Measure twice. Cut once.

Redmond, Wa - It's a well known fact that a little bit of planning goes along way, so every year the NAAAP Seattle Board meets to plan the upcoming year and to provide learning opportunities to our Board members. This year was no different.

Returning as our facilitator was Wendy Watanabe. She led us through discussions on conflict resolution and building joint solutions through consensus. When all was said and done, we landed on an annual operating plan to fulfill on the vision and mission of NAAAP Seattle.

Rounding out the day was our resident media mavens, Julie Pham (Northwest Vietnamese News) and Marian Liu (Seattle Times) training the Board on branding. This was especially effective since we all became reaquainted with our accomplishments.

Lastly, we had an opportunity to welcome our newest Board members, Jen Park as Community Service Chair (Google) Micheal Okimura as Professional Development Chair (Pacific Capital Resource Group) and Sherwin Tsao as Technology Chair (Guidant Financial Group).

With the planning done, we can now focus on executing our plan. We considered many factors such as our membership base, our partner and sponsor ecosystem and our community needs. We hope you'll join us in what we think as a defining year for NAAAP Seattle.

Regards,
NAAAP Seattle Board of Directors

NAAAP-Seattle helps clean up International District

Next time you go to the International District, be aware that So. Jackson Street and So. King Street between Fifth and Twelve Ave So. are adopted by NAAAP-Seattle.

Sixteen NAAAP-Seattle volunteers hit their adopted streets of the International District on Sunday, Jan. 23.

Items NAAAP-Seattle picked up included hubcaps and windshield glass.

Repeat volunteer Steven Quan said he always signs up for the ID clean-ups organized by NAAAP-Seattle.

"It's important to keep our community clean," said Quan. "Even when I'm just out on the street, if I see a bit of trash, I can't help it,...I'll pick it up."

James Tabafunda said he had a few hours to spare on a Sunday, "so I thought it'd volunteering would be a good way to spend it."

Photos by James Tabafunda.

EDI Leadership Together

NAAAP Board members, Gil Gido, David Eam, Hang Pin Chen, Vivian Hauer and Ke (Clair) Ding participated in Executive Development Institute’s (EDI) 2nd Annual Leadership Together Conference on January 22, 2011. Richard Velazquez, the Co-Founder of NSHMBA and the Sr. Global Product Manager for Xbox delivered an excellent speech on how to lead team through innovation and creativity. Other presenters included Lillian Tsai on “Interpersonal Communications”, John Chen on “12 Fixes for Team Fails” and Misha Mercer on “Team Innovation”. The event was put together by the planning committee at EDI. Joyce Zhou and Starr McDnald were members of the planning committee.

Joyce Zhou of ACRS said, “As part of the planning committee, I was very excited to see the great turnout. The conference successfully served its purpose of developing diverse leaders by bringing together professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds and companies to learn team building and communications skills, while fostering innovation. I’ve received many positive comments afterwards and would love to see this conference happen again next year.


Starr McDonald of EDI added, “I thought the event was stellar and exceeded its objectives in collaborating, networking and skill building. It is a privilege for EDI to align with other professional organizations that share a common mission and learn, live and grow together.”

NAAAP-Seattle is proud to be a sponsor of Executive Development Institute which is committed to train leaders in Asian Pacific & Hispanic communities. If you are interested in any of the EDI programs, complete an application at http://www.ediorg.org/