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CN: So then you became the president of the Seattle chapter of JACL in 2011?

RC: Yeah.

CN: So what types of things were you able to accomplish as chapter president?

RC: Oh, man, okay, I have to think a little bit. So I really... what happened was, I started at the chapter level, then I went to the national level, and then I kind of took a break for a few years. And normally, the progression is different. Like, if you're going to go up to the national level, the natural kind of steps would be you kind of go, and you become like, a president at your chapter level, and then maybe become involved at the district level, then maybe the national level. So it's kind of odd that I had that break between the time where I joined the chapter and then I came back a decade later and became the chapter president. But what that allowed me to do is, it allowed me to observe a lot of things. And there was like, it also allowed me to see being on a national level to see kind of the concerns of the organization kind of at a 30,000 foot level. And very evident... even like, even before, I mean, I'm sure it was even evident before I kind of started getting involved in 2000, that the organization was aging quite a bit, because it was really tied to the Nisei generation. So it would be on the older end, my grandfather and grandmothers' kind of generation to younger people kind of in their same generation. So I got to see that unfold. And really a lot of it, my concern stemmed in part, in regards to what does the organization look like ten to twenty, let's say ten years after my presidency, I guess that would put us now, in terms of what's the viability of the organization, and do we have the right infrastructure in place to make sure that it lasts. So that was that was one concern.

So one thing I did during my presidency, is it kind of on a personal level, it bothered me that we would have an annual banquet every year. But we would run deficits. And so a great portion of the year when we were sitting in meetings, we would talk about how do we fundraise. And that really bothered me because it took away from the core competency of focusing on civil rights issues. So we have a finite amount of time and a finite amount of people power and energy. And so to put so much into fundraising as opposed to, like, chasing down social justice and anti- defamation issues, that really kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So I made a concerted effort to cut our biggest expense, which was our office and we had been in... I want to say decades we'd been in there. And it was used by other groups, too, it was a pretty well used office. But I couldn't reconcile in my head having this one expense for this office, and us basically talking about how we would fund the office most of the time, as opposed to actually going out and doing the work. I thought that was important. So I mean, it's not a sexy thing, because it deals mainly with like, money and kind of infrastructure as opposed to, ideally, I would have liked that all set, I would have liked a surplus of money, and I would've liked to chase the issues.

But I just, I felt it was very important, because what would happen is, for example, my feeling is if you bring in young people, and they come to meetings, and the majority of time, we're talking about fundraisers, I mean, nobody's going to get passionate about fundraisers within themselves, it ends to a mean, they'll get excited about the mean. Okay, like we actually made this difference in society. And it's just a, it's a recipe for burning out young people and turning them off, if you dominate them with talk of fundraising and seeing how you could solicit help with fundraising, as opposed to how they could change the world and better it for people. Because generally speaking, that's what most of the people in JACL want to do. They're there for a reason, that they believe the organization could have a positive impact on society. So that was one, that was kind of a cornerstone.

And I also... it's kind of tied to that, but I was wondering, how do you put in like the foundation, in terms of prospering in the future and growing in the future? And I really believe that the way to do it is to create programs and programs that get funded, that you become renowned for, that you become very good at and you become kind of a subject matter expert in a certain area. And the idea in my head was, actually it was tied to youth, it was basically a leadership series where we would go to different campuses, and during evenings, and then we would bring like three to four speakers who are community leaders to those events and give people exposure. Because for me, I was, I would say, fortunate because when I was a kid, I'd get to sit in these meetings, these different board meetings, I get to go to these different events. So it gives me a much closer, like a one degree connection to people who are influencers and leaders in the community. But I can imagine people very much in the situation I was in, in college where I was explaining, like, I didn't know how to get involved in JACL, or something like that. And so I didn't... it was hard for me. So the idea of the APA empowerment series was to try to see if we can not only create these kind of intimate-ish environments between students and leaders that they would not have access to, but, it's twofold. It's basically giving people access to leaders they wouldn't have access to, and the other thing is just kind of letting those leaders talk about the different issues they see out there and some of their experiences. So education, as well as helping them bridge or create kind of a network if they chose to do so, with a better in. So we ran that for, during my year and got some funding for it. The whole idea that I wanted to try to do is to kind of build on that so that it was more perpetual so that that program could continue each year, and it could be funded and be become something that benefits youth and creates like a stronger network into community organizations in the future. So those are kind of the two biggest things that I tried to focus on during that year.

BT: So I just want to add on this, actually, we wanted to have this as a conversation also, not just question and answers, but I just want to add a little bit more on Ryan, because I always thought of Ryan as one of our transformational presidents. Basically, a lot of times when someone becomes president, what they concentrate on is continuing the programs exactly as we did in the past, and just doing the same thing in a different year, but trying to make it a little bit better. But I think what Ryan did was look at the entire organization, and actually take a look at it in the future. And like he said, one part was the office, which was the major expense. And that was not an easy decision, or it wasn't easily accepted by the board. Because a lot of the older members, to myself, somewhat, there's a lot of ties with that office. But the bottom line is that Ryan was right, it was like a weight around our neck that was that was consuming us in terms of fundraising. And the bottom line is, we only actually probably used the office two or three times a month.

The other thing that Ryan did was, he did an institutional look at our board, and had the LIOS, Leadership Institute of Seattle, and they did like a six-month study of our group and looked at... our board interviewed them. And the final result was we needed to change, we had people on the board that were there for a long time. And they were kind of burnt out, but they didn't want to say, they didn't want to say, "I can't do it anymore." But the bottom line was, yeah, so I think what happened is we did lose a lot of board members. But that also marked getting a lot of new people, a lot of younger people, and I think that's the start of our rejuvenation from the Seattle chapter.

The other thing Ryan did, which I thought was really good, is he got us to systematically store all our records, and everything went onto [inaudible], that he started up. Unfortunately, I really got into that and I put everything on [inaudible], except that about two years ago, it went belly up and we had to transfer everything over to another site, and that was kind of like an incomplete transfer. Yeah, but I think... and the thing about the programming was important because we had, Ryan had us look very carefully at each program we do and what is really necessary for us to continue doing while keeping our mission viable. And so I think that was a good look. And the idea of funding programs is something that I think that we have stepped up with, and a lot of our programs that we have now are funded by grants, which make it easier than fundraising and asking our community just to give. So I want to, I wanted to include that in the record, that the accomplishments that Ryan did were very good. I did have another question, too, just to go back a little bit. Ryan, when did you first join the board for the JACL?

RC: I'm trying to think if it was '98 or '99. Probably late '98. '98.

BT: Ok. And the first time you ran for national office was 2000, so two years later.

RC: Yeah, it was it was very fast.

BT: And when you were president, Vice President of Public Affairs, who was the executive director? Was that John Tateishi?

RC: Yeah, it was John.

BT: Okay, and the president, was that was that Floyd?

RC: Yeah. Floyd Mori.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2020 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.