Board of Directors Meeting Dockets Physical Meeting Docket for May 22-23, 2004 AGENDA
[A] ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS starting at 9 a.m. Continental Breakfast
1. Self Introduction (30 minutes): Let's each take a minute to two. Be sure to mention your name, state, profession, your role at this organization, and what you hope to accomplish during your term of office. You may want to refer back to your campaign statement. This includes the non-voting Board members who are Chapter Presidents. 2. Report by The Treasurer (10 minutes) Income/ Expenditure of 2003 3. Membership Report: 2003 summary, and 2004 projection (10 minutes) S.B. a. 2003 membership:
Jing-Li Yu 4. Required Meeting Procedure -- Robert's Rules of Order (20 minutes): Julia Wan What one needs to know to chair or participate effectively in a meeting, whether it's an 80-20 committee meeting or a university Board meeting or a fortune 500 stockholder’s meeting. A write up is found as an email attachment, for the benefit of those who are not familiar with the “rules.” 5. Budget for 2004 and Personnel Matters (15 minutes): S. B. 10:30 a. m. : BREAK FOR 15 MINUTES 6. 80-20's Achievements/Failures in Its Political Endeavors (30 minutes): S. B. Our method of operation is what gave 80-20 its successes. Thus far we've succeeded in every political endeavor except for one. We may even achieve that one. If we don't achieve that then the other side will be severely censured in the Nov. 2 election. We may be on the verge of achieving our highest goal set since day one: equal opportunity in workplaces for all APAs. Our fundraising this year may need help. 7. Results of Our Recent Electronic Poll (10 minutes) S.B. (Confidential) 8. Proposed tactics for the Presidential election of 2004, based on the Pool Results. (20 minutes) S. B. (Confidential) 9. How the Board Can Help to Project 80-20's Messages. (30 minutes) S.B. The White House and every recent presidential campaign run an ECHO program. Let's figure out how 80-20 can adopt that tactic. 80-20 is only as strong as the Board. The Board member can do a lot to strengthen 80-20 thereby enabling 80-20 to serve our community better. Use our July 4th and presidential endorsement as examples. LUNCH (Begins at 12:15 p.m. Meeting resumes at 1:30 p.m) 10. Bylaws Amendments. (30 minutes) Kathleen To (This is the last Board meeting during which we can make bylaws amendments by a simple majority vote of the Board. Starting next year, all bylaws amendment will be extremely cumbersome. Proposed amendments will be e-mailed to you prior to the meeting. You are welcome to make your amendment. Best first check with Kathleen who is one of our in-house expert on our Bylaws.) 11. Membership Expansion (30 minutes) S. B. a. Setting a goal 2:30 p.m.: BREAK FOR 15 MINUTES12. Getting Ready for Our Endorsement Convention (30 minutes) Kenneth Fong or SB a. The two
main criteria of endorsement 13. Election for New Board Members in Nov. 2003 (10 minutes): Kenneth Fong or SB S.B. shall give a ten minute report on what it is today, and what will be the ideal to aim for. The rest is for all to contribute. This should set the ground for a perhaps historic session with Raymond Wong, President of OCA. See item 2 of 5/23 agenda. 15. Adjournment at about 4:15 p.m. DINNER (Reception at 6 p.m., Dinner at 7, SB's Speech at 8 p.m.)
Chinese American Political Association CAPA is one of the six 80-20 Affiliates in SF 80-20. It appropriated $3K to help promote 80-20's first July 4th Flag Project. 80-20 has bought tickets for all Bd Members and Staff. A bus will be available in front of Crown Plaza lobby at 5 p.m. sharp! AGENDA for MAY 23, 2004 (Sunday) Continental Breakfast [B] Forging Unity, starting at 8 a.m. 1. How Can OCA & 80-20 make History Together? (1.5 hours) S. B. Woo, who will invite Raymond Wong (A) Principles: Working together benefits our community. (B) Operating guidelines: Reciprocity & equity. The two are independent co-equals; not required to march in steps in all matters but will cooperate whenever we can; never infringe upon the other's independence and tax status; never as an organization criticize the other publicly but may as a last resort, if avoiding taking a position is impossible, issue an public statement that "80-20 and OCA (or OCA & 80-20) agree to disagree on this issue;" (C) Concrete Details of Initial Cooperation: a) The President or VP of the two orgs. will attend the other's Board meeting once a year and be given 15 minutes to speak. b) Each org. may ask the other to publicize one major issue per year. The obliging side may state “ ..doesn't imply our agreement.” 80-20 will use its mass e-mail and website. OCA will use …. (to be determined) c) The websites are to be linked. Each will give the other a webpage to recruit members. Each will buy a table or the monetary equivalent from the other's major annual fundraiser. All details are to be worked out through the principle of equity and reciprocity. d) Before taking a major action, the President of one org. will check with the other for possible common position, if time at all permits. (Raymond has not seen this d) item before) 2. Fundraising and Endowment Fund (30 minutes). Gareth Chang Gareth is the National Chair of our Fundraising Comm. 3. New Business 4. Adjournment at 10:30 a.m. NOTE: There is a press conference at noon in Oakland, when Joel Wong will be appointed as the 80-20 Coordinator for the six Affiliates of 80-20 in SF. The six orgs are : CAPA, CPAC, CBC, VPAC, SBVEA, WFCOFVCL. All Board Members and staff are most welcome to attend.
2. Report by the Treasurer: S. B. in an acting capacity Income:
Membership $71K * Captains who bought tables, many became Life Members. Hence, there is no clear division between Membership income and Fund- raising income. Total $117K
Expenditure:
1.
Payroll
$50K Reserve: 2003 started with a reserve of $90K. At year’s end, it enlarged by ($117K - $97K) = $20K. Total: $ 110K 3. Membership Projection for 2004 (10 minutes)
a. Looking
at the 2003 Membership Record First: Jing-Li Yu Classification number (dollars) % of membership % Income
1) Student Members: 15 ($225)
0.1% 0.02% Including their help in fundraising, past and present Life members together account for about 50% of our income. That is the importance of Life Members to 80-20. b. A Rough Projection On 2004 Membership: S. B. Woo In 2002, we had 1600. In 2003, we had 2010. In 2004, hopefully we’ll get 2500, unless all Board/chapters/affiliates make an concerted effort to help recruit members and organize fundraisers. As of 5/20/04, we have about 1350 members of which 34 are new Life Members. Of the 1350 about 26% are new members. However, I anticipate that about 34% of the 2010 members will not renew their membership, judging from our experience from 2002 to 2003. For an organization with 600,000 plus families and individuals on its e-mail list, 2010 dues-paying members is NOT enough. It’s not a flattering comment on 80-20 and our community. 4. Required Meeting Procedure -- Robert's Rules of Order (20 minutes): Julia Wan For those who want a copy of a user friendly Q&A on “How to Use Robert’s Rule of Order,” please e-mail Julia or SB 5. 2004 Budget & Personnel Matters (15 minutes): S. B. Woo INCOME:
1. Membership Dues (Life & Regular
Member) $ 95K1 Footnotes
1. Currently income in this item is $60K. Total: $170 K EXPENDITURE:
1. Salary and BenefitsJing-Li Yu for 12
months
$45K Total: $180K RESERVE AT THE END OF 2004: $100K Summary note for 2004 budget: 1) The proposed budget assumes an annual income of $170K, an expenditure of $180K. The difference of 10K will be drawn from the reserve fund. At the end of 2004, our reserve fund shrinks to $100K. Deficit expending is normal for an election year, because 80-20 must buy a lot of TV, radio and newspaper ads, mostly in CA in order to forge a bloc vote. A bloc vote is what 80-20 is all about. 2) This is a significant decrease in income and expenditure from my proposed transitional budget of $250K. We are NOT hiring another full-time staff to shave $45K, we decrease TV ad cost by $15K. We are cutting expenses in a number of other items as well. Staff: Jing is expected to be with 80-20 till about June 30, 2005. We are fortunate to have a dedicated staff like Jing. 6. 80-20's Achievements/Failures (30 minutes): S. B. Woo 80-20’s consistent success in the political arena was due mostly to the fact that we adhere to the “rules of the game” of American politics. That is, “Leverage is the currency of politics.” In addition we adopted another modus operandi: “Apply leverage with the two political parties, but be tolerant & patient with the internal contradictions of the APA community.” We felt that to forge a unity, we must be willing to take a few knocks from some folks within our own community. In time, those folks may be shamed into modifying their behavior upon witnessing how tough we are towards the politicians and political parties and how nice and tolerant we are toward them. The second part hasn’t worked well yet. Some AsianAms are fierce against fellow AsianAms, but timid toward those who denigrate or discriminate us. A) A Short List of Our Successes In The Political Arena Do you remember these events?
o Yao Ming called a Chinaman, 80-20 got satisfaction for the Asian American community ON ALL OF THE ABOVE, within hours for items 1, 3 & 5; within days for items 2, 4, 6 & 7. For details, see http://www.80-20initiative.net/unity1.html B) Other More Significant Successes i) 80-20 is completely institutionalized, having Bylaws, contested elections, the rule of law, and ample transparency. In the long term, it may be a significant achievement. ii) In 2000, we had an e-mail list of 300K APA families and individuals. In 2003 it was 650K. Today it is 1.1 million. Time to email the whole list: 1 day! We can reach more than half of the 2.3 million APA voters in less than 20 hours. Huge amount of work and ingenuity went into this e-mail project to create this foundation of APA political power. Prof. Shangyou Zhang, Prof. Chun-Wa Wang, Jing-Li Yu, and a few others deserve our community’s everlasting thanks. Political clout for a small minority of diverse background requires internal political cohesion. Without a common culture &/or religion, the necessary level of cohesion comes only if frequent and in-expensive communication with the mass is available. That is the worth of 80-20’s e-mail list. Our Lone Failure* Congressman Howard Coble did NOT apologize for his statement on internment of JapAms. Nor did he resign from his Chairmanship on the House Homeland Security Subcomm. However, we have a 2004 election tactic that may yet help us achieve that goal. We’ll not discuss it till agenda 8. * President Clinton didn’t pardon W.H. Lee, although 80-20 supported a petition movement started by Cecilia Chang. We generated more than 900 faxes to the White House only to find out that Cecilia didn’t follow the legal step of filing a document with the White House and didn’t have the concurrence of the Lee family, who didn’t want a pardon at that time. 7. Results of Our Recent Electronic Poll (10 minutes) S.B. (A) The Poll We Sent: Your reply is CONFIDENTIAL. Please sacrifice one minute of your time to take this poll so that 80-20 may effectively fight for YOUR interests. Please reply & answer ONLY ONE of the following 4 questions. First, decide which 1 of the 4 questions you should be answering. Then, please reply in the from of, say, 1a or 2c or 3d or 4a. Thank you. S. B. Woo, President, The 80-20 PAC, Inc. POLL: 1. I am registered as a REPUBLICAN. If the election were today, I'll a) definitely vote for Bush, b) definitely vote against Bush, c) definitely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20, d) most likely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20, e) somewhat likely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20. 2. I am registered as a DEMOCRAT. If the election were today, I'll a) definitely vote against Bush, b) definitely vote for Bush, c) definitely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20, d) most likely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20, e) somewhat likely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20. 3. I am registered as an "INDEPENDENT or DECLINE." If the election were today, I'll a) definitely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20, b) most likely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20, c) somewhat likely vote for whomsoever endorsed by 80-20, d) definitely vote for Bush, e) definitely vote against Bush, 4. I am (NOT A CITIZEN or A CITIZEN NOT YET REGISTERED) a) not a citizen, b) a citizen, but not likely to register to vote, c) a citizen & will register & likely vote for Bush, d) a citizen & will register & likely vote against Bush, e) a citizen & will register & likely vote for whomsoever 80-20 endorses.
Poll Result: Please be aware that the result that will be verbally related to you by S.B. is 1) adjusted for party affiliation, ethnic distribution, …, etc, 2) valid only if the election were held around 2/20/04, and 3) before 80-20 has made an endorsement & aired its supporting TV & radio ads. 8. Proposed tactic for the Presidential election of 2004, based on the Poll Results. (20 minutes) S. B.
The proposed Tactic is confidential, and is not shown here. In the coming months some of us could get rather anxious. However, in a political contest of will, the advantages goes to the side that is cool and tough. I know that our Board will be the toughest group in the history of Asian Americans. Since “Leverage is the currency of politics,” here is some leverage: 1) A list of the 16 contested states:
Arizona (10), Arkansas (6), Florida (27),
Iowa (7), Michigan (17),
2) I am absolutely certain that if we
endorse Kerry, we'll deliver at least
3) If we endorse Bush, California will
becomes a contested state
4) We could endorse Nader. I'll send the
same questionnaire to Nader - - - - - - - - - 80-20 has not heard from Bush yet. On 5/17 we got the following e-mail from Bush/ Cheney:
“I received your message regarding the status of your candidate
survey. We are interested in responding to all of our surveys, however,
campaign policy permits us to respond only to surveys containing
questions to which we can provide a written answer of our own. We
welcome you to Thank you, Cynthia Magnuson, Bush Cheney '04” We can’t re-word our questionnaire. It will not be fair to the candidates who have already answered our questionnaire. 9. How the Board Can Help to Project 80-20's Messages. (30 minutes) S.B. The White House and every presidential campaign run an ECHO program. That is, once the White House or a party’s Presidential Nominee has decided on a program or a political line, all significant players in the party will sing the same line –- ECHO. An recent example for the Democrats when interviewed on the prisoner abuse issue: Every significant Democrat has worked in the line “hold all accountable up and down the line of command.” For the GOP: Every significant Republican when interviewed has stated “ .. only seven out of 130,000 soldiers are ….” For 80-20 to be effective, we must work as a team -- Echo! Please note ECHO is completely compatible with democracy. Democracy means, we should freely discuss WITHIN the organization, but once a position is decided by majority vote, EVERYONE must hold to it. Examples are given below. You need to use whatever style and approach that is comfortable to you. But please work in a certain common phrases. (1) Examples of General and Timeless Echoing: 80-20 is a very effective political tool for the Asian American community. In addition, it is an open, democratic and transparent organization. It is worth at least $35 per year of membership fee. 80-20’s delivering a “swing bloc vote” strategy is the best to induce the two parties to compete to serve our rightful interest. (2) Example of Specific Echoing With A Timeline: a) When our mass e-mail has a “Call To Action,” you must take the lead to respond, whether it is sending e-mail or fax. b) When 80-20 runs it Flag Project on July 4th, when you have a chance you need to say “Display our flag on July 4th is the right things to do and the best way to erase our perpetual foreigners’ image.” c) When 80-20 has endorsed a presidential candidate, you need to say again and again what is stated in 80-20’s press release on that issue.
10. Bylaws Amendments. (30 minutes) Kathleen To A) On Article 3: This amendment is mostly re-arrangement of the already adopted byways. The additions are in CAPS. No deletion was involved. 3.2 Board of Directors: The Board of Directors is the highest governing body but must yield to decisions made in Membership Meetings. 3.2.1 Duties: ALL MEMBERS OF THE BOARD SHALL PROMOTE 80-20, RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS AND RAISE FUNDS FOR THE ORGANIZATION. ALL MEMBERS SHALL DEVOTE AT LEAST ONE HOUR PER WEEK TO THE WORK OF THE ORGANIZATION.The Board sets policies and membership dues; approves the annual budget of the Organization; acts on recommendation of the Executive Committee regarding the hiring and firing of the Executive Director; and may review actions of the Executive Committee and officers. The Board shall determine the frequency and locations of membership meetings. 3.2.2 Number and Qualification: ALL BOARD OF DIRECTORS MUST BE MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION IN GOOD STANDING BY FEBRUARY OF EACH YEAR. The Board is composed of elected directors, officers, standing committee chairs, and the immediate past President. The total number of directors shall be between 15-25, to be determined by the Board. Chapter presidents and regional committee chairs are non-voting, ex-officio members of the Board. 3.2.3 Election and Term: Directors shall be elected by the Membership. Each elected director shall serve a 2-year term. No director shall serve more than two complete consecutive terms. Elections for new directors shall take place in the second Saturday of November from a slate of candidates prepared by the Nominating Committee. The elected directors shall take office on January 1. The Secretary of the Organization shall certify and count votes. In an election of Board members, the candidates receiving the most votes shall have been elected to the vacancies voted on. The candidate for a single elective office receiving the most votes shall have been elected to the office. 3.2.4 Meeting: The Board shall meet physically at least once a year. The locations shall be determined by the Executive Committee. A quorum must be present in a physical meeting. If an issue is discussed and voted electronically or by mail, the total number of votes in such a balloting process must exceed a quorum. 3.2.5 Vacancies: VACANCIES SHALL BE FILLED BY THE AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF A MAJORITY OF THE DIRECTORS THEN IN OFFICE, IN CONSULTATION WITH THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE. The newly elected director shall complete the term of the vacant position. The new director shall be eligible to serve two more consecutive terms if the initial term is less than one year. If the initial term is more than one year, the new director shall be eligible to serve only one additional consecutive term. To add to 3.4.1 Executive Committee (c) APPOINT DIRECTORS TO FILL THE VACANCIES OF ALL STANDING COMMITTEES, and to propose the appointment and termination of the Executive Director, or the appointment of an Acting Executive Director for a specified period of time; B) On Article 6: All involves added languages. In addition to “Friends, and Chapters, article 6.3 is added to permit a structure call Regional Committees, which are much less cumbersome bureaucratically as compared with chapters. To add to 6.2 Chapter: A chapter that does not show at least 25 members in good standing by June 30th of each year is automatically dissolved as of that date. 6.3 Regional Committees: A regional committee (RC) is appointed by the National President provided it has at least 25 national members in good standing. The chair of a RC is elected by the RC members each year and is a non-voting member of the Board. A RC that does not show at least 25 members in good standing by June 30th of each year is automatically dissolved as of that date. 6.3.1 Regional Committee Privileges: A regional committee is not required to be registered as a separate political action committee. It is not required to have separate bylaws or local dues. The National will supply a RC with operating funds provided a budget is approved in advance. The chair of a RC with 100 or more members in good standing becomes a voting member of the Board. It will have a web site provided by the National, containing an activities list, a membership list and other pages as the RC may desire. 6.3.2 Regional Committee Functions: A regional committee is to assist the National in projects where the presence of local volunteers is critical. Projects such as but not limited to: (a) 80-20’s Flag
Display project on July 4th. 11. Membership Expansion (30 minutes) S. B. a. Setting a goal How about setting a goal of 2750? b. Larry Ho's message: How to motivate APAs? We have all read about the financial success of the “Moveon.org” in raising funds (over 40 million). 80-20 in a way is the “moveon”cyber counterpart for APA. Our mailing list is the same size yet we can only count on 2000 members in 2003 or about $120K collected after Herculean effort by many including board members. Why? Are the APAs intrinsically stingy? I don’t think so. Are people generally not interested in what 80-20 have to say? Again the answer is no if you look at the requests for help SB routinely receives every week from many persons to right their individual wrongs, actual or perceived. Is it cultural? There is some validity to this. Chinese are brought up in a family-centered environment vs. a community-centered one. The concept of social responsibility or giving back to the community is secondary to filial obligation and loyalty to one’s family or extended family. For example, the wealth of Bill Gates of course is due to his genius and hard work. But in the western cultural thinking, his success was also made possible by the social and technological environment which included Intel chips, democracy, and free enterprise. Gates acknowledges this by giving away and intending to give away most of his fortunes. I submit this would not be the first impulse of most Chinese billionaires. Note I am not saying they are stingy. Far from it. When comes to helping out extended family and the same village association, Chinese are second to none. At a more modest level, this family orientation manifest in more ugly ways. Many though not all Chinese are very quick to take advantage of the numerous minority rights hard fought and won by black Americans and first to cry discrimination when things go against them. To be sure, they work hard and keep out of trouble with the law. But in terms of volunteer for community work or giving back to the society, such concepts are foreign or conveniently forgotten. One lame excuse is often “we are apolitical and don’t want to be involved”. Worse thinking: “I am a Chinese sojourner and not really identified with America” or “Taiwan independence and unification with mainland China are things I can be passionate about”. I don’t know other Asian cultures well enough to generalize. However, 80-20 has been in existence for over five years. We have a record; we have a mailing list; why don’t we have the membership and donations to match? How can we change this? I don’t know any quick fix. One possibility is to energize the younger generation. They are more idealistic, more tuned in to the American culture, and may have more influence with their parents than we have. I would like to see the board start a discussion about the possibilities of empowering the student groups and young professionals. c. How to achieve the goal i) How each Board member can help (Distribute our pamphlets) ii)
How chapters and “Friends”
can help
2:30 p.m.: BREAK FOR 15 MINUTES12. Getting Ready for Our Endorsement Convention (30 minutes) SB a. The two main criteria of endorsement i) Quality of deeds and ii) Quality of the promise
b. How are delegates chosen?
d. Logistics (a time and a place) Article 7 of the Bylaws is the final authority 13. Election for New Board Members in Nov. 2003 (10 minutes): SB We have 10 Board members including all the officers, who will face re-election this November. They are each eligible to be elected to one more two-year term. Our bylaws also require that every elected position must be contested. The officers are: Kenneth Fong, Kathleen To, and S. B. Woo. The other 7 Board members are: Fel Anthony Amistad, Rajen Anand, David Chu (who just resigned as the Treasurer), Larry Ho, Mei-Ling Hsu, Steven Ko and Ying Yang. We thank all of the above for their valiant service. However, our battle is far from being over. JULIA, Vice Chair, Nomination Comm., please note: You might want to find out which ones will be willing to serve another term. S.B. shall give a ten minute report on what it is today, and what will be the ideal situation to aim for. The rest is for all to contribute. This should set the ground for a perhaps historic session with Raymond Wong, President of OCA. See item 1 of 5/23 agenda. With the two Parties: o To them 80-20 is neither fish nor fowl o How does the African Am. community operate? o How does the Jewish Am. community operate? o What might be the outlook for 80-20 after the Nov. election? With the D.C. headquartered civic organizations: o OCA o JACL & others o There are two coalitions: 1. APAICS (Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies): Daphne Kwok: Exec Dr. ; Clayton Fong: Chair 2. The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) Chair: Karen Narasaki This org. is also related to APAICS (Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies) of which Karen Narasaki is the President & Exec. Dr. With the California based civic organizations: o In N. CA: o In S. CA: 15. Adjournment at about 4:15 p.m.
DINNER (Reception at 6 p.m., Dinner at 7, SB's Speech at 8 p.m.)
Chinese American Political Association CAPA is one of the six 80-20 Affiliates in SF 80-20. It appropriated $3K to help promote 80-20's first July the 4th Flag Project. 80-20 has bought tickets for all Bd Members and Staff. A van will be available in front of Crown Plaza lobby at 5 p.m. sharp! AGENDA for MAY 23, 2004 (Sunday) -Continental Breakfast [B] Forging Unity, starting at 8 a.m.
1. How May OCA and 80-20 Make History
Together? (1.5) hours)
(A) Principles: Working together
benefits our community. |