On November 6^th, 2010 the Vietnamese Friendship Association (VFA) held a Board Retreat at their Martin Luther King Jr. Drive headquarters.  In attendance were VFA board members and its Executive Director. USMMC consultant, Gil Gido, facilitated the retreat to achieve the intention and outcomes. These were to have each and every Board member have a sense of being part of a valuable team; know the mission, vision and their roles/responsibility; elect new board members; review 2010 programs and finances; identify committees and create a financial committee work plan. In a post event survey, the board response to the event was overall favorable indicating that all objectives were met with satisfaction.

 

Count / Rating	1	2	3	4	5	N/A	Responses
Overall Count	2	1	5	38	16	0	62
Dreams exercise	0	0	0	6	2	0	8
Roles/Responsibility	0	0	1	6	1	0	8
Elections	1	1	0	3	2	0	7
2010 Program Review	0	0	0	5	3	0	8
Financial Statements Review	1	0	0	5	2	0	8
Fund Development Review	0	0	1	5	2	0	8
Scavenger Hunt	0	0	2	3	2	0	7
Work plan development	0	0	1	5	2	0	8

Figure 1 Breakdown by activity of the survey responses.

Elected in as the 2011 VFA Board were:  Phoung Bui (Treasurer), Hoa, Nga, Jennifer (VP), Vanessa Diego (PR/Mar co-chair), John Tran (PR/Ma co-chair), Jenni Brown (Secretary), Thao Nguyen (President) Kim Long, Richard H.

(Top) Richard Lui (HLN and MSNBC); Palace Hotel (Second row from top) "The Language of Innovation" by Comcast 
(Third row from top) National Board Meeting; Comcast panel (Bottom) NAAAP Seattle; Garden Court at the Palace Hotel

San Franciso, CA - Joined by a distinguished panel of experts from Comcast, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, and the Central Intelligence Agency, I had a chance to express my thoughts on Innovation at the 2010 NAAAP Convention and Diversity Career Fair presented by Macy's.

The Language of Innovation

A Friday panel sponsored by Comcast to gain insight on how to make ìinnovation more than just a buzz word. Leaders from different technology sectors including telecommunications, national security/defense, and social media will share their insight and experiences in how they exercised innovation to stay ahead in an ever-changing environment. Gain perspectives on the importance of innovation and creativity in organizational culture.  Learn how these leaders manage and leverage in all aspects to drive creativity, change management, customer service, and organic growth in today's competitive marketplace.

Moderator: Johnnie Giles
Panelists: Clem Cheng, Nora D., Gil Gido, Crystal Jaing


Visit the Convention website: http://www.naaapconvention.org/2010/Home.aspx

Take care for now,

Uly

As social media professionals know there's always more to learn.  The topography of social media is always changing and people are demanding such knowledge.  At the Seattle Times on June 22, 2010, the Invasion of Social Media was presented as a means to feed that demand.  Organizations that participated were NAAAP-Seattle , the Executive Development Institute (EDI) and Qwest Pacific Asian American Network (PAAN) while the keynote, Charlie Harger, a Technology & Social Media Reporter for KOMO Newsradio and President for Bohado Media, spoke to 75 attendees on using social media for professional and business development.

For a recap goto the NAAAP Seattle Blog: http://tinyurl.com/2brn49w.



"Invasion of Social Media - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!" June 22, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/2brn49w
For more information on NAAAP-Seattle Professional Development events, please email Hang Chen at hang.chen@naaapseattle.org.

I placed a trifecta bet on tuesday and won!  Yes, I attended the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) Tweet while you eat networking session.  Three of Seattle's fooderati were on hand to share with a food-loving, techno-savvy and tight-niche community of Seattle journalists:

• Matthew Amster-Burton Food writer and author of Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater
• Hsiao-Ching Chou Partner and social media director at Suzuki+Chou Communimedia, writer and former food editor at the Seattle P-I
• Becky Selengut Chef and co-author of The Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook

What they discussed was how they use twitter in their lives as a food writer, social media director, and chef.  They enlighted us about the three E's: Educate, Engage, and Entertain as a means to keep your conversations alive. 

Their adoration of twitter was apparent and Becky likened the tool as a "sexy, stepsister siren" of facebook.  In addition, if Linkedin were the people you used to know and Facebook as people you know now, then Twitter are people you'd like to know. 

Thanks to the AAJA and SAM's restaurant,TASTE , where on Thursday nights there are free chicken wings (or so I've heard!)

Ulysses

We ran an ad, recently, on Facebook using the CPM method paying for the number of views.  Our ad was run for a day to Seattle area facebook users within the 21-45 year old age range. We had a budget of $50 and bid the recommended bid. 

As the graph shows, we had 14 clicks averaging $3.57/click. 

A note of caution: If you're looking to buy an ad, don't expect to see your ad run as with newspapers though. Facebook assured us that our ad ran and if you have Google analytics, you can validate that your ad ran.

Check out the April session of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) National Webinar Series (NWS). Gil Gido, Ulysses' Social Media Marketing Company Principal Consultant and NAAAP Seattle President, will be showing the work being done with the NING Platform.

To register, please follow: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/977062322










NAAAP Webinar Calendar:
http://www.naaap.org/Programs/WebinarCalendar/tabid/2778/vw/3/ItemID/1171/d/20100422/Default.aspx

I love my job!  Did you know that as part of my job, me and my owner, Gil, are full-fledged testers of products. See him testing out the durability and ease of use of the Fatlace T-shirts.  These shirts are well made and they look cool! Which do you like?  Black? or Grey?   

Recently, Fatlace.com turned 10 years old and they're celebrating with a facelift of their website. They have a community of bloggers and designers. Check them out at http://www.Fatlace.com and tell them Uly sent you Unfortunately, since I was taking the photo, there aren't any dog images.

Uly

   

Disregard what you've heard about MySpace.  According to SNL's Seth Meyer in a late night news broadcast, "MySpace is an abandoned amusement park." When it comes to upcoming musical hip-hop artists Gowe, Canary Sing, Nam, Know Choice, Massiah, and Inglish it's so far from the truth. 

On Saturday, February 27th these hip-hop artists are holding the Words of One People Hip Hop concert at the Vera Project, an all ages music center for youth, in Seattle.  With MySpace, the bands have built a strong following reaching audiences as far away as New York City. Without MySpace, the dreams of these couldn't have been realized.  After listening all Sunday to all of their tracks, I'm ready for the Concert. 

The Northwest Asian Weekly recently wrote an article about them and their upcoming concert. Read more.

For tickets ($9) visit Ticket Web

See you all at the concert.

Uly

 

There are 8,342 miles (or 13,425 km) that separate Addis Ababa and Seattle.  It's hard to imagine starting a school system from where we are but there is an organization is doing just that!  The organization is called the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia (ILAE).  Their mission? To build a school where the gifted children of the nation can reach their full leadership potential effecting change for future generations.   

 

Picture Source

 

First entered in 2007 at the Global Society Entrepreneur Competition (GSEC) an annual event hosted by the Foster Business School of the University of Washington , their business  plan earned a place in the finals placing in the top 30 among 89 other submissions.  In 2008, ILAE continued building their supporters and incorporated additional marketing research into their plans. They also readjusted their financial projections and hired staff.  Last year, progress was made in building it's advisors, managing their operational budget, designing the curriculum framework and finalizing the site location.

 

Now in 2010, the realization of the dream nears with site  groundbreaking and the 1st matriculation of 9th grade students. Great job!

As a supporter of this organization, please watch this video and tell your friends about it.  Make the difference to the nation of Ethiopia!

INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP ACADEMY OF ETHIOPIA from Laurie Simons on Vimeo.

Do you want to see more? A longer video is on the ILAE's Facebook fanpage - http://bit.ly/c8ijrX

 I'll write more about the progress of ILAE in future posts.

Uly 

 

 

Additional links:

 

• International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia (ILAE) website - http://www.ilacademy.org/
• ILAE Facebook Fan Page - http://bit.ly/cYpURn
• Panoramic pictures of Addis Ababa -  http://www.addismap.com/panorama/
• UW Foster Business School GSEC- http://bit.ly/b4Gqao
• UW Daily (Aug 15, 2007) - http://dailyuw.com/2007/8/15/nonprofit-to-build-high-school-in-ethiopia/

 

 

Would you like to start a radio station?  Do you have a phone and internet service? Do you like to blog?

Well you can do all of these with BlogTalkRadio.  It is the first social media radio - blogging service that once you created your show, you can share it with iTunes.  Given today's social media tools, it's so easy now. 

Take the case for the Passions and Possibilities show that Chief Passion Sue Oliver  created a year ago.  Twice a week, she interviews people in service doing what they love and shares these stories with BlogTalkRadio listeners around the world.  Listeners having an iPod can download the podcasts free through iTunes and get inspired with what they are up to in the world.  It's genious!  The Passions and Possibilities shows are high quality and entertaining, so if you haven't yet listened, get yourself a copy. If you have iTunes installed, just perform a search for the podcast, Passions and Possibilities.



Additional Links:
 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/docs/btrmediakit.pdf

Uly