Menu Close

A Letter from President Sandy Wee

Dear APALA Friends:

I cannot believe a year has gone by.  Thank you for a great 2011-2012 term.  Thank you to the hard working 2011-2012 Executive Board:  Vice-President/President Elect Jade Alburo, Secretary Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, Treasurer Shoko Tokoro, Member-at-Large Eugenia Beh, Member-at-Large, Eileen Bosch, Member-at-Large, Richard Kong, Member-at-Large Candice Mack, recently appointed Member-at-Large Janet Clarke, Immediate Past President Florante Peter Ibanez, Executive Director Buenaventura (Ven) Basco, and past Executive Director Gary Colmenar.  Thank you for all your great work, enthusiasm, feedback and guidance.

We have accomplished much since our midwinter conference. All committee reports are available to our APALA membership.  Below highlights a few accomplishments:

FUNDRAISING

  • A national t-shirt campaign was launched and we congratulate Sayaka Suzuki for the winning design of our APALA tshirts.
  • We are now selling APALA products on Café Press to benefit our Scholarships & Awards fund and our Family Literacy Focus project.
  • We continue to support JCLC’s fundraising events.

SUCCESSION PLANNING/STREAMLINING

  • Our constitution and bylaws changes are ready for voting by general membership.
  • We continue succession planning within committees.
  • We had a smooth transition between our outgoing Executive Director Gary Colmenar and incoming Executive Director Buenaventura (Ven) Basco.
  • We can make APALA payments and purchases through our website (PayPal).

PROMOTING APALA

  • National visibility of our Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (APAAL).
  • We actively promote our organization via social media outlets.
  • We continue APALA representation at ALA national level:  Working Group on Diversity and LIS Education, Equitable Access to Electronic Content (EQIACC), Diversity Council.
  • Web Team created a popular “Member Highlights” section on our website.
  • We have ongoing socials throughout California and Washington.
  • We continue to have a stable APALA membership.
  • We anticipate a successful annual ALA conference.

SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS

APALA’s success is largely due to the drive and accomplishments of our committees.  All of our standing committees, ad-hoc committees, task forces, and working groups had a successful year.  Thank you to the following Chairs:  Constitution and Bylaws Chair Ben Wakashige; Finance and Fundraising Chair Eileen Bosch;  Literature Awards Jury Chairs Dora Ho/Buenaventura (Ven) Basco; Literary Awards Category Chairs Susan Hoang, Yen Tran, Lana Adlawan, Michelle Baildon, Buenaventura (Ven) Basco, Susan Minobe, Sarah Park, Jerry Dear, Holly Cole Okuhara, and Janet Clarke;  Membership Chair Rebecca Kennedy; Newsletter and Publications Chair Gary Colmenar; Nominations Chair Florante Peter Ibanez; Program Chair Jade Alburo; Publicity Chair Heawon Paick; Web Chair Angela Boyd; Ad-Hoc Archives Chair Gary Colmenar; Ad-Hoc Mentorship Chair Linda Absher; Ad-Hoc Scholarships & Awards Chairs Safi Safiullah and Gayatri Singh; Task Force on Family Literacy Focus Chair Lessa Pelayo-Lozada; Task Force on Library Services to Asian/Pacific Americans Chairs Michelle Baildon and Mitchell Yangsoon; Task Force on  2012 annual Local Arrangements – Anaheim Chair Candice Mack; Task Force on 2012 midwinter Local Arrangements – Dallas Chair Eugenia Beh; Task Force on 2012 JCLC Fundraising Baskets Linda Absher; Task Force on 2012 President’s Program Chair Eugenia Beh; Task Force on 2012 annual ALA Diversity & Outreach Fair – Anaheim Chair Candice Mack; Diversity Council Representatives Michelle Baildon and Candice Mack; ALA Working Group on Diversity and LIS Education Representative Sarah Park; ALA Working Group on Libraries and Digital Content Representative Holly Yu, JCLC Steering Committee Florante Peter Ibanez and Alanna Aiko Moore.

As you can see, there are numerous individuals who work behind the scenes of APALA. We have yet to thank the numerous members who serve on these committees!  Thank you to all!  Needless to say, none of this could be accomplished without our Committee Chairs and Members and our Executive Board.

As I close, I want to thank you all for your guidance and support. I wish the 2012-2013 Executive Board the very best.  Please join me in welcoming our 2012-2013 President Jade Alburo, Vice-President/President Elect Eugenia Beh, Secretary Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, Treasurer Shoko Tokoro, Member-at-Large Alanna Aiko Moore, Member-at-Large Tina Chan, Member-at-Large Janet Clarke, and Member-at-Large Candice Mack.  APALA is lucky to have such a talented board and membership!

See you all in a few days!

All Best,

Sandy
2011-2012 APALA President