Dear House Party Host,

Thank you for agreeing to join the Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (APAP) Nationwide AAPI conference call on May 31, 2009.  We are thrilled about the speakers who will be on the call and answering select questions from house parties around the nation: Konrad Ng, Tammy Duckworth, Tina Tchen, and Sonal Shah.

This email is to confirm your participation, as well as provide details to prepare you and your guests.  The two PDF attachments will also help to serve as a guide for the small group discussion after the call.

REGISTERING YOUR PARTY

If you have not already done so, please send us the following information ASAP:

1.) Name of host(s) for your party

2.) Location of party

3.) Whether the party is private or public

4.) If public, please provide contact information to list on the website (i.e. email &/or phone)

SUBMITTING QUESTIONS FOR OUR SPEAKERS

If you would like to submit a question to one of the guests, you must email us the exact question by Monday, May 25th at 5pm EST, along with who you would like to direct the question to.  Please be succinct.  As needed, we will edit questions for clarity and brevity.  Please note that due to the limited amount of time on the call, the selection of questions will be highly competitive.

VIPS/ELECTED OFFICIALS

If you have any elected officials or VIP's that you want acknowledged on the phone call, please send their names and titles to us once you have confirmed their attendance or participation at your party.

CALL-IN NUMBER

Once you confirm your participation on the May 31st call, we will email the call-in number to you by noon NEXT FRIDAY, May 29th.  Please do not share this number. There will be a limited number of dedicated lines and when you call on May 31st, you will be asked to provide your name and checked off the list of registered callers. If you do not receive the call-in number by Friday, please send us an email or give us a call at 213-453-1986.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

There are 3 ways to call into the conference call:

1.) Landline with speakerphone - this is the clearest and most stable connection

2.) Cellphone with speaker function - functional, but may be hard for everyone to hear

3.) Desktop or Laptop using skype - depending on your system, could have better sound quality for speakers, but make sure your system is set-up in advance so you are not dealing with technical issues before the party.

We highly recommend you to use the landline with speakerphone option. Also, we advise that you have a computer available during the party that is logged into www.apaforprogress.org.  We will have last-minute information and bios on all participants available here.

GUESTS AND RSVPS

In terms of your own preparation, you should have started to collect your list of RSVP’s and guests.  We will be sending out one more email blast listing all the parties around the country.  From our past experience, most of the people who attend the individual house parties will come from your own personal network of friends, families and co-workers.

MISCELLANEOUS POINTS TO CONSIDER

Please make sure you have sign-in sheets. We're hoping to make this an annual event so you'll want to keep good records. Also, if you can, please take (or have someone else take) photos of your party and your guests. We would love to have a gallery on our website of all the parties happening across the country.

Sincerely,

APAP Planning Committee