Thank you.

All right.

I call May's meeting to order.

So let's take one minute.

Mayor Nichols is going to be here at about two, so just a minute to review April's minutes, and then we'll move to approve.

Vote to approve.

It's so freaking easy.

That's okay.

It's just it's a new thing.

Hey, Ethan.

Welcome to this.

I move to approve April's minutes.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Is that the perfect timing?

I might be.

Well, thank you, everybody.

While we wait on Mayor Nimbles for coming.

The community is one of the most important parts of our commission.

We're here to support you along with our AAPI community.

And I can hear you.

Sorry, I don't know.

But anyway, thank you all for coming.

Hello.

Hello.

Oh, is it?

Oh, that I never get that.

This was good timing.

Perfect.

Well, you know what?

I try.

I try to have perfect timing.

How's everybody doing?

Very good.

Very good busy agenda.

How far down the agenda are we?

Exactly at your island.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

I really, I really do have really good timing.

What's that?

Perfect time.

What's on the agenda today?

What all we have to do?

Elections.

Well, yeah, sleeping.

Slating.

Yes.

Very good.

Well, um, first of all, just thank you for your service.

Um, I know just in my 16, 17 months now in office, uh, this commission in particular has been one that I feel has been uh high fire across not just Title Fives, but any commission that we have.

Uh the amount of community engagement, certainly the pride and citizens that I see every day, every time you do an event.

Um I mentioned um and Sarah, I think I mentioned this at one of our events, that I saw an individual who moved here from it was one from New York, one from Nashville, I think, if I'm not mistaken.

And they were at the Arbus Convention Center, and uh their comment to me was I didn't know this many of my people were in Tulsa.

And so I think that's a really special thing, uh and it doesn't happen on accident.

Uh and so I just want to say uh the service of the commissioners and everybody supporting the commission, all the partners who have been brought to the table, folks who have helped sponsor things, uh, I think you're really not just putting the city in a cool light for people who uh are engaged in things, you're actually bringing more people to the conversation about what's going on with the city and them participating in the life of their city overall.

And so I think that there's there's almost not anything that you can put on that.

That's just an absolutely amazing legacy that you all as commissioners are really championing, and I think we'll continue on certainly while you're here, but even when you leave, I think setting a new standard uh is what this commission has done.

And so uh I wanted to come down here, and I don't normally actually do these this might be my first commission meeting I've come down doing it.

But I think it's important uh given just what you all have accomplished, and I want you to know how much we appreciate it uh here at the city and certainly in the administration.

I actually don't normally read these either.

Um but but I think it is really important, and so uh if you all will uh allow me uh to read this proclamation, uh it is my honor to do so.

Whereas the city of Tulsa is a community defined by its diversity and the history, culture, and achievements of Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander uh islanders have been uh fundamental in shaping the social, economic, and cultural landscape of our city.

And whereas the recent success of local community festivals highlights the spirit of unity and the increasing desire of Tulsa to learn to learn from and celebrate the distinct traditions of the AA and HPI dispership.

And whereas the city and whereas a city of Tulsa remains committed to being a world-class city that fosters an environment where every resident, regardless of their heritage, can find opportunity, belonging, and the freedom to thrive.

Now, therefore, I'm a Mayor Nichols to hereby proclaim the month of May as Asian American and Native Hawaii Pacific in the City of Tulsa.

Thank you so much.

Like I said before, I think the the coolest thing about the work over the last for a long time, but I'm just saying what I've experienced very directly as mayor.

So I don't want it to I know it happened long before I got here, but what I've experienced as mayor uh is a real um sort of awakening locally to a lot of people who've been able to find a community, but also I think frankly, just people know it.

This is a city that surprises them with our diversity and the fact that there's voices in seats at the table that maybe aren't always the most traditional ones of people who just go to everything, but people who are really leaning back into community.

Uh I think that's just like a really really special deal.

Y'all are very, very special people uh and and certainly whatever we can do to continue to support we we look forward to doing so.

So Lexi, thank you for always helping lead the way.

DeAntre, thank you so much for your leadership.

Again, thank you all for being being part of the team.

Let us know how else we can help.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I don't mess up the rest of the meeting.

I um I'm not I'm gonna go ahead and give a quick report on our TCF account, and then I'm just gonna pass it off uh to Paddy Sab because we've got a full slate to go over.

Um hold on one second.

I'm gonna give you a quick update.

I don't think our total has changed much since last month, but I wanna make sure to give you an exact so yeah, currently we have in our TCF account 10,459 dollars and twenty-four cents.

So that will that course will change as I stated before.

I will help Massoud and also the event um chairperson to kind of raise funds ongoing for both events for a community event and then also our scholarships that we'll be giving out this year.

All right, I'm gonna pass it on to Chris Al.

Okay, and just to clarify, we're still going with the Tulsa Asian Fest update first.

We are, yes.

And I I want to give a little bit of clarity to that, and then I'm gonna pass it over to Commissioner Noche to give some context since she kind of headed up our event last year.

We had a meeting with we had a meeting with um the leadership, the chairs um a couple of weeks ago, really talking about the longevity of Tulsa Asia Fest and what the plan looked like.

And there's some notes attached.

I know that Lexi sent that to you.

We had yes, thank you.

Um, I'm gonna pull it out to you.

So we had several options to look at this how to sustain and clarify if we're gonna scale down, if we're gonna go outside and fund a contractor, or we're just gonna transfer the event to another organization.

So all of those were were brought to the table.

We discussed ad link.

We have not made a 100% this is what we're going to do, but we wanted to talk about this collectively, that we are leaning towards considering an intentional scale-down or strategic pause for next year to ensure that the 2028 event is built on a sustainable foundation.

I think that will give the event share time to recalibrate and to approach approach it differently differently.

It will also give the new chairperson for the commission time to acclimate to their role to lay out new strategies, new goals for the commission, and then just take off in 2028.

And I feel like that will give us time to raise funds to have more clarity on why the why of why we're having the event and and do it with purpose.

So that is what that is what we're leaning towards.

Go ahead.

Now I'll give just a little more context for those of you who are new here.

The Title Five Commissions by city statutes or whatever the ordinance are at the most technical layer advisory bodies to the mayor and city council.

So the budget, the volunteer capacity, the way the commissions are set up does not lend to executing an event that 10,000 people attend.

And as a reminder, we were only two years old.

In our first year, we had a lunar new year event.

We expected a few hundred people, we had a thousand plus, and then last year we scaled up and very quickly got to the 10,000s.

And while those events, as Mayor Nichols reminded us, were incredible in their impact and what they meant to the community.

That wasn't without great personal sacrifice from volunteers, commissioners were volunteering their time to make that happen.

And frankly, it is not sustainable to keep delivering that in its current form.

And so that's kind of where the conversation came from.

It wasn't that the event was bad or we don't want to do it again or anything.

It's just at what cost can we make that happen for the community in our current confines?

So when we discussed these four options, we did some thinking ahead of time to think through what's the impact on our community, what's most sustainable for us, what's most aligned with our capacity as a commission to really think through all the pieces.

Um until 2027, even if we decided right now we were going to do the same thing, we would be on a crunch to put on an event of that size.

Many of you all know the convention center downtown books out years in advance, and we didn't want to put anyone at a disadvantage by saying we're gonna have it next year, and a pause is where we tended to lean, not because we want to go a year without this event, but because we need time to figure out what the best option forward is.

I think last year, through Herculean effort from Commissioner Noche and a team of volunteers, we were able to make it happen, and we just want to proceed more thoughtfully with what we do in the future.

So I would love to open it up to discussion on uh impact on the community of not having it, impact on our commission of not having it, and what the best use of a pause could be, or if you have other ideas about the options that you see here.

And I would say two things I would add to that is that will give us more capacity to show up at Tulsa Night Market, the Asian Night Market, and other community events.

So we're not disappearing, we will still have community presence, it'll just be a little more purposeful.

Um, and then second, this is not to diminish at all the event.

This is actually emphasizing its importance even more to the community and us taking a step back and being more strategic.

I think there's something really positive about quick growth, and there's also a detriment is that it can spin out of control, and we can't just move forward with something because it worked from the surface level and keep going as you know, we did moving forward with the same plan.

I think we need to recalibrate, think about how to bring in community partners next time and not have such a hard load on certain people in the commission, whether it be the chair or a small group of volunteers.

I don't think that's fair to this commission as well.

So I think the importance of this event is even amplified by us taking a step back and being being more purposeful and then launch it full force in 2028.

So while everybody is trying to recalibrate, I'll tell you what joined the workforce of education.

Scholarships are just as important as thank you, Masood.

Exactly.

Thank you.

They are always selling again.

Refocusing back on our purpose that we laid out earlier last year was leadership, building leaders from within and without, and this scholarship will provide thousands of dollars to students who may not education and buying supplies may not have been achievable, and we're we're helping we're helping build that future leader for our Asian community through scholarships.

It's really important, just as important as our cultural event.

We won't be able to.

I don't think we here's the deal.

Formally, I mean, we can vote today.

There is uh there is a an op uh action item to be able to formally vote on yeah.

I just want to make sure to you're on the same page as a commission.

If anybody has any objections, wanting to hear reasons why, and then move forward with the vote.

Yeah, what are some of our other options that we explored?

Oh, go ahead.

No, that's okay.

Just to should we decide to continue doing it without the break.

Did we look at options?

Yeah, okay.

So we should yeah, look at item number two.

We could sustain and clarify and move forward as per usual with the same structures we have had in the past two years.

That didn't feel great because it feels like we're just gonna be hitting repeat with a burden on the chairperson.

Um, the second one that seemed more feasible to us was scale down.

We are would have a smaller event, but then that doesn't seem fair to the community, limiting the size and the capacity.

We're kind of going back to what we had for our first lunar year event where we were having fire marshal come.

That didn't feel great to those that came this year in excess of work close to 10,000 people.

We have to the city of Tulsa has to consult with legal.

We don't really kind of let's come new territory.

We don't know if that's permissible, and if it is, what does that look like for the commission to hire a part-time person to come and just focus on planning an event?

And then the fourth is transfer operations.

So we would have an external nonprofit hire someone to support the commission event.

Yes.

So I think we would lose our capacity to have the RVS business center if it's co-sponsored.

If it's not a city event, then we don't have the luxury of utilizing our vest for free.

So it would be a matter of like, is there a community partner who has the funding and the willingness to stand up and employ to support a city event?

Right.

Would take some time to show.

What do you think the yeah?

I hear you on that for sure.

The timing to carry on the way that we have, I think that transferring the ops, option four with time and diligence based upon what we are here to do as a commission and that's advisory role.

Um, I think it would be good to transfer the ops eventually to another nonprofit organization that can handle the capacity of the event.

Yeah.

Those are my thoughts.

Thank you.

I think that maybe uh we could step back a little bit took a time to make sure that we have.

I know the uh he did an amazing job in such a small time.

Um you know, we were part of that uh meeting that we had that uh group meeting that we had, and that was a focus of discussion then.

This is going to be a big event.

I mean, you know, the first uh first turnaround was so great, and I think the second one is going to be with the vendors and everything, so it's gonna be an outstanding.

So I think we're just stepping back and then taking a uh look at it so that nobody gets burnt out because it's easy to have the commissions and everybody that's volunteered, you know, get burnt out really easy.

So I don't know how you all posted it, but amazing job.

But uh I mean it would be for the community would be supportive of this.

I'm thankful it happened.

Um it's just the community's response to it was amazing, and it we know that it's needed, but we definitely want to be more intentional to serve the community in our best capacity with what we do here, but also how do we connect with the um nonprofit organizations or for profit based upon how we can get the community collaboration in um to get the engagement we need to to make this really a successful community event for everybody to enjoy.

People of the community came down the theoretical space that they were lacking, they were missing up their felt so much that uh that they could really put their uh cultures and everything, which is amazing.

Yeah, it was beautiful to see everybody there, not just Asians, but everybody there and just appreciating culture, learning about one another.

Um I think the community will definitely be bummed if we don't have one.

However, I think if we communicate it to the community, the intentionality behind it and make sure that we make it known that we haven't forgotten about this event, we just need to do this this yeah, and make sure that communication aligns with why our commission exists.

I'm taking a dancing lesson from PRIAS.

And one thing we mentioned in our chair's meeting is that the love from the community to want to know about Asian culture will persist.

It was there before we existed, we were established.

I think it really shown shines through through both of our cultural events, and that same community will be here in 2028.

Um, and we'll be able to support and be present in the community in different ways, just not with our big event yet, but just like just wait, kind of like an anticipation for 2028.

Yeah, I think that's exceptional.

And that we communicate to them too that hey, we're still around, we'll be at this this exactly.

Yeah, so yeah, I know I'm sad too.

But no one would be intentional.

So I guess I'm just thinking that three or four years ago there were not these many events.

Yeah.

So you have to look at this wire now and see all of these things.

I think the night market was one of the first public things that Tina Tina Tran and I did the I didn't do very much, but she I mean I remember tracing around looking for a you know a place to do it.

So in that short period of time, this is now like what seven things that's a lot.

Yeah, and I think it's true that we can then support the other things that are going on, right?

Yeah, and maybe act like a commission.

I mean, um, in that role as opposed to being um uh you know an event planner, yeah.

Exactly, exactly.

So I just want to clarify in terms of the strategic policy that we still plan to have an event in 2028 and what the timeline look like because I think um I just don't want this to be next year, this time we're still talking about what that would be like.

So I think that strategy is the important piece.

My understanding of the intent that I can check for alignment is that by this time next year, I mean hopefully earlier next year, but the in the 2027 strategic pause, it would either be this is how the city will continue putting this on, or we will release it to make sure someone else in the community can take on that need.

Um there's still kind of outstanding questions to some of the points around paying people, fundraising that I think are evolving at the city that we'll need to figure out.

But I the intent is that the next uh cultural event year, their goal would be to resolve the pause with the strategy to buy us some more time to figure out those options, is that right?

Yeah, and to fundraise as well.

I think that's important.

I mean, funding is a big part of this.

If we were to partner with another nonprofit and it was we would lose that sponsorship with our best, then we would have to talk about venue, and that just increases the cost for venue for table lighting, PA, all of that.

We have to think about that's a piece, yeah.

So I move that we as a commission vote on pausing Tulsa Asia Fest for 2027, moving with calibration and attention so that we can really knock it out of the park and have a sustainable event 2028 onward.

Somebody has to second it's take a motion.

Yeah, the floor is open for a motion.

Okay, I really would like to appear for people.

No pressure, um I for context for those of you that don't um have that background on me.

I am a newer commissioner.

Um, I came in just about a year ago.

Um, and then in November, I was asked to um come on as the interim chair uh cultural committee chair.

Um, so I have a very I guess I've I've been here for half of it of our short history as a commission, um, but I still have a lot of of learning that I'm doing as I um come into this, and a lot of that has been very focused on um TAF just because of the time that I've been here.

Um I I will give you permission, I don't mean it to sound like that, but um I wrote up um in preparation for our chairs meeting um some thoughts on the direction that we should go, and you are welcome to share that with the broader commission.

I think it's important.

Um I think that ends up becoming more um available to the um broader public and community as well.

But the the overall concept of kind of where I see our position as a commission as me fitting within this, um there's kind of three different focuses.

There's the community, the commission, and then the city leadership, and um ultimately, like Parisa had mentioned, our official responsibility is to be um what is the word thank you advisor to the mayor.

Thank you.

Advisor to the mayor.

That's a very broad statement, and I there's a lot to be understood in that.

Um in my experience, I'm still trying to understand what that means.

And so to your point, I think it's very important that we really are strategic to not just kick a can down the road and say, okay, well, we have a lot of data points that this was obviously well received, needed within the community, um, and could technically be pulled off.

Um it's I'm not putting a vote one way or the other.

I think it's an important thing for us to determine as a commission.

Um what our strategy is, and I think that that's not something that we can do on our own as a commission.

I think that that is with in partnership with community with the mayor's office, which is city leadership and guidance.

What are we actually advising on, right?

Um, I think that was almost like a working example of there's real need within the community for representation and events to celebrate Asian culture.

Um if it's it's now been given to the city.

How are we now creating a strategy with the city with the um with the commission to kind of ensure that that becomes a priority and that there's the structure for when there are pragmatically there is changing city leadership, there's changing leadership here so that the community continues to be uplifted uplifted and held in that.

Um so I think that there's a really big opportunity for us as a commission to understand what our strategy is and what that overall I mean really zooming out, what is the structure that exists here and how do we fit into it?

Um, because if it's not sustainable for a series of volunteers to put on a bigger and bigger event like what we did year over year, it's just not.

Um, and I don't think even if it was physically possible, I don't think that that is honoring the people that are putting in the effort to do that.

Um, if we're not in the background as commissions, and this is what I think, us creating the structure that something like that could continue on without just sheer determination, right?

I mean, that's time away from people's families and other jobs, other roles in life.

Um, so that is an important thing that we need to think about.

How do we ensure that that's there?

To your point, um, Commissioner Chang.

I think that there are quite a few events.

There probably were a lot of events before we started um presenting them.

I think that that's a beautiful opportunity for us to continue to uplift events that are happening within the community and for us to support.

Um, but it is my opinion that pragmatically we do need to pause to figure out.

Um, I also think that I it's important to me that that is done.

My vote for that is stated within the there needs to be within the better broader context of actual strategic planning around that because otherwise it's just uh motion.

I'm sorry.

Okay, all in favor, any opposed.

All right, okay, and thank you.

I'm sure that was like to share your commission.

Thank you, everybody, for your dialogue and your input on this.

This is a group decision.

I don't want anybody to feel like this is something we're imposing as the chairs, so thank you so much for your insight.

It will continue in a different form.

But thank you, Dr.

Wong.

Um, okay.

Let's move on.

We've got more.

We've got a lot, we've got to um address our slate that's upcoming.

So Tulsa Asia Fest.

Okay, item number five, possible action direction.

Oh, we've done that.

Item number six.

All right.

All right, everyone.

I'm gonna talk for quite a bit of time and then kind of similarly would love to hear your input and discussion.

Oh, time out.

Okay.

Um so as vice chair for our bylaws, I've been tasked with bringing a leadership slate for our review today that we will vote on in June.

And as a reminder, beginning in March, we opened up nominations for chair, vice chair, and our committee leads for four committees.

And thank you to those of you who shared nominations and contributed to the process and also to the nominees that I was able to connect with throughout the process.

I'm going to read the current slate.

And as a preview, at this time, the commission chair and the cultural event chair seats are open, as none of the nominees were able to accept those roles for reasons that vary by individual.

Right now, chair is open for vice chair.

I have slated Cecilia Wynn.

Cultural event is open for workforce and education committee, Massoud Classen.

Okay.

For community hubs, Cecilia Wynn.

And for data and research, me, Patty Sophie LeBac.

At this time, I've had the chance to hear directly from every nominee and beyond a personal capacity, heard it resonated to have a guiding vision for the commission's future that currently felt unclear given all that we have experienced with the cultural event and the rapid growth that we've had.

And so I don't, my intent in our conversation today is not to like stare at the person you want to be on a slate because people have had the chance to have that conversation.

But as a reminder, we vote on the slate in June, and these two spots would need to be filled today for our bylaws to allow us to vote at that time.

So I want to say a little bit about what would be required of those two open roles for the cultural event chair, someone in that role would need to be willing to steward the pausing of this event, help us shape messaging to the community about the pause and shape next steps in 2028 and beyond in partnership with Lexi and DeAndre and the leadership team at large.

And for the chair of our commission, we need someone who can pull forward strategic direction and an identity, something we've talked about a lot.

Like who are we, what do we do in this community from the commission's strong and wildly eventful early years that we've gotten to hear resonated Mayor Nichols' comments and just be reminded how powerful this work has been.

Our current slate does include veteran team members like Cecilia, myself, and Massoud.

Our team would meet collectively with Lexi's support, so it's not like a siloed role.

So whoever would take these roles would have their full support in these positions.

As I mentioned, everyone who was nominated for chair was unable to accept the chair role, and that includes me.

And because I'm presenting the slate, I didn't want to uh I guess I'm taking advantage of my mic time to share transparently about what's holding me back from accepting and invite you all into the conversation because I don't take lightly that that position is open in such a pivotal time for the commission.

So I do believe I can continue supporting the commission with our strategic direction, provide continuity of leadership, and I'm very honored by those of you who nominated me, but I didn't slate myself for two pretty big reasons that I wanted to invite you all into.

The first one is I really believe that representation matters in the face of the Asian Affairs Commission chair should be someone in whom our community sees themselves.

And as a Middle Eastern woman who is biracial, I know that I do not look like or look Asian to people who we serve and have chosen behind the scenes roles for that reason where I can support strategically and not I just I want that place to be open for someone who our community looks at and sees themselves.

And additionally, I also believe the face of our commission should be someone who can be present for the events that matter most to our community.

And many of you know that my full-time role is in education, which is a never-ending uh pursuit.

And in advocating for equal outcomes for all students, I spend a lot of evenings with our teachers and weekends with community members because that is just when people in education can get together, and that has meant that I haven't been able to be as present at commission events, and I know the impact of that has been felt and would be more so if that was the chairperson.

And I'm just really clear that education continues to need me, and my job and team being a priority wouldn't change in the event I took on chair.

So for both of those reasons, I knew I couldn't step into the role in good faith without bringing that conversation to you all because I don't want the chair position to be open.

I don't want to force anyone who's not being called in the chair position to do so, and that would be the reality if I stepped in to fill it in for a need for our commission.

So I care about this work.

I would be honored to sit in the role if it was a need.

And I think there are a lot of people and leaders on this commission who, with the support of a team, um, because I know I'm presenting this and you haven't had a lot of time to think about it, could serve in this role in ways that I can't, and I would continue supporting from the data and research angle regardless.

And this commission has had an inspiring electric historic start in just two years, and I'm really hopeful that our next chapter can be just as bright.

So I'm opening the floor for self nominations for cultural event chair, for commission chair, and or further discussion on what I have shared.

As a teacher, I'm really good at wait time.

I'm gonna give you a moment to process.

But again, self-nominations or just further discussion and what's on your mind with the state of our current sleep.

Can I just add that you I do consider you a part of the Asian culture?

And I think having a chairperson that doesn't represent the majority of what people think the AAPI community looks like is a good thing, would be a great thing.

I think it expands people's knowledge that Asian is much broader than just China, Japan, Korea.

So all that to be said, I know your capacity, you don't have that right now, but I would love to see somebody in that chair that that doesn't look like the majority of Asian cultures that are represented in Tulsa.

I think that's really important.

I I welcome your belonging.

And I do, I just think of so many moments at TAF or at the uh aid event and like watching a little girl look up on stage and see someone who represents their community.

There are not a lot of Iranians in Tulsa.

I have to take solidarity with my Afghan brothers and sisters.

So I I take a yes and hold that on my heart.

I know you don't know.

If you just ask anybody, just pronounce my name.

It doesn't solve the cultural event.

No.

Thank you for sharing that.

I think it's important that you can share that and how you feel.

Um I agree with Sarah about the idea, you know, just seeing yourself but also representing the community and expanding their knowledge.

And um, it's just not people that look like me or like you know, Sicily, or like Dr.

Dr.

Hong.

So yes to that, Sarah, but I also understand capacity.

I feel you on that.

So thank you for sharing that.

So if I'm understanding correctly, are you saying that it's gonna be now we're gonna be uh no chip person for now?

Um we need to figure that out right now, June.

So that's something wise uh until uh Sarah could continue until uh shouldn't be that way.

Why are we leaving it black?

Right now, Vice Chair P.

Lavar has opened the floor for self-nominations for the two leadership positions that are currently open.

So that includes the cultural event chair, and that includes the chair of the commission.

And in this meeting, our charge, our exciting opportunity in front of us, is to slate those two currently open positions.

I'll pass it on this round take and I I think my invitation is like I would need maybe you're like I'm not ready to step up for either of those.

I would need your help stepping up for a world where I am chair and I cannot like I have those limitations.

Um I would still be fully present to the extent possible, and I I think the leadership team can attest like on the Zoom calls and the behind the scenes and the documents and there, it's just sometimes the specific times.

The cultural event chair, I will say, like, we will work on that as a team.

So if you're like, I don't have the answers to that, that's okay.

If you have time once a month to have a Zoom call at the beginning and like help us get strategic clarity, and then maybe a little bit more as we start fundraising partnerships and like figuring out what comes next.

Um, it will very much be a collective effort with this veteran team that we have to make up.

One other question I've been thinking about too is some of our service periods, if you will, expires December of this year.

How does that affect the ongoing efforts?

It doesn't.

Okay, they can be reappointed.

And even when your term expires, you continue to serve into in your seat until something happens.

Okay.

Thank you.

I have a proposal to maybe go through committee reports.

Is it possible to like go to a different agenda item and come back so people have time to think?

Okay.

Um, do I need to motion for that?

Okay.

Okay.

Is everyone okay with taking a minute to talk about something else?

So we can't.

Yes.

Okay.

We only have an hour.

Well, we've got we've got about 15 minutes, so let's move on to committee reports real quick.

Cultural hub and community advocacy.

Awesome.

Well, also happy API Heritage Munch, everyone.

Our month, you know, this is all about us.

Um, but I want and I wanted to talk about some really cool initiatives that the cultural committee has been handling with this past month.

So we have officially confirmed our 12 roundtable participants for our A and H PI leadership roundtable initiative, which to those who don't know in the room, it's essentially an initiative where we're asking, you know, where we're providing opportunity, you know, leadership opportunities for our community members to learn the ins and outs of the city and how to best you know advocate for their own individual communities through the city and through our commission work.

And also continue to inform the work that we are doing as a commission and what our priorities are moving forward.

Um and so we actually have a couple of roundtable participants present here today.

So if you guys are present, could you please stand and we can recognize you?

We have Priya Raju, we have Monju Kal, and then we have Anna Tran right over here.

Um the others that are also a part of the uh list is Rex Trevetti, Teresa Gwynn, Nyun Wyn, Min Lei, Rachel Estares, Zua Vang, Caitlin Williams, Jenny Joy, Priya Raju, oh sorry, here we are in and Nidah Heider.

Um and so that's the slate for our leadership roundtable initiative.

We just had our first meeting last week, Wednesday, uh, where we got to show tell them a little bit about the Title Five Commissions, what the city has to offer for them, and information for what the timeline of this is gonna look like.

And so our next session with these incredible leaders is gonna be our first session focusing on leadership and cultural identity.

So, as you guys know, you know, the way that we lead is shaped entirely kind of by context.

So our lived experiences, um, upbringing, workplace culture, culture, and also how external perceptions, so how people perceive us.

And so for many Asian leaders, people um navigating cultural expectations, representation and stereotypes is a part of the journey of being more authentic in our leadership.

And so, how can we authentically lead while rooted in our identity?

Which is gonna be a really crucial learning piece for us, all of us here in the room, um, but especially these leaders in this round table initiative.

And so I'm working really closely with some friends from Leadership Tulsa about what this could what this day and session could look like.

Um, but that session is coming up, and to our roundtable participants in the room, I will be sending a calendar invite.

So be on the lookout for that.

Um now uh on to some taping opportunities and upcoming events, as you know, uh is AAPI Heritage Month, so there's a lot of Asian events happening in the state of Oklahoma.

And so I wanted to pass this out to our um uh community as well as love.

But we have a couple of wonderful events to highlight.

Um, but one that I want to highlight specifically to this commission is our Asian American night market um event with the Tulsa Global District.

Um it's gonna be on Friday, May 15th, um from 5 p.m.

to 9 p.m.

at Hannah Hall, which is 1801 Garnet Road.

And essentially, um I'm needing some help, y'all.

I need some help tabling.

Um so uh support and setup, tabling and take down.

Um it's gonna be an amazing event.

Um Priya in the audience, she's gonna you know, she's a part uh the dance teacher for Cripalia Dance Academy, and her group is gonna be performing there as well.

And so um we have a lot of great community engagement into this event, um, and a great opportunity to meet with our Asian Tolsans, especially, or people interested in supporting the Asian Tolson community.

And so I have on our table here QR codes.

Um if you are interested in signing up to volunteer, um, please scan the QR code in front of you and sign up for that and sign up for a volunteer slot.

But aside from that, that is all my updates.

All right, workforce education.

Rum rule, please.

Oh first, I want to recognize my team here, B and Anna for uh being instrumental and uh getting this one.

You know, we are at the final stage problem.

And I think you you have all in front of you that Anna has put together uh their um we have finally finalized the final graph.

Um but we still need a blessing from Sarah and uh Lexi, so we have to send it out for a final graph to Dixie and Sarah.

Uh once we have that conversation, our goal was really um to send this one out and then vote it out by May 8th.

But we will try our best to give this one out by the end of this month.

So as soon as we get Chrome confirmation from Lex C SR, I'm going to be sending it out to all the commissioners.

So please take a time.

We probably would not give you a whole week or something, maybe three or four days because I would go to, you know, it was eight, and now we're going to move it to the 15th, maybe and send it out because so the school teaches schools going to be out pretty soon.

So we want to make sure that school counselors and everybody to get it on time.

So the only small pickup that we have is that we are working with Jessica because we have right now a link that uh it is for the luminary award.

And that link has to be just updated because it's 2025, so it'll be a pretty simple task to update it in 2026.

So that will uh show the uh events data time and stuff like that.

So luminary award is down there, but with the luminary award, now we're gonna do the luminary scholarship.

We want to clearly identify that one so the sponsors know that when they're putting the money, giving the money, that is money is going to be used for the scholarship.

Uh so that's the only thing that we have.

We're working with Jessica.

Um Sarah is helping to put together to I think maybe in a couple of days we'll have that.

As soon as we have that one, then we will be in the forum.

This is also and this is uh ready for um where uh only thing we have to attach a bar code, right?

Yes, uh, once we get the link that Jessica Sizmore is gonna send us, um, we plan to add it as a QR code, and hopefully everything's been added to our website so they can just access one link, get the scholarship packet, and then also um apply.

Yeah, and because once you go to all in one click, because once you put on the click in the application form, everything is down there.

There are just a couple of changes that we have made.

The only big changes that we have initially was book them out that we were going to do two continuous years.

We changed that to a one year and uh take a look at that one, and we would take a look at the only thing we did is that second year, how do we monitor that?

We have to they have to send us their GP again back to it, you know.

So we thought it's gonna be a little bit of work for the commissioners to do.

Uh so we decided that okay, let's just start this one again.

This is gonna be our first year, third year for the luminary award, but our first year, and we're combining both of them.

We're combining the luminary awards and we're combining the luminary uh scholarship awards together.

So it's gonna be a great event.

I think you know, last year, if you remember when we did that when the it was a house full.

So this year and that was during the daytime.

This year we're gonna be doing the evening, and we're combining both of them.

So I think we will have a good outcome.

Um, but we we like I said, we want to support our students, agent and uh uh students, so this will be uh hopefully um our goal is my personal goal is to raise uh put it out twenty thousand dollars.

Well yeah, we'll raise twenty thousand dollars.

We'll raise a twenty thousand dollars for for this event.

I know Sarah's joining this, and so Sarah is bringing also from the other uh you have a lot of uh uh connection with uh the corporation but with without a comp for corporations.

We're gonna we're gonna go after this one too so we can support um the scholarship event and the luminary award.

So amazing.

Yes.

My only um addition is I'm imagining your typical high school counselor who has to think of a lot of things, and they might not have a definition of Asian Pacific Islander that matches our commissions, so maybe like the country lists that we've used in our programming, attaching to just help them connect what that means.

I think it is 26 countries, right?

Yeah, and it's but it could give them a starting point uh what that looks like.

But I'm really excited for this.

Thank you all for thinking about students and how to support them in our bar work.

I'm gonna make my data and research update very short because I know we have to get back to the slate.

Um right now I'm really thinking in terms of strategic planning, how does data and research work embed more fully into the other committees?

Um still more to come on that in the meeting, but right now I'm excited to get to meet with Anna soon.

I've been uh I think you shared it the last meeting.

I've been playing with some census data that allows us to see where different ethnicities of our community are concentrated.

And it's really fascinating.

There are some subgroups who are 100% in one census tract.

They all live in one part of Tulsa, others who are more spread out and um been in conversation with the city county library about how they want to use that to inform their planning.

I'm gonna talk to Anna about a project she's doing in her community, and then also thinking about how to bring back the conversation with two one one and help them better understand like language and planning with that data to maybe give a more concrete action step.

And then um, I think we've covered cultural events with the account update and the Asia Fest vote.

So I'd like to bring back the slate and see if anyone is open to self-nominating to get their leadership to the cultural event in the pause for that.

Sure.

I would just like to say I like I've been nominated for chair, but I don't have the capacity because I also work in education, and I'm currently on the workforce and education committee right now.

So I would probably think that in my mind, you know, it would be hard to serve as a certain role and serve chair because you'd want to as a chair, you know, spread out to the other committees, uh, just at least you know, participating as somebody is there to kind of help support.

Um, so I'm not I'm not able to unfortunately I don't have the capacity.

So thank you for the encouragement.

So there are a few uh commissioners that are not here.

Maybe we can just have everybody, whoever wants to serve on the chair to email, just give the others the chance.

I think that um we cannot do that for our bylaws.

Um I think our option today is could you help us understand our option today?

Um so per your bylaws, the best scenario today is that you have a full slate that then is voted on in June.

Um the bylaws are not extensive enough to detail out exactly what happens in the event of a vacancy.

I think in the interim, the vice chair would serve as chairperson.

Am I correct?

No, um so I think the the most ideal scenario that I will invite you all into digging deep thinking about you know, I mean, there is great conversation around you know Tulsa Asia Fest and lots of questions, and I hear from you all like such a strong commitment to making sure that this strategic pause is not an indefinite one.

So if you were one of those people who had a lot of passion um and curiosity around like what that strategic pause looks like, you can be the determiner of that, or one of the determiners of that, um, and ensure that this time next year we're not still pausing on that event, you know.

So that's an invitation.

Um yeah, I don't there isn't a lot of of wiggle room here.

So if I understand correctly, most of the time they're in the bylaws and uh uh sorry, but uh and in the bylaws, most of the in in the different organizations if this is here.

If you're talking about that it has to be today that we have to make a decision, then the only option that I see the wise chair has to step in to be a chair person that's typical in a white chair, or uh chair will continue until such time that we have uh filled the and I would love to do that, Massood, but my job uh this is everybody's comment so demanding that I I really don't feel like for the rest of the year, however long it takes to fill the chairperson's role that I would do the role justice because I'm pulled in so many directions of work right now, and similar to Bodhisad.

My priority is my my job.

Um I think that also says to this group, because there's a little bit of conflict of filling these two chairs the importance of this role.

We all understand the importance of whoever fills this role, and that we want to do it the absolute justice that it deserves and not just fill a space.

So for those that I feel like have been tapped to be chairperson and they're like, I don't have the capacity, I think that says a lot about how much we value this commission and the leadership.

I will say, coming from a chairperson who was there from the planning with Paddy SAW to present, that we have an amazing commission and support team here.

Um I think the primary goal for this next chair is to set the future strategy for the next two to three years.

Um I think everybody at this table can do that.

I I don't think that there's not anybody in here that would lack envision and drive on what the commission looks like for the next two to three years.

That's something that I said because I want to make sure all the chairs are aligned.

Um if we have to flag any issues that we're we do this as a group collectively, but I think that that if I were to say to the person that wants it's considering being nominated as chair that that is your main goal, and that's a big goal, that's an important goal.

But I think, like I said, everybody here at this table is capable, and you have a support system to help guide that.

We've there's something that we didn't have initially when we first start the commission, was we didn't have our our committees, and those have been billed out now, so then you have those pillars of support as well, and we are changing the bylaws to increase like capacity for people that do not live in the city of Tulsa to serve on the commission.

So consider that the complexion of the commission will change in the next few years when those bylaws are changed, and we're expanding the table basically who can join the commission.

I think that's been our hindrance, honestly.

So um, those are things to consider.

This is I think an exciting opportunity.

Is it a heavy lift?

It depends on how you look at it, but I think if you have a strategic mindset and you have an idea of how the commission should move forward and grow and evolve, then that's this is a perfect role for you.

So I want to clarify the understanding is we had two months to submit nominations, and no one came out of the woodwork who was enthusiastic about chair.

So I I'm willing to sit in chair for it to not be empty and provide that capacity with the caveats I mentioned earlier where I would need other commission support.

So if someone is had not thought about taking on leadership today, we could use it most on the cultural event just to add another perspective to that process, which hopefully feels like less of a jump than being in charge of the whole thing.

What is the expectation for uh meeting participation in a month for those roles for chair and co-chair and cultural committee?

Yeah, for cultural chair and chair, both there's a monthly chair meeting.

Um the chair and vice chair have an additional meeting that is with um the mayor's office quarterly and you know meetings before these meetings to set agendas with Lexi, but for the cultural chair, the like concrete expectation outside of this meeting would be a monthly chair meeting, and then of course, anything that comes with figuring out the pause.

Good question.

And you're just looking for nominations for a cultural a self-nomination.

Self-nomination.

I'm respectfully not looking at anyone.

No, I am I'm good with my workforce.

I love it.

I know it's one oh two.

Um Lexi and I have discussed this teachers, you kind of know when the wait time is gone too long, and maybe you reach a standstill.

Um I'm proposing leaving the cultural event chair open and adjourning the meeting, and um I suppose I am also proposing adding myself to the chair spot for sleep.

Thank you.

And who for Vice Cecilia?

So Cecilia in the case.

Could you just remind what's looking at let's look at the curves?

Chair, Patty Self Power, Vice Chair, Cecilia Wynne, workforce and education, Masoukhausen, uh data and research Patty Self Pad Cultural Hub Cecilia Wynn.

Or sorry, community hubs and obviously cultural hub would be a cultural event open.

We did also discuss the possibility of dissolving we can't today.

Right, we can't we can't vote, but just for awareness, considering dissolving the data and research committee and having a liaison, just so liaison for that role.

But we have to vote on that since that changes our structure of our committees.

But that'll be for next month, so just keep keep that in mind.

Okay, next month.

July is not July.

So if we if that's going to be voted on for next month, perhaps next month also, it could be a discussion of voting for making that a liaison position.

So you will be out of this chair situation for a cultural committee because if it's taking a strategic pause, then that's really uh collective effort as well.

Yeah, there's a few um considerations.

I'm also on the human rights commission as the Asian Affairs Commission representative.

I think that should probably change if I'm taking on chairs.

So it's a little reshuffling we're going to need to do in our next meeting that we can figure out.

But I would like to say it doesn't feel good to all stare at the table.

Um someone to step up, and I know that it is not for a lack of care for this work.

Um I think we grew really fast, and that is a blessing, and that is a burden for us to take on together and figure out how to turn into a gift uh on an ongoing basis that doesn't come at the expense of any buttons.

Livelihood.

So thank you, fellow commissioners.

Thank you, community, for watching a very eventful meeting today.

Um do we have do we adjourn?

Sarah, I'll pass it back to you.

I I move that we adjourn meeting.

And if you have a public comment, want to talk to us, come on down.

Oh, we do have an sorry, we have public announcements.

We are running over time.

Does anybody here have anything that they'd like to share?

All right.

I motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

We would like to thank all of you.

Thank you.

Yes, thanks for being here.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

You're adjourned.

Thank you.

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