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Annual Report from APALA President Eileen K. Bosch

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Wow! What an amazing 2014-2015 year for APALA! We ended this past year on a high note – celebrating its 35th anniversary with a daylong series of workshops designed to share Asian Pacific American (APA) stories, highlight successful library programs, and feature new partnerships and advocacy efforts in building coalitions to meet the needs of APA communities. The “Building Bridges: Connecting Communities Through Librarianship & Advocacy” 35th anniversary symposium was a big success! We had an unprecedented number of librarians, speakers, library leaders, community activists, writers/artists/filmmakers, students, volunteers, and corporate partners coming together to celebrate this milestone. The symposium took place on June 25, 2015 at the University of San Francisco’s McLaren Conference Center.

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Eileen K. Bosch, APALA President, 2014-2015

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of you who worked hard throughout this past year to make APALA’s 35th anniversary a memorable and historic event!

THANK YOU to the 60+ committee members and volunteers who worked tirelessly to make the APALA 35th symposium, APALA’s President Program, APALA’s tour of Chinatown and Manila Heritage Foundation, APALA Literature Award Banquet, and several programs & events during ALA annual.

THANK YOU to the 100+ participants who registered to attend our very 1st APALA 35th Symposium, and to the 120+ participants who joined us at the APALA Literature Award Banquet at ALA Annual. The high attendance numbers at both of these events truly shows the continued support from our members, friends, and partners!

THANK YOU to all of our 2014-2015 sponsors and individual donors! Your support is valued and appreciated by all of us in APALA!

THANK YOU to all the 20+ API community organizers, speakers, and library community leaders who joined us at the symposium to celebrate our 35th anniversary.

THANK YOU to our amazing keynote speaker Valarie Kaur for her inspiring remarks; to our plenary session speakers: Ghada Kanafani Elturk, Nancy Hom, Andrew Lam, and Gene Luen Yang who engaged us in a frank conversation on how to build connections across APA communities, professions, and fields; and to the University of San Francisco, Dean Tyrone Cannon, and Associate Dean Shawn Calhoun who very generously offered APALA the use of the McLaren Conference Center and the Gleeson Library staff to host and help with the APALA symposium.

…And behind the scenes making it all come together…

THANK YOU to my unbelievable 2014-2015 Executive Board: Vice-President/President Elect Janet Clarke, Secretary Sarah Jeong, Treasurer Dora Ho, Member-at-Large Melissa Cardenas-Dow, Member-at-Large Anna Coats, Member-at-Large Paolo Gujilde, Member-at-Large Annie Pho, Immediate Past President Eugenia Beh, and Executive Director Buenaventura (Ven) Basco.  Thank you for the great teamwork spirit, enthusiasm, and constructive feedback and guidance during the past year.

THANK YOU to all the Standing & Ad Hoc Committees Chairs and their incredible teams who dedicated months, weeks, and hundreds of hours to make APALA’s 35th anniversary a successful year. APALA’s success is largely due to the drive and accomplishments of our committees. Thank you to the following Chairs:  Constitution and Bylaws Chair Paul Lai; Finance and Fundraising Chair Sandy Wee & Lessa Pelayo-Lozada; Literature Awards Jury Chairs Dora Ho & Buenaventura (Ven) Basco; Literary Awards Category Chairs Tiffany Chow, Tinamarie Vella, Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, Jerry Dear, Gayatri Singh, Sandy Wee, Evelyn Yee, Irene Zapata, Tarida Anantachai, and Virginia Loh-Hagan; Membership Co-Chairs Maria Pontillas Shackles & Emily Chan; Mentoring Committee Co-Chairs Johana Orellana & Heawon Paick; Newsletter and Publications Co-Chairs Gary Colmenar & Melissa Cardenas-Dow; Nominations Chair Eugenia Beh; Program Committee & 2015 President’s Program Co-Chairs Janet Clarke & Peter Spyers-Duran; Publicity Co-Chairs Yen Tran & Holly Okuhara; Web Chair Alvin Dantes; Scholarships & Awards Co-Chairs Tassannee Chitcharoen & Valeria Molteni; Task Force on Family Literacy Focus Co-Chairs Lessa Pelayo-Lozada & Ariana Hussain; Task Force on  2015 annual Local Arrangements – San Francisco Co-Chairs Jerry Dear & Sherise Kimura; Task Force on 2015 midwinter Local Arrangements – Chicago Co-Chairs Annie Pho & Richard Kong; Task Force on 2015 Archives & Handbook Co-Chairs Paolo Guijilde & Sarah Jeong; Task Force on 2015 annual ALA Diversity & Outreach Fair – San Francisco Co-Chairs Paolo Gujilde & Tinamarie Vella; Diversity Council Representatives Sandy Wee & Eugenia Beh; ALA Working Group on Libraries & Digital Content Representative Holly Yu; JCLC Executive Board Committee Representative Kenneth Yamashita. I also would like to thank the APALA 35th Co-Chairs: Gary Colmenar, Florante Ibanez, and Jade Alburo as well as to APALA 35 Steering Committee Chairs: Assessment Chair Catherine Phan; Fundraising Chair Eileen K. Bosch; the fabulous Local Planning Co-Chairs Jerry Dear & Sherise Kimura; Program Committee Co Chairs Jade Alburo & Gerard “Gary” Colmenar; Anniversary Program Booklet designers Florante Ibanez & Brian Leaf; our brilliant Finance & Budget Committee Co-Chairs Dora Ho & Heawon Paick, Publicity/Outreach Committee  Co-Chairs Young Lee & Sandy Wee,  Raffle & Prizes Chair Tinamarie Vella, our super San Francisco to-go contacts Brian Huynh & Janet Tom; and to our creative web designer and logo creator Young Lee!

Below is a list of accomplishments and highlights during 2014-2015:

FUNDRAISING

  • APALA’s fundraising campaign surpassed our initial fundraising goal of $10,000 for the APALA 35th Anniversary. As a result of APALA’s fundraising initiatives and the hard work of several members, APALA secured the sponsorship of many individuals and corporate sponsors supporting the APALA 35 Symposium and Literature Award Banquet. Our sponsorships and individual donations fully covered our expenses during the 35th Anniversary celebrations.
  • A “Fundraising Toolkit” was created to help and assist future committee members to keep doing the work.
  • Launched APALA AmazonSmile account to benefit our Scholarships & Awards fund and our Family Literacy Focus project.
  • Created a membership drive campaign before new membership fee increases for 2015-2016 beginning in August 1, 2015. Members were also offered a one time only lifetime membership special by making 4 monthly payments of $100 before December 31, 2015.

SUCCESSION PLANNING & STREAMLINING

  • Completed the APALA Operational Manual. This manual will serve a much larger purpose than simply stating expectations; it will provide a definitive source of reference for EB officers and committee chairs on how to do their committee work and provide a better understanding of the organization.
  • Planned and developed an orientation session to returning and incoming EB officers at ALA Annual.
  • Appointed Melissa Cardenas-Dow to serve as Communication Coordinator to streamline communication processes between the standing committees, EB, and membership.
  • Encouraged the appointment of two co-chairs in all standing committees to begin succession-planning work within committees.

VISIBILITY & PROMOTION

  • Actively promoted our organization via our social media outlets.
  • Published 6 articles: 1 Minnesota Institute Early Career Librarians article; 3 advocacy fatigue mini-series articles; 1 APALA founder/library leader article; 1 APALA 35th focus piece.
  • Continued to support and encourage APALA representation at ALA national level: Working Group on ALA Advocacy Coordination, Diversity Council, and JCLC Executive Board.
  • We increased our membership numbers from 350 (ALA MW) to 372 members (ALA Annual).
  • Organized our first national symposium, APALA 35th Symposium & Anniversary with over 100 attendees and planned several programs and events co-sponsored with other divisions and units at ALA Conference.
  • Organized APALA President’s Program featuring a dynamic discussion between Dr. Catherine Ceniza Choy, a professor of Ethnic Studies at UC-Berkeley and Maria Taesil Hudson Carpenter, the City Librarian of the Santa Monica Public Library System. They examined the issues raised by Geographies of Kinship: International Asian Adoption, a new film by award-winning Berkeley-based filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem, in the larger context of international adoption and reflect on universal questions of identity, assimilation, family, community, and advocacy. Excerpts from the film and a personal introduction especially produced for this program by Deann was shown. The APALA President’s Program was co-sponsored by APALA and ALA Video Round Table (VRT) division.
  • Sponsored a record number of programs at ALA Annual. For a complete list of events, please see the annual ALA conference list.
  • Website redesign – Assigned four ALA Emerging Leaders (EL TEAM B: Xiaoyu Duan, Isabel Gonzalez-Smith, Ximin Mi, and Jennifer Nabzdyk) to work with Web Committee on the redesign of the APALA website. Even though Emerging Leaders members presented the results of their work at the EB Annual Meeting, the Web Committee has not yet finalized this ongoing project.

SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS

  • Melody Tsz-Way Leung was recipient of our Scholarship Award.
  • Shanna Shiah received our Travel Award.
  • Cynthia Orozco was recipient of Emerging Leaders Scholarship.
  • Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library (TN), Kenton County Public Library (Kentucky), Native Village of Eyak (Alaska), Oceanside Public Library (CA), Pacific Islands University (Guam), Palms-Rancho Park Library (CA), Red Lake Nation College (MN), San Juan College (NM), Sonoma County Library (CA), and USD 497 Native American Student Services for Lawrence Public Schools (KS) are recipients of our Family Literacy Focus:  Talk Story Grants. Each one was awarded $600 to complete a Talk Story grants.

PROFESSIONAL & LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

  • 8 Mentors & Protégés were paired.
  • APALA 35th Symposium offered several workshops addressing professional development and outreach.
  • 4 ALA Emerging Leaders were able to work closely and be mentored by Web Committee and Executive Board throughout their EL project.

I could not emphasize enough my sincere thank yous to everyone who have contributed in helping me shape and create a shared vision for APALA during 2014-2015. Many – many THANK YOUs go out to many-many people! It takes an entire community to make incredible things happen!!

It has been an honor to serve as the President of APALA over the past year. I look forward to working as the Past Immediate President with the new Executive Board in 2015 as we strive to achieve our new strategic directions under the leadership of incoming President, Janet Clarke, Vice-President/President Elect Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, Secretary Anna Coats, Treasurer Dora Ho, Member-at-Large Brian Leaf, Member-at-Large Arianna Hussain, Member-at-Large Paolo Gujilde, and Member-at-Large Melissa Cardenas-Dow.  APALA is lucky to have such a talented board and membership!

THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF THIS YEAR’S APALA 35th Anniversary!

Eileen K. Bosch
APALA President, 2014-2015