President's Message
Aloha mai kākou and a belated Hauʻoli Makahiki Hou - Happy New Year!
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to say mahalo for your continued support and being part of the HCCNC ʻohana. As incoming President, I'm so grateful for every individual member, business partner, volunteer, and of course our incredible team on the Board of Directors; each one of you makes our mission possible. A special thank you to my predecessor Jaclyn Funasaki, who continues to serve our community as our Vice President.
2019 was another successful year and featured some of our classic events, from business mixers, the Five Star Aloha Gala and our Hawaiian Holiday in the Bay Area, to new and expanded programming like our Leadership Speaker Series. We are constantly trying to improve for you and our community, and in the fall of last year we conducted our annual survey from our members and identified the three key themes you'd like to see more of:
Events scheduled further in advance so you can plan ahead to attend.
More events across the Bay Area including the East & South Bay.
New types of event programming & events with partner organizations.
We're happy to announce that we are already delivering on all three of these in the form of business mixers, community events, and educational series. For starters, our Events Page is updated from now until end of summer, so please reserve your spot and mark you calendars. This includes our plans to have two events each in the South Bay and East Bay, starting with our February Community Event in San Jose with the Punahou Alumni Association Northern California at the Polynesian Heritage Night for the SJ Sharks, and our March Business Mixer at Somar Bar in Oakland. In April, we'll continue our Leadership Speaker Series with an intimate event in San Francisco featuring Hoala Greevy, CEO & Founder of Paubox, covering his journey as a Hawaiian entrepreneur starting in the islands and moving to the San Francisco Bay Area.
We're also pleased to announce our 2020 Kūlia I Ka Nu‘u award recepient to the legendary and world renowned Hawaiian clothing company, Sig Zane Designs, represented by Sig Zane, his wife Nalani Kanakaole, and son Kūhaʻo Zane. The award will be presented at our Five Star Aloha Gala, on June 5th, 2020, where we honor our award winners and present our HCCNC Scholarship recipients.
We look forward to your continued support and feedback, and encourage you to share the HCCNC with your family and friends in the Bay Area and Hawaii. Please feel free to forward this email and encourage them to sign-up to our monthly newsletter on our website. Please make sure to follow us as well on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you're a Bay Area or Hawaii business looking to further your message and reach, we'd love to talk to you and share how we can help with our Business Member partner program.
Thank you again for everything you do to make the HCCNC ʻohana successful, and we look forward to our continued growth and service to you and the community!
Me ke aloha pumehana,
Michael Bennett