HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-04-25-2020-min (Demographic Change Subcommittee)Town of Lexington
Subcommittee on Demographic Change
Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, April 25, 2013
Ellen Stone Room, Cary Hall
Present: Martin Hwang, Bhumip Khasnabish, Dan Krupka, Nancy Corcoran - Ronchetti. Guest Speaker:
Hua Wang, Community Task Force of the Chinese American Association of Lexington. Guests: Geeta
Kannan (Indian Americans of Lexington) and Lori Bliss Tambone (President LHS PTA)
The meeting was called to order at 7:55 p.m.
Discussion with Hua Wang
• Hua Wang chairs the Community Task Force (CTF) of the Chinese American Association of
Lexington (CAAL), a group established about two years ago and originally chaired by Sophia Ho.
• CTF's origins can be traced to a large meeting of the League of Women Voters (LWV) on the
topic of community involvement. Melanie Lin, a CAAL member who attended the meeting,
became concerned about the low turnout of the Chinese community. CAAL was well aware
that, despite making up about 20% of the Town's population, Asian occupied fewer than 3% of
the slots on Town boards and committees. Ultimately, CTF was established to encourage CAAL
members to participate in civic activities and to ensure that CAAL itself participate in as many
Town activities and events as reasonably possible.
• To prepare themselves for the task ahead, CTF set about educating itself on how the Town
works. Some of the education was provided by the LWV in the form of a three -hour mini
Citizen's Academy. Few knew what Town Meeting is and most were surprised at the large
number of volunteer committees and the fact that all elected officials are also volunteers.
"Democracy in its purest form" is how it was described by Larry Ho, a longtime CAAL member.
• Stimulated by the CTF, CAAL now ensures that it participates in the MLK parade, contributes to
the campaign for Christmas lights, and is represented at LEF's Night at the Museum. CAAL
played a leading role in the opening ceremony of Lex300 and Dancing around the World, the
latter in collaboration with the Indian Americans of Lexington (IAL).
• One of CTF's major goals was to have a CAAL member elected to a major Town -wide office.
Accordingly, it decided to identify a candidate and mount a meticulously organized campaign. It
succeeded with the election of Weidong Wang to the Lexington Housing Authority. In addition,
Hongbin Luo and Geoffrey Xiao were elected to Town Meeting in the recent election. The
objective is to further increase representation in the future, while ensuring that the candidates
run on platforms addressing Town issues, not as representative of the Chinese community.
• The increased participation in Town affairs has stimulated volunteer committees to approach
CAAL with the objective of recruiting members.
• The achievements of CAAL in Lexington have also drawn attention of Chinese communities in
neighboring towns who have sought advice from the CTF. In Winchester a Chinese resident
succeeded as a write -in candidate for Town Meeting by applying some of the lessons learned in
Lexington.
• The IAL is also interested in greater outreach; Geeta Kannan, a member of the board of the IAL
participated in the meeting.
• In light of the Chinese community's interest in education, increasing participation in PTAs and
PTOs has been identified by the CTF as a very important objective. Lori Bliss Tambone,
President of the LHS PTA and a guest at the meeting, invited Hua to an upcoming meeting of the
PTA Presidents' Council to discuss opportunities for increased participation of the Chinese
community across all PTAs and PTOs and how to provide CAAL members with information about
PTAs and PTOs.
• Despite its successes, the CTF continues to struggle with getting more CAAL members involved.
The major reason is lack of time to make the three -year commitment associated with committee
membership. Many prefer projects, which have a clear objective and a finite duration. This was
amply demonstrated in the heavy participation by CAAL in Lex300.
Other Business
In light of the very low turnout of Subcommittee members, no additional business was transacted.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting: Tuesday, May 14 in the Parker Room of the Town Offices. Please note that we are
reverting to Tuesday meetings on the second Tuesday of the month.
The meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Dan Krupka