League Holds Mass Meeting to Begin Developing a Strategic Plan

On March 11, 2018, an historic mass meeting held by videoconference was attended by all 9 officers of the ​Central Body and an additional 14 members of the restored League. All 6 of the contemporary District Branches were represented, joining the meeting from their respective locations. Many of the members got together with their branches in person to join the meeting. For example, all 10 members attending from Hui Aloha ʻĀina o Ka Lei Maile Aliʻi joined the meeting from a conference room.

The purpose of the meeting was to gather manaʻo to begin developing a Strategic Plan for the League. The total attendance of 23 members of the League was one more than the number of delegates registered in attendance at the 2017 Convention of the League at ʻIolani Palace. So, the meeting was historically significant in terms of both its turnout and the conferencing technology used. As the largest electronic meeting held to date by the restored League, the mana of poe aloha ʻāina (Hawaiian patriots) connecting this way was a wonderful new experience for most of us. At the same time, unanticipated technical troubles made it a frustrating experience.

Without a practice run, the assembly encountered feedback echoing that plagued the meeting. Troubleshooting subsequently diagnosed the problem to the use of multiple devices joining the call from the conference room. Hence, the audio coming from the speakers of one device, combined with the microphone of another device, apparently resulted in reverberating echos that interrupted the proceedings. After 95 minutes, the meeting was adjourned to meet again on March 18. Six people returned for the continued meeting, and the order of business was completed without any technical problems.