Are you ready to do some research? Oh yes!

On Priscilla's suggestion, I have been trying to contact Daren Mooko, associate dean of students at Pomona College, for the past week now. Mooko is the director of the Asian American Resource Center there and former MAASU board member.

I finally got ahold of Mooko today, and here is his recommended list of speakers (and my own notes):

Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote

• former MAASU board member
• works well with college students, acc. Mooko--has done youth vote campaigns
  
• former national executive director of OCA

Courtni Pugh, SEIU California assistant area director

• Korean adoptee from Indiana
• more recent resume
  

Thomas Kim, Scripps College professor

• author of The Racial Logic of Politics: Asian Americans and Party Competition
  

Daphne Kwok, former executive director of Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

• coordinated first National Asian Pacific American Voter Registration Campaign (1996)
  

Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education

• knowledgeable about electoral politics, acc. Mooko
• I could not find much info on him online--does not have his own Web site?
• contact info

Action point for YOU:

1. Do some research on the above speakers. Click on the links I Googled so hard to find. Read through the person's credentials and background.

2. Provide some constructive feedback.

• Whom do you feel meets our purpose and mission best?
• If you had to prioritize a list, whom would you put as 1st choice, 2nd choice, etc. (I.e. whom do you want me to pursue the most?)
• What would be possible speech topics we would like for this specific person to cover? Would these topics be any different than from what we have discussed for Mr. Wu?

3. Don't procrastinate. Get back to me within a week. I'll give you until Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Comment on this blog if that's more convenient for you or e-mail me. Let's get going!

Have a lovely first week of summer break!