Officers Attending: President Tan Ly, Vice-President (Broadcast) Sherri Ly, Vice-President (Print) Hyunju Chappell-Hine, Treasurer Cecilia Kang, Community Liaison Wanita Niehaus, National Board Representative Doris Truong, Secretary Susan Yoo

(Treasurer Cecilia Kang could only stay for the first half of the meeting, so we switched the order of the agenda a bit to address first any items with financial components.)

1. Asian-American Leadership Speaker Series

Norm Mineta, former Secretary of Transportation, has been confirmed for Sat., Sept. 23, as the first speaker for this series.

Tan noted that he'd like to increase the budget for the leadership speaker event, so that we have a venue reflective of the stature of the 1st speaker. It was approved that AAJA-DC would spend between $1500 and $1700 for this first series event, reducing AAJA member costs to half of the food cost and asking non-AAJA members to cover the full food cost for their meal. Attendees will receive receipts and must specify ahead of time their food choice -- meat or vegetarian lunch.

The room -- either at the Hilton on Mass. or at the Grand Hyatt at Metro Center -- will cost about $800. Tan noted Mineta's draw not only because of his status and public service career, but also because of the timing now in the transitioning of his career. We need to find a nice thank-you gift for Norm Mineta.

2. Co-sponsor film at APA film fest (9/28 - 10/7)?

Hyunju to discuss Slanted Screen film with APA Film Archive folks to see if we want to co-sponsor, and to see if they would agree to play somewhere the DVD by AAJA about AsAm men in broadcast at some point during the festival. Co-sponsoring would be $250 and would mean a number of free tix for AAJA members to the screening. Sherri moved to sponsor a screening of Slanted Screen for $250, contingent on the film fest's ability to show AAJA's DVD. Wanita seconded the motion. All said aye.

3. AAJA conference stipends

James Grimaldi, Liz Kay, and Lister Lim applied for stipends. James Grimaldi went above and beyond the call of duty as a volunteer, working 14.5 hours altogether. Sherri moved that we increase the stipend to $1000 for James and award stipends of $500 each to Liz and Lister. Tan seconded the motion. All said aye.

4. Mixer

Turnout at the 8/7 mixer at Penang was pretty small. About 7 non-board-members showed up. It was brought up that it might be a good idea to partner with another group for our next mixer -- maybe SAJA. Tan mentioned that Rajiv Chandrasekaran has a new book coming out on his experiences as the Washington Post bureau chief in Baghdad during the war and American occupation.

Tan offered to organize the next mixer. It will be a mixer/book party for Chandrasekaran. Tandoori Nights in Clarendon was suggested as a venue. We'll try to get Doris's friend Rocky to help negotiate a deal with Tandoori Nights, since he's friendly with the owners. There's a Barnes & Noble downstairs from Tandoori Nights, so we hope to coordinate a book signing to go with the mixer.

5. Trivia Bowl (Fall fundraiser)

We hope to have 10 tables of 10 participating in this event. We will charge $30 per person-at-large or $250 per table.

In order for the Press Club to co-sponsor by providing us with free venue space (so we only have to pay for food - $2000 max), we need to provide them with some sort of compensatory monetary benefit. To this end we decided to hold a raffle and offer the proceeds to the Press Club. For the raffle, Tan will ask his friend Supon to donate an art piece. Doris can get NARS to donate a gift basket. We will need a third item -- Liz Kay had previously volunteered to help secure a gift item, and Wanita also has a list of possible donors, to help us find something.

Tan will work on designing a promotional postcard for the event, and Doris will ask Joie Chen if she can emcee. Postcards should cost around $120.

We decided that October 27th would be the best date, and we would go backwards by Fridays in October, should that date not be available. We want to maximize our prep time, so the later in October the better.

Wanita has been talking to a contact in the LA chapter about questions for the trivia bowl. We'll have trivia bowl rules on each table. We can seek a "suggested donation" amount from observers, for whom we'll set aside 10-20 chairs.

Sherri will not attend the Trivia Bowl, since she's expecting to deliver her second child around that time. We all agreed this was a lame excuse. (ha ha)

The Press Club will sell drinks at the event. The event will open at 7:00 p.m., the trivia bowl will start at 7:30. At 8:15 or 8:30, we'll have intermission and hold the raffle. We'll close at 9:30 p.m.

6. Endowment campaign; LA trivia bowl -- buy table?

Treasurer Cecilia Kang will set up logistics for AAJA-DC members to donate funds to the Endowment Campaign. Personal checks need to be made out to AAJA National. We voted previously that we would match up to $5000 donated by chapter members. We need to send out a notice to our members of this opportunity. Wanita moved that we buy a table at the LA trivia bowl (the trivia bowl officially closes the Endowment Campaign) for $500. Tan seconded. All said aye.

7. Mid-career seminar: "Sharpening Your Investigative Skills - How to Dig Deeper Faster." (Tabled for Sept. meeting.)

We agreed it would be a good way to launch 2007. James Grimaldi (Wash. Post reporter) and Lister can take the lead on organizing. Sherri is checking with ABC (GMA) consumer reporter Elizabeth Lemy and other possible broadcast panelists (at exec. producer level). As our contact person for booking space at the Press Club, Tan will touch base with James and Lister, so he knows when he should try to book a room. He will do this after the Trivia Bowl venue is set. We're hoping the Press Club will co-sponsor the event, and we also hope they'll co-sponsor the east coast mini-conference, which we will host next spring.

8. Program idea: "Middle East Crisis through American lens" or "Asian-Americans in the media."

Sherry will partner with Lister on this event. We hope Bloomberg will sponsor. We need to add someone on the panel who can give an Israeli perspective.

9. Photojournalist's presentation on North Korean refugees

We hope to introduce Laura Pohl to AAJA-DC members and friends at our October Trivia Bowl. We'd like to exhibit her photos on North Korean refugees living in South Korea at the Trivia Bowl. Sherri will contact Laura Pohl.

10. Next meeting - Sun., Sept. 17, 1 p.m.: Hyunju will host.