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Chime® celebrates: Honoring AAPI Heritage Month—and bringing remote Chimers together—with a dinner series

Group 7

“The idea for our AAPI Heritage Month dinner series came to me when I was on a plane, on my way to Chime’s office for an on-site,” says Shaylene Liao, a Co-Lead of the Chimer Resource Group for AAPI Chimers, Pacifichime. “I’m a remote Chimer and always looking for ways to cultivate a sense of community with my coworkers.”

Living in Southern California, Shaylene knows all too well what work FOMO (fear of missing out) can feel like. “I’ve realized how important it is to create community through face-to-face interactions as a remote Chimer,” she says. So she pitched the idea of a dinner series to her PacifiChime co-leads as a way to create the opportunity for remote Chimers to get together during AAPI Heritage Month. “Food is the epicenter of so much Asian culture, so what better way to gather remote Chimers than over a meal?” 

The premise: AAPI dinner meetups

The premise of the dinners was simple: Chimers would fill out a form if they were interested in participating in the dinner series. The form asked about their team (to ensure diversity of representation), location, and how far they were willing to travel—and it was open to all Chimers, not just PacifiChime members. “We included allies who want to learn, partake, and build connections with their AAPI coworkers, too,” Shaylene says. “You don’t have to look a certain way or have a specific heritage to be welcome in our community.”

Remote Chimers were randomly selected based on location, and Slack groups were assembled to organize the dinners. $50 was budgeted per person, and dinners were planned in Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, and Miami. Shaylene helped everyone figure out a date and time that worked for the meal, and the group decided on the restaurant, which had to be of Asian origin. 

Creating connections

“A lot of the people who attended had never talked or worked together,” Shaylene says. “The dinners really opened up new lines of communication for many Chimers.” 

The dinners were also a great way to offer programming during AAPI Heritage Month on a smaller scale that was a lighter lift for PacifiChime co-leads. “May can get very overwhelming with so many events and programming, but these dinners were largely self-organized and ignited the month with a new level of enthusiasm,” Shaylene says.

Here’s what a few Chimers who attended the dinners shared after the events:

The dinners

Here’s where Chimers went to dinner and a few pictures of their experience:

Whether you were looking for it or not, this is your sign to organize a local dinner with remote coworkers! 





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