The San Francisco Bay Area APAP House Party took place in Berkeley, CA. We were fortunate to have an impressive group of attendees including many emerging APA leaders from UC Berkeley, local public officials, national & state program directors/coordinators, an APAP board member and our special guest, Jennifer Pae, who is running for Oakland City Council.

The call brought up many of the issues that we were all concerned with regarding immigration reform, upcoming elections, etc. One of the areas of most concern for those of us in the Bay Area were the recent violent attacks on Asian Americans ending in the deaths of two men in the past month. There was much discussion as how best to address the tensions amongst the Black and Asian populations. A number of our members have taken an active role in attending community meetings with local law enforcement as well as participating in rallies in San Francisco and Oakland. Our recent screening of Vincent Who? could not have been more timely.

Because our gathering included so many emerging APA leaders, active in public service, the topic of how to encourage more Asian Americans to run for office or join the current administration lead to lively conversations. We were lucky to have an individual currently working at the US Department of Education in attendance who urged others to continue to make a difference and seriously look at government jobs. Our special guest,Jennifer, told us her moving story as to why she had decided to run for office and what lead her to public service.

The last major topic of discussion was how do we move forward and what forms of communication will be most effective to keep those of us at the House Party engaged, how do we involve individuals not currently engaged, and how do we build coalitions with the other organizations we may represent. It was clear that there are many organizations working within the APA Community but at this time, there is no central clearing house for information that we can easily navigate. The idea of a central calendar for upcoming APA events could be created so that scheduling conflicts may be avoided and so we are all aware of what is going on within our community. Our group has created and APAP Fan page and will create on on-line google calendar in the meantime for our upcoming events, many of which will be outreach during  Asian Heritage Month.

The following are some bullet points from our discussion:

- Black and Asian violence
model minority myth
City Hall 6-8PM in SF
underreported crimes – communities not speaking out as much
black and Asian (UCSD) racial hostility

- Immigration Reform
mostly 3rd generations immigrant in AZ
killing ethnic studies
undocumented students – DREAM Act
intersecting issues with violence
 
-Specific set of follow-ups
coalition building
constituent groups
local actions
asian am heritage month
build networks, then mobilize
 
- Emerging leaders and APA in Government
co-sponsor bill – barbara lee -
get local elected officials from our chapters
take positions in the govt
 
Senator Boxer
Attorney General race
 
- Where do we go from here
same folks at all meeting and gathering of APA
building coalitions in our community and broader community
being in multiple levels (govt, in community, running for office)
donate your time, donate, let us know about folks who are running that you know
endorsements
 
streamlining our lists
online google calendar
APAP fan page

Attendees: Colbert Tse, Angelica Jongco, Michael Kwan, Mary Nicely, Aaron Sanchez, Annie Ngo, Eddie Choi, Tamiko Wong, Erin Pangilinan, Kortney McBride, Maritessa Ares, Van Nguyen, Ben deGuzman, Jennifer Pae,, Stephan Chen, Nicky Gonzalez Yuen,Lean Deleon,Viola Tang,Winnie Wong