We will have our 2017 Annual Meeting coming soon.
Time: 6/11/2016 1-4:45pm
Location: Warfield Meeting Room, Howard County Central Library
Address: 10375 Little Patuxent Pkwy, Columbia, MD 21044
Candidates for VP: Hongling Zhou
Personal Statement from Hongling Zhou
My name is Hongling Zhou. I have had the privilege to serve on the CAPA-HC board of Directors since CAPA-HC was founded in summer of 2015. As one of the founding members, I have served as co-chair for the membership committee for the past two years. I am now seeking to apply for the vice president position on the CAPA board vacated by Linfeng’s retirement.
I am a statistician by training. My other job is being the mother to my two children. Like many Chinese parents, my children’s education is my uttermost priority. I am actively involved in my children’s school. I have served as room parent for 3 years and now serve on the PRES PTA Executive Committee.
As the membership committee co-chair, I am in charge of maintaining and updating membership files, advertising and recruiting new members, and answering membership questions. In past two years, I have participated in various advocacy efforts and community events lead by CAPA. I served on the HCPSS calendar committee as the CAPA representative and advocated for the school to recognize the Chinese New Year and give our children the day off. I believe the recognition of our most important holiday by the school system helps our children to feel proud of their heritage and is beneficial for their self-esteem. Through the whole process of this advocacy, Linfeng, Jian Ni and I along with several other CAPA board members worked as a team. We also established connection with organizations from Jewish, India and Muslim communities in the county. When the school proposed new school start time models in November last year, CAPA board decided to establish the CAPA School Start Time committee and I served as co-chair for the committee. The committee informed the community the various channels to provide feedback to the new proposed school start time models, and worked out a statement which urges the school to develop a school start time model that takes into consideration of all students, with their health as the most important factor. The BOE adopted some of our key recommendations in the motion passed afterwards. CAPA was one of the few organizations in the community which had presented a position to the board. In the last election, I participated in interviewing the BOE candidates. I also help organizing CAPA seminar series and recently organized the screen of film “Honor and Duty: the Mississippi Delta Chinese”. The film tells the story of early Chinese immigrants to the Mississippi Delta and is educational for adults and older kids to learn our immigration history, understand issues of today, and our future in this culture and land.
I look forward to having the opportunity to continue serving our community on the CAPA board. Thank you for your support.
Candidates for Treasurer: Lili Zhang
Personal Statement from Lili Zhang
I would like to contribute my efforts to local Chinese community. When I heard that there is an opening of treasure position at CAPA, I applied for this position immediately. I hope my experience and expertise will help grow CAPA as an organization which promotes educational achievements of our Chinese Community.
If I am elected to be treasurer, I would enhance accounting and tax system of CAPA, help complete daily bookkeeping and also teach people of basic accounting and tax knowledge. As a tax-exempt organization, it’s important for CAPA to be in compliance with related tax rules. I will make sure that CAPA continues to be in compliance. In addition to accounting and tax work, I would like to find opportunities to help the organization seek additional resources to expand activities which are beneficial to our Chinese community.
Candidates for Board: Steve Chen, Xinning Yang, Xueqing Wang
Personal Statement from Steve Chen
My name is Steven Chen. It’s an honor for me to take this opportunity to introduce myself and apply for the CAPA board member position. I have learned the activity of CAPA through Mr. Wu Chao, and more recently through the CAPA wechat group. I fully share the goal of CAPA, i.e., advocating the voice of Chinese community in the local school system via active involvement.
I’m a licensed attorney with ten years of experience. I used to work for an international law firm in New York City and in about five years ago moved to Maryland to work as an inhouse counsel for a company in Columbia, Maryland. In the past, I was also trained as a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry.
In addition to CAPA, I’m also actively involved in a couple of other organizations. For example, I’m the co-chair of Washington DC Chinese Legal Association (WCLA), and the board member and general counsel of Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association (CBA).
I believe that I may be able to contribute to CAPA in the following ways:
- Providing advice and recommendations from legal prospective;
- Sharing resources from WCLA and CBA;
- Initiating projects, in particular those relating to the north of HoCo; and
- Soliciting input from my local community, promoting CAPA, and depending the involvement of my local community in CAPA.
I look forward to the opportunity to work with other CAPA board members to elevate the level of involvement of our Chinese community in the HoCo school system.
Personal Statement from Xinning Yang
我是杨炘宁，一年半前搬到Ellicott City。一个偶然的机会听我的同事提起CAPA，觉得是个不错的华人社团就加入了。最初参加CAPA的活动是参加2016年在Howard High 举办的和BOE 候选人初次见面会，有很多华人家长参加。CAPA的组织能力和主办人（张海玲，伍超）的高水平给我留下了深刻的印象。大选之前CAPA在Howard Community College 举办的第二次和BOE候选人见面会，我报名做了志愿者帮忙布置场地，又一次感受到CAPA组织者的热心，能力和成员的活力，还领到了CAPA的红T-shirt，感觉自己和CAPA的联系又近了一层。
和CAPA有更多的接触是从今年初的反对Howard county CB9 bill开始。我和很多华人同胞，包括不少CAPA成员，携手努力一起反对该提案。我参加了从始至终的多次会议，提案的最初引入，连续两天的公众听证会，工作会(working session),提案的初次表决和最终表决，并参与起草和散发传单，让华人社区了解到更多的信息。同时在CAPA email group 里我也了解到一些成员的不同观点。为了避免关于这项提案的讨论干扰其他议题的交流，我后来严格遵守CAPA 理事会成员的建议，没有在CAPA email group 里再发布关于提案的信息。最终，在包括华人在内的众多哈维居民的反对下，CB9 bill 未获通过。
在反对CB9 bill的过程中，我体会到及早参与社区活动表达华人诉求的重要性。今年三月起，我（和CAPA的一位活跃分子倪健）多次去BOE Operating Budget Review Committee 例行会议旁听，了解关于2017-2018学年 Howard County Public School System 预算计划的评议，进程和对华人社区的潜在影响（我会继续旁听委员会的会议直至9月份最终结束，并向CAPA成员及时反映重要信息）。另外，我和伍超参加了由哈维印度裔社区活跃分子牵头组织的多族裔代表出席的一次讨论会，讨论如何应对Hate crime 和 Hate crime related behavior, 表达了华裔对此的关注，和其他族裔分享了我们的建议。此外，我参加了四月底哈维学区委员会举办的学区重划介绍会，并响应CAPA的号召递交了参加 Attendance Area Committee 的申请（可惜未获通过）。我还报名参加了六月Howard World Language Café中文角做志愿者，为喜爱中文的哈维居民提供学习交流中文的机会。除了我自己参加社区活动，我也积极向周围的华人朋友同事宣传CAPA以及CAPA发布的很多关于社区的重要信息，动员他们加入CAPA和参与一些活动。
在参加这一系列活动中，我感受到CAPA这个平台对华人社区的重要性，衷心感谢CAPA的活跃分子为我们带来这么多重要的信息；同时也切身体会到这些志愿者的不易，要牺牲大量个人和家庭时间为大家无偿服务，所以我希望自己能尽绵薄之力分担一些负担，也是对CAPA的一点回馈。如果能有幸成为CAPA理事会的成员，我会在向其他理事的学习过程中，通过行动更好地为华人社区服务，为CAPA添砖加瓦，把CAPA越办越好成为华人社团的中坚力量。
Personal Statement from Xueqing(Sam) Wang
I would like to apply to become a board member of the CAPA of the Howard County.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who served in the board, including yourself for the ground-breaking work you have done and the amount of time you’ve committed to this organization. Without your diligent effort, CAPA won’t become a well recognized and influential organization in our county.
The past year has been a success for CAPA. I have witnessed many successful launch of community involvement initiatives and the outcome has made huge positive impact to the Chinese community. It was particularly this reason that drive me to become a board member of CAPA, in which I can help continue to work to its next success.
I am a full time employee in a financial service company. Attached in my professional resume. In my spare time, I follow politics closely and involve in community service whenever I have time. I am now serving as the Vice Director of the Howard County Chinese Culture Center. I hope I can become a board member of CAPA so that I can serve a broader community. I have two children, 7th and 4th grader so the topics such as education and community diversification are of my interest as well. As a board member, I will listen to the voice of CAPA members carefully, bring the completeness and objectiveness to our community, and with the trust of the members represent the organization in a balanced and rational way within the Howard county community.
