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EK: Well, on that topic of being so associated with the JACL, if you don't mind describing some of the significant accomplishments of Seattle JACL, with which you were involved in, so just sharing -- I mean, all of them if you would wish, but just some of your accomplishments that you've achieved within the chapter.

BT: Yeah, that's, that's a hard question because I think that our chapter has done so much and I think that we're a premiere chapter, and with everything from our legacy to our culture to activities with the community, civil rights, social justice, we have... I can't even begin to detail how much we've done. And, at that same time, I would never ever claim that this was due to my work at all because it's all been the organization and fantastic people and fantastic leaders. There are a couple of things that I, that I've done that I think that I had a good part in, one was when I first joined, I remember thinking about this question, and one of my first things I was membership chair. And this was back around 2001. And, at the time, our membership had been around 500, and after a year, I was able to get it up to over 750. Another thing was just thinking about... I think one thing I'm good at is kind of like coming up with ideas, different. One is on fundraising. Our scholarship program -- which is very vibrant right now -- we have six scholarships totaling $20,000. But before we only gave out about a third of that, and in order to raise money for that, we would have a raffle at our banquets and raised about maybe two, two and a half, two thousand, twenty-five hundred dollars. But one thing I saw in another organization was a dessert dash to raise money where people bid on cakes. And, of course, nobody bids on cakes, they're actually bidding on the scholarships, helping that out. So we started that and we would raise around $12,000 a year. So that was a program that I started that was good. I think the whole thing about fundraising is moving ourselves from depending on the community to ask for money all the time, is reaching out and doing grants, asking for grants to do stuff. And it's just not been doing -- it's not just me writing a grant request, it's teaching other people how to do grants.

The other two things that I think about that I've been, that I think I've been involved with, one is actually recruiting people, actively recruiting people to our board as an officer, and particularly young people. And if I meet people, I pay attention to what they're saying and tell them, "I remember almost everything, I'm gonna come back and ask you later if you can help us." And I will do that, and say, "Why don't you to come up to our meeting and see what we're doing," and recognizing their talents. I think a lot of times people try to recruit young people, but I think that some people tend to think of it as, okay, we have our young people quota on our board now, so that's good. Well, it's just not having young people on the board. It's getting young people to do the work, to teach 'em, and give them a lot of responsibility. Because that's the only way people become active and attached to your organization. And I've actively tried to do that, is recruit young people, especially as our board and our executive board and our presidents. I think the other thing that I tried to do a lot is increase our presence in the community through social media. And, around 2010, our incoming president Ryan Chin set up a Facebook account. And, it's like, whoa, this is a really big opportunity. We could reach a lot of people even if they are not going to come out to our activities or even if they're not going to join our group, they'll see our posts and you'll create a vibe about Seattle JACL and then they'll know about us. And so I think that, among Asian American groups in Seattle, we have one of the more vibrant Facebook, social media campaigns. And I think it's very effective. Other programs, I think, we can talk about it later. I don't take credit for it, but I know that I -- we did a lot of work with the R-74 campaign in 2012, that passed marriage equality in Washington. We did a lot of work in 2000 to pass the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund grants. We've done a lot of work on just expanding on social justice issues, immigration, civil rights. Yeah, so I don't know, does that help?

EK: Absolutely helped.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.