US Iu Mien Celebration - Sacramento

Fingx-Mienh, are you kidding yourself in getting this info?

Dear Event Chairman and the Planning Committee Members,

It has been 1 month since the celebration. I hope all of you are all well and rested. Please fill us (rest of Iu Mien American) in on how much IMANC profits or lose for this event.

Fingx_Mienh

สวัสดีครับท่านสุภาพสตรีและสุภาพบุรุษชาวอี้วเมี่ยนที่เคารพรัก
สำหรับงานที่พึ่งทำการจัดออกไปหยกๆนี่ รู้สึกว่าราบรื่นและไปได้สวยมากทีเดียว เสียดายที่โฆษกบนเวที ไม่ปรับเวลา ปล่อยให้พูดมากไปหน่อย แถมด้วยการโชว์หรือแสดงของเด็กที่มาจากแต่ละเมืองนั้น ไม่ได้ทำการแสดงให้หมด ทั้งที่รู้ว่าแขกทุกท่านก็อยากดูเกี่ยวกับการโชว์ของแต่ละกลุ่มที่ได้มาจากแต่ละเมืองนั่นมาก ยังไงก็ต้องฝากไปยังท่านประธานฯไอมานและประธานฯจัดงานพร้อมด้วยคณะกรรมการทั้งหลาย โปรดได้นำเอาขอตกบกพร่องมาเป็นบทเรียนให้ดีนะครับ
เพราะว่าเห็นเด็กที่ไหนก็ไม่รู้ที่มีชื่อเป็นฝรั่งนั้นขึ้นไปปาฐกฐานานเกินเวลา ทำให้แขกผู้ใหญ่และเด็กรำคาญ หวังว่าวันหน้าวันหลังคงจะทำได้ดีกว่านี้อีก -ขอขอบคุณ

how come aa mbuo mien zoux ngaanh gorngv waac ndongc naaic camv
haih ben bai duqv nor yie oix meih mbuo maiv duqv gorngv waac camv cung
saa ndaeng nyei jauv yaac zoqc deix bun qangx dih deix mien bauux nzung nqenx jienv aeqv mien muangx nyei mien fai mangc nyei mien yaac maiv kouv aengx caux meih mbuo aamx fangx meih mbuo yaac maiv heuc haaix dauh eix duqv aamx nor daaih caux jienv meih mbuo aamx meih mbuo kungx heuc meih mbuo board member wuov deix hnangv
yaac guangc ziangh hoc camv
yie oix tov meih mbuo zoux ngaanh nyei ziangh hoc gorngv waac zoqc nqiec ginv 1 dauh fai 2 dauh haih gorngv waac nyei wuov deix aeqv gaux haic aaqv

If you have photos from this event, please share them using the form found here:

http://www.iumien.com/node/add/image

Thanks.

Can someone post some pictures? I missed it and would like to see some photos or videos of this event. Please share!

well i would like to see you organize an event, i would like to help.
what do you have in mind?
i want to reconize high school and college grads.
and what field of occupation after college.

The event is over! Some parts were good, some parts were bad and some parts were ugly as all things are. Could have, should have, would have are all but unattainable now.

I believe the organizers did make some announcements initially. However, it was not significant enough to reach all. After a month or so, the emails and announcements were limited to a small circle of people only. Regardless, any interested person could have contacted them from this website.

Inputs from the public have been there since the event was posted here in whenever. Many people gave inputs, but I believe some of organizers who visited here took it as negative criticisms or just didn't care about the public inputs. We just need to go back to the first posting here and read until July 6. From what I have heard, some regular folks actually showed up in the beginning, but when they found out that their inputs were being ignored, they stopped showing up. I guess we would have to look at the attendance sheet to verify that.

In sum, as some others have said, the event was a SUCCESS according to the agenda (recognition of veterans and soldiers, recognition of Iu Mien community leaders and representatives, brief presentation of our history, cultural performances and shows and recognition of modern Mien singers and bands - did this take place?). The title "Iu Mien American Celebration: Embracing Three Decades of Experiences is very misleading. All these meaningless recognition (what does it have to do with our experiences?) did not tell us anything about our three decades of experiences. The performances showed our artistic advancement although it included Hmong and Chinese performances. Presentation of history was brief with no signicant information. What is missing and probably have misled the public is the vision and goal of this event. They listed the agenda items but no clear vision and goals of why we should attend and celebrate this event. As many people have posted here prior to the events, we should have really celebrate our experiences and achievement (was anyone recognized for an achievement?). When a people have a historical event like this, they usually celebrate success and look back to see how they have progressed (good and bad).

Congratulations to the organizers for dedicating all your time, energy and money to making this event possible.

yes the emails and phone numbers were posted for all to see, my point is, that how come we as a general public didn't even called upon for our inputs. Don't we have any say in this matter? Why can't they set up a town hall meeting or ask the general public for their inputs? oh let me guess, we are not counted upon simply because we don't have the name recongiztion or we are just an ordinary mienh mien/women? lets set the egos aside and once put our heads together and show our guest s what we have achieved in the past 30 decades, instead of putting your names and facial recongization up on the stage.. you guys are all bunch of losers..

That is a very lame excuse.

The numbers and emails have been posted up clearly for months. They are easily accessible, if you REALLY wanted meeting information.

I agree with the auther " The Planing Commitee has met it's goal"... For those of you who were looking forward to drink and party hard, you should've read the flyer.

Interesting post to whoever post this comment that its much of our responsibilities as their...

how could we, the general public be more of a service, offer our free advice weather its constructive or non-constructive criticism or volunteer our time to you, when there’s no posting of your meeting schedules? You show me your posting schedule and I’ll be more than willing to reveal myself to you. I agreed with the author of previous post about you, the planning committees just wanting to get your names recognized for your future trip to other country. Big deal. What has the our foreign guests learned from this event? Probably nothing, except plain old speech! Some of the speakers doesn’t even one to get off the stage when its obviously that there time was up.

THANK YOU to everyone involved in making this event happen. Just because the nay-sayers have a bigger monthS than those of us who appreciate your efforts, I don't want you to think that your efforts were not appreciated, because efforts are much appreciated. So, THANK YOU! I hope you don't let these nay-sayers discourage you from putting on future events, because you know deep down in your heart that your efforts do make a difference in keeping the Iu Mien together. Besides, no matter how perfect your event is, these any-sayers will find something to complain about.

The event met its goals that are listed above. In that sense it was a success. Sure the execution could've gone smoother, but we shouldn't take anything away from the organizers for putting their spare time into a volunteer effort like this. Instead, we should be thanking them for sacrificing their own time, money and energy for putting on this event to unite all Iu Mien in celebration.

I dont' know what you guys are talking about! If you read the activities in the flyer and above, the event brought exactly what they said.

Always room for improvement but I thought it was a very interesting event, wish more people came. That place is too big .. i realized that there should be attractions in different areas of the buildings so people won't get bored. The jumphouse was genius, my daughter was occupied with her cousins she doesn't see regularly and having a blast. Food was yummy, although I was hoping for Liang Fen. Performances were Great, I learned a lot through the DVD and enjoyed the Mien directory booklet.

Thank you PLanners!! This was a wonderful Event, despite the agenda delay :)

I agree. Talk is cheap. If you want a better event, then make it a better event by helping out. Did you stop to think the planners wanted the ideal event that you wanted as well?

I for one thought that I couldn't have done it any better. I wouldn't have been able to afford the time or the energy to put on an event of this magnitude. Congratulations, planners, organizers, donors, volunteers, performers and everyone else involved for a job well done. You've done what your fellow Mien advise givers didn't have the guts to do.

Great Advice and observations everyone! Maybe the event would have met your expectations had all your advice were implemented at the tireless planning meetings BEFORE the event.

We always hear wonderful advice and criticism after an event is over, how "they should have done it this way" but when we say "Great Idea! You should bring it to the Planning Committee" ... there is silence.

The success of an event is as much your responsiblity, advice-givers, as it is to the planners. Nobody is getting paid here, everyone is working on a volunteer basis. Can you do that? Can you Help for Free Advice-giver?

There are those that don't care where our community goes. For those that care, there is nobody to blame but ourselves.

This celebration was not about Embracing Three Decade of Experience. It was about building relationship with the forgieners. It's all about their next vacation trip to China, Thailand, and Vietnam. I was very disapointed to drove many hundreds miles to attend this event.

the agenda for this event wasn't even about our achievements, but rather about those big sacto wanna be ballers getting one extra credits.

My cousin's wedding alone even had more people than this event.

I would have to disagree with this. This is an Iu Mien American Three Decades of Experience event. It should be Iu Mien American experiences, not foreign guest singing and receiving highest praises. What have they done in our three decades of American experience? Nothing! We have to ask ourselves. What is our experience (good and bad, but most society like to celebrate accomplishments)? Well, I know Fahm Saeyang's "Death of a Shaman" does depict our experirences, but where was she? "Tony Loves Kelley" also depicted difficult Iu Mien American experience. On the plus side, what have we done in the past 30 years? Have we looked at our progress data? Our college graduates? business owners? home ownership? welfare dependency rate? demographics? professionals (doctors, lawyers, educators, engineer, technology and all other professional fields)? How do we kno we are making progress? I don't remember them celebrating or acknowledging any other Iu Mien American achievements other than the Iu Mien police officers and soldiers. I would really hate for our non-Iu Mienh American guests to return home with the idea that our greatest achievement were to have Iu Mien police officers and soldiers. WE, the Iu Mien Americans, should be at the center of the stage, not the foreigners. They are just our guests. This is our house!

No matter how we feel, I think the organizers should still be given credit for putting this difficult event together. Thus, thanks to Sengfo Chao, Vernfong Lee, Kenny Thungc, Kaofow Phan, Tony Lee and the rest of the committee members. It was a very difficult task with limited budget and time, and planning committee members coming from far away places.

However, we should assess and reevaluate to see how future events could be better planned. Here are my assessments.
1. Awards - Who is getting an award for what? You guys worked hard to get those plaques, but what does it mean if you just handed them out like candies?
2. Recognitions - I hate to say this but we had too many recognition for just 20,000 or people. It seemed like we were celebrating the visitation of our foreign Mienh guests, not our own achievements. I wondered whether we were putting this event just to try to impress our foreign guests.
3. 30 years of achievement - police officers and military personnel? Wow! I surely thought we have done more than that. I did notice that we listed two pharmacists, a lawyer and a counselor in the brochure. I would like to think that we have made more progress than this. Well, maybe I just don't know Mienh community well enough.
4. Program - It was clear to most people that the program was really disasterous.
5. Performances - What are celebrating this event for? Celebrating the performance of non-Mienh because us Mienh can't dig it? I hear a lot of comments about Mienh pride, but I see that we clap louder for non-Mienh performance? I wonder why.
6. Guests/participants/visitors - I surely thought there would be more people for a celebration of this magnitude. Who are our audiences? Here is my breakdown based on an estimation of an audience of 600-700 persons.
a. Children under 10 - Less than 1% (mabye the $5.00 fee?).
b. Ages10 -18 (our future) - Less than 1% (do they know about this event?).
c. Ages 18-22 (our college Mien youths) - Less than 1% (I checked both buildings, but I couldn't find them).
d. Ages 23-30 (entry workforce/potential active leaders) - Less than 1%
e. Ages 31-45 (should be the most active shakers and movers of our community-most like to have been educated in the US) - 25%. Most of them were not paying attention. They were either station in those display tables or talking amongst their friends in groups around the room.
f. Ages 46+ - 70% (at least). Why is the group with the least formal education and least likely to have impact in our future in America with the greatest numbers? Are there more age 46+ than ages 0-45? Is this the target group? I think the planners should reassess to as why it turned out this way.
Perhaps, some of you saw the distribution differently.

I hope this event is not a reflection of the work of a few mentioned names. Despite the fact that I (I'm sure many others also) don't know what the celebration is about, it was a good effort to try to put something together. Please take it as a feedback for a better future events.

What impression would an outsider who knows nothing about this event have? This should be the measurement of success.

The awards for positive recognition was so unorganize. The emcee or shall I say the event chairman didn't even announce which city/state the recipient was from. The recipients profile/bio wasn't even on the Iu Mien Booket/Iu Mien Directory. It was meaningless positive role modles recognition. I hope in the near future we will learn from our mistakes.

this even sucked. i was there. i arrived about 3pm and it was a bunch of people congratulating themselves and giving themselves stupid awards. they were giving plaques for any and all kinds of achievements. i think some got it just for being there or coming from far away. the so called "leaders" were wearing ridiculous ribbons like they were in a pageant to show that they were important. it seemed like every "important person" had a speech to give and it was relentless. then there were a few performances in between. the best performances weren't even mien. they had hmong girls dancing and a chinese singer. i'm not sure how these acts related to the mien celebration and 30 years of achievement, but i guess they needed all the free help they can get. they were behind schedule like usual. there were a few people from far away. one was the chinese woman who seemed to like all the attention she was getting. i thought she was mien, but she came from south china and didn't speak a word of english or mien and had an interpreter with her from san jose. her singing was great, like the old school chinese opera singers. the food was a little better than the new year. the music sucked though. it didn't start until about 8:30 pm and they were playing music that i heard whenever i went to chao thai. by that time, most people had already left. i guess they were sick and tired of all the speeches and back patting. there was an amateur dj in another building and 2 party jumpers for kids to play in. it was a pathetic setup. this was supposed to be a huge celebration, but i didn't see that many people. i was hoping to meet some old friends from portland and seattle, but they didn't come. i talked to some of them after i got home and they said they already got burned on new years and this event was organized by the same people. i gave the organizers the benefit of the doubt and went and supported them. i wish i'd gone fishing instead.

mienfreak

I heard that this party sucked! Not that many people were there! Plus alot of people left early....Glad I didn't go and wasted my time there....

Mr. IMANC President Sengfo Chao, Mr. VP Weunfong, Mr. Event Chairman Kenny Thungc, IMANC Board of Direcotors, Mr. UIMC President Tony Lee, Elder Council Frank O. Saephan, 11 Districtricts of Scaramento, and all the Volunteers,

Wow! What an educational and electricfying event. I would like to thank all of you for your endless heartfelt commitments to make this event possible. My wife and I had the utmost pleasure of meeting the Chinese Iu Mien delegates, Vietnam Iu Mien Delegate, Thailand Iu Mien delegates.

Congratulation, Job well done!

Most Respectfully,

Yoon Nam and Mey Thungc
Redding, CA

i can't believe it- i wasted my entire day. The event was lame, it wasn't a lot of guests. but i'm shocked to see that the food line was pretty slow and this time the food court didn't run out of food. other than food- the time according to agenda is sooooo off.

Just got back, it was a great celebration, but it could've been better. Not that I'm criticizing, but It would've been a lot better if the awards were given to all the communities leaders at the same time i.e. everyone that will be rewarded should all be up there and then announces their names one by one.... Why? Because the really honor should go to the true guests of honors, our Iu Miens fellows from another country other than the US. They should the center of the show. Come on, how many time do you think this would happen again along with the guests of honor, not another 30 years I hope. This was like once-in-a-life-time thing. It was still a great celebration! Wish more people would show up, though! Anyway, I don't understand why people are not applausing for the people who work so hard to this event possible and for the performers!!!!

wussupp??? yall
it's kao again.
about 8:30 - 9pm, got some folks putting in verses.
anyone else got spits?
bring your beats on cd, i can play them for you.
everydaykyang@yahoo.com

Mr. Event Chairman ,

Please post up the program.. What is the exact time the program will start.