President

Mindy Lin ‘11 & Alex Shih ‘11

Hi, we’re Mindy and Alex and we’re running for TASA co-presidents! We have both been committed to TASA since freshman year, when we were members of Frosh Council. Currently, Alex is the Treasurer of TASA board and Mindy is the Vice President. In the past year, we have worked with the current board to run events such as our annual Spring Banquet and Asian Night Market. We also co-chaired the Freshman Council fall semester, so we have experience working together in a leadership position.
If elected as your co-presidents for the coming year, we would like to continue and expand our collaboration with other groups. TASA’s annual All-You-Can-Make event, which we have helped organize and run for two years in a row, and Night Market are both events in which TASA works with other Asian groups, and we would continue this cooperation. We have acquired the experience over the past one and a half years to make sure that TASA’s relationships with other organizations on campus remain productive and friendly. We would also continue to host fun study breaks that welcome all students in the Princeton community while promoting awareness of the Taiwanese culture. For example, Alex came up with the idea for the popular shaved ice study break held by the Frosh Council this past fall, and we will continue to hold similar creative events.
One of the best things about TASA is that there is a strong network amongst the collegiate Taiwanese American groups across the country. Fostering good relationships with groups from other schools is a priority for us. In the past year, we attended the East Coast ITASA conference, went to UPenn to support one of Penn Taiwanese Society’s fundraising events, and organized the annual ITASA winter mixer, which was attended by students from Princeton, NYU, Rutgers, and Yale. We will strengthen these relationships by continuing to support Taiwanese groups at other schools and initiating joint events.
Thanks a lot, we hope you vote for us!

Vice-President

Jeremy Blum ‘10

Hey everyone, my name is Jeremy Blum and I’m running for TASA Vice-President. I’m currently a junior and have served on the TASA board for the past two years as TASA Publicity Chair, where I put together advertising efforts and designed fliers and other promotional materials for several of the big TASA events that you’ve probably heard of or attended, such as All-You-Can-Make Buffet and our numerous study breaks. Thus, one of the factors that I can bring with me to a vice-president position is experience–I have been involved with TASA since I first arrived at Princeton, have served as a leader on two different freshmen councils, have attended iTASA twice and have participated in the madness that is helping to coordinate and advertise Night Market on two separate occasions. I also bring with me a genuine love and enjoyment of all things TASA and I can guarantee that if elected, I will definitely put forth 200% in my contributions as a board member, helping to make TASA the b
est it can be. In the past, my “creativity” (call it what you want, I suppose) has somehow become known among the TASA community, probably from the five-billion-word TASAssin emails that I sent out earlier this year and also from some of the weirder ideas that I’ve had for study breaks, such as our surprisingly successful Lactose Intolerance milk study break last month. I promise to bring the same spirit of creativity and fun to a position as TASA VP, further cementing TASA’s status on campus as a darn impressive cultural organization and hopefully making a lot of people laugh in the process. I’d insert some catchy phrase at the end here that rhymes with my last name or something in order to trick you into voting for me, but I can’t think of anything that isn’t corny. But do consider what I’ve said, and I’d greatly appreciate it if you would give me your vote. Thanks.

Treasurer

Taiyee Chien ‘12

I’m a pretty materialistic kid who has had one true love in life: money. I take pride in my resume as an innovative entrepreneur. It goes something like this: when I was 5 I ran my own power ranger action figure store; when I was 8 I opened up my own Pokémon trading card stand; and when I was 11 I sold backstreet boys and NSYNC CD’s from my 4th grade classroom. I’ve always loved money – always have and always will.

On a more serious note, I am confident that I will be able manage TASA’s funds efficiently. As for logistics, I’ve become quite good friends with my calendar, spreadsheet programs, and TI-89 over the years; I know that I can be the organized treasurer that TASA needs. On a social level, I already have experience approaching P-boards for funding and always enjoy the opportunity to persuade others to give some of their money to a good cause. Rest assured, TASA’s funding will be safe on my watch.

I was told recently that it’s quite the challenge being TASA’s treasurer. Folks, I am ready to take on this challenge and will not let you down. Vote Tai for Treasurer.

Secretary

Karin Tsai ‘11

Hello TASA! I have had the privilege of being TASA secretary this past year, and would love to be able to serve again as your secretary. As a member of frosh council last year, and a member of board this year, I have fully enjoyed my work with TASA and hope you will give me the opportunity again to contribute to a group for which I care greatly. I hope to continue bringing you regular updates on the events of TASA through newsletters and other e-mails, as well as taking and maintaining records of all of our board meeting minutes. I have experience running the tasa@ e-mail account as well as keeping and updating the TASA members list, and tend to stay meticulously organized in general. I look forward to have another excellent year with all of you!

Social Chair

Gregory Peng ‘12

Hello all! My name is Greg Peng, and I am running for TASA’s Social Chair. As part of TASA’s frosh council this past semester, I’ve enjoyed planning and taking part in the events we hosted. As such, I want to continue to coordinate fun and successful events in a slightly different manner.
Even before frosh council, I had prior experience coordinating events for different clubs in high school. One club that stands out in particular is the Tzu Chi (TC) chapter I founded and led. The events I’ve done for TC include successful fundraisers and topical member gatherings among others. All the events required a good handle on logistics, member incentives, and most importantly – fun. From my experiences so far, I’ve learned that events where every member can be involved is the most fun, so that is my aim.
For TASA’s future events, I currently have several ideas in mind. These include study breaks, banquets, outings, and cooking parties, among other things. I am also very receptive to ideas from others; if any one of you members has an idea, please give me your input!
I hope you’ll give me the chance to contribute my experience and not only make future TASA events as smooth and rewarding as possible, but fun as well. Thanks for hearing me out.

Cindi Yim ‘12

Hey everyone! Being on Frosh Council this semester has been a great outlet for me, and a much needed connection to my Asian needs (e.g.: food). While we got to enjoy some awesome activities like the All You Can Make Banquet, Ice Study Break, and events with other colleges, I definitely think that we could do with a lot more TASA in our lives. I would love to remain involved with TASA as your Social Chair, by planning fun events to both expand and promote TASA on campus. Some ideas that I have in mind include baking parties (self-explanatory), KTV/Karaoke nights, TASA dinners (out on Nassau), and maybe even a TASA banquet! I’m open to any of your suggestions/requests. Throughout my senior year in high school, I planned arts and crafts and cooking activities for the elementary school kids in my school’s Chinese Culture Club. While throwing events for little kids is certainly no easy feat, I won’t go so far as to saying it’s the same as being Social Chair for TASA, BUT since I’ve graduated from high school, I hope that I have also graduated to a new level of planning: Bringing some of the 886 back to the 609!

Political Chair

An-Ting Liu ‘12

Hi TASA
My name’s Anting, and I’m running for Political Chair. I’ve learned so much and enjoyed every moment I’ve spent with TASA—frosh council, planning study breaks, making great food, listening to awesome talks, and just chilling with all you fabulous people—and that is why to me it would be such a pleasure and honor to continue to serve TASA for the coming year.

As most of you probably have known (or somewhat got this impression from my accent), I spent all my life before Princeton in Taiwan, and attended local schools in Taipei and Taichung. Thanks to my family background—my grandpa served the Supreme Court in Taiwan, my uncle was one of the ambassadors to the U.S., my dad was a social activist in college (along with A-Bien and those people) and so on and so forth—I think I started talking about Taiwanese politics even before I could talk about food. From middle school to high school, I was the captain of the Debate Panel of our school, where I was exposed to many political issues both domestically and internationally. Also, starting junior year, I served as the vice coordinator of a China-Taiwan exchange program, which, thankfully, granted me and my teammates the rare opportunity as Taiwanese students to go to the Third Girls’ Senior High School of Shanghai (where Soong May-ling and her sisters went), Fu-Dan University, Tsing-Hua University and Beijing University to debate and discuss current cross-strait issues, as well as promoting mutual cultural understanding. And I know it sounds corny, but one of the reasons that motivated me to come study in the States was because I’ve always dreamt to be able to work in the UN (or any other international organization that has rejected Taiwan) and do something great for our homeland that’s beyond wonderful. Although the dream still seems too lofty now, at least that somewhat illustrates my passion for Taiwanese politics and in a broader sense, the whole country (or island/territory…whatever your positions are).

If elected, I will strive my best to promote more awareness in Taiwanese politics both within TASA and on campus. As much as I love TASA and Princeton, I do think we need more open conversations and discussions from both sides, as well as more such activities for the general public. We also should strive to persuade the school to open more Taiwan-related courses and plan some trips to campaigns and events at Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, for instance. Although the logistics are complicated, I do think they are at least worth a try.

Anyway, I just want to say that I’ll really appreciate the opportunity to serve as TASA’s political chair. Thanks for your time, and please vote for me! Oh, and best of luck for finals!

Publicity Chair

Sophia Jih ‘12

Hey guys! My name’s Sophia and I’d love to be TASA’s publicity chair for 2009. First off, a little about me: I’m a freshman who was on this year’s TASA frosh council. I had so much fun this past semester that I decided I didn’t want to stop participating in and planning TASA events. As far as I’m concerned, there is no better way to get in touch with my Taiwanese roots, and I genuinely look forward to helping out in the upcoming year.

So why publicity chair? Well, aside from playing around with Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and Adobe InDesign in my free time, I’ve also had experience doing layout design for publications from The Review (a monthly on-campus critique of recent music, film, and literature) to The Daily Princetonian (no explanation needed). I also write for both of these papers, so with this writing and design experience, I think I’m well-qualified to be a dedicated and innovative publicity chair for TASA next year. More specifically, I promise that I will create original, eye-catching art for publicity and advertising, that I will work with the rest of the Board in furthering TASA’s objectives, and that I will do all of this promptly and meticulously so that TASA maintains the amazing reputation that it deserves!

If you have any questions at all, feel free to drop off an e-mail to sjih@princeton.edu. I hope you consider voting for me, and best of luck with finals!

Webmaster

Michael Wu ‘10

Hi, I’m Michael and I’m running for Webmaster. I’ve had the privilege of being TASA webmaster
for the past 2 years and I’d like to continue to take care of the
website. I keep the website and pictures decently up to date. If you
haven’t seen it, just take a look at www.princeton.edu/~tasa (or if you are reading this on the website, browse around). There are upcoming events and
pictures and information about TASA at Princeton. Also, I am dedicated
to help out TASA in non-web related ways. You might know me because I
ran TASAnta and TASAssins, but I also was the programming chair for
Night Market last year. You should also see me helping out at almost
every TASA event. I also helped run the Mochi Study Break with JSA. Mmm,
delicious, delicious Mochi. So help me support my addiction to
technology and vote for me!

2010 Class Representative

Jennifer Chen ‘10

I’m Jen Chen, currently of ITASA National Board and formerly of TASA Board (the year before’s Secretary). I’ve also done lots of fun Taiwanese stuff in the past two and half years, like planning Logistics for Night Market (for two years now) and being a part of the Taiwanese Advocacy group. I’ll do my best to fulfill the listed duties of Class Rep, plus I’ll do more. During my tenure as Secretary, I took an especially active part in planning events and making sure the little things got done. I love doing weird things like making presentations and talking in front of large audiences. As Class Rep, I’ll fill in the gaps and holes of what needs to be done on Board.

2012 Class Representative

Steve Kuei ‘12

Hey, I’m Steve Kuei, a freshman of Wilson College, and I was interested in running for 2012 Class Representative. I enjoyed meeting fellow Taiwanese-Americans in the semester with Frosh Council, from simply hanging out and eating hot pots to participating in the all-you-can-make buffet. As a result, I am interested in continuing to participate in this group in the coming years, and hope that my experiences with leading in the past will serve well as class representative. Last year, as part of our high school math team’s Executive Board, I have had ample experience in leading a club (and teaching them math, although I doubt that applies here), as well as in organizing transportation and lodging, and leading trips out of state to large competitions. In addition, I teach Chinese yo-yo (扯鈴) every Saturday at my local Chinese school, a job I have held for several years already. As a result I have active participation in the asian community, and experience with a small bureaucracy, as well as experience in coordinating performances. I hope that as the representative of my class, these skills can be put to good use for upcoming planning and events.

Night Market Co-Chair

Is not an elected position

It’s time for elections again! Send in your candidate statement (200 words, 300 for president) to tasa@ by this Saturday.

Positions:
(Co)-President(s)
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Social Chair
Publicity Chair
Class Representative
Webmaster
Night Market Committee

PRESIDENT (1 or 2 people):
The leader(s) of TASA, the President(s) assume(s) responsibility for
the group in the eyes of the University, and is the primary liaison
between the students and the university offices. The President is also
responsible for promoting political and cultural awareness of Taiwan
and is the catch-all for any officer who cannot fulfill his/her
responsibilities. The one with the most delegative power, the President
presides over all board meetings and provides general direction for
TASA.
This year’s president: Peter Tzeng

VICE-PRESIDENT (1 person):
The Vice-President is the cultural liaison between TASA and other
student organizations. He/she will attend all meetings of this sort and
represent TASA, increasing the group’s visibility on campus. This
includes working closely with TWC, APAHM, IC, etc. The VP serves as the
liaison with the ITASA National Board. The VP also chairs the Freshman
Council in the fall semester.
This year’s vice president: Mindy Lin

TREASURER (1 person):
The treasurer’s primary role is to maintain the TASA account with the
university. This involves applying for funding from P-board actively,
taking care of reimbursements, advising the board on its spending
record, keeping track of the monthly account statements, and seeking
funding from departments for events. Fundraising involves managing
finances with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students,
applying for grants from Projects Board, and acting as events liaison
with the ODUS, Projects Board, and USG.
This year’s treasurer: Alex Shih

SECRETARY (1 person):
Probably the office with the closest association with the President,
the Secretary acts as the liaison between the membership and the
officers.  Main duties include an announcement e-mail with event
listings and other club information, maintaining the organization’s
e-mail account, being the recorder at all officer meetings, and being
the archivist for any important group documents (electronic or not),
such as the Constitution.
This year’s secretary: Karin Tsai

SOCIAL CHAIR (1 person):
The Social Chair’s primary duty is to coordinate at least ONE EVENT PER
MONTH, whether it be a study break, a movie night, or something
creative. Also, the Social Chair oversees the logistics of all events,
including transportation, e.g. to/from ITASA.
This year’s social chair: Aimee Chen

POLITICAL CHAIR (1 person):
The Political Chair’s primary duty is to coordinate at least ONE EVENT
PER SEMESTER related to Taiwanese or Taiwanese American politics.
Events include holding panel discussions or dinner talks at dining
halls. The Political Chair should keep in touch with the newly formed
Taiwan Advocacy Group on campus and update the board regularly.
This year’s political chair: Ben Chen

PUBLICITY CHAIR (1 person):
The Publicity Chair manages marketing and publicity efforts, including
(a) writing and designing publicity materials for TASA events, (b)
handling advertising on campus and in the community, and (c) working
with the Student Design Agency to update the website.
This year’s marketing chair: Jeremy Blum

WEBMASTER (1 person):
The Webmaster’s primary duty is to update the TASA website with events
and pictures and the Google Calendar as well. The webmaster updates all
of these weekly.
This year’s webmaster: Michael Wu

2011 Class Representative (1 person), 2012 Class Representative (1 person):
The two class reps are the liaisons between Princeton TASA and the
Taiwanese student organizations from other schools. They help to
establish relationships through organizing events such as mixers and
staying in contact with officers of the other organizations.  The class
reps are also responsible for maintaining a TASA Alumni list and serve
as the primary contacts between the TASA board and alumni.
This year’s 2010 representative: Will Peng
This year’s 2011 representative: Mark Ho

NIGHTMARKET 2008 Committee:
Asian Night Market, TASA’s biggest event, will be coming in April!
Members of the Night Market committee drawn from TASA are in charge of
planning the annual Asian Night market.  Tasks include collaborating
with the various Asian organizations on campus, working out logistics,
contacting academic departments and outside organizations for funding,
reaching out to campus and off-campus musicians, dancers, and other
performers, and more! More specifically, if you are interested in
co-chairing this annual, unique, and collaborative event, please email
tasa@ with a statement of interest. Taking part in Night Market and
being an officer in TASA are not exclusive, e.g. the president of TASA
can co-chair Night Market. Tasks of the co-chairs include those stated
above and also running meetings, setting agendas, meeting with
University officials, and other executive roles. If you are interested
in other roles with Night Market, please send an e-mail describing your
interest. Planning for Night Market starts before or at the beginning
of the spring semester.

Register for iTASA at Duke! Email ptzeng@ before 1/14 with:

1. Phone Number
2. Whether you want a t-shirt for an extra $10 (http://duke.itasa.org/images/tshirt.jpg) – this definitely would not be covered by Princeton
3. Whether you are vegetarian
4. An Emergency Contact (name and number)
5. Whether you plan to stay with a friend at Duke

iTASA will be February 20-22 this year. We are taking a bus on Friday. Hopefully we will be able to get most of the fees subsidized.

TASA All You Can Make is coming up next Tuesday, December 9th, from 6:00-8:00 in Murray Dodge Cafe!

Come and learn to make your own delicious Asian food, and then eat your creations!

There will be a Lactose Tolerance study break next Thursday, December 11th, from 8:00-10:00 in Wu Cafe. Come for milk and cookies and various other tasty items. The TASAnta gift exchange will be happening before the study break.

Grace Taiwanese Presbyterian Church is offering a Thanksgiving Dinner at 2 PM in Lawrenceville on November 30. Please let us know at tasa@ if you would like to join us so we can arrange transportation.

The NYC Mixer is coming up on Saturday, December 6! Meet TASA members from Columbia, NYU, Rutgers, Penn and Yale! We’re going ice-skating, K-town for dinner, karaoke. Trip transportation and maybe other fees will be at least partially subsided.

TASAnta is coming up! It’s TASA secret santa. If you want to be part of it, email tasa@

There will be a TASA families event sometime soon! So watch for it.

We will be going to Penn this Saturday for the Penn PTS Basketball Tournament. It is a charity basketball game sponsoring Hep B vaccinations. You don’t have to play, you can just come to hang out. It’s from 2-5PM, but we are meeting at the Dinky at 9:45AM to catch the 10AM train so we can have lunch beforehand. Bring money for lunch and train tickets. If you are interest, email Alex.

TASA, along with JSA and AASA will be serving delicious Mochi in the Mathey Common Room on Friday, November 7th, from 9-11PM. Come and say hi!

KASA will be holding its fall banquet, Moonlight Seoul-nata, featuring Neah Lee, this Friday 6-8 PM at Chancellor Green. Admission is $7 if you RSVP to (kasa@) before midnight on Wednesday, $9 otherwise.

Professor Chong-Pin Lin, KMT Vice-Minister of Defense, will be giving a presentation on Tuesday, November 18 at 4:30 PM in Jones 202. This event is sponsored by the EAS Department.

Asian American Social Activism Week is this week! Stop by Frist between 10 AM to 10 PM to learn about the Asian American Donorship Program, Becky Lee’s Fund to fight domestic violence, and other ways to get involved. This week Becky Lee, a winner of Survivor: Cook Islands, will be in McCosh 28 at 8:30 PM on November 7 to give a keynote.

Grace Taiwanese Presbyterian Church is offering a Thanksgiving Dinner at 2 PM in Lawrenceville on November 30. Transportation will be determined closer to the date.

There will be a Jay Chou concert in Connecticut on December 21st. Contact Alex Shih if interested.

Tasa Families have been determined and all participants should get an e-mail soon letting them know who their family members. Everyone in a TASA family will receive our special 10% discount TASA Members card as well as tender, loving care from their family. Parents will be expected to treat their kids to a meal rather soon, so look forward to it!

Duke TASA will be visiting Princeton this Sunday (10/12) to visit their fellow TASA members. We’ll be meeting them at the U-Store parking lot at 4:30 PM. If you are interested in coming, shoot us an e-mail and we’ll keep you up to date. We’ll have ice breakers, chill time, dinner, and then a presentation by Duke about ITASA.

TASAssins is LIVE! Get the killin’ on.

Rules, for those who failed to get them.

The Rules of TASAssins:

Winners / Prizes:

Prizes will be awarded to the survivor and the person with the most kills. The prizes will be Super Soaker water guns and a gift certificate to Bent Spoon.

God Updates:

The Gods will report on the death toll daily, as well as how they happened (in a hilarious manner). Please give us details about your kill so we can publish a more interesting story. After all, nobody wants a boring death.
Basic Rules:

You will be assigned someone to kill on Sunday, and someone will be assigned to kill you. To kill someone, you must shoot the victim (or some extension of them, e.g. clothing and backpack) with the water gun we provided. Once you kill your victim, your victim must pass on the name of their victim. The kill should be reported within 24 hours to Michael (mmwu@princeton.edu), otherwise the kill will not qualify (even if you report to the other gods…this helps with processing time).

TASA T-shirts (you can still purchase one for $10)
If you are wearing your TASA T-shirt, you receive IMMUNITY. This means that you cannot be killed while you are wearing your shirt. However, You may NOT wear your TASA shirt ON TWO CONSECUTIVE DAYS. That means at maximum you may wear your shirt only every other day. If you put your TASA shirt on, that counts for the whole day. You are allowed to wear the shirt until you go to sleep (meaning you can wear it past midnight).

Bikes, skateboards, scooters, moving golf carts, moving vehicles
Due to risk of injury, you cannot kill someone riding one of these, and you can not do a drive-by shooting on one of these. You must fully dismount before you can shoot, or you must wait for them to fully dismount before you can shoot. Parked golf carts and cars are OK.

Locations that grant IMMUNITY:
You cannot shoot someone in a bathroom. You cannot run into a bathroom to escape your killer for the sole purpose of avoiding your killer. Killers cannot trap a person in a bathroom (you must grant them 2 minutes of immunity from the time they exit the bathroom and cannot follow them).
You cannot shoot someone attending class. You may trap someone in their classroom, and may kill them when the professor hasn’t started or is done lecturing.
Arbitration:
Sometimes the rules are not clear or do not cover every possible situation. If you would like to challenge a kill, you must report to the Gods within 24 hours of the incident. The Gods will with their best judgment determine your status.

Honor Code:
Not the same as for the exams, but play fairly and with good judgment.

We still want willing and enthusiastic freshmen for Frosh Council! As Frosh Council, you’ll learn about how TASA works and what we do, and be able to plan cool events too! You can hang out with our coolest board members minus myself and with other awesome freshmen. So sign up by sending an email to tasa@ by Sunday night.

Also, if you want to be part of a TASA family as either a parent or a kid, also send an email to tasa@ by Sunday night. It’s really fun as parent and as a kid, I swear, so do it.

You can also sign up for TASAssins, in which you get to kill other people with water guns and earn a really awesome prize. Sign up by Saturday. We will be passing out guns and selling TASA T-shirts in Frist on Saturday and Sunday. TASA T-shirts are $10 and give you immunity for one day.

We’re also forming a Jello Wrestling team, so tell us if you are interested (send an email, as always). This will be this coming Saturday, the 27th.

The freshmen banquet will be in Murray Dodge Cafe on Thursday, September 18th, at 6:00pm.

Freshmen get in free, everyone else is $3.00.