July 25, 2016 Board Meeting
Attendees: Bruce Adams, Mumin Barre, Tracey-Alexis Dixon, William Nance, Nan Qiao Excused: William Kaschak, Clemmie Solomon and Dianne Smith Absent: Lorna Forde, Rom Konda, Darwin Romero and Roman Santillan Staff: Cynthia Morris and Diane Vu
Welcome/Minutes The meeting was called to order by Bill Nance at 6:35 pm with reading and corrections of the minutes from the 21 June meeting. Once corrected, they will be posted on the website.
Bill shared that a board of directors insurance policy has been purchased effective immediately.
Nominating Committee Following up on information sent electronically by nominating chair Mumin Barre, it was confirmed that board membership of both Darwin Romero and Roman Santillan was approved unanimously. The board then approved membership for Larry Colbert and Michael Greuenberg. Cynthia will notify them of the approval and they will be included on board communications going forward.
Committee Reports Gondar: Due to unrest in Gondar, the tip has been cancelled. While the committee is hopeful that a new date will be scheduled, they are not able to set a new date at this point. Diane Vu will place an update on the website.
Morazán: The committee continues to plan for their annual Fiesta to raise funds for scholarships and other programs on Friday 4 November at the Silver Spring Civic Building. They also approved donation of three sets of books about El Salvador for Montgomery County libraries to be coordinated by Roman Santillan.
Xi'an: Nan followed up on the report by Sabrina Hsu at the June meeting about the success of the annual Tai Chi event held in Cabin John Regional Park and attended by 300 people. The committee is looking forward to the 15 August visit by the Mayor of Xi'an and his meeting with County Executive Ike Leggett. Lily Qi will also attend.
Montgomery Sister Cities Board Meeting
The committee continues to search for partners for a sister school relationship as they have made little progress with Winston Churchill High School. Despite this situation, the committee is able to continue their successful summer camps in Xi'an for Montgomery County middle school students.
The Northwestern Chinese Association of Greater Washington will hold its annual summer picnic on Sunday 28 August and Nan will send information to Cynthia to distribute to the board.
Seoul Korean Sister City Status Diane Vu summarized the meeting attended by board members Bruce Adams, Bill Nance and Dianne Smith along with Diane and Cynthia to review two RFP proposals from South Korean groups wanting to be considered for Sister City status with Montgomery County. Proposals were received from the cities of Goryeong and Daejeon and there was consensus that the Daejeon proposal was the better of the two. Diane explained that Wonro Lee, the community lead for their proposal, has a track record of success in organizing Maryland and Montgomery County trips to South Korea and already enjoys strong relationships to the county.
After formal preliminary approval to recommend Daejeon, Diane agreed to proceed with necessary follow up procedures for approval by the city with Mr. Lee after a meeting with the County Executive.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:00pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Cynthia Morris, Senior Fellow