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


	October 2006 AAJA meeting minutes Oct. 29, 2006 In attendance: Tom Lee, Lewis Leung, Mary Tan, Nancy Yang Absent: Annie Hua, Nancy Ngo, William Sabalburo Tardy: NEXT MEETING: 11 a.m., Nov. 19, Mary Tan’s Taste of AAJA: § Invites have been mailed; we still have a few invites left if anyone has more ideas about who should receive an invite. In all, spent about $450 on invites. § Sponsors: Next year when we do this again, we need to start asking earlier. § We have about three gold sponsors – U of MN (picking up the cost of the space), the Vikings, Kiernan’s (donating the drinks). The Vikings want a student to write to them saying the money they are donating (from the Junior Quarterback fund) will help student become journalists. § Bronze sponsorship – Bremer’s. § Northwest Airlines is considering sponsorship, Ameriprise Financial said no (they don’t do sponsorship), TCF said they need employee to make request (Tom LaVenture working on this), St. Jude Medical said maybe they are interested (Maya working on this). Haven’t heard from 3M Co., Medtronic, Dorsey & Whitney, St. Paul Travelers, SuperValu, General Mills, U.S. Bancorp, Target, Best Buy. § Haven’t nailed any restaurants yet, but Allie does think three will commit: Peninsula, Sawatdee, Hong Kong Noodle. Udupi is up the air, still has to make contact with Camdi’s and Midori’s. If anyone has more suggestions about restaurants, send them to Tom. § Tom suggested that if restaurants are hesitant to commit, maybe we could consider spending some of our budget on enticing them to commit, reimbursing them for some of the cost of food. § Great progress on entertainment: o Emcees locked down o Chinese dancers o Delicious Venom, a hip-hop group o Ed Bok Lee, spoken work artist § Silent auction: Could use more stuff, have about 15 items (Theater Mu – four tickets, Vikings donated tickets and a signed jersey, Strib donated their suite for Wild game, Timberwolves donated 12 tickets, financial adviser donating his services, lingerie store donating items, photographers donated their work, Delma Francis offering to cook dinner, go see concert/film/eat with local reporters, a "date" with Sven Sungaard. Pass along more ideas to Laura Yuen. § On ticket system for sponsorship: Will be a tier structure (two tickets for bronze level, four tickets for silver, six for gold) § Things that need to be done: o Annie Hua will be chair of volunteer committee (recruit volunteers and to man the tables, coat check and whatnot). o Need someone to follow up on RSVPs, due Nov. 15. o Need everyone to send an invite out to their respective newsrooms and put out posters, press release to communities. Will wait until past the RSVP deadline to put up posters. o Need to get posters at the restaurants. o Programs: Have three full-page ads for the gold sponsorships, Allie is trying to get restaurants to put a dollar value on their services donated and we will give them the appropriate program space. o Mary will approach the local Asian business network groups. o We need to print passports and get stamps. o Need Will to put up posters at the U. We should hit up St. Thomas as well and send them invites. Nancy Y. will send invites to the St. Thomas j-school staff. § Consider making Taste an every-other-year fundraising event. Elections and AAJA constitution: § Mary suggested that we consolidate the vice presidency into one position (chapters have the option to elect as many VP as they want). Ayes: 4. Nay: 0. § Student rep is appointed every year. § Attendance: absentees must pay a $10 fine to the AAJA general fund. Spring internship: § Two internships were not used in the 2006 budget year, they will be canceled. New internship terms will start again next year (two for print, two for broadcast). § Need to create the 2007 budget before we can approve internships. Budget draft due at November meeting. General membership will review and offer comments, board will vote on the 2007 budget in December. Speaker requests: § Can we ask Roshini and Chao to do it? They are members of the programming committee for the Indian Association of MN. Dec. 2. § Mary Tan and/or Maya may be willing to speak to PRISM. Media Watch: § Ask Chao to be the media watch coordinator. NEXT MEETING AGENDA: § Taste of AAJA update § Preliminary budget (to be approved by board in December) § 11 a.m. Nov. 19 at Mary Tan’s house.

AAJA meeting minutes Oct. 29, 2006