Board of Directors Meeting Docket Physical Meeting Docket for February 11-12, 2006 AGENDA for Feb 10, 2006 (Friday): AGENDA for Feb 11, 2006 (Saturday): Breakfast 7:30 – 8:30 a.m.
3:30 p.m.: BREAK FOR 15 MINUTESDINNER - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AGENDA of Feb. 12, 2006 (Sunday) Continental Breakfast -- 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Executive Comm.: S. B. Woo (President), Fel Amistad (V. P.), Kathleen To (Secretary & Acting Treasurer), Julia Wan (Nomination Ch.), Larry Ho (Election Monitoring Comm. Chair), Gareth Chang (Fundraising Ch.) Other Voting Board Members: Ademan Angeles, Rajen Anand, David T. Chai, Y. T. Lee, Edward Lin, Peter Luh, Amy Mok, Linden Nishinaga, Pete Wang, Albert Yee Non-voting members (Chapter Presidents): Chi-Chen Chang of Boston, Kim Song of St. Louis, MO, Ved Chaudhary of NJ, and Yuyi Lin of Mid-Missouri, MO. Staff: Jing-Li Yu 2. Report by the Treasurer: Kathleen To Last year's Income:
Importance of Life Members: helps stabilize our financial income and election results. 2005 Expenditure:
Reserve: 2005 started with a reserve of $150K. At year's end, it was enlarged by ($94K - $81.5K) = 12.5K. Total: $ 162.5K 3. Membership Projection for 2006 (10 minutes) a. Looking at the 2005 Membership Record First: Jing-Li Yu Total member: 2150 [A} Broken Down into
b. A Rough Projection of 2006 Membership: S. B. Woo The number of
members in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 respectively is 1600, 2010, & 2103,
2152. In 2006, we hope to reach 2500 members, while adding 25 new
Life Members. The above goal is set, based on the following 4 factors:
Note that our % new members has fallen down. The % of new members for 2003, 2004, 2005 is respectively 40%, 35% and 25%. The major reason is we stopped all methods of getting new mail addresses in accordance with a new Federal law since 2203. Indeed, the size of email list for 2003, 2004 and 2005 is respectively 500,000, 1,000,000 and 700,000. This year we shall farm for AsAm email addresses in a legal manner. [B} Broken Down into Categories of Membership
notes:
4. Required Meeting Procedure -- Robert's Rules of Order (15 minutes): Rajen Anand For those who want a copy of
a user friendly Q&A on "How to Use Robert's Rule of Order,"
please e-mail SB: sbw@udel.edu . I shall appoint Rajen Anand as 80-20's
parliamentarian for 2006's Board.
5. 2006 Budget & Personnel Matters (15 minutes): S. B. Woo
EXPENDITURE**:
If we are to succeed in the above goal, we must know what we are doing: a) How are Federal judges nominated? (2 minutes) The President nominates federal judges. However,
the names are normally recommended by senators and congressmen of the
SAME party in the SAME judicial areas (whether district court or Circuit/Appeal
Court). The senior Senator, again of the same party, normally has the
most input. Note that new district court judges can be created,
if the number of waiting cases gets too high.
b) Where are the vacant judgeships & where to focus? (8 minutes)
c) How will the 2008 Presidential election be helpful to our goals? (5 minutes) If EO 11246 is still not enforced, then there is great
leverage for us to finally get it done. In 2008, chances are that the
Republican presidential candidate, unlike Bush, will have to complete
in CA where 80-20 can deliver a bloc vote of the 8% AsAm voters. We'll
send a questionnaire to each candidate and organize an endorsement convention.
In the 2004 election, had Kerry been elected, EO 11246 will most likely
have been enforced already. Both Kerry and Edward answered in writing
"YES, YES, YES" to firmly commit to enforcing EO 11246 for Asian
Americans upon their election. In our 2008 presidential candidate questionnaire,
we’ll ask about 1) appointing more AsAm judges at all levels of Federal
courts, and 2) to commitment to enforce E.O 11246.
Recess at 11:50 a.m. or earlier Bylaws amendments must first be passed by a simple majority
vote of the Board. After that it needs to be e-mailed to members
for approval. Proposed changes have been emailed to you by the Board
Secretary.
8. Membership Expansion (30 minutes) Larry Ho
This internship program will be year round (in contrast
to, say, just for the summer) and is for high school students. The
interns are not paid. They earn credits with 80-20 by recruiting
members. In return, 80-20 awards them with certificates for their
volunteer work, which they could show as evidence of extra-curricular
activities in their application for admission to universities.
This proposal came from Sherry Zhang, one of our best
interns in the summer of 2002, who is now attending Princeton and has
kept up her enthusiasm for public service.
9. How the Board Can ECHO to Help Project
80-20's Message The White House and every recent presidential campaign
run an ECHO program. 80-20 has adopted that tactic since 2004. A recent
success will show you how "ECHO" works.
80-20‘s mass email on how Asian Ams have less than 50%
of the chance to become managers as compared with other Americans working
in the same position was ECHOED by our St. Louis chapter. 80-20 St.Louis
got a local paper to ECHO 80-20‘s mass email. The web version of the local
paper's report was seen by EEOC of Pennsylvania which ECHOED it Now a
regional conference organized by EEOC of PA will ECHO it, & National
80-20 was invited to participate.
Kindly please ECHO 80-20 messages whenever you can, Board
Members. That is how politics works. Most in our community don't know
how politics works in America. We must show the way. Let‘s execute!
10. Getting Ready for a Change in Leadership (30 m.) S.B. In 2006, all elected officers of 80-20 will be stepping
down. The good new is 4 of the 6 members of the Exec. Comm. are willing
to run for re-election of some kind. Only S. B. Woo will definitely be
retiring. He will still remain a member of the Executive Comm. as required
by our Bylaws. All of that helps assure stability.
Jing-Li Yu will likely leave 80-20 by August 15. Jing
and S. B. together put in at least 100 HOURS OF WORK PER WEEK. Just from
the hours per week point of view, not to mention the intangible factors,
the vacuum will be very difficult to fill.
We must be prepared for that challenge! Our preparations
include:
3:30 p.m.: BREAK FOR 15 MINUTES11. The Battle to Win Equal Opportunity at Work (2 to 3 hours): S. B. (A) Irrefutable Evidence of Discrimination Against AsAms in Workplaces 1. We have less than 50% of the chance to be promoted to the managerial level when compared with other Americans working in the SAME positions. This applies whether we work in private industries, universities, or the Federal government. 
2. Asian Americans (AsAms) are only 0.7% of all active Federal judges, while they are 5.3% of all legal professionals. By contrast, African Americans are 10.7% and Hispanics are 6.5% of all active Federal judges, while they are only 4.4% and 2.9% of all legal professionals, respectively.* In short, while there are more
AsAms in legal professions than either African Ams or Hispanics, AsAms
have less than 1/15 those of African Am Federal judges and 1/10 those
of Hispanic judges.
ARE WE OUTRAGED? (B) To Fight or Not to Fight? 80-20 has quietly communicated the Part 1 of the above statistics to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao since May 17, 2005. Thus far there has been no reply nor any indication of relief coming from DOL even after strong help from Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware for DOL to act. The same information was communicated to EEOC Chairwomen Cari Dominguez in December, 2005. She replied in less than a month saying that to prevent continued discrimination requires "strong enforcement and targeted outreach and education." While 80-20 working with EEOC can provide targeted outreach and education," only the DOL can provide enforcement. DOL is obviously NOT interested in help. Indeed, a recent rule change proposed by DOL will probably free DOL from ever enforcing EO 11246. The situation is critical. The Asian Am community will either need to decide to fight or timidly submit to live as second class citizens. There is no real choice. Shall we fight? The following proposes how we are going to fight. (C) If the Decision is to Fight, Here is One Proposal on How to Begin 1) Full Page Ads in Major Ethnic Papers Place ads in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese informing our people of the facts of discrimination against us. The ads must be extremely well-written. It lays out why we must fight; how we are going to fight and invite people to join us in the fight. We also ask supporters to spread the message. Prior to the ads being placed with papers, we need a team to visit with the Editorial Board of each paper. Who will volunteer to coordinate the visits in ALL ethnic communities? Such ads create awareness and raise our people's consciousness. However, they rarely raise enough money to even pay for the cost of the ads. Since we have the email to urge our members/supporters to help us get the extra mileage, we are likely to at least get back the cost. We will achieve the two goals mentioned above and get a big push in the next step – a 10 to 20 city "simultaneous Press conference." The purposes of the press conf. are to announce the outrage of hundreds of prominent AsAm citizens and their determination to stay the course & win equal opportunity for ourselves and our kids once and for all. I'll set a date for the ad and keep you posted, since there is much coordination to do. We need at least 5 weeks AFTER our Board meeting to get the ads in ethnic papers ready. We also need to keep all our tactical decisions secret. In 2004, the AsAm Republican leaders feeling certain that 80-20 will endorse John Kerry timed that day to hold press conferences to attack us. It so happened that we were displeased with John Kerry camp’s inability to keep a promise and we didn't endorse but decided to delay the decision for two weeks to punish the failure to fulfill a promise. The Dem. Party including Rept. Honda hopefully have learned a lesson from it. We should also learn the lesson that tactical decisions must be kept secret, while making our strategic decisions open because ours is a grassroots and democratic organization. 2) Simultaneous Press Conferences & community Liaison The conferences will be held 1 weeks after that. May I be allowed to set the day please? Again, there is much coordinating to do. We shall again try to get our sister organizations to work together as equals. We are more than happy to share leadership and work. We shall also approach CCBA (Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Assoc) of various Chinatowns. This was the group that the Republican AsAm leaders and DOL collaborated with to oppose 80-20 during the 2005 presidential season. 80-20 delivered a bloc vote easily. But the discrimination against AsAms message was ignored by Chinese ethnic papers, because the Chinatown leaders have effect on placing ads with the Chinese ethnic papers. Money talks, as you know. It is a shame, but a reality. 3) Full Page Ad in a Mainstream paper (NYT: $150K) I strongly believe that the irrefutable statistics showing strong discrimination against Asian Ams will raise the serious concern and sympathy of a large fraction of our compatriots. The America I know is very decent. In my entire life of activism I've NEVER met with the kind of "not so benign neglect" shown by Sec. Chao. So I think a full page ad will achieve due impact. Again it has to be extremely well written. Before the ad is placed, our visiting team shall meet with the editorial Board of that particular paper. The ad shall appeal to America's best motives. It could have a title such as "Does America still believe in Equal Opportunity for All and Meritocracy?" It shall present facts and ask for help to give us equal opportunity. It shall emphasize that giving us equal opportunity will also benefit America greatly in the Century of Asia. Talk about how all Americans deserve human rights, which includes equality before law, and equal opportunity at work according to ability and ambition. Such ads are expensive, from Washington Post's $25K to NY Times' $150K. If we could get 20 community leaders to each of the 20 simultaneous press conferences, mentioned in 2), and ask them to commit to give $200 to be co-signers of the NY Times ad , then we will have secured half of the needed expenses. 80-20 shall secure the rest elsewhere. 4) Follow-up Work After the Full Page Ads in a Major Media
5) Follow-up on the Political Side:
6. Through the Court Process When all other means of seeking relief for the plight of AsAms have failed, we have only one more remedy -- through the process of law. America is a nation that goes by the rule of law. E.O. 11246 explicitly authorizes DOL to enforce equal opportunity at work for ALL Americans. Statistics and national surveys clearly reveal that AsAms are the most discriminated at work. 80-20 can find many individuals to step forth to testify how they have been discriminated at work. We can win the case, and the court will order the DOL to enforce the law. There is at least one precedent. The 9th Circuit court, the second highest level of courts of the land, ruled on 12/4/1979 in favor of an almost identical case. The Legal Aid Society of Alameda County filed a suit against then Labor Secretary Peter Brennan for non-enforcement of EO 11246 in a number of agricultural companies. The Secretary was ordered by the court to enforce the law, and the federal contracts held by offending companies were terminated. For those of you with law training, see 608 F.2d 1319, West Law. 80-20 has not engaged a law firm yet. I am certain that we'll get a top notch law firm to fight this historic battle for the AsAm community. Our full page ad in a mainstream paper will help in that end as well. Court cases are expensive and time consuming. We'll need to raise money and perhaps exhaust our treasury. There is a law that will help. See below. It is called Equal Access to Justice Act which allows award of attorney's fees to a successful litigant against the federal government if the government position is not "substantially justified." It has a cap of $125/ hour but the court can add any "cost of living" and "special factor" adjustments such as the limited availability of qualified attorneys for the proceedings involved, which justify a higher fee. I'd also like to think that there will be some AsAm lawyers stepping forward to fight this historic battle for the community. If I have a child who is a lawyer I'll be ashamed of him/her if he/she doesn't step forth in giving pro bono help in one way or another in this kind of battle. After we win that battle, 80-20 will honor these lawyers on behalf of the entire community, in the tradition of the Jewish community – their lawyers do pro bono work for the community and the community pays tribute in return. 7. Appoint Ad Hoc Committee (to expire in 6 months unless extended) AGENDA for Feb. 12, 2006 (Sunday) 1. Fundraising (20 minutes). Gareth Chang Gareth is the National Chair of our Fundraising
Comm. He promised to do a fundraiser in LA before the end
. All Board members will please help. S.B. will buy a table for
$2,000.
2. How 80-20's Treasury Works (15 m.)
Kathleen ToBe sure to ask questions to see if uneducated conjectures
were correct. Please see bottom of
3. Review of our "Legal Eagles"
Luncheon. (20 m.) S. B.http://www.80-20initiative.net/BoDSC.html for Treasurer’s Duties. Any follow up necessary? Report on Asian American
Coalition for Equal Justice (AACEJ).
4. Future Handling of our email system (20 m.) Larry
Ho80-20's emailing lists and our emailing software are
what give 80-20 the clout. The clout is what enables 80-20 to
serve many of the needs of the AsAm community.
Both the lists and the software owe a great deal to
the effort and patience of Professor Shangyou Zhang of the University
of Delaware, who was the first person in the Asian American community
to receive an award from 80-20. All staff contributed to the effort.
Prof. Zhang did the initial work pro bono. Since a few years ago,
he has helped 80-20 as a consultant with a greatly discounted rate.
After much modifications and improvement, 80-20 can
email about 50% of the registered AsAms in about 30 hours – no meager
achievement.
Maintaining such an email list and its software system
is much harder than an outsider would think. Nothing that can
provide power and influence can be obtained and maintained easily.
If so, everyone would go after it and get one.
80-20 is about to replenish it emails lists. All
Board members could help by organizing a local committee to collect
e-mail addresses and send them to 80-20.
5. State of 80-20 -- our successes & failures &
projection for 2006 (25 minutes) -- S.B. for 10 m.; the
Board's comments for 15 m.SUMMARY: The state of 80-20 is healthy.
For 4 years in a row, we set new records in membership and cash reserve.
In 2006, I expect a significant increase in membership and Life Members.
However, our cash reserve may decrease, perhaps significantly, if we
go on a full court press to win EQUAL opportunity in workplaces for
AsAms. It depends on how successful we can be in fundraising efforts
related to the full court press. FOR THE FIRST TIME, 80-20 moves
to achieve its two major goals. In the past, 80-20 was mostly
reacting to the smaller "issues of dignity" ("Chinaman"
issues, Abercrombie & Fitch T shirts) and medium sized equal opportunity
issues (punishing political opponents of AsAm candidates for attacking
them in a racist manner; asking for AsAm cabinet level officials without
input regarding who might be the AsAm candidate who care about the AsAm,
community).
On the Miscellaneous Achievement Front: 80-20's
consistent success in these matters was due mostly to our adhesion to
the "rules of the game" in American politics. That is,
"Leverage is the currency of politics." By now
we are accustomed to winning these little struggles, e.g. getting radio
jockeys/individuals/other entities which strongly offend or insult the
Asian American community to apologize, as soon as we've gotten involved.
This will likely not be the case as we try to achieve
our major goals. 80-20 is yet to be tested. In 2005, 80-20
did extremely well in laying the foundation for achieving the
explicitly stated major goals.
6. The Dynamics between 80-20, the two major political parties and the major APA organizations (60 minutes) The Whole Board will please give input. 80-20's relationship with both political parties will
always be somewhat guarded. Both parties worry what if
80-20 endorses the "wrong" presidential candidate
in the next election. I am confident, however, if we persist in
being effective in delivering a bloc vote to our endorsed candidates,
both parties will courts us harder. Our goal is to get the
two parties to complete to share our rightful concerns.
Our political and media establishment have the perception
that AsAms will mostly talk and not act. From past experience,
they concluded that we would quietly go away, when ignored.
Are we ready to change such perceptions?
We need to make more and more outreach efforts with
the major APA orgs. We must not be afraid of their cold shoulders.
Uniting is the only way that we can serve our community well.
7. To track The Federal Duress of Asian Americans Albert Yee wants to discuss this. My personal
view is that it should be a very low priority matter because it is not
cost-effective in terms of our financial and human resources.
We should continue to focus on the macro-level issues that impact the
largest number of AsAms. Look at the all the tasks described in
the Docket that we need to get done, without adding the tracking of
the Federal duress of AsAms. Another questions is this.
After we know about these sad incidents, what are we going to do with
them? Are we going to divert our resources from the macro-level
issues to these micro-level issues?
8. New Business 9. Adjournment at 11:00 a.m. or earlier.
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