2006 Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester

Capacity Building Grant Application

Deadline: Received in Arts & Cultural Council Office by November 10, 2005 @ 5:00 PM
Send to: 277 N. Goodman Street, Rochester, NY 14607. Answer all information. Handwritten
applications are not accepted.

A. BACKGROUND:
Applicant Organization’s Legal Name: Asian Pacific-Islander American History Project, Inc.

Executive Director/Authorized Signatory: Amy Hsi

Project Manager: John Lam

Remember to include Resumes of all Project Managers/Contact Personnel with your Application

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 10503

City: Rochester NY Zip: 14610 County: USA

Day Phone: 585 244 9745 Eve. Phone: same Fax: none

E-Mail: jlam@RochesterAsianHistory.org Web Site: http://RochesterAsianHistory.org

Incorporation date or date Formed: formed ‘02 April; incorporated ‘03 September 29 Fiscal year begins: January 1

Fiscal year end (Date/Month): December 31

For last completed fiscal year: Revenues: $23744.17 Expenses: $21971.53

Have you applied for a Capacity Building Grant within the past 3 years? Y N

If Yes, did you receive funding? Y N

B. PROJECT INFORMATION:
Project Title: RochesterAsianHistory.org: Onward to Web 2.0

Required: Please summarize your project in 50 words or less. Note: This will be the description used by the Arts &
Cultural Council to identify and publicize your project. Do not skip this step!

To strengthen our outreach, to ease community and volunteer communication, and to publicize our
events on syndicated calendars and websites, we reconstruct our website around an advanced
opensource content management system.

Project Starting Date: ‘05 October 1 Project Ending Date: ‘06 December 1

Total Project Expense: $4920 2006 Capacity Building Grant Amount Requested: $4920

Date of Seminar attended or meeting with ACCGR Staff: September 19 and October 5

C. CERTIFICATION: The undersigned certifies that he/she (1) is the principal officer of the applicant with
authority to obligate it; (2) has knowledge of the information presented herein; (3) has read and understood the
guidelines of Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester Capacity Building Grant Program and complies with, and is
made subject to said guidelines; (4) releases Arts & Cultural Council, its employees and agents with respect to
damages to property or materials submitted with this application.

Print Name: John Lam Title: Senior Vice President, APA-HiP

Date: ‘05 November 10

AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE (This might be different from the project manager.)

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2005 ACCGR Capacity Building Application
D. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Must be typed or computer generated on no more than 2 8.5” x11” sheets. Do
not use a font smaller than 12 point. Be sure to collate all materials and binder-clip them together. Do not place them
in three-ring binders. Do not include a cover letter.

D.1. Organization background: Provide a brief description of your organization’s mission, objectives, and
major programs.

The Asian Pacific-Islander American History Project, Inc. (APA-HIP) of Greater Rochester, a New York
State chartered corporation with 501(c)3 not-profit status, dedicates itself to honoring the
achievements and cultures of Asian Pacific-Islander Americans by promoting APA history and
strengthening APA community involvement.

We document, preserve, and promote Asian Pacific-Islander American written, oral, and visual
history; partner with other APA organizations in the promotion of APA cultural heritage; participate in
local art, cultural, educational and other exhibitions; foster effective communications among various
groups in the community; encourage APA active involvement in the community; celebrate APA
achievements; and recruit and build relationships among diverse ethnic groups.

We participate in New York State’s ongoing Documentary Heritage Program, helping them target one
of their primary foci, underrepresented minority groups. To this goal, for 2005-06 they awarded us
$11500 to survey and ultimately gather collections of historical significance. We also conduct and
record oral history interviews of prominent and ordinary Asian/Pacific Islander/Americans. Much of
what we do combines the synergy of one program to help the others. For 2005 we received a $2500
grant from the Arts Decentralization Fund via the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester partly
to produce Identity through Art: Six Rochester Asian American Artists, a documentary surveying the
art and oral history of Asian Rochester artists. For 2004 with a similar grant for $4900 we invited
local photographers to shoot “Daily Lives of Asian Americans in Rochester”, an exhibit that has now
since exhibited in 6 local galleries. With these grants and other monies, to celebrate APA Heritage
Month in May, we have also hosted a film series, exhibited and coordinated diverse art shows from
pottery and sculpture to ikebana and glass, sponsored artist lectures at and hosted field tours with
the Rochester Museum & Science Center and the Memorial Art Gallery.

D.2. Describe your project, the goals and objectives and how they will be met. How will it constitute
capacity building for your organization?

Except when we hold or host significant events, visits to our website come less frequently than
serves our vision, mission, and goals. Its current architecture depends upon content creators who
also know database entry and HTML content markup. Periodic updates to news, events, and other
content require a single shared password without audit trails and change logs. Old articles can be
deleted but not archived for reader retrieval. Visitors have few ways and no public way to interact.
The calendar cannot accept events running over multiple days. Extracted into a new fork, the
codebase cannot import ongoing progress elsewhere: improvements depend upon our own volunteer
programming. Our current workflows depend upon e mail: all we have are hammers, so all problems
look like nails.

These challenges are not entirely new. Many organizations have similar ones, and many of them
have found their answers in content management systems. Three such systems are Plone, Drupal,
and CivicSpace. In addition to solving all above challenges, such systems can not only rotate old
articles off the main page like a blog, they allow visitors to reply publicly and manage such
comments via a login. The resulting site engages visitors and creates a locus for community
interaction. Many people prefer not to create logins for every new site they use—a barrier to
participation—but a new distributed identity system, Open ID, lets them login with existing
credentials. The infrastructure uses standards other organizations, websites, and applications can
then lever to build new dynamic Web 2.0 services. Each system can export and syndicate events for
other sites to share and redisplay, and for fast and lightweight desktop readers to render. An
emerging capability lets users import calendars into their iCalendar compatible applications and view

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2005 ACCGR Capacity Building Application
 events graphically using lightweight desktop readers. Shareable calendars let friends of friends see
events in a collaborative fashion, spreading along social networks, like Upcoming.org.

One attribute all 3 content management systems have in common is opensource, a culture and
process in the software world where the fundamental capital resource, the source code itself, is free
of cost and free to be used, modified, and redistributed, growing ever recursively. The large base of
developers worldwide maintains and enhances the source code.

D.3. How do you plan to evaluate your proposal to determine whether or not it meets goals and
objectives? (Include in your support materials any surveys or other feedback mechanisms you plan
to use.)

We plan to count website pageviews, new visitors, new and returning logins, replies posted, and
comments and feedback returned. Supplemented with web metrics, we can solicit responses via an
online questionnaire with scale ratings and open-ended questions, which can include

• For how long and how often do have you used the Web?
• How complex is what you do on the Web? Provide examples.
• How did you find our website?
• Did you find what you came to seek?
• How easy was it to find what you wanted?
• How useful was your visit today?
• How useful do you expect our site to be for you in the future?
• Do you expect to return?
• How can this website work better for you?

Of course, open to inspection is the website itself.

D.4. What is your project timeline?

We expect preparation, recruiting and buy-in, and evaluation of competing platforms, hosts, and
hosting servers to occur through December 2005; installation of the base platform and most modules
to occur through March; and customization and content to appear through June. Feedback from
these phases may affect the schedule, or suggest a second round of additional recruiting,
installation, and customization. Articles, other content, readership and subscribership build as each
phase and round completes, and continues to build. We expect to complete evaluation and report by
November 2006.

D.5. How will your project improve your organization’s operating efficiencies?

In addition to our website, we already use 6 Yahoogroups to organize our activities. Segmented,
such groups share but few resources. A content management system lessens need to create yet
more groups and mailing lists, while consolidating internal communications by letting writers and
editors work on common articles and events without drawing on technical expertise. It expedites
project workflows. We expect not just improvements in operating efficiency, but also and especially
enhancements in organizational capacity, the ability and ease to do more. We expect to use our
accomplishment to recruit and retain directors and volunteers, to reach out into the community, to
provide a community focal point and online venue, to enable others in their goals.

D.6. How will you revise your program if you do not receive full funding? Having a back-up plan
demonstrates organizational commitment to the project.

The basic program remains unchanged. With severely curtailed or even no funding, the project will
take longer, running on recruited volunteer labor and in their/our free time. Without enough interest
or a diversity and critical mass of talent, harder problems might remain unsolved. When the
opensource community releases revisions faster than we can install, slow installation and
customization makes such work obsolete before we can use it. Funding can motivate volunteers and
encourage additional pro bono work, and progress itself motivates yet more progress.
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2005 ACCGR Capacity Building Application
E. Supplemental Materials (Be sure to include the following with your application
packet):

1 original signed application form including all attachments (A-F)

10 photocopies of application form with attachments C,D,E,F
A! Proof of Organization’s Non-Profit status (see guidelines)
B! Current list of board of directors, including a"liation, addresses, and phone numbers
C! Previous year budget summary (Most recent completed fiscal year, audit statement from
accountant; signed treasurer’s report; Highly recommended: Statement of Cash Flows, Income
Statement and Balance Statement. IRS form 990 will not be accepted.
D! Current Budget (for year not yet completed)
E! Resumes (Project Managers, Consultants, Technical Positions)
F! Support Documentation (letters of commitment or contracts from consultants, other
organizations, price quotes for services to be performed)

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2005 ACCGR Capacity Building Application
F. PROJECT BUDGET (Jan 1-Dec. 31, 2006) (You may re-create this page on your computer)

Total request may not exceed $5,000. DO NOT INCLUDE IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS ON BUDGET SHEET

PROJECT INCOME Explanation (how this amount was generated) COLUMN A

$ Amount
Earned Income
Admissions/Box Office
Membership Dues
Tuition, Workshop Fees, etc.
Sales, Concessions, etc.
Parking
Other (Please describe)
Contributed Income*
Individual
Corporate Contributions
Foundation Grants
Government Grants –not including
Capacity Building Grant
Fund-Raising Events $100
Other (Please describe)

Do not include Capacity Building Grant request

TOTAL CASH INCOME (A) $ 100

PROJECT EXPENSES Fee or Per Hour Rate COLUMN B COLUMN C

(ex. $15 hr x 10 hrs) $ CAP Requested $ Organization
Expense
Personnel (salaried)
Administrative
Artistic

Technical
Other

Outside Professional Service

Administrative
Artisticby tasks: user experience & graphic design 400

Technical by tasks: project implementation 4200 100

Space Rental

Equipment Rental
Travel/Transportation
Advertising/Promotion
Remaining Operating Expenses
(Itemize)
TOTAL 4600 100

TOTAL PROJECT EXPENSES (B+C) $ 4700

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2005 ACCGR Capacity Building Application
TOTAL PROJECT CASH INCOME (A) $0

TOTAL PROJECT EXPENSES (B) + (C) = $ 4700

AMOUNT REQUESTED (B) = $ 4600

G. Project IN-KIND Contributions (Jan 1-Dec. 31, 2006)

Do not include volunteer time as in-kind contribution, unless it is for professional services.

In-Kind contributions are non-cash contributions in the form of services, materials, goods or space.

WHAT EXPLANATION $ VALUE

1. Personnel:
Artistic APA-HiP graphic and web design (20 hours) $500

Administrative APA-HiP project management (32 hours) 640

Technical Production Pro bono and additional contributed technical services 2000

2. Equipment Purchases:

3. Space Rental:

4. Travel/Transportation:

5. Advertising/Promotion:

6. Other Operating In-Kind Contributions: Outside volunteer thank you gifts 100

Total In-Kind Contributions $3240

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2005 ACCGR Capacity Building Application