Essay 1 on Social Activities
Former President of Beida Alumni Association Li Daxing once said, “We are one
family. Let’s play together.”
Daxing is the one who helped Qi Xiaohe to spread the news about Fudan Centennial
Celebration, informed Zhou Jiangang (Stanley) about the CFAA Centennial meeting,
and relayed to Chen Wei the news about a 2007 Spring Festival Party hosted by
Chinese American Healthcare Professional Association. I expressed my gratitude
to Daxing by saying, “ We owe you too much to ask you for additional help.”
The leading Alumni Associations in Chicago are highly regarded by both Chinese
communities and some mainstream American communities. People joined the alumni
associations to meet old friends and make new friends. Outsiders do admire those
who have alumni association to join. Once in a church Shi Yu (Sunny) and I were
talking about Fudan Alumni Association. A friend commented that everyone can
join a church, however, only a few people can join Fudan Alumni Association.
Recently CFAA experienced rapid growth in term of membership and profile. We are
also entering the phase of strengthen ourselves through enhanced networking
among members. Several informal groups of Fudan alumni used to interact with
each other, now these groups were brought into CFAA. We also build several new
alumni groups through hobby clubs.
CFAA will continue to grow as members are growing their social skills. Skill is
not only the key asset to corporations; it is also the most important asset to
an alumni association like CFAA. Also social skill is an indispensable asset to
professionals in the current global market environment. In the next essay let’s
talk about social skills
Essay 2 on Social Skills
Both corporations and organizations grow in stages. For start-up companies, they
have to perform well at each stage to attract capital for their growth in next
stage. CFAA has similar experiences in growing itself. Starting with few
members, we have to perform well at each stage to attract more members. Now CFAA
is reaching maturity and we are in a familiar environment since most people work
in mature companies or institutions.
Corporations and organizations increasingly rely on soft asset. Social skills
and social network are important soft assets.
The benefit of a social organization like CFAA is that in addition to providing
social networking opportunity for members, it also provides valuable channel for
active members to enhance their social skills. Each activity teaches us useful
experiences, which make it easier to organize future activities.
CFAA is also reaching out to Chinese communities and some mainstream American
communities. We are going to participate in the ACSE Spring Festival Dinner
Party together with other six major alumni associations. This gathering is
organized mainly by ACSE, with Xu Xiangdong and other ACSE people leading the
efforts.
External social network is very important to CFAA, internal networking is also
very helpful to members. I talked to Fudan alumni Zhang Juntao and Lu Xingliang
recently. Zhang Juntao was former President of CFAA and Prof. Lu Xingliang was
Vice President of the influential Chinese American Association of Greater
Chicago. Prof. Lu left his full professor position in Northwestern University to
join Zhang Juntao in a start-up company. This is one of the best social
networking examples in Chicago Chinese community.
Social skills, internal social network, and external social network are the most
important assets in CFAA. Let’s grow together with CFAA.
Wang Jian