Over the past Labor Day weekend (August 30-September 2), members from across TACL programs and affiliated programs convened in Orange County for the TACL Fall Convention. The theme for this convention was “Gearing Up for TACLAND!”

To start off convention, TAP-OC hosted a convention themed TAPpy Hour was at TAPS Brewery & Barrel Room on Friday night, where convention attendees were able to mingle with each other and meet local TAP-OC members.

Official convention programming began bright and early Saturday. Delicious pastries and hot coffee was provided by Sunmerry and Jax Coffee. The first convention session was a Census 2020 panel, where we went back in history and looked at TACL’s Write In Taiwanese Campaign efforts in the past. Panelists included Ben Lin (2010 Census), Grace Wu Ursery and Richard Wang (2000 Census), and Rob Liu (1990 Census). Current Census Director, Christina Wang, moderated the panel. Each of the speakers shared their memories for their Decennial Census campaigns.

 

Next on the agenda was a keynote by Eugene Moy. Eugene Moy has been involved with public history and historic preservation for many years and has been an active member of several organizations that preserve Chinese American history. He talked in length about the importance of understanding our history.

After a packed morning, convention attendees enjoyed a lunch break with bento boxes and tea.

Following lunch, we continued the AAPI history theme and watched a screening of “And Then They Came For Us”, a documentary the forced incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans after Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942. After watching the documentary, attendees formed small discussion groups on takeaways and connections with present day current events.

For the last session of the day, attendees broke off into the same small groups to creative exhibits designed to share with the next generation of Taiwanese/Asian Americans about our community and heritage. Then each group displayed their exhibit and attendees were able to walk around and experience the other exhibits.

To wrap up the first day of convention, attendees broke off for small group dinners and enjoyed dinner around town.

For the second day of convention, attendees broke off into four tracks: Camps, TAPs, Census 2020, and alumni.

Camps had a day filled with icebreakers, getting to know more about each other’s camps, sharing best practices, and learning how to address difficult scenarios.

TAP members had sessions to learn from their counterparts and brainstorm on cross-chapter cultural initiatives. In addition, there was a tower building team exercise that turned quite competitive.

Census track members really focused in on the learning about the importance of census, challenges, and why write in Taiwanese.

Alumni were able to go out and explore the OC area!

After the second day of programming, attendees hopped on a banquet cruise around the Newport Bay, enjoying the sunset convention came to a wrap. Banquet included a welcome champagne toast, sponsored drinks by Taiwan Beer USA, dinner buffet, and a beautiful live performance by Melody Chang (TAP-ATX Professional Chair).

While some attendees left Monday morning, others stayed behind and enjoyed outings around the OC area and TACL program presidents met for a round table meeting.

A huge THANK YOU to TAP-OC for hosting and organizing such an amazing convention! We hope to see everyone next time!