MINUTES FROM 4/5/99 MEETING

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association – MN Chapter

PRESENT: Tien Cai, Linda Chung, Maria Coloma, Jin Ho Chung, Tami Schroeder, Melissa Wright, and Sach Darji (via telephone).

MEETING

BEGAN: 6:45 p.m.

Meeting minutes from March meeting approved. Jin Ho reported that NAPABA did not owe any taxes this year, mainly as a result of NAPABA’s expenditures for the national convention. Currently, we have $2,789.36 in the checking account.

Thomas Tang Moot Court: Sach has drafted a letter that will go to the deans of the three law schools and will email it to everyone for their comments and input. Once finalized, Sach, Maria and Tami will follow-up with the three schools to schedule a meeting and promote the moot court program.

Law Student Reception:

Sach and Linda noted conflicts with the MMPCP function and AG law student reception. Since the reception has already been advertised to the law students and in the newsletter, board agreed to proceed as planned.

Sach will coordinate the mailing of flyers for this event to be included in the newsletter.

Board also discussed the mixup in advertising the reception to NAPABA members. Flyers did not go out in advance. To ensure maximized attendance for both lawyers and students, the board will call members ASAP and encourage them to attend. Sach will fax everyone the current membership list. Tami will follow up with the law student presidents to get a preliminary count of the number of students expected to attend. Sach will also confirm with either Marianne or Rich Sako as to whether they can speak at the reception.

Tien will put together the mentorship list and bring 30 copies to the reception. She agree to also draft a mentorship form for attorneys and circulate for input prior to the reception.

Linda will bring the NAPABA banner, labels and membership forms. Sach to bring extra copies of the NAPABA newsletter.

MSBA Mini-Convention: NAPABA mini-convention has been scheduled for Thursday, July 1^st from 9-noon in Duluth. MSBA’s Human Rights Committee will be co-sponsoring the event. Topic will focus on a panel discussion on hate crimes. Maria will contact potential speakers, including Ed Cleary who prosecuted a hate crimes case, Margaret Chutich, on hate crimes legislation, and possibly a community leader. Maria has not heard back from the other minority bar associations and will contact them one more time to seek their participation.

NAPABA Newsletter: Linda and Melissa have completed the newsletter, which is now ready for mailing. Tami will deliver them to Sach who will then coordinate the mailing of the newsletter ASAP, along with the law student reception flyer. Faegre & Benson has agreed to reimburse NAPABA for cost of printing as well. Next newsletter will go out in July/August.

MMLA Scholarship Funds: The minority bar leaders will be meeting in the future to discuss what to do w/MMLA and the dormant funds.

Summer Barbeque: Board agreed to host an informal summer BBQ for NAPABA members in late July/early August. To be discussed in more detail at next meeting.

Next Meeting: MAY 5, 1999, 6:30 p.m. at Linda Chung's residence at 1447 Sargent Avenue in St. Paul (651)698-6752.

BEGAN: 6:30 p.m.

1. Meeting minutes from December meeting was approved. Deferred Treasurer’s report until Jin Ho receives the bank statements to review.

2. MMLA Scholarship: Discussed options for the MMLA Scholarship funds. Linda expressed concerns about options 1 and 2, splitting the funds and according to membership. Also summarized viewpoints of M. Remedios and J. Eng who mentioned similar concerns. After much discussion, board members voted to go with option 3 of creating a committee consisting of all minority bar leaders. Linda to draft letter to MMLA and mail out by 1/15/99 deadline.

3. Membership Drive: Amy and Tien have been working on the letter to be mailed out to all paid and non-paid members. Will be finalizing in the next week and mailed out ASAP.

4. NAPABA Newsletter: Melissa and Linda will begin working on the newsletter to be put out sometime in March. Mel to do article on last NAPABA Convention w/photo. Linda to write the president’s address. Tien may do an article on Census 2000. Plus, newsletter to include calendar of events for the upcoming year.

5. Minority Bar Summit: Board members voted to participate and co-sponsor CLE on diversity w/MSBA. Melissa to follow up with them and work on the committee.

NEXT MEETING: May 5 at Linda’s house, 6:30 p.m.