2003 Chinese Culture Day Planning Committee Meeting Minutes

Date:	November 23, 2002
Time:	10-12 noon
Place:	LO Residence

Attendants: Leo Lo, Lynn Raney, Chao Ruan, Helen Kuang, Yimin Zhu,  Chunsheng Luo, Guodong Li, Grace S. Lo, Grace Liu, Mingyi Deng

1. Leo Lo called the meeting at 10:10 a.m. by first welcoming everyone and then review key 2002 CCD activities: 

(a) Review 2002 Chinese Culture Day expenses to be used as a budget guideline for 2003. The total expense was $26,294.97 and Garden reimbursed us $13,425.68;

(b) Review 2002 CCD areas for improvement:

* The complaint was the cancellation of the last performance of Shanghai Acrobat due to miscommunication. We should be able to address this issue in 2003

* Need more control and procedures in place to make sure participating groups do follow our policy (e.g., Chinese Buddhism and Falungong groups)

* May need to include our activity in Garden's activity calendar

2. Leo then introduced Helen Kuang as the 2003 chairwoman. Leo further commented that currently there are four organizations that have enough people resources to lead the CCD event. OCA-St. Louis led the 2000 event; Chinese Association led 2001 event and Chinese Language School led the 2002 event, followed by Modern Language School to lead 2003 event. The current leading arrangement is not limited to those four organizations and can be adjusted if there is other participating organization wishes to take the leadership.

3. Helen made the following initial assignments: Leo Lo as co-chair; Clarence Chang as Treasurer; Mingyi Deng - Administration; Grace Liu - Design & Decoration; Guodong Li - Overall program; Modern Language School - Indoor program; Chinese Language school - outdoor program; FCC + Worldways Children Museum - Children program; OCA-St. Louis - Chinese Garden tour; Matt Yu - Public Relation with Lynn Raney assistance (may add Melody to help essay and special program); Grace S. Lo - Fund Raising; Haisheng Lu - Exhibition (with Chao Ruan as co-chair); Food Court - since Jimmy has limited time, it was suggested that we invite AABA. Helen will follow up with Rita Chiu, AABA President to see if they can take care of Food Court.

4. Grace Liu asked if we can change our date to the Memorial Holiday weekend; Yimin Zhu indicated it may not be good for their school since the school will be closed. Leo mentioned that since we have a 5-year contract with Garden and 2003 will be the last year, he can discuss this with Garden, but other members felt Memorial weekend may not be advantageous to us since that is the beginning of summer vacation.

5. Helen asked each sub-Committee chair to identify required people resource and prepare budget using 2002 expenses as the base. She will continue to fill the key leading position of the Committee.

6. Leo provided three documents for new Committee members to review: (a) Committee organizational chart, (b) roles and responsibilities, and (c) processes and procedures.

7. Action items: (a) Helen will contact AABA to lead Food Court function, (b) Helen continues to fill key positions,  (c) Sub-Committee chairs will prepare budget and be responsible for finding required people resource, and (d) PR and Fund Raising need to come up with a Theme for their functions.

8. The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m. The next meeting will be held on January 11, Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at LO residence (may consider a working lunch). Helen emphasized that it will be a key working session to put the program infrastructure in place and every chair of the Sub-Committee is expected to attend.