Meeting place: Guian Zhou and Xiaohong Yang’s House

Attendees: Mohan Xu, Guian Zhou, Rose Sun, Jinjun Zhang, Yuemin Qiu, Ximin He, Shan Lu, Hanqing Jiang, Xuemeng Zhang, Huan Li, Lingtao Liu, Guohua Li, Jennie Si, Hongyu Yu, Min Tao

Excused: Hong Xie, Xiao Lu, Zheng Wang, Qiushi Fu

Meeting Agenda

1, Icebreaker (all)

2, Review past two years work (Min)

Min quickly reviewed the TAAA activities in past 2.5 years as the current president. The committee organized activities mainly in three categories: a) Tsinghua anniversary celebration. Kiwanis park was selected as the venue for anniversary celebration in Aprils since 2011. 2012 BBQ had 50+ members and families attended. 2013 potluck had 80+ members and families attended. B) TAAA Salon. Total 5 salons were hosted in ASU, with topics covering technology, career, start up, family finance, etc. and total 100+ attendees; c) Recreational events. One spring hiking trip to Pikachu Peak and two fall zoo trips were organized. TAAA also served local Chinese community in cultural and ethnic awareness in collaborating with other local Chinese organizations.

3, Review by-law (Jennie)

Jennie, as TAAA’s Honorary president, reviewed the TAAA by-law enforced in May 2011 board meeting and amended in Jan 2013 board meeting. An amendment to Article 6 Organization was proposed to 1) change the total number of board committee members from seven to no less than seven and preferably in odd number, and 2) change the vice president requirement from ”one must be” an ASU student, to ”suggest to be?’an ASU student. The amendment was approved unanimously. The amended bylaw will be posted to TAAA website with link sent to all members.

4, Candidates self-introduction and ideas of future TAAA activities (all)

All candidates went around introducing their background and interest in TAAA’s activities. Total 12 members (including absent Qiushi Fu and Zheng Wang) showed interest in next 2 years’ committee work. Min, Grant, Shan, and Xiao are not going to continue in committee work with their other obligations. The ideas of future TAAA activities will be summarized in Part 6 in this meeting minutes.

5, Election (all)

Hongyu Yu was elected as the next President of TAAA board committee. The other elected committee members are: Lingtao Liu (VP), Ximin He (VP), Rose Sun (Treasure), Mohan Xu (website and social media), Xuemeng Zhang (Social media, Tucson contact), Qiushi Fu, Yuemin Qiu, Hanqing Jiang, Huan Li, Zheng Wang. The bios of new members will be posted on website and sent out.

Jennie Si will remain Honorary President. Hong Xie will remain President of Consular Board.

6, Next year抯 activity brainstorming (all)

– Anniversary celebration. Shan suggested looking for an indoor venue (e.g, the club house in her community) as a backup plan in case the extreme hot weather like the one in 2012 occurs again.

ARs: 1) Shan to check the availability of the club house on Apr 13 (preferred) and Apr 20, feedback to team by Jan 31. 2) Min to check if Kiwanis park has an indoor place to rent together with the Ramada. Feedback to team by Jan 31.

– Website and social media enhancement. Guohua will help Mohan for the website maintenance and enhancement. Need to rejuvenate Facebook and Wechat groups with more photos and information and utilize them as tools to connect alumni.

ARs: Min to set up a meeting with Xiao, Guohua, Mohan and Hongyu to transfer website, email account, and social media account maintenance information by Feb 7th.

– TAAA salon. Hanqing suggested the topics can be broader, not just at professional level, but including topics like baby raising and kids education for different interest among alumni.

– Outdoor activities like hiking or sports are very welcome among alumni. Social media should be utilized to organize some ad hoc activities like weekend soccer game or hiking.

– The Pros and Cons of establishing TAAA as a 501c(3) organization was discussed. It will make it easier for members to make tax deductible donation, and force us to keep and maintain organized records of TAAA activities, but at the same time, will bring extra work for committee. Hongyu will discuss with new committee in follow up meetings and decide

– Club抯 finance situation was discussed. We are at break even with Jennie抯 donation and past donation made through United way. In the future, we can look for some event sponsors from local Chinese business like real estate, restaurant, insurance, etc.

– In terms of affiliation with Tucson alumni, Mohan and Xuemeng will contact other students in UA. They will also look into organizing some events such as cave trips to attract some alumni from Phoenix as well.

Great thanks to alumni Guian Zhou and Xiaohong Yang for generously hosting the meeting at their beautiful house!