AAJA-DC Board Meeting - Minutes
Noon, Sat., 2/19/06
Ireland's Four Courts, 2051 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, Membership Chairman Lister Lim

COMPLETED BUSINESS:

MIXER/MEMBERSHIP DRIVE - Chi/Cha Lounge, DC, Feb. 16: About 25 people attended over the course of the evening. These included many potential new members. Membership Chairman Lister Lim and Community Liaison Wanita Niehaus collected business cards. Lister will follow up. John Liang volunteered to organize an outing to a Nationals baseball game. The board wants to encourage more members to organize events. The mixer cost the chapter about $250.

ECAASU CONFERENCE - Media panel, Feb. 17-19: Chapter President and Washington Post Asst. News Editor Tan Ly, Vice President (Broadcast) Sherri Ly, washingtonpost.com Videographer Ben de la Cruz, and Washington Post Metro Reporter Phuong Ly sat on the AAJA panel. About 60-70 students attended the panel discussion, at which Ben de la Cruz gave a video presentation. The board recognized that we need to have membership forms on hand at events such as this one.

NEW BUSINESS:

AAJA CONVENTION - JUNE 21-24: Tan and Vice President (Print) Hyunju Chappell Hine will start contacting other regional chapters to make sure there will be enough volunteers to help out at the convention. The chapter needs to find someone to be point person to drive contributions for the convention’s silent auction fundraiser. Tan will attend the presidents’ meeting, and Wanita will sit in. We should have our treasurer at the meeting, too, but Wai Ping will not attend the convention. Wai Ping is open to sending the incoming treasurer in his place. We need to find a good candidate for 2007-2008 treasurer. This person could transition into the position in the latter half of this year, considering Wai Ping’s health situation. If we find someone before the convention, the chapter will provide support for the incoming treasurer to attend. Finally, Doris will find someone to head a blind committee to decide who qualifies for need-based chapter stipends.

CHOOSING CHAPTER ASSIGNMENT FOR 2007 AAJA CONVENTION: Board members will give Doris recommendations via email. Doris needs each member’s top three choices before March 9.

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS: Tan has application form ready. Susan to compile list of all accredited area colleges. Sherri and Susan to help contacting schools. Application deadline is March 24. Committee (?) to pick winners by April 7. Reception will be April 22. Awards: one for $2000, one for $1000. Board members emphasized the importance of following up with scholarship winners in the hope that the students will choose to participate/give back as she or he gets more established professionally.

SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT IN BALTIMORE - APRIL 15: Link to flyer/registration form is on chapter web site (http://chapters.aaja.org/Washington/). Susan to include link in newsletter. Planners will make big push for participants if we don’t have 10 by April 1. If we don’t have 10 participants pre-registered by April 7, we’ll reschedule it.

LISTSERV/NEWSLETTER: Susan will send out a newsletter every other Tuesday. It will include updates on events in planning and calls for volunteers, contacts, and ideas from our members. Board members decided that eventually we’ll keep 2 separate listservs – one for members and a broader one including non-member contacts/friends to the chapter and its mission. The next newsletter should include a reminder for people to renew their AAJA membership.

ENDOWMENT GALA 3/11: The chapter bought a table for $1500, qualifying them for Jade-level sponsorship. All seats at the table sold for $75 each, reducing our expenditure to $750.

AAJA MINI-CONFERENCE 3/25 AT NYU: DC chapter has 3 panels at this event: integrated newsrooms, multimedia conversion, and new voices in media (bloggers). Washingtonpost.com Assistant Managing Editor Rajiv Chadrasekaran will sit on the first panel, and WFLA News Channel 8 Reporter Victoria Lim will sit on the second. We’re looking for more panelists for all 3. Tan’s having the most difficulty with the blogger panel. Stipends will be available for area members who want to attend. Susan moved that the chapter fund $50 stipend(s), but no more than two. Lister seconded. All said “aye.”

MEDIA ACCESS SEMINAR 3/18: Wanita and Sherri are pretty much on top of this event. The lunch budget will be $100 (the no. of participants is capped at 20). Susan will attend and help out. Wanita has recruited a potential member who attended the mixer at Chi-Cha to help with the media booklet. She could still use another volunteer or two. Susan to include call for volunteers in next newsletter.

TRIVIA BOWL FUNDRAISER (FALL): The board agreed that we need a coordinator and location for this event. Locations will book up quickly, so we need to get started on this. Given the scale of this event, the board agreed that we should find volunteers who can serve on a committee to plan the event.

ASIAN-AMERICAN LEADERSHIP SPEAKER SERIES, VOICE SKILLS COACHING, MID-CAREER SEMINAR: Nothing new

PROGRAM IDEA - COVERAGE OF ASIAN-AMERICANS IN THE MEDIA: Nothing new. This will be a fall event. Likely location: NPR

NOT ADDRESSED:

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