The
History of CCCPA
Prior
to the Fall of 1994, Mr. Wayne Shi and his friends gathered
at different social parties on non-regular basis. Every
time they gathered, the one unavoidable topics was computer.
"Why don't we have regular meetings for the computer
professionals?" Wayne and his friends asked themselves.
So the ideas were floating around.
On
one September day, 1994, a group of 15 people gethered
at Ms. Yanchun
Xu's home, brainstorming the purposes and organization
of such a computer professional group. The ideas came
out of that meeting laid the foundation of the current
By-Law. The meeting emerged 7 dedicated volunteers to
work out the details. Those 7 people were later elected
as the initial
board of directors.
After
several months of preparation and organization of 2
seminars on trial basis in that Fall, the Chicago Chinese
Computing Professional Association officially annouced
its establishment on January 9, 1995 on celebration
meeting at Emerald Restaraunt. Over a hundred people
attended the meeting under the sub-zero temperature.
All the Chinese news media in Chicago including TV station
and newspapers covered the story.
The
major objectives of the First
Board of Directors were decided as to establish
a formal organizational structure; to register the organization
at the Illinois State Government, and to organize monthly
meetings. Lead by Wayne
Shi, those objectives were all reached within the
first 6 months as planned.
The
CCCPA was registered at the State Government in April
1995. Monthly meetings were held regularly, the organization
structure was set up and the membership increased to
over 70.
As
the Initial
Board of Directors accomplished its objectives,
the first regular election was held in July 1995. The
2nd
Board was elected. Wayne Shi was again elected as
the Chairman of the board and the President of the CCCPA.
The
objectives of the 2nd
board was to continue increase CCCPA's membership,
improve seminar quality and establish operational logistics
and protocols suitable for such a volunteer-based non-profit
organization. Under the efforts of all the board members,
officers and volunteers, the CCCPA published monthly
newsletters and organized monthly seminars or social
meetings successfully and regularly. Quality of seminars
were improved. CCCPA also started co-sponsoring the
Chinese New Year Festivities and did a salary survey
in that fiscal year. At the time of 1996 election, the
membership had increased to 130.
The
summer election of 1996 ushered a new board and a new
president, Dr. Zhengyu Wang. Based on the work of previous
board and management, and based on the fact of larger
membership, the current board decides to establish sub-comittees
based on the computer specializations. The current sub-committees
includes: The Sub-committee of Client/Server Technology,
Internet Sub-committee, Telecommunication Sub-Committee,
etc. to cater the different interests among the members.
The management positions remains same. The monthly meetings
also changed to bi-monthly meetings with more talks
on one meeting.
That
strategy works well. The quality of seminars continues
to improve. The membership has risen considerably recently
to over 230. The Association also established its own
web site.
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