yKAN Spirit - January 2010

Hello ykANers!

We present to you the first newsletter of yKAN Spirit for the New Year!

A message from the President: Julie Cho

What brings you to yKAN today?”

When I received my very first yKAN newsletter, 6 years ago, I felt as if I have found my favorite one stop-shopping place to expand my social networking and charity involvement.

There were cultural events, happy hours, general meetings with interesting guest speakers that I will never get to meet at work setting, and community service events.  The community services were quite addictive and made me come back month after month.

Then I started meeting extremely thoughtful individuals with whom it was easy to build life-long friendships. No matter what kind of interest you have as a Korean American, yKAN has been a great place to experience your heritage in full capacity.

After a few months, I realized that yKAN had become much more than my “fun place” to be after work, it had become a very special part of my life.  As a 1.5/2nd generation Korean American leader, I found through yKAN an ambitious dream of making this community a better place. Either the solution would be through advancement projects or community service; I believe we have a mission to find our next goal of where and how to strive the advancement of our community.

I have a dream that together, we all can be a great leader to guide the next level of yKAN and the community. With my fellow executive board officers, you and I are going to maintain another fabulous year of making yKAN stronger than ever by creating valuable events.

I am proud to introduce to our exceptional team 2010:

Edmund Song – Vice President
Daniel Whang – General Secretary, Acting Media/Web Chair
Andrew Park – Treasurer
Byul Cho, Yong Kwon – Community Service Chairs
Jin Lim – Social Networking Chair
Jisung Chun – Fundraising Chair, President Emeritus

In 2010, to continue the success of last year, I would like to bring out the best of yKAN by decorating our 2010 calendar with more creative events.  I am confident that by next year at this time, I will stand here and report that we have made great progress on theses following priorities.

First, I would like to focus on membership-retention related issues that we have. We have had a growing number of yKAN members attending most of our major events but I hope to raise that number even higher with your help. I believe a possible solution to remedying that problem may lie upon making more professional networking programs and atmosphere for many recent college graduates looking to enter the workforce for the first time. I would also like to maintain the momentum of our great year, by bringing formative guest speakers that we can learn and relate from by creating several workshop events for everyone.

Second, with my personal experience as a former President of yKAN and organizing most of the community service events for the past five years, such as flu-shot drive, American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, Soup Kitchen, and Milal House events, I would like to bring more diverse community service projects such as delivering hot food to elders and painting homes for the physically challenged so that we can provide a better hands-on service throughout the community.

Third, as we already had a yKAN Scholarship in 2006, I would like to focus on bringing more funds to our second scholarship project. Just like the high-achieving high school students who won our first yKAN Scholarship, we would like to look after our hoobaes.  Not only will they be proud successful Korean Americans in the future workforce, they are potential yKANers!

Fourth, I would like to make a “Young Spirited yKAN” where our age gaps won’t interfere on achieving greatness of our community.  I would like to see more involvement, bridging 1.5/2nd generation and our parents’ generation together to learn and understand each other by more interaction with other Korean American organizations.  For example, Census 2010 is coming up in April and we would like to help mobilize the community to participate in Census to make our voice to be heard!

Moreover, we are also adding more fun by coordinating yKAN ski trips, picnic, sports, and winery events. What is better than having a quality time with fellow yKANers developing great friendships!

With your help, we can make yKAN, even better.  With your help, we can make our community a healthier place.  With your help, we can achieve together.

Therefore, I feel tremendously honored to accept the presidency of yKAN 2010 and I invite you to another great year at yKAN and to help me make yKAN a very special part of other-new members’ life.

Connect. Contribute. Advance.  That’s what we do great as a team!

So, what will bring you to yKAN this year?  Are you ready to have fun with us?

Thanks,

Yours truly,
Julie Cho
The 18th President
julie@ykan.org

yKAN Announcement : January 28th Open House Event

yKAN Open House & Re-Gifting Game - January General Meeting

Ever wonder who the masterminds behind the fabulous yKAN events are?

You have to admit we had some really great events so far, such as our August 09 Bachelor/ette Auction Fundraiser where we auctioned off eligible NYC bachelors and bachelorettes to raise funds for our community service projects. We also have some exciting events coming up! Some ideas the yKAN EXECUTIVE BOARD (e-board) members were thinking of holding are:

There are LOTS of awesome ideas we have come up with and we are excited to make them happen for our Korean American Community. As yKAN strategize for the rest of the year, we are looking for your feedback, comments, and ideas. We know many of you have enjoyed coming to our events and thought about if you could do more. How about coming to our Open House to provide any feedback on past events, ideas on future events, and learn more about the various committees. We will discuss past recent events, events planned for the upcoming months, and brainstorm about great future events. There will be e-board members available to discuss various committees and what kind of projects they work on. There are many opportunities to contribute to yKAN and be involved in the leadership of yKAN.

You would be surprised that the yKAN e-board is comprised of regular people just like you! We come from all different walks of Korean American Life: Academics, Education, Arts and Entertainment, Finance, Health and Science, Information Technology, Law, etc. Although our schedules may be busy, being on the yKAN e-board provides us an outlet to make a difference in our KA community and beyond. Since 1989, we strive to create and organize events that show our commitment to our fellow Korean Americans.

E-board members get the chance to come together once month and in fact, if having a place to go every month, where you feel you are making a difference with the people you enjoy working with, seems like something you are interested, please let us know and one of us will get in touch with you. We want to get to know YOU! It is work, and does take some time, but whenever we see a successful yKAN event, there is satisfaction that we are making a true difference.

If you are interested in more information or wish to discuss anything ahead of the Open House, please email membership@ykan.org.

Also, we will be doing a re-gifting event! Do you have a random gift from the holidays that you don't want and want to play a fun game, network, and potentially get a really cool gift instead?  Take that gift that you don't want and wrap it (no need for a card or any other identifier).  You can bring a gift that you received of any value, or if you are purchasing a gift so that you can play the game, something $10 or more.  It's more fun when you bring a gift however.

The game works as such, people who brought a gift put the wrapped gift on the table. We will have a bowl of pieces of paper with a number on it. We then go in sequential order to take turns picking or stealing a gift!

1. On your turn, you go to the table and choose a wrapped gift and unwrap it and show it to everyone in the room. To add a networking twist, tell everyone your name, what you do/job-sector (if if in school: major, what you want to do), and one little known tid-bit about yourself.

2. The next person in line (from the # they pulled), can go to the table, and repeat step 1, or they can STEAL any gift that was unwrapped already before them (gifts can only be stolen a max of 2 times before they are exempt from stealing)

3. If your gift was stolen, go back to the table and choose another one (if your gift was stolen, you can't steal someone else's or steal-back)

It's a lot of fun, great for networking, and potentially hilarious at what gets unwrapped!

Thanks for your time, and hope to hear from you!

Sincerely,

yKAN Executive Board
eboard@ykan.org

Social Committee: March Masquerade Party

SAVE THE DATE: yKAN Fundraising Masquerade Party

When: Thursday, March 11, 2010

7 – 10pm

Where: TBD, NYC

Who: Everyone is welcomed!

What: Fundraising Masquerade Party

Bring your own mask to enter a chance to win a prize for the best mask contest!

Why: Raise money to yKAN programming for 2010 - 2011

Contact: social@ykan.org

For questions/suggestions or to volunteer to help us with the event

fundraising@ykan.org

If you are interest in making monetary sponsorship or raffle gifts donation or buying ad space on our program

Advancement Committee Report

By Julie Cho

yKANers participated in a meeting with US Census Representative Ryan D. Kim on December 17, 2009.

Census Day is April 1, 2010. 

yKAN Advancement Committee have partnered with Korean American Supporters/Volunteers 2010 Census Task Force NY/NJ to help the word out about Census 2010!  Many projects and events will be developed through yKAN this year to have a strong Korean American participation in Census 2010.  We were noted in the Korea Times! http://ny.koreatimes.com/article/566390

On Saturday January 9, 2010, yKAN members Sandra Oh and Ki Suk Kim participated in putting up posters and leaving Census related materials at various businesses in Korea Town.  Thank you for coming out on a cold day and spreading the words about Census 2010!

Here is what our yKAN members / volunteers expressed about the experience:

Flyers, promotions, coupons... Yeah, these are what we avoid in the streets when we're out there walking with our friends. As a volunteer for the US census 2010 Korean American small business blitz last Saturday, many don't know how simple and easy it is to engage themselves into US census 2010. I felt it was our task as Korean American to bring across this win win situational government benefit by direct marketing style because there is no other way then to face our community in person with professionalism and respect. – Ki Suk Lee, yKAN Member / Census 2010 Volunteer Task Force of NY/NJ

I was glad to help with the census project through yKAN.  I think it's a great way for the Korean-American voice to be heard both in local and the federal governments.  It felt great knowing that my efforts on just one day will help millions of Korean-Americans for years to come. – Sandra Oh, yKAN Member / Census 2010 Volunteer Task Force of NY/NJ

If you are interested in helping out the Advancement Committee, please email advancement@ykan.org

The U.S. Census counts every resident in the United States, and is required by the Constitution to take place every 10 years.

The 2010 Census will help communities receive more than $400 billion in federal funds each year for things like:

The data collected by the census also help determine the number of seats your state has in the U.S. House of Representatives.

We can't move forward until you mail it back.

In March of 2010, census forms will be delivered to every residence in the United States and Puerto Rico. When you receive yours, just answer the 10 short questions and then mail the form back in the postage-paid envelope provided.

Thanks,
Julie Cho

Advancement Committee
advancement@ykan.org

Community Service Committee Report

SangAh Chun (left) who helped set up the APEX holiday party on December 19.

On Saturday, December 19, yKAN collaborated with Asian Professional Extension (APEX) in preparing a Christmas party for inner city Asian youths. yKAN was in the decoration committee, which was led by yKAN community service chair Byul Cho. yKAN members showed off their artistic skills in creating beautiful signs for the games and activities booth.

yKAN decided to work with APEX because APEX has been providing great mentoring and education programs to underprivileged Asian youths. However, due to current economic downturn, it was difficult for APEX to raise additional funds. Therefore yKAN has contributed $150 to help sponsor the event.

Special thanks to our volunteers: Thomas Kang, Ryan Kim, Nelly Dong, SangAh Chun, Charles Hwang, June Tida, Eddie Song, Julie Cho, Jin Lim, Jisung Chun, and Dan Whang.

Best,
Byul Cho and Yong Kwon
Community Service Committee
community@ykan.org

APEX – Asian Professional Exchange

"APEX is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit in New York City dedicated to providing mentoring and educational services to an Asian American youth population. Founded in 1992, APEX, seeks to empower youth to be well-rounded, productive members of society by helping them build their self-confidence, explore academic and career goals, develop a sense of community and service, and gain leadership skills. Through one-on one mentoring relationships, educational programs, and social services APEX helps youth overcome the multiple challenges they face, enabling them to cultivate valuable and meaningful relationships. Together, we hope to inspire our youth to create and achieve their goals. " www.apex-ny.org

yKAN intends to give our website at www.yKAN.org a much needed overhaul in the future. We intend to reach out to web designers and web design firms for quotes on this project. We are currently working on a draft RFP to see what our web needs are going to be. If you are a web designer who can work on a CMS engine base on Joomla!, and you are interested in working with us - or you know someone who might be - please e-mail webmaster@ykan.org for more information.

Community News

Korean American League for Civic Action (KALCA):

The Korean American League for Civic Action (KALCA) is offering its annual Summer College Internship Program, a unique opportunity for college students and recent graduates of Asian descent with demonstrated leadership potential to gain practical, hands-on exposure to government, politics and non-profit advocacy in NYC. The 8-week program is focused on community leadership and public service and places interns in leading government offices, non-profit organizations, and political campaigns in NY and NJ. Interns receive a stipend of $1,500. Applications are due on Feb 27, 2010.  Go to www.kalca.org for info and to download the application. Finalists will be required to be available for in-person interviews on Sat, Mar 27 in New York City. 

If you want to post announcements on yKAN Spirit Newsletter, please email media@ykan.org

2010 yKAN Executive Board