of 1936 3.5 uea after world war ii 4 see also 5 references 6 literature 7 external links structure and affiliated organizations edit the komitato the highest organ of uea gathering in 2008 at the world congress of esperanto according to its 1980 statutes statuto de uea the universal esperanto association has two kinds of members individual members join the association directly paying a fee to the rotterdam headquarters or to the chief delegate in their country . these members receive the uea yearbook and receive the uea services . asociaj membroj those members of the organizations that joined uea . these members are administered by their respective organizations . it can be a national or a specialist organization . this kind of membership is for the person in question a mere symbolical membership . the highest organ of uea the komitato has members komitatanoj elected in three different ways an organization sends one komitatano for every 1 000 national members to the komitato but at least one . most national organizations have only one komitatano . per 1 000 individual members the individual members can choose one member to the komitato . both previous groups by elect more komitatanoj up to one third of their numbers . the komitato elects a board the estraro . the estraro installs a general director and sometimes additionally a director . the general director and his staff work at the uea headquarters oficejo de uea in rotterdam . an individual member can become a delegito a delegate . this means that he serves as a local contact person for esperanto and uea members in his town . a efdelegito chief delegate is someone installed also by the uea headquarters but with the task to collect the member fees in a given country . youth section edit tejo the world esperanto youth organization is the youth section of the uea . similar to the world congress tejo organizes an international youth congress of esperanto internacia junulara kongreso each year in a different location . the ijk is a week long event of concerts presentations excursions attended by hundreds of young people from all over the world . the youth section has a komitato and national and specialist affiliated organizations just as uea itself . a tejo volunteer works at the rotterdam headquarters . national organizations edit national organizations of esperanto in green those that joined uea uea board members and other distinct uea members at the inauguration of the 2015 congress the first national esperanto organization was founded in 1898 in france originally as a potential international association . in 1903 followed the second one in switzerland . within a couple of years many of the now still existing national organizations came into existence . since 1933 1934 they send representatives into the uea komitato a kind of parliament making it a federation of national organizations . the term in esperanto was initially mostly naciaj societoj national societies since 1933 landaj asocioj country associations . when uea accepted national organizations in 1933 1934 for the first time it required them to have at least 100 national members be organized in an orderly manner be neutral meaning having no political or religious aims and being open to all citizens of the country . 2 especially the last prerequisite caused serious problems e.g. to the german national association coming in those months under national socialist rule . later for example the cuban association was refused because its statutes claimed to respect the leading role of the communist party in cuba . in 1980 the uea statutes were altered . since then a national organization need not be neutral itself but must respect the neutrality of uea . specialist organizations edit specialist organizations are similar to the national organizations . they are divided into two groups neutral organizations that can join uea in the same way as a national organizations . in esperanto they are called ali intaj fakaj asocioj affiliated specialist associations . examples are the esperanto physicians and the esperanto teachers . other organizations in official collaboration with uea . they do not send representatives to the komitato but are mentioned in the yearbook and can have a room at the world congress . some of them refuse to be affiliated because of financial reasons others because they are non neutral and can not join uea . examples are the esperanto vegetarians the esperanto catholics and the esperanto communists . the youth section tejo has two affiliated specialist groups the cyclists and the lovers of rock music . activities edit publications edit uea is the publisher of esperanto the most important esperanto periodical . it was started in 1905 by paul berthelot three years before uea was founded . uea founder hector hodler took it over in 1907 and made it the official uea magazine in 1908 . in 1920 he left the magazine to the association . since the 1950s it has a paid editor in chief . next to esperanto the yearbook jarlibro de uea is the oldest continuous publication of the association . uea book shop at the 2008 world congress of esperanto uea publishes books and has the largest mail order esperanto bookstore in the world with over 6000 books cds and other items . it also maintains an information center and an important esperanto library called the hector hodler library . the organisation has a network of local representatives from around the world the delegita reto who are available to provide information about their geographical area or professional field . conventions edit the yearly world congress of esperanto universala kongreso de esperanto which attracts 1500 3000 people to a different city each year is held under the direction of uea . the first congress took place in 1905 and since 1933 1934 the association is in charge of it . twice a year in spring and autumn uea headquarters in rotterdam holds an open day . international organizations edit in addition to the un and unesco uea also has consultative relations with unicef and the council of europe and a general working relationship with the organization of american states . it works in an official capacity with the international organization for standardization iso as an a liaison to iso tc37 . uea is active in public information in the european union and as necessary at other interstate and international organizations and conferences . the organisation is a member of the european language council a common forum of universities and language associations for the awareness of languages and cultures inside and outside the european union . in may 2011 uea officially became an associate member of the international information centre for terminology infoterm . history edit the founding years of the esperanto movement 1888 1914 edit the modern uea is the result of a decades long process of several attempts to give the esperanto movement a proper organization . the first esperanto associations were local clubs of which the one in nuremberg germany is considered the first 1888 . from 1898 national esperanto associations were found in several countries with the french one being the first . in 1903 followed the swiss association in 1904 the british in 1906 the german and swedish etc. the founder of esperanto l. l. zamenhof wished that an international association came to existence but the first world congress of 1905 produced only a general manifesto about the essence and neutrality of the movement . the organizing team passed the torch to organizers of a next congress the year after this eventually created a konstanta kongresa komitato permanent congress committee . it consisted of two members representing the last congress two for the current and two for the following congress . the esperantists agreed that the whole movement must support two common international tasks international documentation propaganda in countries without movements of their own lobbying at international organizations organizing the world congresses etc. the esperantists did disagree on which or what organization should be responsible for these tasks how it should collect the money and how it should decide on spending the money . in 1906 the french general hyppolyte sebert created his esperantista centra oficejo central office of the esperantists in paris . it collected information on the movement and published an oficiala gazeto . in spite of this official name the office was a purely private enterprise of sebert but he tried to reach support from the national associations . one year later at the geneva world congress zamenhof created a lingva komitato language committee the basis of the later akademio de esperanto . it consisted of some eminent speakers from several countries and had to guard the evolution of the language esperanto . the members of this committee were consequently elected by cooptation . hector hodler son of famous swiss national painter ferdinand hodler in 1920 in 1908 a group of young esperanto speakers around hector hodler founded an international association based on individual direct membership universala esperanto asocio seated in geneva . according to hodler and his followers an international cause such as esperanto must be supported by a unitary truly international association . uea members should found organizations on national and local levels . the national and local associations saw uea as a threat as an undesirable concurrence . 3 they were afraid of a division in the movement between the traditional groups on the