29 Dec 2012 Session Minutes

Final TIiA Session of 2012...maybe ever?!? Minutes by Yvonne

Date: 29 Dec 2012

Venue: Milano café on Dihua Street.

Attendees: Amy, Anita, Caroline, Hal, Lynn, Rosie & her cousin and Yvonne

Topic: where to donate our money (total NT$10220)!

Each of us had 2 votes, no.1 and no. 2. The first winner can take 60% of our money and the second one can take 40%.

4 organizations were nominated by our members:

1. Guide Dog Assn (by Hal) : For every 100 blind people there should be 30 dogs, but in Taiwan at the moment, there are only 3 dogs for 2000 people. (Received 1 vote as no. 1 & 1 vote as no. 2)
2. Taiwan Digital Talking Books Association: Training for blind people to use a computer, offer more classes to let them live more independently and be more job ready. (6 votes as no. 2) http://www.tdtb.org/membership/donate.html
3. Design for Change (DFC): Produce a book for teachers so they understand better how to do a DFC project with their students. Use our money to pay the transportation fee to travel around and interview kids and teachers to write the book. (6 votes as no. 1)
4. Urban Renewal Alliance: For Wang family in Shilin. Our money will go towards lawyers in the court. (Nil)

Result: NT$ 6132 for Design for Change and NT$ 4088 for Taiwan Digital Talking Books Association.

Lynn’s speech

She talked about why she started TIiA, how it was named and her expectations of this group. Thanks to co-founders and helpers, Yvonne, Ellen and Caroline. Special thanks to Christine for her generosity in offering her place for our meetings! Thanks to everyone who has ever come to a session!

Lynn's moving to Kinmen on Jan 15, so won't be hosting any more TIiA sessions for the time being...Rosie suggested Lynn send everyone a copy of the TIiA mailing list so people could keep in touch. She talked about another study group she knows of where any member can decide to host a session. They choose a topic and a place to meet, and then email everyone in the group to invite them...

Day trip to 鶯歌 this Sunday 6 Jan 2013

Hello Good People

This is very short notice, but Ken and I are wondering if anyone would like to join us in a day trip to 鶯歌 this Sunday 6 Jan? 

I'd like to buy some clay tea pots for my new life in 金門, and we haven't been to 鶯歌 for several years.

As you know, there are plenty of trains. Eg. (1st time is dep 松山 station; 2nd time is dep Taipei Main station; 3rd time is arriving at 鶯歌):

10:21 - 10:53 - 10:53 (train no. 1167)

10:34 - 10:42 - 11:13 (train no. 1171)

10:59 - 11:07 - 11:37 (train no. 1173)

11:05 - 11:14 - 11:44 (train no. 513)

11:14 - 11: 22 - 11:52 (train no. 1171)

I'm thinking of course we could eat lunch together as well as walk round and help me choose a tea set. I'd also like to go to the Ceramics Museum there, if possible. We don't have to be back in Taipei at any set time at the moment, so I haven't checked the trains returning to Taipei...

If you'd like to go, please just reply to this email, saying which train you think you'll be on. I think it doesn't matter too much if we're all on the same train. I'll turn my cell phone on, and when you arrive in 鶯歌, please call me. Then we can arrange a place to meet up there.

Would love to have you join us if you can! Ken and I will try to be on the earliest train listed above, but I'm usually running late, so maybe it'll be on the next one...or the next one! And we'll be getting on at 松山.

:) Lynn

15 Dec 2012 Session Minutes

Date: Sat 15 Dec 2012
Topic: Where to Donate our 10,000NT?
Place: Christine's Place
Time: 13:30-16:30

Attending: Christine, Yvonne, Lynn, Elizabeth

Elizabeth, Lynn and Christine presented proposals for where to donate our 10,000NT.

Elizabeth is active with the Alliance for Urban Renewal, a 100% volunteer group in Taipei which focuses on grassroots community action on the topic of urban development projects. It is especially active in the Wang Family house issue in Shilin. It is concerned that the current laws about urban renewal favor construction companies over the interests of individual citizens, and that they contribute to the erosion of community spirit.

Lynn passed on a suggestion from Hal about donating to the Blind Dog Foundation, and also about how Design for Change in Taiwan might spend a donation.

Christine told us about her experience applying to become a volunteer book reader for the blind, and suggested donating money to an organisation about that.

We decided to postpone our vote until the next session, Sat 29 Dec, since we heard more people were able to attend that session.

Final Session!? Sat 29 Dec 2012 Vote about our Donation/Happy New Year!

Hello Good People

Since there were only 4 of us at the last Session on 16 Dec, we decided to postpone the vote regarding where to spend our 10,000 NT donation. Hope you can come on the 29th of Dec! It might not only be the last session of 2012, but also ever...I'm moving to 金門 on 15 Jan 2013! So please come so I can see you before I leave Taipei...

:) Lynn

Please note that the venue depends on the weather!

Date:  Sat 29 Dec 2012
Time: 13:30-16:30
Topic: Vote on where to Donate our 10,000NT / Happy New Year!
Place:
Nice Weather Option 
If the weather isn't too cold or wet: Dihua St. Meet at Xiahai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟) and
then after a quick prayer if you want (!), proceed to a cafe to enjoy the atmosphere.
Cold/Wet Weather Option
Christine's place, a 3-min walk from 六張犁 MRT station (Thanks, Christine!)

If you're not sure where we're meeting, just call me (Lynn) on 0931-146-481. I'll turn my phone on Sat at 12 noon.

For planning purposes, PLEASE REGISTER for this session by FRIDAY 28 Dec, 12 noon
by replying to this email. If you
Thanks, hope to see you there! :)

Optional Preparation
Read through these proposals for our donation:

1. Alliance for Urban Renewal Group

On printing out the in-house magazine, which costs NT 70 to print one issue. The Alliance estimates that in order to get the messages about urban renewal issues across effectively, they’d like to make 2,000 copies for the next issue.
Apart from that, they’d like to hire an assitance at the rate of NT 8,000 (same as a graduate student) to handle all the administrative issues (which is handled by each and every one of us at our spare time outside our work, school, and work for the Alliance).


2. Design for Change
    We plan to spend the money on the transportation for interviewing children and collecting stories. After the interview, we will publish the stories collected, like the I CAN BOOK. We do not have a budget for it at the moment for we used to pay the fee on our own.... So that would be a great relief to us if we get the fund from TIiA.

3. From Hal:
I propose donate to 台灣導盲犬協會（http://www.guidedog.org.tw/）and 財團法人惠光導盲犬教育基金會(http://www.guidedog.tw/)

I am not sure if it's a NPO, but the 1st one is a registed social organization, and the 2nd one is a foundation.

4. From Christine:
An NGO that trains volunteers to read books for the blind. The money would go towards paying some trainers of volunteers.

14-16 Dec FREE Film Festival!

Hello Good People!

Are you free this coming Fri night, Sat or Sun? (14-16 Dec 2012) You might be interested in this FREE film festival. It looks great! Anita's sent us this information:

I'm attaching the file of movie schedule about PTS Best of Input 2012. I learned about it since last year and I found their experimental movies and documentaries from different countries were very neat. They even have the director sessions to face the audience and talk about them. It's a good chance to watch free great movies in Taiwan mainland! My friends and I will hang around there from Friday night and Sat, Sun for the goodies. It takes time to line up so if you wanna come, you can call me to see if we could save seats for you or/and your husband, FYI. I'm not sure if they have the English subtitle but I'll make sure about it later. Last year I did see many foreigners sitting in... (OR maybe some movies are in English OR were they good at reading Chinese?)

Here's the site about the movie introduction..  
http://2012bestinput.pts.org.tw/films.htm

Venue【台北場】 2012年12月14日至16日 -西門町真善美戲院
         【Taipei】 2012 December 14th to 16th - Wonderful Theater
西門町真善美戲院 Wonderful Theater
http://www.movie.com.tw/wonderful/ 
Tel：+886-2-2331-2270    EX 6, @ MRT XiMen Station You'll find it once you get out of the entrance.Add：台北市萬華區漢中街116號7樓 捷運西門站6號出口

The Danger of a Single Story: 27 Oct 2012 Session Minutes

Session Minutes by Rosie

Date: Sat 27 Oct 2012

Place: Fujin St No. 3 Park, Taipei City (富錦街三號公園)

Attendees: Lynn, Caroline, Christine, Anita, Rosie

Session 1: Icebreaking

Icebreaker: Lynn

Everyone recommended their favorite restaurant!

Session 2:The Topic- The Danger of a Single Story

Lynn led us in a discussion about stereotyping, relating it to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie's interesting TED Talk and the recent (22 Sept 2012) editorial in the Taipei Times. We talked about stereotyping within Taiwan, and about Taiwan outside of Taiwan. We shared experiences of being the victim of “single stories” with each other.

--Rosie said:

People who live in Taipei City all dress in the latest fashions, don’t they?

I was born in and live in Taipei City. Most of my relatives live in the middle part of Taiwan. They have the impression that Taipei people are really into fashion, that we dress up and wear make up every day. When I see my relatives at Chinese New Year, they expect to see a very “fashionable” Rosie. Actually I am not that type of person. I like to dress casual and don’t spend too much money on clothes. But I want to meet their expectations, so I try my best to dress up. Therefore, going back to my father’s hometown is a bit stressful for me.

--Caroline said:

People who live in the most expensive areas in Taipei City always look down on other people and are too proud of themselves, aren’t they?

When people find out I live near Daan Park, they're surprised to hear I know how to do housework!

--Lynn said:

Foreigners always need help, don’t they?

I've been living in Taipei city for a long time (over 8 years). I like to be treated equally and be thought of as a human being rather than only a foreigner. For example, sometimes when I'm looking at a map in the MRT, some strangers come up to me and ask, “Do you need help?” Actually, I know Taipei pretty well, and don't often need help. I was really glad recently when a Taiwanese person asked ME to help him in the MRT! I was able to tell him how to get from 後山埤 to 中山國小 MRT stations. He normally drives a scooter, so wasn't sure...

Are American people always rude?

When I lived in NZ, I often heard NZ people say in a surprised voice after returning from a trip to the US, “All the Americans I met were so polite!” They obviously had an image of most Americans being rude—perhaps from TV?

--Anita said:

People who live in south of Taiwan are friendlier, and Taipeis are more practical. Is that true?

Japanese people can’t speak English very well, can they?

Small conclusion:

We come from different backgrounds. We do our best to realize why people have single stories about other people and places. We are better being more open minded.

Action:

We are going to write a comment on TED.

NB: Done by Lynn on 12 Nov 2012—have a look! Click on the TED talk website below!

Related webpage resources for your reference:

a) Watch this TED Talk and see TIiA's comment (about 15 min):

http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

b) Read this Taipei Times editorial (Racism Rears its Ugly Head)

 http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2012/09/22/2003543353

An Invitation for us from Design for Change: Sat 8 Dec 2012 Annual Awards Ceremony

Hello Good People!

Below is an invitation for us from our friends at Design for Change (DFC). If you're free Sat 8 Dec in the afternoon and want to get inspired, come along! I'm going--I'll watch out for you!

:) Lynn

(Sorry the 2nd page of the invitation is too hard to read--if you need more information, please reply to this email with your question, and I'll find out the answer for you!)

Dear Lynn,

 

It's our honor to invite you and the members of Taiwan Issues in Action to come to our awarding ceremony. The attached files are the invitation card (e version)

Yet,  it's in Chinese, and I hope you don't mind. :p

The venue is at the Hall,5F, of GIS MOTC Convention Center (Traffic info, in Chinese!? -->http://www.meeting.com.tw/index.php/gis-motc/location-motc)

The nearest MRT exit is Exit 2 of DongMen Station. We will have volunteers at the exit to guide the participants.

 

The admission time is from 13:00 to 14:00

The ceremony starts at 14:00; ends at 17:00.

 

The venue is at the Hall,5F, of GIS MOTC Convention Center (Traffic info, in Chinese!? -->http://www.meeting.com.tw/index.php/gis-motc/location-motc)

The nearest MRT exit is Exit 2 of DongMen Station. We will have volunteers at the exit to guide the participants.

 

The admission time is from 13:00 to 14:00

The ceremony starts at 14:00; ends at 17:00.

Jasper of DFC

Where to Donate? Sat 15 Dec 2012 Session Announcement

Hello Good People!

First, please note that our next session will be on the third Sat of Dec, NOT the second...(And then we'll have another session on Sat 29 Dec to finish off the year.)

Next Session Date/Time: Sat 15 Dec 2012, 13:30-16:00
Venue: Christine's place (Thank you, Christine!): a 3-min walk from 六張犁 MRT station. When you register, you'll be sent the exact address...

Topic: Donations Time!
We've collected 10,000NT, so we'll be deciding where to donate it. You're invited to do a short presentation about a Taiwan-related NGO. Please let us know:

--the name and main purpose of the NGO
--how you know about it, and why you think it's a good NGO
--where it does its work
--how  it might spend any money we donate to it

For planning purposes, please register for this session by Friday 14 Dec, 12 noon by replying to this email. Please let me know if you'll be telling us about an NGO...and if you need to use a computer or not.

Thanks, hope to see you there!

:) Lynn
P.S. If you're not sure of an NGO you like, you could try this website: www.poweroflove.com.tw. It lists (in Chinese) lots of Taiwanese NGOs which have confirmed they would like to accept donations (not all actually want or need money!), and have specific projects that our money would support...

27 Oct 2012 World Heritage Site for Taiwan? Session Minutes:

Dear all,

It was a lovely fine day with a bit sunshine, very good for a picnic. 

The only regret was that no one could take the beautiful sunshine because everyone was fully occupied by some unexpected coming event or task.

The session topic was World Heritage Site for Taiwan: What would you vote for? Through E-remote voting, we have one vote for Kinmen Battlefield Culture (from Lynn) and one for Penghu Columnar Basalt Nature Reserve (from me).  

And our next exciting news for the next session on Dec.8 is that we're going to discuss our $10,000 donation for one right NGO. Don't forget! 

Anita Yang

P.S. There will be no session on Sat 24 Nov...

13 Oct 2012 Recycling in Our Daily Lives Session Minutes

10/13/12 TAIWAN ISSUES in ACTION Session Minutes by Josie

Attendees: Hal, Lynn, Josie, Christine, Rosie, Anita, Caroline

Venue: Christine's place

Time: 13:30-16:45

Icebreaker: Christine

Q1: Please introduce yourself in a different way than you normally do.

Q2: How would you describe your 2012 so far?

Session Topic: Recycling in our Daily Lives, at Work/School
Guest Speaker: Caroline

Caroline led us in a discussion about Recycling, telling us about recycling practices that she recently noticed in some universities abroad, incl the US and Europe. She showed us a ppt that included statistics about Taiwan and recycling, as well as some photos from her recent trip.

Interesting points made by + name:

• Taiwan has been steadily improving at recycling...but we could be even better!

--Caroline

• Reducing is better than recycling. –Caroline
• Leave the place it was when you came or even better. –Lynn
• Separate printers at work so people can choose how they want to print—set up 1 printer with a default double-sided print function. –Lynn

Actions:

1. Caroline wants to encourage students at her university to be more green. Lynn to send Caroline the words on the sticker at the British Council computers about turning off the monitor to save energy.
2. We agreed to share inspiring quotations. Christine will start by posting one of her favourites on our FB page. Everyone feel free to add a favourite quote!

Next session: 10/27