AAJA Minnesota--It's Hotter Than You Think!


	February 2006 AAJA meeting minutes Feb. 16, 2006 In attendance: Mara Fink, Annie Hua, Nhia Lee, Tom Lee, Susan Leem, Lewis Leung, Bao Ong, Mary Tan, Lajlim Yang and Nancy Yang NEXT BOARD MEETING: 11 a.m. March 19, Annie Hua’s place Committees: Ÿ Committee meetings can be done via e-mail or conference calls. They will be much more regular than general meetings. Ÿ Ran through each of the committees and brainstormed ideas. Membership and fundraising committees are in the most need of members. Ÿ Fundraising: Taste of AAJA; student groups and community group participation, especially for entertainment. A budget will need to be created and approved. Ÿ Programming: E-mail members to see what kind of panels they would like to see. Could have sessions in conjunction with TCBJ or NLGJA, etc. At least one panel for students, one panel for professional members. Mentorship program will be relaunched with a student pizza and bowling night. A budget will also need to be created and approved for programming. Ÿ Membership: Development of a student representative is needed; William Sabalburo volunteered for the position. A writing contest might be a good way to get more student membership. Ÿ Social: We need to look into free or donated space for social events, particularly the talent show. General meetings: Ÿ Instead of having consistent general meetings, committees will meet on their own to discuss projects. Ÿ Planning on having potlucks or social gatherings to get the members together. AAJA board minutes Feb. 19, 2006 In attendance: Annie Hua, Thomas Lee, Lewis Leung, Shruti Mathur, Mary Tan, Nancy Yang Absent: Nancy Ngo NEXT MEETING: 11 a.m. March 19 at Annie Hua’s Financial presentation: Tom: § Looked into mutual funds that are well diversified with stable rate returns § Two funds: First is highly recommended, local fund based in St. Paul, Mairs powers and growth fund, large cap blend, combo of growth stocks and value stocks. Good mix, if invest in large cap fund, won’t go bankrupt soon, offer dividends and stock repurchases, stable source of investment, combination on growth opportunity, chance for stock to go up. Also have stability. Morningstar and the Baron’s magazine ranked it as one of top long-term funds, over 10-year period returned 13.8 percent, fifth on the Morningstar ranking. Five years, fund returns 10 percent, second in the Morningstar rankings. Has outperformed S&P rankings. Seems to be in it for the long haul, not reckless, gives good return at minimal risk. Morningstar: strong, long-term record, low turnover. Top five holdings are local companies: Wells Fargo, Medtronic, Target (made really good money) Emerson Electric, etc. Fund required $2500 initial investment minimum. Legg Mason Fund: initial investment of $1000, good return but not quite as good as Mairs. Invest Sprint/Nextel, United Health, Amazon, Tyco, Google. § Money not locked in bank account, can be withdrawn for emergencies. § Have the option of pulling out. Lewis: § Will do some more research on additional funds. § Will have the money from the convention next week. § Index fund will probably do the trick; index funds are funds that have all the stocks in the market regardless of sizes, large caps, covers all the big and small companies of domestic companies. Big pool of companies. People put different money in large caps or small caps to maximize returns. In the long run, not like getting huge return, safer and expense ratio is lower. Tom: § If we just want to put money in one mutual fund, just put in index fund, low cost and safe investment. § If nervous, maybe play it safe and put more of the money in savings account. Shruti: § If put half of convention money in account, then we will still have two years of an operating budget. Mary: § Ideally we should be raising our operating budget each year. Tom: § Have $40K to play with (from the convention) 1. $20K in savings for now; fluid money; in case market goes down (Lewis) 2. $10K in mutual funds; divide between index fund and large cap blend. If 13 percent return, will make about $1200 per year. 3. $10K in CDs § Now we need to research mutual funds, will we need to pay transaction fees, etc. Tom will research. § Savings account and CDs: look up to see if local banks have anything good; check out interest rates. Lewis will research options on savings. § After approve selections will actually put money into accounts. Taste of AAJA: Tom: What do we need to do? § Try to find dates at the location. Usually in December. § Stick with the Weisman. § Need at least six restaurants; Annie has old passports from previous years; will look into that for old participants. Advantage with sticking with old is that we have relationship with them. But we should also diversify. § Usually have wine or beer donation. Do alcohol and nonalcoholic. Can’t sell without license but you can give it away (drink tickets, suggested donations for additional drinks; tip jar). Maybe we can partner with the J-school? They might have a liquor license and we can sell through them. § Need to have committee meeting between now and next meeting. § Entertainment: Old standbys of Bao Phi, Ed Bok Lee? The Rice Channel (Hmong band), Stolen Summer, martial arts demonstration, get some South Asian representation, taiko drumming. § Admission: About $8 for students, $10 in advance, $15 at the door? § General day volunteers needed. § Silent auction: Need to get items donated; suite tickets are big items at the silent auction; ask all the local news companies donating box tickets, also do photos from newsrooms, local companies to donate gift cards, gift baskets, also ask for services from local personalities (eat dinner with a restaurant critic, go watch a movie with movie critic, etc.). Ask Laura to help with this. § Will report at next meeting about progress.