Subject: Re: songlin's suggestions

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1993 13:36:24 -0500 (CDT)

Songlin and all other colleagues,

I appreciate Songlin's effort to make the teleconference more efficient
and save IFCSS' resources.  However, I am afraid that I can't 
agree with some points.

1. As pointed out by Zhang Feng, the shcolarship issue is not solved
   at all if we say the amount of award is taken out.
   I have heard some promise from the HQ about the this issue which
   I am very pleased with.  (The promise is that $240 will be awarded
   to 12 students, which is even better than Songlin suggested :-)
   However, a private promise has no legitimate binding force at all.

2&3. For those financial items and resolutions we have discussed and voted,
   what is the rule for reconsidering?  I am not sure about it.
   I think we better follow the rules specified by Council's by-law or
   otherwise by the Robert's rule.

*. As the money is concerned.  
   We should always keep in mind that we should not waste any of IFCSS'
   precious resource.
   We should always keep in mind, too, the duties we Council members 
   bear and the responsibility the IFCSS Council has.  That is, it is
   the Council's responsibility to make decision where IFCSS should be
   going and how IFCSS (including HQ) should be functioning!

   We are at the beginning of a new year of IFCSS, and probably a turning
   point for IFCSS in the coming years.  What is more important, then 
   , than carefully discussing and approving/disapproving the working
   plan, the budget proposal, the personnel arrangement, and other 
   resolutions which will effect the work of the whole year and afterwards?

   The time limit should not be simply imposed if we are to discuss so
   many important thing.  If we want to limit to 1 or 2 hours, we will 
   need to leave those undiscussed things to later teleconference or
   email conference.\

Yungui

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From: [email-masked] ( )
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 93 18:19:26 -0400

Yungui,
I am not sure where you heard the promised $240 for the award.
I checked with HQ and it is not so.
But then whatever they both part agree to solve the problem, if they both
happy, I don't see any need for us to get involved.

As for the conference time, we did spend too much. The record for council
meeting was 6 hours (somebody correct me?), we are surely going to break it.
The problem is not just time itself, it is efficiency. Lets recall what
we have done, did we really need 5 hours ?
A limitation (reasonable one) of time will help members to be more prepare 
before the meeting. We need only state the most important facts briefly
no tell a long story. What i mean is we should present processed material
not raw material.
Our problem last time was we didn't try to enforce the limit.

After the conference, I told Dong Liqun I have three complains,
The first one goes to Dong Liqun. As meeting chair, he was not authority
enough. He should try to enforce the meeting rules, take the lead.
Sometime, the chair has to be very strict to almost rude. Of cause, he has
to be rational. Liqun was too nice last time.
The sceond one goes to finance committee. You should negotiate with HQ before
the meeting until get a satisfactory version of proposal. In case no agreement
achieved, you should suggest the council to reject the proposal.
The committee should let us know before the meeting that which part of
the budget is wrong and why.
The last complain goes to all of us, include me. We didn't prepare well enough,
we didn't obey the rule very well. It is our meeting, we should be the only
one responsible.

Please don't get upset anybody, I am just try to criticise what we did
not who did it. That is I am only criticise the precedure of our meeting, not 
content of the meeting.
The above criticism is not meant to be personal. I just want we learn some
lessons as the results. I know some of my opinions are very extreme, I don't
claim they are all right. Those are just my thought at the time, and hopefully
you can correct me so we can learn from each other.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1993 21:45:03 -0500 (CDT)

Chen Dong,

As for the Award project, indeed, if nobody is disputing an more, we
don't have any business at all.  But so far, I haven't heard that
the dispute is dissovled.  I think people are waiting for the Council
to make decision, that may be why it's being quite about it now.

You complaints about the lengthiness of last time are valid.
Considering most of us are new and did not know what the Council conference 
was before it.  Hope we could do better this time in using the time 
efficiently :-)  Hope Liqun will put long his face and you count the 
time sharp!

And most importantly, we need to be more prepared.

However, there are important issues, hope we won't just rush to a decision
for the time's sake.

Yungui

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From: [email-masked] ( )
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 93 22:50:22 -0400

Yungui,
Could you contact Liu Zhengdong or Luan Shushen to see if they still have any 
complain about the dispute ?