Longer Search Workshop needed
Suggested Speakers for next year: Nancy Verrier, Beth Paddock
Wonderful 1st Conference Congratulation!
Teen and Children’s workshop – great idea
Please have a conference in Seattle, Vancouver BC or Portland
"Wow speakers were: Pavao, Deborah Johnson, Paull Shin, Richard Lee
Would like the conference earlier – June
W.I.S.E up workshop for pre-teens and teens – Center for Adoption Support and Education, Silver Springs, MD
Kids need a variety of rooms, room w/window or hotel garden space/ stations adapting to multi-age needs. Encourage more involvement of biological siblings, lots more physical activity with each session. This years sessions were good, but room was restrictive.
The Radisson employees were not helpful! (ie. Ophelia at the Radisson Wilshire reservation office actually yelled at me over the phone when our reservation number did not prove to actually guarantee our reservations.) Boo Radisson!
The conference was Fab! Awesome! Fun! Delightful! Thought Provoking! Emotional! A Blessing!
My Korean born daughter said Saturday P.M. "Mom I’m not the only one!" My biological son said, "Mom I was the only round eye!" Each of them learned so very much – those intangible gifts! They both learned through all of their senses! Thank you!
Separate sessions for 18-24 year olds. They need more interactive forums to "ween"
from teen groups and camps where they are used to a safe place for self-expression of life stories and emotions. The living and working in Korea panel was excellent and would be good to offer once as a general session and again for just 18-24 with more discussion.
Also the Korean Community was noticeably a "speak and run" group – not much in attendance at sessions. Again, I’d like interactive and brainstorming sessions with both adoptive families and Korean families talking with each other How about invite the staff of Korean Adoption agency for search panel. It was not good that an adoptee explained the way of four Korean Adoption Agencies do search.
Sessions seemed to be best when there was lots of time for discussions among participants and speakers. Perhaps more round-table type forums would be useful.
Our children made connections. This is good. More opportunity for participants to interact informally with participants. Mixer reception more useful, 2nd night after the ice has been broken. Workshops needed more time.
Small group discussions facilitated by strong leaders who can help adult adoptees and adoptive parents of younger children and others share their wisdom with each other. Logistics were sometimes difficult – rooms too small, hot, difficulty hearing. Map to Saturday night activity was very problematic – inaccurate.
Next year us too soon. More variety for the 17 through 25 age group. Or maybe this conference is better kept in the children/teen age group? Improve the young adult or maybe it’s not possible to combine kids and young adults at a conference.
A panel of adoptive father’s who served in Korea
Especially enjoyed having the Korea birth mothers. The lunch and show were wonderful.
I notice that the people who attended this event all seem to be pleased. Every seat was filled!
It would be more challenging to have average (so called) adoptees talk about their opinions and feelings. Major population of adoptees are located in MidWest area. To have more adoptees attend, it is ideal to have convention in Chicago area in the near future.
Exciting experience. Just the beginning of many more, we hope.
Bring in the Center for Adoption Support and Education in Silver Spring, MD to give their "Wise up!" Workshop for children. It would be great if KAAN could find a way to continue the dialogue on information and search throughout the year with adoptees, parents (birth and adoptive), the Korean agencies, U.S. agencies, and the Korean government, and then have referral forms on this subject next year with the goal of helping bring clarity and perhaps commonality to policies.
This conference was an incredible moving experience –Bravo!! Please let families, adoptees, and organizations help keep it going!
Would like to have more on search for birth parents, identity as it evolves thorugh the transitional stages of life, even into adulthood, marriage, child bearing, work issues, racism etc. How to respond to racist comments made to adoptees, survival skills. Tools to deal with racism, insensitive comments. Session rooms were too small with poor air circulation.
Teen children strands were excellent idea! Seemed to be accepted positively by our children and teens. More time was needed for the search panel. This is a large issue and needed more time to state and explore. We are strongly considering attending next year.
The speakers were very high quality. We would to attend the next conference, but are not sure because we live on the West Coast.
For children, teens and adults, we suggest a session re social and cultural mores in Korea with specific discussion of differences in the roles of mean and women in Korea and in America.
For teens: session on reunification with birthparents
For teens and adults: session on birth fathers
For teens and adults session of younger adult adoptees (ie. Adoptees born after the Korean war)
Thank your to all of you for giving us this conference. The speakers were very informative and thought provoking. For the next conference, please have sessions that build on the first conference.
Re children’s sessions out daughter got a little bored with the Saturday afternoon
Session. I think because she was inside all day in the same room. A little variety, perhaps with out door activities, for the afternoon session would be beneficial
I think we will attend again. We loved it. You needed soft drinks at lunch for kids. Having teenagers at the birthmother panel seemed inappropriate. They were inattentive, uninterested, and disrespectful. It was uncomfortable to witness. Unbelievably poor planning having drumming next door to Life After Reunion Seminar
Maybe have a panel of adoptive families and mentor familes.
Kids program was good but too constrained. They needed a chance to get out of the hotel and do some more active activities.
Instructions and directions to workshops was inadequate and frustrating. There should be a map and the map distributed was inadequate, causing a great deal of frustration.
A program geared toward young adult adoptees. Examples more discussion groups, personalized groups. I truly enjoyed the workshops. The speakers and topics were excellent. However, a young adult adoptee program needs to be formed. Also, perhaps a group for adoptees who are familiar with Korea and Korean culture already would be beneficial.
The speakers, and variety of topics were excellent. I would suggest smaller groups for more participation. The facility was inadequate for the number of people. The location lacked adequate eating and shopping within walking distance.
Great job!!!
If I can afford it I will attend next year. Please organize tours to sign up for in advance in New York City.
Sign up for sessions ahead of time, so you know how much room you need in each conference room
Disappointed that the teens did not tour Koreantown.
Birthfathers!
From a kid – do more stuff outside instead of talking
You need programs for adoptees out of high school. The need topics with focus just for them.
Too small meeting rooms was bad.
Open a two way discussion on search, registry, records etc. with Korean Government officials
Forum on Korean American Jewish Adoptive families
Activities for pre-teens not yet teens, yet not children
More involvement of local Korean Community
More question and answer time
Mixed race biracial topics, more roundtable type discussions, more audience participation and interaction.
More audience participation and interaction
A workshop on volunteers helping adoptees to search and have translation so that we can write letters.
Need airconditioning, especially in New York
Koreatown tours in New York , walking, driving, etc.
Have boards for connection requests
Rooms to accommodate larger numbers
Info on Korea in book
Send itinerary before we arrive
Have a great lunch like this one!
The honesty of most panel members helped my healing process or the beginning of it
Need to arrange transportation for offsite events.
Conference was great! There were interesting topics, great speakers, good mix of participants, lots of points of view, but a sense that we are all allies.
Doing this on a weekend is ideal
Excellent variety of topics and speakers
Speakers were inspirational and insightful – Paull Shin was invaluable
Could improve by adding 18-24 year old sessions
Thanks for all your hard work and dedication
Would like more time to socialize and see the local area
Excellent building of community!
Quality of programs and speakers were excellent.
Would like statistics on common personality traits among adoptees
Need better maps with exact addresses for events off the conference site – cross streets
If possible get a hotel without valet parking
Divide teens by younger and older teens 13-15 16+
Larger conference rooms; microphones at all sessions
Clearer map with better directions and complete address for each location
More time allowed for questions and discussions
After workshop chances for discussion
Bi-racial adoptee’s issues
Great conference – Thank you!
Some topics would be explored more fully during a longer session. Especially the topics on searching for birth parents.
Excellent programs and speakers
Excellent topics, speakers and programs
Panel of adoptive parents
Consider more time for Q & A (Survey of parents and kids use 3X5 cards so that questions can be asked anonymously)
The lack of organization, size of rooms, need for amplification, and better ventilation were self-evident.
Breaks need to be respected instead of having every session run over.
Needed more water in all rooms
Congratulations on a great start! Yesterday’s Korean lunch was great
Adoptees experiences for teens and children
Good job for your first conference.
My favorite session was w/Dr. Joyce Pavao: She was outstanding and full of insightful information for me in understanding my adolescent teens. I also felt like their need to be sessions for 18-24 group. (Too old for teen group, too young for the in depth emotional issues of these sessions.)
I thought the sessions on Search were very good and thorough but I would have liked more sessions on the transitions in psychological progressions from the teen-age to the adult years as they try to process being Korean American.
Bring back Joyce Maguire Pavao
A workshop for professionals on post-adoption services and how to improve them.
Nine year old boys together in on room for seven hours! Yikes!!
I appreciate the attempt to engage them in workshops, but taking them out on the town was what I expected and may have preserved the sanity of angel like group leaders.
Need bigger rooms, would prefer the third week in June
How to prepare adoptive families for dealing with racism and guide children in that walk and what to say
I am very impressed with the efforts to have classes for young children, teens, and adults. This was well thought out.
The hotel was pleasant with good valet parking for those of us who were driving in.
Does the conference need to be in New York? Parking is $21 a day in there. Couldn’t it be arranged in Baltimore – 1/10th the cost for food, parking, and everything else? Please look into it if not too late.
How about having a game night or session where families learn some of the different types of Korean table games
How about a history workshop where families ca get a history of Korean and what makes Korea unique in the time line of earth. Why are Koreans so respected – how do they teach family respect – Is this changing in the modern day?
Could there be sign in books for people who want to be on a shared master list and email list.
Could there be a workshop where families are invited to talk in a round table discussion- How they handled and worked through issues
Can there be a movie room or game in the evening when kids make friends have a place to go in the evening to continue visiting a bonding when all the days workshops are done? The kids needed a place to hang out and bond when the adults went to the Art Show
Thank you, You did a great job!
My children enjoyed and said that they would come back next year. This is a big factor and complement to your program as they are difficult to please. The children’s workshops are most important to our family.
Topics were good. Possibly a logical ordering of presentations could help – history of adoption in Korea, current adoption say from 1950’s through 1960"s. Why is US so secretive, what other countries do. Then follow with adoption experiences from the 50’s to the 90’s.
We were at the Best Western. It’s a very bad hotel.
The Radisson’s meeting rooms were way too small, too hot, inflexible.
You might try a number of simultaneous presentations to which are audience preferred. If not sure, then have multiple presentations of same topics to see which works best.
I think the kids need more to do, some of them were bored.
More interactive programs would be beneficial more Q&A. I’m thinking 50 minute hours would be preferable to 75 minute hours, but that may have been caused the by too small, too hot rooms.
Moderator control varied greatly. Firm control seemed to work best, for time and content.
Translation was rocky, with some coming after several minutes of speaking. More practice is needed in how to orchestrate running translation. Quality of translation was good.
Microphone placement was a problem. Maybe all speakers could wear wireless mikes and avoid the problem.
Maybe some Korean vendors could be invited to set up at the conference – books literature, crafts, dresses, household items, and or compiling web access sites or lists of Korean topic sites. It doesn’t have to be a zoo. But a listing of say, available Korean periodicals and access to them would help. Korean Quarterly is the only one I can think of.
Was the conference good? Yes!
Would I recommend it? Yes!
Will I come next year? Yes!
Was it worthwhile? Yes!
This was an excellent conference. I will take away more knowledge than I came with. I am glad I came.
Would it be possible to get a Korean birth father and an American birth father to give their stories
Don’t know where you would find them, but it would be nice to hear from adult adoptees with different viewpoints, ie not searching, full acceptance of who they are w/o it.
The time for several discussions was too short. The speakers were rushed and not enough time for Q&A. Those panels were Normative Crisis – wonderful speaker; Search Panel – lost of curiosity from audience; Adoptees Living and Working in Korea
Video showing about Korea: I can provide a video
I can provide a video
Sharing of adoption experiences in Korea by Korean Adoptive parents
I would like to share my experience working as the directress of adoption agency in Korea, adoption laws, policies, adoption situation in Korea
Adopting a handicapped child
Simultaneous system needed for translation English into Korean, Korean into English
Microphone system
Coffee and simple snacks in conference lobbies
Selling books related to adoption
Korean American adoption disruption study needed.