Dear CACS CACS (the original Council) has spent much of the year preparing the paperwork, doing the research and guiding the process to create the CACS Foundation 501(c)(3). Thanks to Keith Johnson, we now have the newly formed CACS Foundation.
Even though we were busy with that the Council still found time to support APAPA in their Voters’ Forum and to partner with Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus out of San Francisco to conduct poll monitoring on Election Day, November 8, 2016.
During the last 29 years we have promoted communication, cooperation and unification among existing Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) peoples. In May we encouraged Governor Brown to sign AB 1726 (Bonta). That bill expanded on existing disaggregated data collection, including data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making critical identifications of a range of different health challenges and disparities experienced by each AAPI subgroup, rather than lumping all AAPI together. This bill was signed into law 9/25/16.
The Board sent a letter to voice concerns about the City of Sacramento’s Police Accountability efforts. Honey Lum attended the City Council meeting November 30, 2016, to support Andy Noguchi, President of the Florin JACL and other API organizations that were present to oppose the City’s proposal.
Our Board of Directors is robust with CACS co-founder Alex Eng as Vice Chair and Joyce Eng as Treasurer. Keith Johnson serves as Secretary and yours truly, Honey Lum, is President. Cathy Wei, President of CACS Foundation, is an at-large member. We especially welcome Douglas Hsia to the Board. Douglas brings direct experience of Chinese national life and politics with him to our organization.
Exposing our members to all aspects of the political process, including probable events like seminars on the California legislative process, lobbying techniques, aiding our members in identifying open seats of county and city boards and commissions and then either applying or running for them. The Asian community has thus been better represented over the years but there is still a lot to be done. The Council looks to be an influential and recognized organization.
The Council held their planning retreat in late January and looks to work toward building a membership of participants who have interest in advocating at all levels of government regarding a wide range of topics. More will be revealed in the next newsletter and on the CACS Web site.
Happy New Year!
Honey Lum, President