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Tuesday, September 7, 2004: Volume #2, Issue #44
The VERB Weekly Email Digest
Edited by Sophy Pich, VERB Project Associate

Note: Documents on this page or in this section may be in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. In order to read them, you require Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is downloadable free from Adobe.

In This Week's Issue

Announcements

National CAPACD's New Website
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
NAPAWF and Aalead

Promising Practices

Ten Quick Ways to Improve Board Meetings

News

State's Hmong Exercise Little Political Muscle
Shaking Up Shakespeare
Do It! Drive to Help Hmong Begins Today
Funding Cut for Hmong Seniors
State Fair Presents New Thrills for Resettled Hmong Family
Hmong Leaders May Expand Class
Health Survey Targets Asian-Americans
Asian-American Specialy Offered
Thousands of Hmong Refugees Expected to Resettle in Sacramento
Recent Surge in Hmong Migration Sparks Interest
New EWU Study Paints Picture of Asians Here
Pioneer Inn, Church Boost Furniture Donation Drive for Hmong
Culture Questions from the Vietnamese
Vietnamese Cultural Center Okd, Despite Protest
Warm Weather Welcome Lao-Hmong National Summer Festival

Funding Opportunities

NEA and YSAYLL
the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation

Resources

CharityAdvantage

I. Announcements

Dear Community Members & Friends,

The National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development announces the launch of our redesigned website.

Our new website contains the following:

An overview of National CAPACD's programs and policy platforms
Links to our member organizations serving the Asian American and Pacific Islanders from across the country
Links to other federal, educational, national organizations
Information on membership and our national list serve
Access to critical AAPI data on immigration, housing, income, and population
Information and photos from our national convention and issue forums (check out the 2004 photos!)
National CAPACD's publications and reports
And much more...

Visit us at www.nationalcapacd.org. Email aleyamma@nationalcapacd.org with your comments and suggestions.

In solidarity,

Aleyamma Mathew, Director of Programs
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
1001 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 730
Washington DC 20036
t 202.223.2442
f 202.223.4144
aleyamma@nationalcapacd.org
www.nationalcapacd.org

***

For California Voters, I highly recommend visiting the county websites for the registration forms. This is especially if you are registering non-English speaking voters. A county like LA is required to provide registration forms in 6 other languages, with checkboxes for the voter to request materials in att language. For our APA community, it is very important that those who need bilingual assistance fill out the right form to request the translated materials they need.

Cal. counties with reg. forms where voters can request materials in Asian languages: SF, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, LA, OC, and SD.

Kathay Feng
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
1145 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 977-7500
www.apalc.org

Elections are Tuesday, November 2nd! Don't forget to register by October 19th. Early voting in LA runs from Oct. 20 - 29th.

***

Join NAPAWF and AALEAD on Sunday, September 12th, to help register people to vote in the Mt. Pleasant area of Washington, D.C.!

If you are interested in helping the local community exercise their right to vote, please join us at 1452 Park Road outside of the Que Houng Market next Sunday.

We will bring voter information and registration forms, pens, clipboards, and translated materials. Bilingual Vietnamese speakers are especially welcome and needed.

The deadline for voter registration in DC is fast-approaching, October 3rd. And, deadlines for VA and MD are October 4th and 12th. This is one of a series of voter registration and GOTV events that will happen in September and October so stay tuned! And, hope to see you on September 12!

Who to contact if you can help volunteer: Ann (email: ann.surapruik@hhs.gov, or phone 202-260-7647)

When: Sunday, September 12, 2004 Time: 12-5 pm Where: 1452 Park Road, Que Houng Market

(Closest metro: Columbia Heights/green line. Exit the metro and walk north on 14th Street until you reach Park Road. Make a left on Park Road and Que Houng Market is located in the middle of the block on the right.)

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II. Promising Practices

Ten Quick Ways to Improve Board Meetings

by Jan Masaoka

From BoardCafe

When we think about the boards we're on, we usually think about the board meetings-which says a lot about the importance of having good meetings. Make a new year's resolution to implement one of the following ideas each month:

Name tags for everyone, every meeting. It's embarrassing to have seen people at several meetings and wondered what their names are . . . and later it's REALLY hard to admit you don't know their names.
Post an acronym chart. Make a poster of frequently used external and internal acronyms (such as CDBG for Community Development Block Grants or DV for domestic violence) and post it on the wall of every meeting. (If you distribute the list on paper it is soon lost.)
Write an "anticipated action" for each agenda item. Examples: "Finance Committee report, brief questions and answers: no action needed." "Volunteer recruitment and philosophy: Anticipated Action = form committee of 3-4 board members." "Public Policy Committee: Anticipated Action = approve organizational statement to city council on zone changes."
Make sure that each person says at least one thing at every board meeting. This is the Chair's responsibility, but everyone should help! "Cecilia, you haven't spoken on this issue. I'm wondering what you're thinking about it?" "Matt, at the last meeting you made a good point about finances. Are there financial issues here that we aren't thinking about?"
No one-way communication from staff. If you have a regular Executive Director's Report on the agenda, or if a staff program director is giving you a briefing, be sure that such presentations need a response from the board. If not, put them in writing in the board packet and just ask if there are any questions.
Don't include committee reports on the agenda just to make the committees feel worthwhile. If a committee has done work but doesn't need it discussed, put the committee report in the board packet. (In the meeting be sure to recognize the committee's good work and refer people to the written report.) Instead, schedule committee reports in the context of the main discussion. For example, if there is a discussion planned on attracting and retaining staff, reports from the Finance Committee and the Personnel Committee may be appropriate.
Note to the board president and the executive director: what are the two most important matters facing the organization-economic downturn, changes in government funding, decreased preschool enrollment due to higher unemployment, a competitor organization, demographic changes in the county? Is one of these matters on every board agenda?
Encourage "dumb" questions, respectful dissent, authentic disagreements. Find a chance to be encouraging, at every meeting: "Sylvia, I'm glad you asked that 'dumb' question. I didn't know the answer either." "Duane, I appreciate the fact that you disagreed with me in that last discussion. Even though you didn't convince me, your comment helped make the discussion much more valuable."
Make sure the room is comfortable! Not too hot or cold or crowded. Offer beverages and something light to eat such as cookies or fruit.
Adjourn on time, or agree to stay later. Twenty minutes before the scheduled end of the meeting, the Chair should ask whether the group wants to stay later: "If we continue this very interesting discussion, we will have to stay fifteen extra minutes to hear the recommendation on the executive director's salary. Can everyone stay that long, or should we end this discussion and move to that one immediately?"

BONUS IDEA: Once every year or two, survey the board about meetings. Pass out a questionnaire for anonymous return to the board vice president or secretary, asking, "What do you like best about board meetings? Least?" "Are you satisfied with the items that are usually on the agenda?" "How could the board president do more to encourage discussion at the meetings?" "Is the location or time of day difficult for you?"

Related articles from the Board Cafe Archives at http://www.boardcafe.org:

This article is from The Best of the Board Cafe, available at http://www.amazon.com or a little cheaper at http://www.compasspoint.org/bookstore.

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III. News

State's Hmong Exercise Little Political Muscle
Green Bay Press Gazette
August 30, 2004

***

Shaking Up Shakespeare
The Columbian
August 30, 2004

***

Do It! Drive to Help Hmong Begins Today
Appleton Post Crescent
August 30, 2004

***

Funding Cut for Hmong Seniors
Wausau Daily Herald
August 31, 2004

***

State Fair Presents New Thrills for Resettled Hmong Family
Grand Forks Herald
September 1, 2004

***

Hmong Leaders May Expand Class
Wausau Daily Herald
September 1, 2004

***

Health Survey Targets Asian-Americans
CancerWise
September 1, 2004

***

Asian-American Specialty Offered
The State News
September 2, 2004

***

Thousands of Hmong Refugees Expected to Resettle in Sacramento
The California Aggie Online
September 2, 2004

***

Recent Surge in Hmong Migration Sparks Interest
WCCO
September 3, 2004

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New EWU Study Paints Picture of Asians Here
Spokane Journal of Business
September 3, 2004

***

Pioneer Inn, Church Boost Furniture Donation Drive for Hmong ...
Appleton Post Crescent
September 4, 2004

***

Culture Questions from the Vietnamese
New York Teacher
September 4, 2004

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Vietnamese Cultural Center OKd, Despite Protest
Los Angeles Times
September 5, 2004

***

Warm Weather Welcome Lao-Hmong National Summer Festival
Appleton Post Crescent
September 5, 2004

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IV. Grants

(National)
National Education Association and Youth Service America Youth Leaders for Literacy
An initiative of the National Education Association and Youth Service America Youth Leaders for Literacy seeks to help youth direct their enthusiasm and creativity into reading-related service projects. The program is accepting grant applications for youth-led projects that will begin on NEA's Read Across America Day, March 2, 2005, and culminate on YSA's National Youth Service Day, April 15-17, 2005.

Applicants aged 21 or younger can apply as individuals or groups. To be eligible for grant funds (up to $500 per project), applicants must include a scheduled activity (read-aloud session, trip to the library, book making, etc.) each week of the six-week project period as part of the proposed service project.

Criteria for grants include youth leadership in developing and implementing the project, involvement of youth in preparing and submitting the grant application, capacity of the individual or group to administer the grant, and impact of the project on those providing service and those being served.

Deadline: October 22, 2004
(North Carolina)
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation seeks applications from leaders working in nonprofit organizations in North Carolina for its sabbatical program.

The sabbatical program is a reward program for organization leaders. The sabbatical is a three- to six month period during which nonprofit organization leaders are not working for their organization but instead are engaged in activities that offer personal renewal and professional growth. Sabbatical participants will have an opportunity to plan, reflect, rest, read, and study or explore interests that are unrelated to their field of work.

Individuals in paid, full-time leadership positions who have served their North Carolina nonprofit organizations for at least three years, two of those as leaders, are eligible for the program. Preference is given to individuals with at least five years' experience with their organization. Individuals who work for statewide, regional, or local nonprofit organizations may apply. The program is not designed for career public school, college, university, or government employees.

Five nonprofit leaders will receive this year's sabbatical awards. Recipients will each receive $15,000 shortly before their sabbaticals begins. Sabbatical recipients will be expected to be released completely from their organizational obligations during their sabbatical and to return to their organizations for at least the same length of time as their sabbatical.

Deadline: December 1, 2004