Spring 2006

• An Interview with Shu-Ping Chan - Montgomery County’s Asian American Liaison Officer
• Meet Your New Board Of Directors
• APAEA Membership Renewal - It’s that time of the year again!
• Promised And We Are Delivering It!
• Mark Your Calendar! - APAEA Members Welcome To Attend
• For Fun – Asian American Quiz!

An Interview with Shu-Ping Chan
- Montgomery County’s Asian American Liaison Officer - back to top

On the second floor of the Executive Office Building in Rockville, Shu-Ping Chan confronts the challenges facing the Asian American communities. As part of the County Executive’s Community Outreach Office, he works to enhance the image of Asian Americans, to see that there is fairness and equal treatment and access for communities in County programs and services, and acts as a resource for County agencies and communities. “My mission,” he says, “is to bring people together, solve problems, and ensure access to services.”

Shu-Ping was born in Hong Kong, came to the United States in 1968, and grew up in Connecticut and New York. He went to college in New York, and then went to the University of Colorado in Boulder to get an MBA in finance and a law degree. Shu-Ping can practice law in Connecticut and New York, but not in Maryland. Perhaps, some day, he muses. Shu-Ping has two brothers—one a lawyer in the Civil Rights Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and the other is an engineer at Yale University.

He came to Washington D.C. in 1993, and started work in the Office of Senator Joe Lieberman (CN) in 1994 as a Legal Fellow and researcher. He became director of the Maryland Governor’s Office of Asian American Affairs in late 1995. The office was located in Baltimore in the Department of Human Resources.

Montgomery County’s Asian American Liaison position became open in 1997 and Shu-Ping applied. He was very excited about the position since the County worked on many similar issues that the State did, and the commute for Shu-Ping would be shorter than going to Baltimore each day.

In the Office of Community Outreach

He’s been with the County for more than eight years and sees challenges and benefits for Asian American residents in Montgomery County. “The County,” Shu-Ping notes, “is very diverse and the challenges to our communities are to understand what is available, and how to navigate to get these services. We need to get the word out of County programs and services. We work through County agencies, especially HHS.”

“We’ll translate or have translation of our materials and other information. The languages we focus on are Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and French (for County residents from former French colonies). Our Community Outreach Office works as a team. And we support one another in our efforts to communicate with our communities,” Shu-Ping says.

“We have a Resource Guide issued by the County, and it’s an indispensable source of County services and program. We’re in touch with community leaders, churches, mosques, and synagogues,” he points out.

The “In-Touch” newsletter published by the County covers news and issues of the Asian American, Hispanic, and African Americans communities. Shu-Ping is currently the editor. That publication is also used by the office to let community leaders know of County services, program, and events.

Empowering the Community

Shu-Ping points out that we [the Asian American community] need to “step outside of our cocoon” and work more with other communities—to be there to participate and support one another.

“The Asian American communities,” he says, “ need to work with the County, meet with us on getting services, learn how the process works, and recognize that different groups, have links to information and ideas that will serve all our communities.”

Learning to Give Your Elevator Speech

Shu-Ping has been a strong supporter of the Asian Pacific American Employees Association (APAEA). Communication seminars given by APAEA and other training are critical for employees and our communities. “They challenge us to be more aggressive,” he says, “not to be shy when you ‘put your hat in the ring.’ And even if you don’t get the job, the process of applying speaks loudly."

Meet Your New Board Of Directors - back to top

• Chairman - Charles Crisostomo, 240-777-8416
• Vice Chairman - Eduardo Mondoñedo, 240-777-8746
• Secretary - Tessie Krintz, 240-777-2546
• Treasurer - Annette Cheng, 240-777-2422
• Membership Director - Mimi Wang Feinstone, 202-462-5068
• Program Director - Laura Chin, 301-565-7310
• Public Relations Director - Jayasree (Jai) Kundu, 240-777-5859

APAEA Membership Renewal - It’s that time of the year again! - back to top

Please renew your membership in the APAEA organization. We need your support in carrying out the goals and mission spelled out in the by-laws of the organization. Also, encourage your colleagues to be a part of this organization. Additional information on your membership renewal will be forthcoming to you soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Mimi Feinstone, APAEA Membership Director. Mimi can be reached via e-mail Mimi.feinstone@mncppc-mc.org.

Promised And We Are Delivering It! - back to top

As part of the on-going activities of the Asian Pacific American Employees Association (APAEA), “Navigating Your Career Development in County Government” session was held in conjunction with the Montgomery County Human Resources Training Development on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 at the EOB Auditorium. This training session received overwhelming response. After the panelists spoke (Gordon Aoyagi, Director, Department of Homeland Security; Angela Washington-Bivans, EEO Manager, Office of Human Resources; Stan Wong, Division Chief, Department of Permitting Services; and, Sunil Pandya, Manager, Office of Management Budget; moderated by Ginny Gong, Director, Community Use of Public Facilities), there was a question and answer session held and during this time all the questions that were collected from the participants could not addressed due to pressing time to adjourn the meeting on time. It was decided at the end of the training session that those remaining collected questions would be given to the panelists and their answers will be included in the upcoming newsletters.

The following questions were given to Sunil Pandya and his answers are:

Q. Should you let your supervisor know that you are applying for another position?
A. No. Applying for a job is step one while getting called for an interview is step two. At step two, it is good to inform your supervisor. Montgomery County encourages career progression and, therefore, no employee should feel that there may be a backlash for letting their supervisor knows that they want to move ahead. Employees should share their desire to move forward during their performance review and thus it should not come as a surprise to their supervisor when they are informed that you have an interview scheduled. Also, as the old saying goes, “never burn bridges”, and if you are planning to

move-on to better positions, you must ensure that your assignments are well documented and filed. So the Department will never miss a beat.

Q. When is it time to move?
A. Unless you are the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, it is time to move when you see an assignment that can utilize your skill and you will enjoy doing it every day.

Additional questions have been given to other panelists. As they answer those questions, our future Newsletter will carry their answers.

APAEA Board of Directors wants to take this opportunity to thank those who have participated in this event and we hope that you encourage others to attend these types of events in the future as we are plan additional ones. We would appreciate any suggestions for future events.

Mark Your Calendar!!!! - APAEA Members Welcome To Attend - back to top

• May 3, 2006, 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm – WSSC Headquarters, Hyattsville, Maryland
  Film showing of “Ancestors in the Americas.”
• May 5, 2006, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Bethesda, Marriott, 5151 Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland. The Asian American Health Initiative under HHS, Montgomery County will host its conference. Limited to 250 attendees, a continental breakfast and a lunch will be provided. You must register to attend the seminar. Please visit AAHI website for additional information. Your association, APAEA, will exhibit at the AAHI seminar.
• May 19, 2006, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. – MNCPPC-MC, 8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. Delegate Susan Lee (District 16) will speak about her background, interest in politics, Asian American affairs, ethnic commercial development and much more.
• May 20, 2006, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. - Soccer-Plex, Germantown, Maryland.
  25th Anniversary Celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Visit the Soccer-Plex website for additional details. The whole day is filled with fun events.
• May 24, 2006 – 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. – MNCPPC-MC, 8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. Film showing of, “Ancestors in the Americas.”
• May 30, 2006, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. – MNCPPC-MC, 8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. A workshop by Clay Hixson to discuss strategies to improve outreach to Asian communities.

More events will be scheduled throughout the year. Visit APAEA website periodically for details.

1. Who was named Time magazine’s 1996 Man of the Year for his breakthroughs in AIDS research?

1. David Ho
2. Jerry Yang
3. Har Gobind Khorana

2. Who is the Oscar-nominated director for Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

1. Jet Li
2. Ang Lee
3. Tan Dun

3. Who starred in All-American Girl, the first Asian-American sitcom?

1. Margaret Cho
2. Vera Wang
3. Michelle Yeoh

4. Who is the Chinese-American architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?

1. Eero Saarinen
2. Maya Lin
3. I.M Pei

5. Which Asian-American leaders were instrumental in establishing APA Heritage Month in 1955

1. Norman Mineta and Daniel Inouye
2. Gary Locke and Benjamin Cayetano
3. Elaine Chao and Yvonne Lee

6. Between 1990 and 2000, which three Asian groups grew the fastest (in population growth rate)?

1. Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesians
2. Asian Indians, Vietnamese, and Chinese
3. Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese

7. Which Asian group has one of the highest rates of coronary artery disease of all ethnic groups: 4-times higher than Caucasians?

1. Vietnamese
2. Chinese
3. Asian Indians

8. What percentage of Asian Americans have a household computer and internet access?

1. Computer: 45% ; internet access: 37%
2. Computer: 83%; internet access: 74%
3. Computer: 65%; internet access: 37%

9. Which Asian group is the second largest in the U.S. and is also the largest Asian population in California of any single state?

1. Hmong
2. Filipinos
3. Japanese

10. As of 2000, and for the first time in history, what Asian language is the second most prevalent language spoken in U.S. households?

1. Vietnamese
2. Urdu
3. Chinese

YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND ARTICLES ARE WELCOME FOR THE NEXT APAEA NEWSLETTER. PLEASE FORWARD THEM TO JAI KUNDU AT Jayasree.Kundu@montgomerycountymd.gov. Or call Jai at 240-777-5859. NEXT ISSUE - SUMMER, 2006

This is APAEA Spring, 2006 Newsletter created by its Board of Directors. We would like our membership to participate in the Newsletter by contributing articles, news and any information that are of interest to our membership and readers. A special thanks to Kyung Lee for maintaining APAEA Website current. The next newsletter will be published in June’06.