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The NYCAASC Experience

This year I was on the planning board for the New York City Asian American Student Conference (NYCAASC). There were a lot of things about the conference that I didn't like and a lot of things that i did like.

A lot of people have commented about how "active" I've become in the recent year about Asian Pacific American(APA) politics. The thing is that I'm not active and instead have just become "aware." The two are distinct to me. Some feel that being aware about APA issues is the same as being active. That is not true. I believe that to be aware in APA issues, one needs to understand the current issues facing the APA community today as well as have a good understanding of Asian American Studies to grasp why the issues in the APA community are even issues at all and how the issues even surfaced. To become an activist, one needs to obviously be involved in the APA community and aid the community by pushing for or aid in addressing the issues one is most concerned about in the APA community. I feel that one cannot be an activist if their agendas are broad and they wish to address an abundance of issues at a given time. I give these definitions because they bring me to my first objective: my dislikes of NYCAASC.

A lot of people on the planning board had different objectives, each with their own ego. Some individuals came merely to have a resume filler like Jenny Tan who only appeared for the first meeting and the day of the conference. Others came because they simply believed in what NYCAASC is about:

"The New York City Asian American Student Conference is an annual gathering dedicated to promoting awareness of APA issues and history among college students"

and sought to help NYCAASC reach its goals. A lot of individuals on the board, however, were not aware though and they certainly were not activists. It was extremely difficult for me to speak with someone in the workshop committee because when she needed ideas for a workshop, I suggested asking authors who argued against Frank Chin's notions of Asian American identity or even those who would speak about Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior to attend the conference, I received blank stares. Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston are staples to Asian American literature and studies. They are as a part of Asian American history as ink is to a pen.

After the conference, I spoke to a professor who attended because she was on a panel and asked her whether or not she enjoyed the other workshops after she finished speaking for her panel. She told me that she did not attend any of the other workshops because they did not interest her. I then looked over at what workshops we provided and then realized that we had a lot of workshops that certainly did not discuss APA issues nor its history. I had attended a workshop entitled "Food in Motion: Asian Americans Changing the Culinary Landscape," the moderator did not know that someone on the panel did not own an Asian cuisine restaurant and the person would correct  the moderator each time she asked questions concerning Asian cuisine to him. Christina Seid, owner of the Chinatown Ice Cream factory was on the panel as well but what is so ethnic about the Ice Cream made in Chinatown?

Another issue that I wanted to observe was the theme for this year's NYCAASC, "change in motion." A lot of members on the planning board did not understand the theme. After seeing the workshops, I certainly do not get how the theme even fits in with most of the workshops. If I reexamine the definition of this theme on the NYCAASC webpage found here: http://www.nycaasc.com/about.html, I certainly would not believe that the planning board referred back to their definition of "change in motion" when choosing their panel subjects. There is no signs of consistency with a theme if one closely examines the panel titles, their speakers, or their subject matter. The theme itself was too abstract of an idea for one to even understand and the lack of consistency in the workshop planning creates even greater confusion amongst the planning members and attendees. The wide net NYCAASC casted out to reel attendees was very limiting since most of the attendees did not even know what the theme of the conference was or understand it (nor do I blame them).

The last issue I want to bring up is the lack of community in NYCAASC. Spending a whole year with a board no more than 50 members, none of us really knew everyone's name. There were a few social events planned during our meetings including ice breakers but how much can one expect Ice Breakers to really do? Especially for a room with 50+ members.

Now that I have finished with the bad, I would like to move into my second point: the good that happened in NYCAASC.

Although NYCAASC's planning board as a group was unable to really interact with one another until the day of the conference, what time I did have with my small niche of a committee was genuinely fun. In general, the smaller committee breakups allowed each of our small committees to get to know each other more intimately and learn to enjoy each others company. I thought as a committee, we certainly had fun but as a board, getting to know one another was definitely harder.

Another thing I enjoyed was the commitment and hard work of the E-board. Although the theme and workshops may not have been what I had expected, it certainly did not detour the E-board from their commitment of commencing the conference on time. The E-board was always there and always working, even during the snow days and long weekends. They were always making sure their committee members were on top of things and addressing issues the committee members alone would not have perceived. Through all the stress and hard work, they certainly did prevail in presenting a suitable conference for attendees.

I apologize if my criticsm of the conference may have offended but I'd like people to know that that was not my objective. Unless, you're Jenny Tan because Jenny Tan and others on the planning board like Jenny Tan who wasted our time and efforts -- you're a bitch.