MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE AMERICAN ZHU KEZHEN EDUCATION FOUNDATION
May 13, 2004
Members Present: Directors: Kwang-Chu Chao, Jianping Gong, Keqin Gu, Tingyue Gu, George Hong, Elaine Jin, Feiyue Wang, Yan Xiong, Wei Xu, Fangxin Yang, Yizhou Zheng, Stephen Zhou, Cheng Zhu and Jingshuo Zhu; Director Emeritus and Honorary President: Yigang Cai Directors Absent: Zichen Chen, Shang Guo, Guojun Hu, Jin Li, Jianmin Qiao, Yizhou Yu, Luping Yu 1. Call to Order The meeting started at 9:00 pm US Eastern Daylight Savings Time via telephone conference. Kwang-Chu Chao presided the meeting. 2. Welcome of New Members On behalf of the board, K. C. Chao extended welcome to the newly elected directors: Yizhou Zheng and Stephen Zhou. He also congratulated the re-election of six existing directors: Jianping Gong, Keqin Gu, Elaine Jin, Luping Yu, Cheng Zhu and Jingshuo Zhu. The election and reelection were conducted electronically before the meeting. 3. Approval of Minutes The minutes of the board of director meeting on January 22, 2004 was sent to the BOD members prior to the meeting. No changes were suggested. The minutes stood approved. 4. Preview of Agenda K. C. Chao previewed the agenda. Due to the fact that electronic election was conducted before the meeting, the election items were rendered irrelevant and cancelled. 5. Report by the Secretary Keqin Gu requested all the committee chairs to send him any important documents for record keeping purpose. He has the plan of converting the existing documents to electronic form. He also requested all the directors to send him as complete contact information as possible, so that he can compile a more complete directory for the sake of convenience of communications. Whenever available, the directory will list the mailing address, e-mail address (preferred e-mail address if more then one are provided), home and work telephone numbers and fax numbers. Keqin Gu also announced his intention to step down from the secretary position after one year from the meeting time, and is requesting to have a successor identified so that a smooth transition can be made. 6. Report by the Scholarship Selection Committee Cheng Zhu reported the activities of the Scholarship Selection Committee: The main work of the committee since the last meeting has been the implementation of the four Zhu Kezhen Distinguished Lectures. The first lecturer, Professor Chih-Ming Ho, has already visited ZU from April 20 to 21. The lecture event was very successful. The organizer was very capable, and there was a huge crowd for the lectures. Two lectures were delivered, the general lecture targeted undergraduate students, and the specialty lecture targeted faculty members and graduate students in his research area. President YunHe Pan made a special trip from Beijing for the lectures. ZU also established connections with UCLA in the area of nanotechnology.
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Professor Ho also delivered lectures in Beijing University and Chinese Academy of Science. Feiyue Wang suggested the possibility of expanding the scope of the foundation to Chinese Academy of Science since Zhu Kezhen was also very prominent in leading the Academy during his life time. Two other lecturers, Bill F. Spencer and Van C. Mow, will visit ZU at around the same time in July. The last lecture by Kang G. Shin is tentatively scheduled in October, and is being communicated by Feiyue Wang. Cheng Zhu also reflected some experiences of the lectureship. ZU has been very hospitable, and all the living and traveling arrangements have been very good. The technical side of the arrangement has a more uneven record, and requires us to enhance communications with the local host to improve the impact. For example, one of this year’s lecturer, Van C. Mow, is in the area of orthopedic bioengineering, and there is no counterpart in ZU. Cheng Zhu arranged to have some people from Shanghai to attend and interact with the lecturer. As we proposed in the January meeting, we are continuing to explore the possibility of providing traveling grants from different parts of China to attend the lectures, which seems to be a cost effective way to enhance Zhejiang University’s visibility in China. Some discussions followed: Yizhou Zheng suggested getting inputs from ZU, and providing information regarding the evolutions and creations of disciplines, as well as textbooks. Cheng Zhu explained that it has already been our practice that ZU provides us with the disciplines of the lectures. Currently, the Office of International Programs calls for proposals by the academic departments and select appropriate proposals. Last year Cheng and Feiyue were in ZU discussing with ZU, and decided that interdisciplinary topics should be the focus. Regarding the question of curriculum and textbook, Cathy Yang said that she has been in constant contacts with ZU regarding curriculum and textbooks since she was in ZU during her sabbatical leave last year. Cheng Zhu said that we should consider the impact if we consider it as a formal item of AZKEF mission rather than on an individual contact basis. Jinshuo Zhu indicated that there is no problem from tax code point of view due to the fact that we have changed our status from public to private charity organization. This conversion allows us to accept more large donations and to be more flexible in terms of our mission. Feiyue Wang said the president of ZU is well aware of the newest development of US curricula, through such events as presidents’ conferences and access to MIT websites on the details of curriculum. This issue will be further studied by the SSC under the new chair Cathy Yang. 7. Report by the Fundraising Committee Jianping Gong reported the work of the Fundraising Committee since the last meeting: -The “Thank-you letters” to the donors have been sent shortly after the last meeting. -The database of alumni has been updated. -The costs for fundraising has been significantly reduced ($578 as compared to more than $1000 the year before) due to more usage of e-mails (hard copy were not sent unless the e-mail was returned) and the lower labor costs by studying the list more carefully.
Jianping Gong also expressed his wish to step down one year from the meeting time, and suggested identifying a person to take over the position to secure smooth transition. Feiyue suggested that it may be possible to get some tax benefits for volunteers who donate large amount of their time. Jinshuo Zhu said this is really a gray area and very difficult tax issue. K.C. Chao said the labor costs are usually not tax deductible according to his understanding other than driving mileage. Cheng Zhu suggested that we merge those alumni directories available (such as the local alumni organization headed by Stephen Zhou) to our database. Jinshuo Zhu reported that the database address has been updated according to the new data collected from the last few years. Cheng Zhu suggested that fundraising is year-round work rather than just in the fundraising season. We should also try to share the workload among the members of fundraising committee. Jinshuo Zhu commended the great job by Jianping Gong. Many other directors also expressed their praise for Jianping Gong. 8. Report by the Publicity Committee Wei Xu reported on behalf of the Publicity Committee: -Wei Xu took over the chair position from Elaine Jin early this year. -Web development: Shuo Lin carried out substantial development of the web. Yang Guo did a lot of updates. Tingyue Gu is currently responsible for the maintenance. -Newsletter: Jin Li is in charge of the newsletters. The directors are encouraged to submit articles for publication in the newsletter. K. C. Chao suggested that as part of fundraising activities, we should report our activities in the Alumni Communications of Zhejiang University (Xiao You Tong Xun). This publication usually has two issues per year, and is well read by older alumni. Cheng Zhu emphasized that older alumni is still the most important source of donation, and we should try to contribute to this publication in every issue. Stephen Zhou reported that he participated in the Alumni Organization of National Zhejiang University, the flagship organization for most older ZD alumni. He also suggested that we should consider increasing values to the donors, such as plaque and lunch/dinner with the president for large donors. K. C. Chao emphasized the importance of personal connections. Feiyue Wang suggested the possibility of honorary members or directors of AZKEF for large donors. Jinshuo Zhu reported that the change of our status allows us to be more flexible, such as paying fees for securing large donations or connections. Stephen Zhou also suggested approaching alumni owning business. Cheng Zhu summarized the possibilities of increasing the donor values: The thank-you letter signed by the president, honor roll in the web, and honorary membership. He also reinforced the importance of personal connections. Jiangping Gong and Stephen Zhou concurred. In addition, George Hong also suggested the possibility of paying commission for securing large donations. Cheng Zhu suggested that the fundraising committee discuss the issue in more details and submit a proposal. K. C. Chao suggested that expanded committee meeting can be held to discuss such issues.
9. Report by the Finance Committee Jinshuo Zhu reported on behalf of the Finance Committe: He first suggested that Cathy Yang attend a gathering in New Jersey, attended by a large number of alumni from the College of Medicine. He then reported that we have changed our status from public to private charitable organization. This allows us to accept large donation, establish scholarship, and allows us to expand the scope such as donating to other organizations than ZU, as well as charging and paying minor fees for some processing. On the other hand, for some donors, the part of donation exceeding 30% of adjusted gross income may not be tax deductible, although such large donations can be considered spread over in a five year period for tax purpose. He reported that we have identified Yizhou Zheng to assume the new position of controller. We are in the process of identifying a person to take over the Treasurer position, and he expressed his intention to step down as soon as such a person is identified. Cheng Zhu reported that George Hong is no longer in the finance committee. He also inquired, and Feiyue Wang confirmed, that the Scholarship with Wang’s donation is being finalized, and some ZU faculty professional membership fees have already been paid from Wang’s donation. 10. Report by the President Cheng Zhu presented the President’s report: Membership of board of directors: With the election of two new members and retirement of one existing member, the number of directors has reached historic high of 20. We should work on effectively sharing the duties. Officer rotation: We are going through a healthy officer rotation with the change of officers. The secretary and the fundraising committee chair will change in a year. The treasurer will change as soon as an appropriate person is identified. The publicity chair has changed a few months ago. Cheng Zhu also asked Yan Xiong to help in the Treasurer work. Program: The Zhu Kezhen Distinguished lectureship continues to be our most important activities. We have also expanded the scholarship, currently we have three scholarships, and we are hopeful this number will increase. Fundraising: Last year we received donation of $38,650. We hope to attract more donations, especially through 10-year anniversary activities. Membership: Due to the merge of ZU, we should try to recruit new directors from College of Medicine and Agriculture. Cathy Yang’s attendance in New Jersey event will be helpful to recruit directors from the College of Medicine. 11. Report by the Chairman of the Board K. C. Chao presented the Board Chair’s report: We are doing well; the scope and level of activities are expanding.
We still have substantial potential in terms of fundraising. Scholarship: we established the new Yao scholarship. K. C. Chao also reported that the National Zhejiang University Alumni Association’s annual meeting will be held on August 7 to 8, 2004. This meeting is well attended by older alumni. Under the leadership of Danian Pan, the meeting is trying to attract newer alumni. In the meeting, it is planned to establish an umbrella organization for all ZD alumni organizations. The meeting will last for two days. There will be a three day tour afterwards. 12. Ten-Year Anniversary Activities Elaine Jin said there will be publicity of the 10-year anniversary events using the newsletter. Cheng Zhu said we should establish procedure documents regarding committee activities and officer rotations. Stephen Zhou suggested that we should review the history and AZKEF and carry out special fundraising. Yigang Cai suggest that the publicity committee should submit a proposal in this year. 13. Report by the Nomination Committee Elaine Jin reported on behalf of the nomination committee: We have recruited two new directors, the number of directors reached historic high. The by-law has a cap of 24 directors. Six of the seven expiring directors have been re-elected. The intention of a number of officers to step down created a number of openings. The nomination committee is charged with the task of identifying the new officers, and we welcome volunteers. Cheng Zhu thanked Tingyue Gu for his many years of service. Tingyue is one of the oldest members of the board. He decided not to be considered for re-election. We are grateful also for his willingness to continue to maintain the web. A plaque will be order and sent to him to show our appreciation for this service. 14. Next Board meeting The next Board meeting is tentatively scheduled on January 13, 2005 via telephone conference. 15. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time.