President’s Message from Dr. Lianlian Lin

The CSA’s first publication – Academic Perspective (学术展望会刊) has come to existence!  The publication intends to enhance a sense of sharing in the CSA family through information exchange among our members.  It also helps promote our organization to the outside communities by presenting our expertise and resources.  Through compiling our specialty and inventories, we hope to reach out for more opportunities of collaboration, both academically and practically, and to increase the publicity of our organization.  This publication includes articles in English and in Chinese, which presents most recent researches and projects our members have been working on and their views and opinions on some important issues.  The biographies and the member list let you know more about our members - their educational background, work experience, research and teaching areas, or main accomplishments.  The last part includes reports and pictures of CSA events and activities, CSA establishment and development, CSA Bylaws, and CSA membership form. 

 Many thanks to the current board for their valuable effort to perform their duties and serve our members and therefore we have been able to accomplish our stated goals successfully.  During the two-year term, a number of working committees were formed such as the website committee, the CSA assembly committee, the science and engineering committee, the social science committee, and the outreach committee.  Our life members doubled and the CSA revenue more than doubled.  CSA Directory has been updated annually.  The CSA Bylaws was revised and approved by the majority of voting members.  The revised bylaws include the rights of members, define the election process, and set the term limit for board members.  The board has done several “first time” things during this term: CSA website was created and maintained by the CSA web committee; for the first time CSA received external funding to sponsor its events; certificates of recognition were issued to all former CSA board members for their service to CSA as well as to all lifetime members for their commitment to CSA; awards for academic achievement, outstanding leadership, and outstanding service were presented to deserving members; the detailed rules of CSA operations were developed; Presidents Council was established to play an advisory role; CSA first publication was published; and joint events were held with other local organizations such as alumni associations of Chinese universities and the Chinese American Faculty Association in Southern California.  

All of these CSA’s efforts and initiatives aim to institutionalize CSA’s operation, maintain its continuity, promote cooperation and communication, enhance a sense of association with the CSA family, better serve CSA constituencies, and increase CSA’s visibility in the wider communities.  Without participation from each and every of you, all of these accomplishments wouldn’t be possible.  Your contributions and trust are greatly appreciated.  As indicated in the CSA web, our slogan is member-centered, academic-oriented, exchange-encouraged, participation-expected, and operation transparent, which reflects our guiding principles.  We look forward to your continuous support and welcome your feedback to make our organization stronger and stronger in the years to come.