November 1 Core Minutes

 Agenda items

1. Settle date for members meeting and updates/logisitics

The date that most people can make it is November 19th in the afternoon. It will be from 2PM-5PM

Michael and Eugene are working on the agenda

Michael will contact people

2. November brunch n munch with ati

Core group at Oct. Brunch n Munch decided to break the ATI request into two different events

1. One around Occupy Movement

2. One smaller event around experienced activists. 

This will be ATI trainees and personal invitations to those we think are interested

a. Rep to work with ati

Karen and Michael will work with ATI. Karen will contact Sophia about planning

b. improving outreach

Eugene will work with Judy

3. BPAC proposal connection (see below)

1. We will have a discussion with Cat Fung from BPAC. 

Eugene will arrange the time with whoever is available.

We had concerns about capacity and prefer to coordinate rather than add more events.

2. Karen had discussion with Janice about a film networking event with students/artists and local CBO's to connect them

We decided it's more practical to wait until after the current BAAFF is over

4. Occupy national participation (see below)?

Anyone interested is invited to participate in the national conference call.

5. AARW report back

We communicated our decision to John to sit on the steering committee. He will talk to board and get back to us.

6. New members

General protocol: orientation before inviting to a meeting

Michael will send out notes he used to core & core will refine the notes for reaching out to potential new members

6. Next Meeting

Before membership meeting 

1PM on November 19th

Background

BPAC Lunch n Learn series (from Eugene)

The main question we will be dealing with for our kick-off session is simply, "What is our community?" The BPAC mission currently says that we are a community of API artists. I think it's important to talk about what "Asian and Pacific Islander American" means. We will cover the particular political moments in which that term emerged, the community activism that launched the term into popular usage, and the histories of racialization and exclusion that the term has been combatting. We will end by thinking about the extent to which that term may or may not be useful in describing our BPAC community.

Overall, they hope to cover the following topics:

-- Immigration and citizenship-- I'm thinking we could bring up current concerns about the deportation of Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees.

-- Hate crimes-- It's gonna be the 30th anniversary of the Vincent Chin killing, so we can talk about that. As well as the beatings in South Philly last year. 

-- Art and activism-- We could raise the question of what role art has in changing the political tenor of Asian America. 

--Popular representations of Asian Americans-- Which could easily integrate a discussion of our featured artists. 

-- The API vote-- Since 2012 is an election year, I figured we could talk about what's on the ballot, who's running, and how the various options impact the API community

I'm wondering if it makes sense to approach Cat Fung and the BPAC crew about doing a joint event. This could help API movement get more "members" since BPAC is still an arts organization.

_________________

National Call for Asian Progressive/Left on Occupy Wall Street 

Thursday, Nov 10 at 5 pm (PST)