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Board of Directors Meeting Docket


Physical Meeting Docket for February 11-12, 2006

AGENDA for Feb 10, 2006 (Friday):
The Executive Comm. meet between 7 & 8:30 p.m. in S. B's room.

AGENDA for Feb 11, 2006 (Saturday):
Malibu ROOM

Breakfast        7:30 – 8:30 a.m.

  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 (5 minutes) Kathleen To
    Income/ Expenditure of 2005
  3. Membership Report: 2005 summary, and 2006 projection (10 minutes)   Jing & S. B.
    1. 2005 membership:  Jing-Li Y
    2. A Rough Projection for 2006:  S. B. Woo
  4. Required Meeting Procedure: Robert's Rules of Order (10 m.) Rajen Anand
    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 2 page summary of the key motions has been emailed to you.  Please review, if necessary.
    Appoint Rajen as 80-20's parliamentarian.
  5. Budget for 2006 and Personnel Matters    (10 minutes) S. B.

    10:10 a. m. :  BREAK FOR 10 MINUTES
  6. Steps to Increase Asian Am Judges at All levels of Federal Courts (75 minutes):  S. B.
    1. How are Federal judges nominated? (5 minutes)
    2. Where are the vacant judgeships & where to focus? (5 minutes)
    3. Is the critical 2006 Congressional election a good leverage? (55 minutes)
    4. How will the 2008 Presidential election be helpful to our goals? (5 minutes)
    5. Who will step up to get the job done? (5 minutes)

    Recess at 11:50 a.m. or earlier

    Luncheon: "Gathering of Asian American Legal Eagles"    

    Catalina Room (Begins at noon)

  7. Bylaws Amendments.  (15 minutes)  Kathleen To
    (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 will be emailed to you by the Board Secretary)
  8. Membership Expansion (30 minutes)   (15 minutes)   Larry Ho

    1. Setting a goal

    2. How to achieve the goal
      1. How each Board member can help (Distribute our pamphlets)
      2. How the Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien High School/College Interns can help
  9. How the Board Can ECHO to Help Project 80-20's Message
    -- a success story  (15 minutes)  S.B.
    The White House and every recent presidential campaign run an ECHO program.  80-20 has adopted that tactic since 2004.  A recent success, owing to our Sr. Louis chapter, will be reported to you.
  10. Getting Ready for a Change in Leadership  (30 m.)  S.B.
    1. The election of 2006 – all officers will be stepping down

    2. The Preparations including the Presidential search committee

    3. The creation of 80-20 Educational Foundation may help

    4. Jing will be leaving us.  Search for staff

    5. How to get the job done.

  11. 3:30 p.m.: BREAK FOR 15 MINUTES

  12. The Battle to Win Equal Opportunity at Work Begins ( 2 to 3 hours):   S.B.
    For contents, see the docket.  Meeting will be adjourned no later than 6:30 p.m.  If the above item is not finished, it'll be picked up the next morning.

 DINNER

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AGENDA of Feb. 12, 2006 (Sunday)

    Continental Breakfast  -- 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

  1. Fundraising (20  minutes).  Gareth Chang
    Gareth is the National Chair of our Fundraising Comm. who is planning a fundraiser in LA by the end of April.
  2. How 80-20's Treasury Works (15 m.)  Kathleen To
    Be sure to ask questions to see if uneducated conjectures were correct

  3. Review of our "Legal Eagles" Luncheon.  (20 m.)  S. B.
    Any follow up necessary?  Report on Asian American Coalition for Equal Justice (AACEJ).

  4. Future Handling of  our email system (20 m.) Larry Ho
    Our emailing list and our mass emailing are what gave 80-20 the clout.

  5. State of 80-20 -- our successes & failures & projection for 2007   (25 minutes)  S.B.
    S. B shall speak for 10 minutes.  15 minutes for comments by Board members. 
    Please allow veteran Board members to speak first. 

  6. The Dynamics between 80-20, the two major political parties and the major APA organizations (60 minutes)
    The Whole Board will give input 
    S.B. shall give a ten minute report on what it is today, and what will be the ideal to aim for.  All will please contribute to how to improve the relationship.
  7. To track The Federal Duress of Asian Americans
    Albert Yee wants to discuss this.

  8. New Business

  9. Adjournment at 11:00 a.m. or earlier.  

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1. Self Introduction:

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 TreasurerKathleen To

Last year's Income:

Membership (including new Life Members) $88K

Fundraising from Life Members  (verbal explanation)

 
Voluntary contribution from members $4K
Interests Received $2K
Total   $94K

Importance of Life Members: helps stabilize our financial income and election results.

Top

2005 Expenditure:

1 Payroll  (Jing, interns & Paychex cost) $51K
2 Payment to ISPs & e-mail related consultant fees $12K
3 Equipment & Postage $ 1K
4 Meeting Expenses (Travel by staff & a few Bd members) $ 2.5K
5 Printing cost (publicity material) & Phone Bills (conf. calls) $ 0.5K
6 Chapter reimbursement/ plus ads with Friends $ 1.5K
7 Credit card handling fees  (Paypal, acteva & YourPay) $ 2K
8 July 4th radio ads & TV & newspaper ad (left from 2004) $ 9K
9 Miscellaneous $ 2K
  Total:  $ 81.5K

Reserve:   

2005 started with a reserve of $150K.  At year's end, it was enlarged by

($94K - $81.5K) = 12.5K.

 Total:                                             $ 162.5K

Top

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

  1. Life Membership: 170 or 8% of total membership but normally accounts for 55% of 80-20's income, except for this year,

  2. Renewals: 1457 or 68% of membership (111 upgrades, 36 downgrades):       Renewals from 2004: 1310  Renewals from 2003: 115     Renewals from 2002: 32

  3. New members: 543 or 25%
    [Does not add up to 2152 is b/c the 21 life members of '05 are distributed between "New Members" and "Renewals"]

     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          

online   number /(last year’s number)
Student Members:   114(5%)/59(3%)
Basic members:           668 (31%)/ 690 (33%)
Family Members:  

1200 (56%)/ 1206 (57%)

New Life Members:          21 (1%)/ 50 (2%)
Existing Life Members:  

149 (7%)/ 99 (5%)

     
Total:   2152/2104

notes:

  1. total money raised from existing or new Life Members is approximately $34,000

  2. approximately $$3300-$3400 raised from "contributions of members over their basic/ family dues".

  3. recruitment by interns was disproportionately student members, accounting partially for increase in student members.

  4. New Life Members are fewer than in '04 b/c more people wanted to support 80-20 more strongly during the election year

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:
  1. Empirical result:  In just the month of January this year, we have already recruited 900 plus members of which 9 are Life Members.  That is roughly 50% above the numbers of the past 3 years in number of regular members and Life Members. 

  2. We will begin farming new e-mail addresses again.

  3. I believe this year's Board members will help greatly in recruiting.

  4. We'll institute Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien High School Internship which I believe could be effective.

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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

1 Membership Dues (25 new Life Members & 2500 regular members) $ 95K
2 Interest from the reserve fund of $162K $ 4K
3 Special fundraising events  (Gareth in LA)                  $ 15K
4 Misc. Contributions   $ 3K
  Total: $117K      

                                         EXPENDITURE**:

1 Salary and Benefits Jing-Li Yu for 8 months $ 35K
2 New staff for 4 month                                                    $ 12K
3 Payment to ISPs & e-mail related consultant fees             $  6K
4 E-mail consultant                                                          $  4K
5 New email system or revising existing system                   $  8K
6 Equipment & Postage                                                      $ 2K
7 Meeting & traveling Expenses                                           $ 7K
8 Printing cost & Phone Bills (conference calls)                    $ 2K
9 Three Chang-Lin Tien Summer Interns                              $ 9K
10 Overhead for fundraising events                                     $ 2K
11 chapter rebate & grants    (A new Fl chapter?)                 $ 1K
12 July 4 and other initiatives                                             $ 3K
13 We may hire a staff for a few month to overlap Jing        $ 6K
14 Fight to win equal opportunity** & justice                    $ 10K
  Total: $107K (See **)
     
  RESERVE AT THE END OF 2006:                            $172.5K
** This budget does not include
  1. lawyers fees, if and when 80-20 takes legal actions to win equal opportunity in workplaces for AsAms
  2. full page ads in ethnic and mainstream papers. (Full page ad in NY Times will be $150K) The cost will be huge.  Money must be raised separately.  Educational Foundation may bear some expenses in purely educational functions.

    Top

    10:10 a. m. :  BREAK FOR 10 MINUTES

     

6. Steps to Increase Asian Am Judges at All levels of Federal Courts (75 minutes): S. B.
    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)

Nom. P. means "Nominees Pending for Senate confirmation"
NPFV means “Nominees pending for future vacancies”
  Courts Judges AsAm

Vacant

Nom. P.*

NPFV

District 674 Art III 678 6 36 19 0
Circuit 12 179 0 17 7 1
Sup.

1

9

0

0

0

o

http://www.uscourts.gov/judicialvac.html; The specific vacancies are listed at: http://www.uscourts.gov/cfapps/webnovada/CF_FB_301/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reports.ViewVacancies 
A summary's found at:
http://www.uscourts.gov/cfapps/webnovada/CF_FB_301/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reports.ViewSummary

Normally, the combination of 4 factors can produce presidential nomination of Asian Am District/Circuit court judges

  1. political needs of the President and/or his party

  2. political needs of the senior senator of the same parts.  For example,
    1. the senator is running in a state with a lot of AsAm. voters.  (80-20 has good reliable
      information on such states and congressional districts)  and
    2. is facing a tough election.  (Again, 80-20 has expertise knowledge on such elections)

  3. Credibility of the AsAm communitys ability to deliver a bloc vote or money
  4. activism of the local AsAms drawing out the nobler and more altruistic instincts of the senator/congressmen.
Vacancies without nominees to fill them, on the District Level there are: 4 in CA, 1 in WA, 3 in MI, 1 in VA, and 1 in western PA (probably not an APA heavy place), 1 in "International Trade." At the Appeals Court level, counting just vacancies without nominees, there are: 2 in 9th which includes CA and AZ, 1 in 3rd District (which includes PA and NJ), 1 in 4th (including VA), 1 in 5th (incl TX), 1 in 10th (incl OK), 1 in DC. There are some more vacancies where a nominee has already been suggested.

Is the critical 2006 Congressional election a good leverage? (55 minutes)

Yes. A great leverage. The leadership of both Senate and House could change hands after the 2006 election. Both parties will be willing to "kill" to assure its winning the majority. Hence, 80-20 may want to commit to lead a campaign to help all Republican Congressional candidates, with a few exceptions, if it is willing to commit to a given number of Circuit and District Court judges. Or, if the Dem. Party is willing to help to open congressional hearings on glass ceilings over Asian Ams and the Republican again prove negative, then we could commit to help all Dem. Congressional candidates, with a few exceptions.
Note that if both parties are willing, then we'll have to commit to go for the Republicans, because it has the power right now and therefore can offer the better deal. If we decide to commit to such a course of action, then a 80-20 delegation will need to meet with the Chair of RNC and DNC respectively. We'll take things from there.

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.

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Recess at 11:50 a.m. or earlier
Luncheon: “Gathering of Asian American Legal Eagles”
Catalina Room (Begins at noon)

7. Bylaws Amendments.  (15 minutes)  Kathleen To
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
  1. Setting a goal:  2500 members including 30 new Life Members?
  2. How to achieve the goal
    1. How each Board member can help (Distribute our pamphlets)
    2. How the Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien High School/College Interns can help. The high school internship is explained below

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.

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9. How the Board Can ECHO to Help Project 80-20's Message
 -- a success story  (15 minutes)  S.B.

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!

Top

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:
  1. The Presidential search committee, PSC

    The entire Exec. Comm. constitutes the PSC. Julia Wan is the Chair. The committee has adopted a written set of qualifications for the ideal candidate. It has rank ordered the names that have been proposed thus far. If the next president can't give the kind of time SB has been giving, then he/she has to be able to raise money to hire an additional staff. S.B. raises about $30K per year for 80-20. Hence a president who can’t spent 40 to 50 hours per week will hopefully have the ability to raise $80K per year ($30K that S.B. normally raises plus the necessary money to hire an additional staff to put in the time.)

  2. The creation of 80-20 Educational Foundation (EF)

    An 80-20 Educational Foundation has been set up, thanks to Julia Wan and Kathleen To. The founding Board members are Larry Ho, Kathleen To, Julia Wan, & S. B. Woo. Thus far it has raised about 30K. For purely educational matters e.g. the July 4th Flag project, EF can take over the work and expenses. It could also share email expenses, and staff salary. As a tax-exempt organization, EF is in position to raise BIG money.

    EF and PAC share the same goals. But the two must operate as independent orgs. PAC can give aid and money to EF, but not vice versa owing to the restrictions of tax codes.

  3. Little things to drum up support for the new Leadership:

    There could be an increase or drop in membership after the change in leadership. To give the new leaders more time to work with, we are preparing our supporters for the change over & Support the new leadership. Two examples are shown.

    1. Our new thank you letter to joining and renewing members emphasize PERSISTENY support for 80-20:
    2. "Dear xxx:

            Thank you for supporting 80-20 so PERSISTENTLY.  Our community needs this kind of support to establish our LASTING group political clout. When we get rid of the glass ceiling that is now prevalent in ALL professions and win our equal justice, the reward to an average Asian American is easily a thousand times the amount of your annual membership fee.
           THANK YOU for sacrificing and bearing the pioneer's burden.

      Best,
      SB"
            One response to the above "Thank you" says, "Dear Mr. Woo, I will always support for our 80-20 group. …"       Steve Lim  So every little effort helps. 
    3. The Header of 80-20's mass email will soon change to either 80-20PAC@80-20.net or 80-20EducationalFoundation@80-20.net , long before S. B. retires.

    Top

3:30 p.m.: BREAK FOR 15 MINUTES

11. 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

  1. mailing the ads to elected officials and ask for public hearings,
  2. ask for and visit the editorial boards of most large mainstream papers,,
  3. Try to get film from 60 Minutes and/or 20-20.
  4. Again we use our mass email to get extra mileage from this major expenditure.  Maybe we could have another press conference with the ethnic media.  Better yet, use the ad to induce other sister AsAm orgs. to work with us.

5) Follow-up on the Political Side:

  1. Focus on senators and congressman who promised to enforce EO 11246 during their 2004 presidential campaigns.  Also work with those who serve on Labor Comm. e.g. Sen. Kennedy and Cong. Mike Castle of DE.
  2. EEOC and ask for hearings.
  3. DOL
  4. RNC (Republican Nat'l Comm.) & DNC
  5. White House

 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)

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AGENDA for Feb. 12, 2006 (Sunday)

  Continental Breakfast  -- 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

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

Top

. 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 To
Be sure to ask questions to see if uneducated conjectures were correct.  Please see bottom of
http://www.80-20initiative.net/BoDSC.html for Treasurer’s Duties.
3. Review of our "Legal Eagles" Luncheon.  (20 m.)  S. B.
Any follow up necessary?  Report on Asian American Coalition for Equal Justice (AACEJ).
4. Future Handling of our email system (20 m.) Larry Ho
80-20'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.

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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. 
  1. Winning Equal Opportunity At Work:  Jing and SB put in hundreds of hours to dig up irrefutable statistics based on government data that AsAms don't have half the opportunity to rise to the management level average Americans in same positions, whether in private industries, universities or Federal government.  In other words, facts are on our side.  Now we need to create the political, legal and public forces to make ourselves equal citizens of America.

    NO concrete advance in our battle to win equal opportunity at work has been made.  i) S. B's letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao since May 17, 2005 was not answered, in spite of active assistance by Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware.
    S. B. and others met with EEOC Chairwoman Cori Dominguez.  While the meeting was very positive, we await concrete results.
  2. Winning Equal Justice thru more Federal Judicial Appointments:  Again we laid good foundations, including educating our own community about the scarcity of Asam Federal judges, and the "Gathering of AsAm legal Eagles" luncheon and subsequent publicity. 

    Concrete steps to increase AsAm representation in Federal courts are already described in Agenda Item 6.  It will be nice if we have a highly dedicated Board member to head an Ad Hoc Committee to achieve those concrete gains. 
    80-20 was only moderately successful in organizing a coalition, Asian American Coalition for Equal Justice (AACEJ), to push for more Federal judicial appointment of AsAms. We had one failure.
    Our press conference in Washington D.C. was a flop.  80-20 never applies leverage with fellow AsAms on the assumption that our common needs will eventually unite us.  I hope this point in time arrives soon.  :-(

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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.

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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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