Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Encore Performance: ToiZounZ'& RiddimZ' August 3rd @ Oakland Museum featuring William Poy Lee

Dear Friends -- due to popular demand, there will be an Encore performance of ToiZounZ' and RiddimZ' at the Oakland Museum of California, Friday, 7:30 PM on August 3rd, 2007. Please see poster below for more details or visit the website for a video clip of the first performance at CHSA.

But wait, there's more to the performance reading!!!
1. A Choral Reading of my mother's voice in the Clan Sisterhood chapters and the making of the eight promises;

2. Clan Sister songs explained and sang by Leslie Yee, a Toisanese American;

3. An interview with Ms. Poy Jen Lee in Toisanese and translated (if she feels well enough that night); and

4. Traditional treats & libations afterwards with book sales and book signing.

Please forward the e-flyer below and hope to see you there. Parking in museum's underground garage and streets and near Lake Merritt BART station.

How to waive the admission fee: If you wish only to attend ToiZounZ' and RiddimZ' or because of the size of your group, we can waive the $8 per person fee for you. Please let us know now by e-mailing Janet Chan at: jylchan@yahoo.com and we will place you on the complementary guest list.

Oakland is Cookin': Our Performance Reading is part of the First Friday series, where once a month, a lively dance group performs at the Museum's cafe and full bar (blues band this month), all galleries stay open, and a series of events in rooms and the garden go on into the evening until around 10 PM. For the admission price of $8, you may come earlier and have a light dinner, visit a few galleries, and stay afterwards to dance a little. AND of course check out ToiZounZ' and RiddimZ'. There's also shuttle service to and from Oakland's First Friday open house of Art Galleries featuring new and established artists.

On Another Note -- is this the first time that Toisanese has been heard on NPR? Please check out a very sweet radio interview with my mother in Toisanese (translated by me into American) as well as mostly with me. The link is the NPR show http://thestory.org with Dick Gordon, emanating out of WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio, and broadcasted throughout the Midwest, Southeast, and Idaho. Please enter "The Eighth Promise" into the search box to find the 1/2 hour on-line broadcast. Thanks to KQED-FM studios for hosting our side of the broadcast.

Also, a wonderful and wide-ranging interview with Michael Thoms on New Dimensions will be airing shortly -- date still pending.

All best -- William Poy Lee
For the latest visit: www.TheEighthPromise.com (Opens a new window)
Critical reviews, video reading, NPR interview, photos, major excerpt and more
On-sale nationally in select indie, B&N, other stores and on-line




Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Fall Fundrasising Banquet, September 28, 2007

JOE WONG APPOINTED PORT OF OAKLAND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER - To Be Honored At OCA Fall Banquet

Joe Wong, Organization of Chinese Americans East Bay President in 2006, has been appointed the Chief Operating Officer at the Port of Oakland. In his new position, Mr. Wong will oversee the Port’s maritime, aviation and commercial real estate operations. “I am thrilled. Joe deserves this position. He is highly regarded by employees at the Port. He has also been a visible leader in the Asian-American community in the East Bay,” says Danny Wan, OCA-East Bay’s current president.

The theme of this year's dinner is "Equal Access, Equal Opportunities." We will be honoring Kaiser Permanente for its excellence in ensuring equal access to its services. To attend or sponsor, please contact Yui Hay Lee at yuihay@yhla.net or 510-836-6688.

The banquet event will be held on the evening of Friday, September 28 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th Street between Franklin and Webster in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Bamboo Gate and Glass Ceiling

Asians Left Out of Government Jobs and Promotions at East Bay Agencies

By Edward Tom

Government jobs are known to be good wage jobs with great benefits. For many in the Asian-American community, getting a good city job is a sign of success. However, an OCA investigation of the hiring statistics of East Bay public agencies – city of Oakland, the Port of Oakland, East Bay Municipal Utility District and Bay Area Rapid Transit – shows that Asian-Americans are being left out of traditional public works jobs and slow in being promoted to management positions.













A gap between employment and Asian-Americans available in the workforce is most prominent in management positions – the “glass ceiling” phenomenon – because employees hit a discriminatory ceiling above which they cannot be promoted. Asians are also significantly under hired in the public works and blue-collar jobs.


Public Agency Studies Find Disparities Between Employment and Asians Available to Work

Federal law requires agencies receiving federal funds to study their employment practices. East Bay agencies periodically study their workforce by job categories and by race. They then compare the ethnic makeup of their employees against the makeup of the available workforce pool from which they hire. So, for example, if 10% of an agency’s workforce is Asian-Americans and 16% of the available workforce in the relevant area is Asian, then the agency has underutilized Asian-Americans by 6%.

The city of Oakland, by far the largest public agency in the East Bay with over 5,400 employees, recently released its employment study. The study showed that Asian Americans are underutilized in 3 out of 8 job categories. The biggest disparity is in the category of service/maintenance workers where Asians are underutilized by 9.35% (translating into 56 positions). In the management and director ranks, Asians are underutilized by 4.51%, or almost 17 positions.

In 2006, EBMUD had 62 Directors/Managers; Asian underutilization within this group was 11% or close to 7 positions. Underrepresentation in various other job groups include 14% (5.0 jobs) for Technicians, 10% (3.3 jobs) for Plant Operators Lead/Supervision and 10% (7.7 jobs) for Lab & Quality Control Technicians.

At the end of the year 2000, BART was above or only a few percent below placement goals for most of their non-managerial job groups. However, of the 156 Executives / Managers, only 6.5% or 10.1 people were Asian. According to their placement goals, there was a deficit of 11.4% (7.4 positions) for transportation supervisors, 10.1% (8.1 positions) for other supervisors, and 9.2% (9.2 positions) for other foreworkers. Only within the Transportation Foreworker and Police Supervisors and Managers were they above goal.

The Port of Oakland had 45 Officials / Managers in 2005 and Asians were underutilized by 5.0%, or 2.3 positions. Since The Port had the fewest employees, the number of underrepresented is low. They do however, hold the highest underrepresentation percentage: 22.1% for Operatives. This, only amounts to 3.3 persons because there were only 15 people within the job group. Another astounding figure was that out of 28 Laborers, zero were Asian.

Why The Hiring and Promotion Disparity?

When asked what the city of Oakland is doing to ensure workforce diversity, Don Jeffries, Equal Opportunity Programs Division Manager, explained that they are conducting compliance reviews, barrier analyses and have an EEO plan. However, there are some challenges. Sometimes data is not yet available for determining progress, or creating plans, policies and strategies for addressing deficiencies. “It’s a long term effort.” In addition, the city is planning to review strategies to reduce any imbalances.

Another possible explanation, according to the EBMUD FY06 Program Report, is that “most of the turnover in District manager and director positions will occur in the next two to five years due to the relatively higher age profile of long-term incumbents in these positions.” In other words, as the Baby Boomer generation begins to reach retirement age changes should occur in the workforce.

Although the Port of Oakland received federal funding this year and in past years, and therefore is subject to requirement to prevent discrimination, as of late March 2007, The Port had only a draft workforce diversity study conducted in 2005 that was never completed.

BART is meeting placement goals in many of its job positions, however its latest Affirmative Action Report, from December 2000, is based on 1990 Census data and is more than six years old. BART Civil Rights Officer, Ron Granada, stated, “Our plan covers a 5-year period. Our new EOP is in progress.” The new Equal Opportunity Program report would be based on the 2000 Census information.

Asian-Americans need to act

A former city of Oakland employee who wishes to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the information, offers a different explanation: “For many positions, the City tends to promote and hire based on who you know. So, if Asian-Americans do not know the people who already work at the City, they will not get hired. We need to be more assertive.”

During a recent lunch workshop sponsored by OCA-East Bay, Jack Lee, an attorney specializing in employment, consumer fraud and civil rights law at Minami Tamaki LLP, and Elaine Lew-Smith, the Affirmative Action Officer at EBMUD discussed with 45 participants some of the causes of disparity. During the discussion, one participant stated that Asians do not have someone like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton who will advocate on our behalf. Greg Chan of OCA-East Bay commented, “If you say something about African Americans, they’ll come after you, but if you say something about Asians, maybe not.” Lee pointed out that this is all connected with “political sophistication” and “access to power.” “If Asians are discriminated against, they tend to leave or don’t complain,” replied Lew-Smith. “It’s hard as an individual, but if we don’t stand up as a group, no one will care.” Another issue is that since there are fewer Asians in management positions, there are fewer to serve as mentors or role models.

Does this show that the agencies are using discriminatory practices?

Some contend that the disparities are indication of either intentional or unconscious discrimination against Asian-Americans for certain jobs and promotions, however proving discrimination may be difficult. During the workshop, Lee explained that while workforce statistics show that Asians are underutilized in many job groups, they do not necessarily show that there is discrimination. Additionally, if statistics showing underutilization were presented in court, some opponents would say Asians deserve credit for areas of overrepresentation. It is necessary to identify a process that is causing discrimination against a legally protected group based on age, gender, race, language, et cetera. The minimum required to make a discrimination case is someone within a protected group not getting a job, while someone outside of that group gets the job instead.

What can employees and employers do about underutilization?

At the workshop, Elaine Lew-Smith stated that after Proposition 209 passed, many believed that you could not do selective hiring. “Not true”, says Lew-Smith. Employers can still do focused recruiting when underutilized. To help address underutilization, EBMUD offers various programs to develop diversity, leadership, and training among its employees, as well as internships and education programs to help recruit minority and female employees. The standard employers should strive to achieve is workforce representation equal to Labor Market representation.

Two questions to consider when reviewing an employer’s hiring process…

  • Are they recruiting candidates representative of the labor market?
  • Do any racial or gender candidate groups pass the selection process at a rate significantly below other groups?”
Two questions to consider when reviewing an employer’s promotion rate…

  • Are any racial / gender groups failing to promote at the rate they are represented in the feeder groups?
  • Do they offer training programs to assist employee’s development and enhance supervisors / managers cultural competency?


What does OCA –plan to do?

To reach a wider audience, East Bay OCA - East Bay plans to follow up the luncheon workshop by sponsoring a larger “town-hall” meeting on the issue of underutilization and glass ceilings. Attendees will include local organizations, as well as more of the public and public officials.

In September, an annual fundraising banquet will feature a keynote speaker on this issue. The “town-hall” meeting will be held after the banquet in October or November.



Monday, July 16, 2007

2007 OCA National Convention - Sacramento, CA

Photos from the 29th Annual OCA National Convention.

Friday, July 13, 2007

About OCA

Board of Directors
Bylaws



"Embracing the Hopes and Aspirations of APAs."



Founded in 1973 as the Organization of Chinese Americans, OCA is a national nonprofit organization consisting of over 80 chapters and affiliates, dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States. OCA aims to embrace the hopes and aspirations of nearly 12 million Asian Pacific Americans in the United States.

OCA-East Bay was established in 1987 to represent the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Purpose:
  • To maintain an association of Asian Pacific Americans in the East Bay area to advance the interest of all Asian Pacific Americans.
  • To promote friendship and cooperation among its members.
  • To discourage and eliminiate all forms of racial and ethnic prejudice and discrimination in society.
  • To promote equal opportunity and full participation of Asian Pacific Americans in mainstream America.
  • To promote cultural heritage and enhance the image of Asian Pacific Americans.

OCA takes no collective position on the politics of any foreign country, but instead focuses on the welfare and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States.

OCA-East Bay encourages you to attend our local meetings.
Last Tuesday of every month at 6pm.
For current meeting location please contact us at comments@ocaeastbay.org.


Board Meeting Photo

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Links

Local OCA Chapters

OCA-Silicon Valley
OCA-San Francisco
OCA-Sacramento
OCA-San Mateo

OCA National Organization headquartered in Washington DC.
http://www.ocanational.org/


Job Listings

Bay Area Rapid Transit
http://www.bart.gov/about/jobs/jobsIndex.asp

City of Oakland Jobs
http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/jobs/current_openings.html

East Bay Municipal Utility District
https://portal.ebmud.com/vra/sigma5/JobListings.aspx

Port of Oakland
http://www.portofoakland.com/jobcente/

Additional job listings through the Port of Oakland's Employment Resources Development Program
http://www.portofoakland.com/jobcente/erdp.asp


Other Links

AnewAmerica's is a community corporation whose mission is to promote the long-term economic empowerment of new Americans - new citizens, immigrants, and refugees - and to encourage their full participation in the political, social and cultural growth of America.
http://www.anewamerica.org

Register to vote from the Secretary of State's website.
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

Census Day is April 1, 2010.
OCA-East Bay is a proud supporter of the 2010 US Census. For more information on the Census please visit their website.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Board of Directors

Officers

President:
Chi-Hsin Shao
Vice President: Stanley Kiang
Treasurer:
Norman Hui

Board Members

Gregory Chan

Lily Hu

Colland Jang

Francis Lan

Suzie Lee

Yui Hay Lee

Alex Nguyen

Danny Wan

Joe Wong

Alan Yee


Communications Secretary

Edward Tom