AAJA Hawaii Chapter Meeting
Feb. 11
11 a.m.
Honolulu Design Center

Note: No meetings were held September, October, November or December of 2017, as well as January of 2018.

Call to Order: 11:19 a.m.
Attendance: Linda Dela Cruz, Wes Nakama, Noelle Fujii, Kristen Wong, Jason Ubay

President’s Report: Renew your membership. Ronda Ching Day (via email) invited members of AAJA-Hawaii to go to an event. Ronda Ching Day says her organization AREAA (Asian Real Estate Association of America) will comp 2 AAJA Hawaii members for their local conference. No one from our chapter was able to attend.

She wanted to give us an award and said she will try again at a summer event. She is the mother of Lauren Day, the SPJ intern that worked at KHON with Linda. She got an AAJA scholarship in California and works on a morning show. If any of the members are interested, please let Jason know. We could also partner for events.

Treasurer’s Report:
Here’s my treasurer’s report.

The year end report from July to December was sent to AAJA National.

Our business annual report is due on March 18 to the State of Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Business Registration Division.

We need to update the officers on our First Hawaiian Bank account.

The current board members are not on the First Hawaiian Bank account. Linda will follow up. In order to access the account for certain transactions, we will need to add the current board members to the account. A copy of the meeting minutes needs to be submitted that shows the names, and titles of the current board members to be on the account.

Our officers are: Linda Dela Cruz – Treasurer
Wes Nakama – National Representative
Jason Ubay – President
Kristen Wong – Secretary
Noelle Fujii – Board Member

Old Business: We went to “Finding Kukan” screening in September by AAJA member Robin Lung, a filmmaker, at the Pacific Aviation Museum.

New Business: Noelle Fujii has expressed interest in becoming a board member. The board has voted for Noelle to become a member of the board as of this meeting.
Jason has collected a few golf items for silent auctions. Please let him know if we have any other items. Our chapter got a free registration for convention for having the highest ticket item. I nominated Linda for the free registration. She will consider it.

Approval of Minutes: A unanimous vote approved the August 2017 minutes.

National Board Representative: As of 2016 attendance at the Spring meeting was encouraged but not mandatory. Wes will go anyway but cover his own expenses. Sports Task Force: Christian Faria co-hosts a radio show in Boston called Sports Talk Radio. He made an inappropriate impression of Tom Brady’s Asian agent: Don Yee. The New England Chapter and the Sports Task Force and AAJA’s media watch are releasing a joint statement. Wes reminds us to keep our eyes out for items in the media that are questionable regarding race. Don Yee was a panel speaker for AAJA and donated a $2,000 scholarship. Wes received an email from the New England chapter board representative regarding the statement. Wes recommended that the message should be run by national. Media Watch was aware.

New Business: Our chapter is responsible for judging for two broadcast categories for scholarships. They wanted broadcast members from AAJA Hawaii. However, we have nine members as of Sept. 29 so it was difficult to find qualified judges with experience who were also AAJA members. Linda as well as Nestor Garcia and Marisa Yamane of KHON volunteered to judge the competition for the Hawaii chapter.

Original email below:

I hope you all had a happy holiday season! Your chapters have been assigned to the AAJA scholarships committee for 2018. As you know, AAJA offers several scholarships and internship grant opportunities each year. As chapter presidents, your duties are to assign judges to your scholarships/internship grants and help out with promotion.

I’ve assigned the awards as follows (please let me know by this Friday, January 12 if you would rather find judges for different awards):

Hawaii – Broadcast News Internship Grants (Lloyd LaCuesta Award & Sam Chu Lin Award) to fund students’ expenses during summer internships.

Jason– can you find 3 judges from your chapter with experience in broadcast to judge both of the broadcast grants? That is, 3 judges total, not 3 judges for each grant.

Washington, DC – Vincent Chin Scholarship and the Print/Online News Internship Grant (William Woo Award) to fund a student’s expenses during a summer internship.

Gene– can you find 3 judges from your chapter with experience in print/online news to judge for Vincent Chin and the print/online grant? Again, 3 judges total to judge both.

Los Angeles – CIC/Anna Chennault Scholarship and Mary Quon Moy Ing Memorial Scholarship

Ashley – can you find 3 judges from your chapter, preferably veteran journalists, to judge both of these scholarships? Again, 3 judges total to judge both.

Ideally you can all identify 3 members each from your chapters who can serve as judges for your assigned awards (that means 3 judges total from each chapter, not 3 judges per scholarship) and send their names/contact info to me by January 31, 2018.

Convention is set for Aug. 8-11 in Houston. Wes is excited because he has never been to Texas. Please consider going to the convention. Fast-growing Asian population there.

Noelle’s ideas: We could have professional development workshops for members and students. A journalist’s guide to branding. When to include race in the news report. How to prepare for a journalism career. Ask members for ideas on what they would like for professional development. Topics include: Resume building, photography, editing.
Professional headshots by Greg Yamamoto, $10 for non-members, free for members.

Planning a workshop for professional development. April 11 5:30-8:00 at UH. Noelle to connect with UH journalism school and HPU journalism school. Noelle to make a pitch for Voices. Wes said April 18 is the early bird registration for the convention. Jason will talk to Greg. If Linda doesn’t want the registration we can give it out as a door prize. Jason will make an itinerary. Wes will reach out to Mark. Linda will reach out. Noelle suggested reaching out to high schools, like Sacred Heart Academy, and the DOE. Kristen suggested a live feed on AAJA Facebook.

The new advisor for Ka Leo is Mark Arakaki since Jay Hartwell retired. Wes said we should have a meet and greet to build a new relationship with Ka Leo. Ka Leo has moved to once every other week. Partially because of revenue and partially because of student participation. Jay used to put on J-Day. Campus center. Wes will approach him for the topic. On a larger note we could try to start relationships with educators.

Next Meeting: March 11 at 11 a.m. at Honolulu Design Center.

Adjournment: 12:16 p.m.

AAJA Hawaii Chapter Meeting
Honolulu Design Center
Aug. 19, 2017
11 a.m.

Call to Order: 11:18 a.m.

Attendance: Linda Dela Cruz, Jason Ubay, Wes Nakama, Kristen Wong:

Approval of the minutes: January 2017 minutes approved with correction.

President’s Report: Check on your membership status. AAJA National is moving to a new system. The chapter members may not be accurate. Jason will follow up. Sign on to AAJA database and double check. Jason went to the general membership meeting at the convention. There are currently 1,108 members in AAJA right now. Topics included media watch, Muslim resource guide, criminal justice reporting. If you want to start an Affinity Group, you can. Convention 2018 will be in Houston in August.

Vice President’s Report:

Renewed the PO Box in July.

Renewing CD in August.

Discussion: Fundraising and recruitment. It’d be a good idea to try. San Diego won chapter of the year but had low membership and two board members but Jason wanted to pick their brains for ideas. Sept. 23 “Finding Kukan” at Pacific Aviation Museum. Tickets are available this week.

Wes suggested we invest the CD through a financial advisor. Ask Glen at National about what is appropriate.

Big question: What are we doing for the members?

Wes suggested we try to keep a radar up on events in Hawaii and let the members know.

Jason suggested a survey for the members.

Wes said at the convention there was a Story Slam. They had 20 applicants. Storytelling in a stand-up monologue presentation. They picked six stories in paper form and there was a panel of judges. Three to five minutes each. Resounding, everyone talked about it.

National Representative’s Report: No report. Jason covered main topics.

Contact at least one other person for the museum

Jason will get questions together for survey.

Jason will contact Robin Lung about Finding Kukan tickets.

Next Meeting:

Adjournment: 12:29 p.m.

Note: No meeting in February, March, April, May, June or July 2017