By MAYA CARPENTER
The UNITY News

The Michigan chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association is bidding to host the 2011 AAJA convention in Detroit.

Yes, Detroit.

In spite of local concerns about investigations into the mayor and City Council, and national misperceptions about the revived city, a stalwart group of Detroit journalists has watched new hotels go up and seen the riverfront expand.

They want others to see it, too.

The chapter will vie against New York in persuading national AAJA executives to choose their respective cities for the convention, three years off.

The Detroit group will submit a bid at a meeting Saturday with the AAJA governing board, detailing reasons why convention should come to Detroit.

Firstly, Michigan’s AAJA chapter is one of the largest AAJA chapters in the country, with more than 50 members. The chapter had disbanded in 1995, but re-established itself five years ago. The chapter also draws support from the nation’s largest Arab-American community of about 300,000, said Ron Recinto, a news editor for freep.com, the Detroit Free Press’s Web site.

Detroit’s members “have accomplished a lot since resurrecting the chapter five years ago,” Recinto said.

Another reason the chapter is pushing for the convention is because it has embraced multimedia journalism, a major focus for AAJA, and has created a video showing how convergence savvy it is, said Frank Witsil, a Free Press reporter.

More importantly, the chapter is ready for Detroit to escape its history and perception of being a place where Asian Americans are not welcome.

That moment in history came when Vincent Chin was murdered in 1982. Two men beat Chin with a baseball bat outside a dance club where the 27-year-old was celebrating his upcoming wedding. Chin, a Chinese American, died four days after the attack.

Authorities said the men, who both worked at Chrysler, resented how Japanese automakers were affecting the U.S. auto industry.

The two men were arrested and initially convicted, but a plea bargain kept them from serving prison time.

Chin’s death sparked outrage and started a civil rights movement for the Asian American community, said Erin Chan Ding, president of the Michigan chapter and a feature writer at the Free Press.

Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor for the Free Press, said he was embarrassed that such a murder occurred in his city.

If having the convention in Detroit happens to remind people of Vincent Chin then Grimm is all for it, he said.

But the Michigan chapter has competition. The New York chapter of AAJA has put in a bid as well.

Chapter members have talked about possible venues to host the convention, said Cheryl Tan, a fashion writer for The Wall Street Journal and a national board member. Tan said that because the major magazines and some major newspapers are based in New York, it should be a natural choice to host AAJA’s 30^th anniversary. The last time New York hosted the convention was in 2000.

“The New York chapter is a fantastic chapter, but they’ve already had two and 2011 is our year,” Witsil said. “We have letters of support from the governor, the Asian American community, letters from Michigan State University and Oakland University.”

Once the board receives each proposal, it will perform on-site visits to check out hotels and convention space.

That’s no problem for Detroit.

“Like any group, we would love to have their event in Detroit,” said Carolyn Artman, media relations manager at the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau in the city, which opened a new hotel earlier this year and opens a second major one this fall.

The board won’t decide until each proposal is reviewed thoroughly, said Janice Lee, deputy executive director of AAJA. If the board decides the Detroit is the best fit, it will be the city’s, and the chapter’s, first time hosting the convention.

“Hosting a convention is a team effort,” Witsil said.

topic: UNITY Convention
tags: AAJA

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Print, UNITY Convention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.