AAJA-DC Board Minutes
11:30 a.m., Sat., 1/28/06
China Garden, 1100 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va.

Officers Attending: President Tan Ly, Community Liaison Wanita Niehaus, Vice President (Print) HyunJu Chappell Hine, National Board Representative Doris Truong, Secretary Susan Yoo, Student Liaison (Non-voting) Laurie Au

Visiting: Journalism student, U-Md., Tim Wong

COMPLETED BUSINESS:

CAMP AAJA (St. Petersburg, Fla.): Tan and Wanita returned from this experience with fundraising ideas, contact information, and information on chapter activities throughout the U.S. Board will explore possibility of holding Trivia Bowl fundraiser. Sonya may be able to provide notes from her experience at a Trivia Bowl held by the LA chapter.

NEW BUSINESS:

AAJA-DC BOARD RETREAT: The board will hold a 3-hr. retreat at the Wash. Post bldg. on Saturday, Feb. 4 at noon to discuss 2006 goals. High on the list are implementing a membership renewal drive, planning a fundraising event and keeping track of chapter finances while Treasurer Wai-Ping Chan is in treatment for cancer.

AAJA CONFERENCE IN JUNE: 3 major points here:
1) DC is responsible for coordinating 20 volunteers
2) Doris is in charge of the DC panels and welcomes questions/suggestions about programming. She's looking for speakers with expertise on Muslim America and the media or on ethics in journalism, including responsible use of sources.
3) DC chapter can provide funding assistance. We'll discuss more particulars at the retreat on Feb. 4.

MIXER: Planned for Feb. 9 at Saki. (if site ok; there was a fire in their offices) Tan is in charge of this first one. Social Chair Farhana will take over in March.

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS: Tan and Susan will work on this. A scholarship banquet/fundraiser will be held in middle April. Deadline for applications will be at the end of February.

SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT IN BALTIMORE 4/1, 4/8, or 4/15: Doris is coordinating with Liz Kay from the Baltimore chapter. Kay is organizing the event.

ECAASU CONFERENCE, MEDIA PANEL 2/17-19: Tan, Sherri and Wanita will sit on the panel with David Nakamura and Ben de la Cruz. At GWU.

AAJA MINI-CONFERENCE 3/25: Tan will lead this and needs another person to help plan. Hyunju might be able to do it. Susan might also be able to help. DC chapter has 2 panels at this event: integrated newsrooms and new voices in media (bloggers)

ELP STIPENDS: No one has applied for these stipends, so we need to send out another reminder about the program and our chapter's ability to help out with costs.

MEDIA ACCESS SEMINAR 3/18: Wanita and Sherry will lead this workshop aimed at helping community groups learn how to communicate effectively with the media, so their message gets across, and their activities receive coverage. It will be at the Scripps Howard bldg.

CONGRESSMAN MIKE HONDA LUNCHEON: Some questions were raised about AAJA's need to remain non-partisan in our activities. We could be sure to be balanced in our events (if we host a Dem., we'll have another one where we host a Rep., and vice-versa), and we could keep the focus on personal stories and the constituencies served by the public officials. We agreed to continue this discussion at the retreat.

COMMUNICATIONS COACHING: Hyunju will research possible speakers for an event geared to help members and participants hone their speaking skills, especially when pitching stories at newsroom meetings. Skip Rhodes was named as a possible speaker. We'll aim to hold this session in late fall.

MID-CAREER SEMINAR: Hyunju will check out the possibility of getting Jane Hyun, author of "Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians" to come and speak.

PROGRAM IDEA - COVERAGE OF ASIAN-AMERICANS IN THE MEDIA: We all agreed that our event on coverage of Muslim-Americans was a success. The NPR room was a good venue also. We plan to offer another session on this topic in 2006.

INTERNSHIP BOOT CAMP 5/6: 2-hour program with pizza aimed to help journalism students prepare to make the most of their internship experiences.

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM: Laurie suggested that AAJA DC offer some sort of mentorship program for area journalism students. Everyone liked this idea. Ideas include building an AAJA mentorship network and offering occasional events that would fall under a larger "AAJA Mentorship Program" and help to meet this specific mission.

ENDOWMENT GALA 3/11: Tan and Doris will attend this event in Dallas. We'd like to buy a table for $1500 and be a Jade level sponsor. We'll then sell seats at the table for $75 each. There are 8 seats (not including Tan and Doris), so we'll be able to get some of the money back. The board needs to vote on this.