On September 28, 1885, an "Anti-Chinese Congress" met in Seattle. Tacoma's Mayor Weisbach presided over the congress, which proclaimed that all Chinese people must leave Western Washington by November 1 of that year. The congress planned for "ouster committees" to notify the Chinese residents in the communities assembled of the expulsion date. A meeting was held at the Alpha Opera House in Tacoma on October 3 to elect the Tacoma "ouster committee," which would later become known as the Committee of Fifteen. Following the meeting, members of this committee alerted members of Tacoma's Chinese community that they had to leave the city by November 1. Other anti-Chinese community members put additional pressure on white Tacomans to fire their Chinese employees.