北美洲台灣人教授協會年會特刊 2005
作者 NATPA
Welcome to NATPA 2005 Annual Conference
Message from the President:
Welcome to the 25th Annual Meeting of NATPA. Let us commemorate the passing of NATPA5 s quarter century milepost in Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah where Brigham Young told his Mormon followers, “This is the right place.” on seeing the Salt Lake Valley for the first time in 1847.
Our theme for this year is “Developing a Sustainable Taiwan.” This is not to be confused with the usual call for “Sustainable Development of Taiwan,” which is an easier task compared to the first. Taiwan must be able to first survive the transition to statehood before it can address other developmental issues. Therefore, 6tA Sustainable Taiwan” must be achieved first before we can embark on “Sustainable Development” of Taiwan. While the board chose this theme last October, it has taken on added significance with China becoming increasingly belligerent in the last few months. Today, Taiwan is under serious attack on its existence from both within and without. Internationally, China is working ruthlessly to obstruct Taiwan from participating in any world organization at every turn. Domestically, we have opposition parties who would do anything to create social disorder and sabotage the policies of the DPP government. Such is the precarious state of Taiwan that its existence is increasingly at risk.
The sustainability of Taiwan encompasses many aspects from the fundamental to the practical.
In this Conference, we have invited many experts in different fields to address issues and lead our discussions on a variety of important subjects.
We will revisit some areas that have been discussed in the previous conferences, but with different perspectives by different experts. In this manner we hope to broaden our horizon and deepen our understanding of many basic and practical issues that are of critical concern to our members today. Among these are the legal status of Taiwan and its nationhood, the military threat of China, the economic and technological developments and outlook in Taiwan, as well as the identity, culture and language of the Taiwanese.
We shall also cover the areas of energy and environment, and subjects related to members9 personal welfare that range from the exotic to the mundane, such as life extension, herbal medicine, and recreation and sports in Taiwan.
Additionally, we have two important features that warrant special mention. One is the Banquet speech of Dr. Kuan-Tsae Huang, the 11th president of National Taiwan Normal University, who will share with us his views on the subject of how to create first-rate research universities in Taiwan. The other is the session that is being organized entirely by the Young Scholars. This year we have chosen nine extremely talented Young Scholars from a group of applicants. These Young Scholars will be presenting a full session of their own for the first time about the experiences they gained while teaching in the high schools of Taiwan.
The Young Scholars Program, formerly known as the Internship Program, is in its third year after it was launched in 2003 by Dr. Yeh with the help of Dr. Pin-Wen Hou who conducted a successful fund raising campaign primarily from our members.
We are very happy to report that the Young Scholars Program reached a tremendous milestone this year both in the caliber of Young Scholars chosen and in the amount of cash raised to support the Program. We were very fortunate to have a capable member, Dr. P. W. Hou, who demonstrated his extraordinary talent in fund raising two years ago. In order to build a little cushion for the YSP budgets and to alleviate the need to raise cash every year, I asked Dr. Hou this spring to lead the fund raising effort for us again this year. The results were spectacular. As of today, a total of $15,000 was raised, thanks to a matching challenge of one dollar for every two dollars from the SKB Foundation and a large contribution from the TB Fund. This amount is twice the original goal of $7,500 that we set at the beginning of the campaign. We estimate that this sum, together with pledged contributions from the TB Fund, will be sufficient to continue the Program for the next five years without the need to solicit more funds. We are extremely thankful to Dr. C. P. Yeh, Dr. Jeff Hou and Dr. P. W. Hou for their relentless efforts and to our members and friends for their enthusiastic response to Dr. P. W. Hou9s calls for financial support.
In addition to the warm support to our Young Scholars Program, our members have been particularly generous and supportive of our organization. This is manifested not only in the additional cash donation to the general fund but also in the fee payment and balloting for board directors, which saw an increase of about 50% compared to the previous two years. On the general fund, we are particularly grateful to our prominent member Dr. Chris Yen and our friend Dr. Woody Sheng-Mao Fang for their most generous donations.
I would like to end this message by thanking members of the Conference Committee, the Program Committee, the Post Conference Committee and all those who contributed graciously to the Conference. Throughout the entire process of preparation, I was overwhelmed by the total devotion and sacrifice of many members who did not hesitate to contribute their time, labor and cash to ensure the success of the Conference. I was extremely fortunate to have such a talented and willing team by my side. On behalf of N ATP A, I would like to express our deep gratitude to all of you.
Print in 2005/07
Posted in 2015/12
