AAJA-D.C. Board Minutes
Sunday, April 13, 2008

Officers Attending: President Tan Ly, Vice-President (Broadcast) Sherri Ly, Secretary Susan Yoo

1. East Coast Mini-Conference (4/5): Francine Uenuma from washingtonpost.com set up the speaker. The turnout was about 25. Tan mentioned that next year the mini-conf. will probably go back to NYC.

2. Book Reading at NPR (3/25): VP/Print Hanah attended. Tan reported that under 20 people showed up, but the event went well and was successful for the author.

3. Race and Gender in Today's Elections (3/26): Successful event with 75 people turning out -- mostly print folks. Our contact at Atlantic Media was Josephine Vu, who works in HR there, in a community outreach capacity. We'll do another day-long event with Atlantic Media again in June. The event will focus on election coverage and will take place on a Saturday, including morning sessions and an evening mixer. Atlantic Media supplied the location, provided nice appetizers and free beer and wine afterwards. Sherri mentioned that Atlantic Media had also partnered successfully on an event with NABJ. Tan said they're a good group to partner with, and we might considering working together with them the next time we host the East Coast mini-conference.

4. Scholarships: Sherri needs help with selecting winners. She's received 3 applications. We should announce the winners in about 2 weeks. Sherri will send application materials to board members, and we'll vote by e-mail.

5. Media Access Workshop (4/24): Lister is heading up this event. Sherri will arrange food for the event and get the word out to community groups -- there was a Chinese cultural group she was thinking of in particular.

6. J-Camp: sponsoring a student in Joie Chen's honor. The board has already voted to do this.

7. Budget: Bottom line is we need to raise money. Tan noted that for the past 3 years, we've given $5000 annually to the National Endowment drive, and $1000 annually to sponsor a student for J-Camp. We get about $1200 from membership dues annually, but we also give out $3000 annually in scholarships. This year, we won't be able to contribute so generously to the endowment. The National Endowment campaign is at 57%. Sherri noted that AAJA has the cheapest membership dues, so we should encourage anyone who wants to attend UNITY and doesn't have a membership at the sponsoring organizations to consider signing up with AAJA. Tan also mentioned that Rene Astudillo is stepping down from his position as Exec. Director of AAJA (National), and the organization is looking for his replacement. We all discussed how helpful it would be to have a brochure explaining AAJA's mission and activities when we approach prospective donors, and Tan said he'd create a brochure highlighting the DC chapter's activities. He'll have the brochure done by mid-May. Having a brochure gives us another reason to take pictures at chapter events -- they will brighten up our leaflets.

8. Fundraising Chair: Sherri will be able to attend UNITY, so she will be our chapter's Fundraising Chair. She will attend a training seminar at UNITY.

9. AAJA Media Watch person for National: Tan has asked Sara Goo to continue in this role, which is to monitor print and broadcast media for inaccurate or offensive representations of Asians and/or Asian-Americans.

10. Events calendar for National: Susan will forward all event e-mails to Paul Cheung so that he can include our chapter's events. The idea is to have the calendar available to all members nationwide should they be traveling in the area and to show potential donors the level of programming offered at chapters across the country through AAJA.

11. Convention: silent auction items. Tan and Sherri discussed the popularity of big-ticket items -- like offering a box at the Kennedy Center. Other popular items are autographed sports paraphernalia. Susan mentioned that the hotel package was a good prize item at last year's Trivia Bowl, and Tan said he'd contact J.W. Marriott to see if they'd be willing to donate a package. Tan also said he'd ask Len Downie if anyone at the Post might have box tickets available to a sports or cultural event that they'd be willing to donate for an evening. Susan said she'd ask the Aveda salon in Old Town Alexandria if they'd be willing to donate a spa package.

12. Unity breakfast: We'll schedule this for the 2nd full day of the convention (a Thursday). The convention will be at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on Riverwalk, so we need to look for a good spot in the hotel to convene.

13. Happy hour for us to meet Jenny Abella: We're trying to think of people who might be interested in taking on future leadership roles in our chapter and meet them at an informal dinner. Tan encouraged us to think of some names and ways to reach out to them. We decided to meet for dinner on May 1st. We talked a little bit about how to maximize our effectiveness without frittering away our energy on too many efforts. Sherri pointed to the LA chapter -- the board only meets a few times a year, but they communicate effectively using e-mail and maintain a robust, active chapter. Sherri suggested we focus on 4 events annually and set the budget for events in advance.

14. Next meeting: May 11, noon, location TBA. We'll focus on the Trivia Bowl.