AAJA-DC Board Minutes
Sunday 9/17/06

Officers Attending: President Tan Ly, Vice-President (Print) Hyunju Chappell-Hine, National Board Representative Doris Truong, Secretary Susan Yoo

1. AAJA conference stipends: These have not yet been awarded, because incoming Treasurer Cecilia Kang doesn't have the AAJA-DC checkbooks. Treasurer Wai-Ping needs to sign them over. Tan to stop by Wai-Ping's office to have them signed over and pick them up.

2. Co-sponsor film at APA film fest (9/28 - 10/7): Hyunju is looking for an Asian-American male broadcast journalist to lead the panel after the film fest's screening of "Slanted Screen" (about portrayal of Asian/Asian-Am. men in American cinema) on Sept. 30. We have 8 free tix available to this event. We need to get the organizers a check for our co-sponsorship ($250). Hyunju will moderate if no one else volunteers.

3. Asian American Leadership Speaker Series - Luncheon with Former Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta (9/23): The Hyatt agreed to charge us for 15 participants (rather than 30 minimum), since that's how many we expect so far. Washington Post biz reporter Sara Goo will write an introduction. We'll be seated in a U-shape, with a speaker's lectern at the center. We'll eat first, then talk. Hyunju will prepare a thank-you gift for Sec. Mineta. In the future, we may consider making donations to a non-profit chosen by our speaker to express our gratitude and appreciation.

4. Trivia Bowl (Fall fundraiser): CBS News Correspondent Joie Chen has agreed to emcee!! Doris sent out postcards to get the word out. Tan will design a new flyer touting our *star* emcee. Having come to the conclusion that this event is not the right venue to showcase photos on North Korean refugees living in South Korea, we've pointed photojournalist Laura Pohl to other groups that might be interested in sponsoring an event. We have raffle-item promises so far from NARS (cosmetics gift basket), Shoefly, and McCormick & Schmick's. We should have an art item and possibly something (workshop participation? ticket to performance?) from a modern dance group. We also have photographs left over from our last auction. Liz Kay and Wanita are working on sponsorships. National Geographic may be able to give something substantial. Angeline is our backup emcee. Wanita will probably follow through with the Press Club on food arrangements. We'll show our appreciation to the emcee of this event with a $50 gift to her favorite charity.

5. Mid-career seminar - "Sharpening Your Investigative Skills: How to Dig Deeper Faster." Washington Post reporter and President, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. James Grimaldi will help plan this seminar for January 2007. We're going to try to do most of our events, including this one, at the National Press Club. We'd like to partner more with UNITY groups in the next year, keeping in mind that the next UNITY convention is in 2008 in Chicago.

6. aajadc.org: Doris' friend Rocky can get us a more user-friendly alias for our chapter's web site (http://chapters.aaja.org/Washington/) for a pittance of $8 annually. We'll vote on this next meeting (when we have a quorum).

7. Program idea - "Middle East Crisis through American lenses" or "Asian-Americans in the media": This will be at Bloomberg. Projected date - 11/14. Lister and Sherri are organizing, but neither was at this meeting, so there wasn't much to report. Lister called Susan before the meeting and requested a budget for the event. Last year, when we did this event at NPR, the budget was $40. We just offered chips, dip, and drinks. Tan will conduct a board-meeting vote via email, motioning that we budget a maximum of $50 for this meeting's refreshments. We also need to give Lister a budget for thank-you gifts for the speakers. We'll give them each a $10 card to Starbucks.

8. Mixer/Book party for Rajiv Chandrasekaran: Tan is trying to co-ordinate this event with SAJA. Rajiv would like SAJA to be part of this event. SAJA President Vandana Sinha said she'd be able to get NPR as a venue for the event. The date will be Oct. 4, so we need to get out a 'save the date' email on our listserv. We need to check with Vandana on the time for the event -- should be around 6:30 p.m.

9. Elections: Elections for several officer positions need to be conducted and results reported to National Rep. Doris Truong by Nov. 1. Open 2-year positions include President, Treasurer, and VP, Print. All 1-year positions (Secretary, Community Liaison, Membership Chair) will be up for election. We discussed the possibility of creating a Membership Committee to be headed by the Membership Chair.

10. AAJA-DC video: Tan is shooting some footage representing our chapter. It will be included in a promotional video being prepared by AAJA national. Ylan Mui agreed to work on the video with Tan.

11. Next meeting - Sun., Oct. 17, 11 a.m.: Tan will host. Sherri and Wanita can assign board-member responsibilities for the evening of the Trivia Bowl.