Recently, I attended LEAP's Southern California Community Forum. Their theme for the day was "Passing the Torch: Leadership at the Crossroads in the Asian Pacific American Community".
The Forum was very youth-focused and most of the attendees were still in college (demographically, I was in the older half of the room). The event began with lunch followed by an opening plenary session on Inter-Generational Dialogue then to Breakout Sessions before a final wrap-up.
It was interesting thinking from a larger APA focus rather than just JA or Nikkei. Speakers talked about the importance of knowing and understanding your constituents/audience. In order to do that, you really need to go out and actively listen and communicate to build trust. Never assume. Do the research. You have to get to know them - their passions and objectives.
Another panelist who is a recent college graduate talked about the difficulties for her in leaving school where everything is very theoretical and going out into the "real world" where it's more valued and important to find real solutions. She also mentioned that youth now communicate (myspace, youtube, IMs, text messages) and see the world differently. For them, they have difficulties finding a motivating driving cause (they don't have the experience of the civil rights movement, WWII, etc). I think that relates to the Japanese American community's difficulties reaching and affecting younger generations who don't have the WWII experience as a common driving cause. They don't easily see how it relates to them.
For the breakout session, I attended the session on Risk Taking: Making Changes Happen! Unfortunately, this particular session is usually 3 hours long, and we only had 1-1/2 hours. The presenter talked about LEAP's Leadership Framework, cultural values that makes or creates the perception that Asians or Asian Americans are risk-averse. He provided process models for planned amd unplanned risks. He did not have time to go over risk strategies and keys to successful leadership, but the materials provided include a lot of good resources.
All in all, I'm glad that I attended. I was able to gain some really good insights.
