I Was Elected the President of the Formosan Club of America
By Mu-Sheng Wu
On Saturday morning in June 1974, I received a call from Chicago. On the other end was George Chang and he told me Thomas Young was also on the line. They asked me to run for the Presidency of the Formosan Club of America. They told me that they were struggling to find the right candidate. The current president was going to shut down
the club if no candidate could be found. They gave me an hour to consider their request.
The current term would be expired on June 30, only weeks away. I think one difficulty finding a candidate was because of “KMT’s White Terror” and the President would have to stand in the front line to fight KMT. Additionally, the candidate needed to have been President of a local chapter, according to the Charter of the Formosan Club of America, and few qualified.
Although I had been a President of a local chapter when the Club had been founded, I was not aware of the President’s responsibilities for the national organization. Without knowing, I could not run for the president since I would not know what I should do once I was elected. However, I could not imagine the Club disappearing that had been established to fight KMT. I told myself that I could not be a bystander at this critical moment. I knew that once I became the President, KMT would apply a lot of pressure on my family and relatives in Taiwan and me. However, I chose to fight KMT long ago and I could not easily ignore them. I only hesitated because I didn’t know the duties of the President. I put considerable thought and time to the challenge. Could I make any valuable contributions if I become the President? I solemnly discussed this question with my wife and the conclusion was positively, “Yes.” I should come up with some important plans, and try my best to accomplish them. My mission was to save and re-energize the Formosan Club. Finally, I became a candidate.
In early July, President Hsu received a recommendation letter from Austin Chapter and sent a letter to each Chapter requesting a vote for the new President. Since I was the only candidate, I became the President of the Formosan Club of America. At the time, there were only twelve acting chapters, and among them 10 voted Yes, 0 No and 2 did not vote.
In August, the Formosan Club of America announced the election results and declared that Mu-Sheng Wu was elected the third Club President on September 1, 1974. When I took the office, I thought I would serve for one year, but two years was the term according to the Charter. The discovery extended my duty one year longer than I expected.
My term was from September 1, 1974 to August 31, l976.
Source from Dr. Mu-Sheng Wu
Posted in 06/2020
