Meeting Minutes for meeting held on 1/5/2008
Attended: John Downey, Yin Leung, Dora Chung, Cathy Ko-Downey, Kevin To,
Karen Lam, May Chan, Wing Sang Koo and Betty Yau
Agenda # 1 - group identity discussion
(We had talked about a formation of a Chinese/Asian advisory committee at
the 11/17/2007 meeting.)
topics to revisit: role & commitment, mission/ vision, group structure ...
We are proud to participate in the election committee to help bring the
new administration to the City. We as a group had demonstrated tremendous energy and dedication to what we believe in. Our
mission is to assist the Asian community to be more engaged and assimilated into the at-large community. Our grass root effort
reflects voices from many different backgrounds. We had worked together effectively to give strategic and diplomatic advices
to the Mayor and the election committee.
At the meeting, we decided to continue our advisory role to the Koch administration.
We will meet twice a month during the 1st quarter of 2008. After that, our meeting schedule may become once a month. Meanwhile,
we did not rule out the possibility to form a non-profit organization to provide direct services to assist in filling service
gaps.
A discussion about the structure of our group also took place. John Downey
was nominated to head the group. He did not accept the nomination yet. Since we all want to begin with a sound organization,
this topic of structure will remian to be explored further in our next meeting.
A discussion of a group name has come to a consensus for:
Asian American Advisory Committee to the Mayor
We will submit this name to the Mayor for his review and approval.
We also talked about the different boards and commissions in the City Hall.
Everyone is asked to think about joining a board and/or to think of people to be invited to join the boards. The link to the
boards and commissions in City Hall: (for information and reference) http://ci.quincy.ma.us/BoardsCommissionsPage39.html
Agenda #2 - media relations
(We talked about sending a press
release to all Chinese media at the meeting on 11/17/2007)
a Chinese name for Mayor Tom Koch?
We talked about a standardize Chinese name for the Mayor.
Suggestions include: 唐告士﹐ 郭士唐﹐
高士﹐ 高署
(The newest addition that John Downey showed me last night at the inauguration
is: 唐國柱 )
Since phonetic translation in Mandarin and Cantonese differs, we were not
able to finalize one Chinese name to be used yet. Everyone is assigned a homework to think more about the name and come back
at the next meeting with more suggestions.
The Lunar New Year Day is Feb 7, 2008 for this year. We would like that
the Mayor would write up a New Year greetings to be sent to all Chinese media. The greetings will serve as an introduction
of the Koch administration as well as the "Asian American Advisory Committee to the Mayor", the annoucement of Tom's Chinese
name, and other necessary messages.
We also talked about the Feb 17 Lunar New Year Event to be held at the N.
Quincy High organized by QARI, Quincy Asian Resources Inc. Some of us will attend to show support.
We saved all other agenda items below to the next meeting:
- Communication with the constituent services of the City Hall
- good
neighbor booklet
- an effective communication platform
- an evaluation program for service review and improvement
Upcoming meeting schedule:
Sat., Jan 19, Sat., Feb 2, Sat., Feb 16
All meetings are scheduled to 1pm. Place of meeting is to be announced.
- add agenda item: how to work with the media
Chris Walker and Mayor Koch were invited to join us at one
of our future meetings to give us some guidelines.
- rumor control
- inviting "American" community members to join our group
Respectfully submitted,
Betty Yau
