First draft by Yidao Cai on Feburary 22, 1997
Last revision by Zhi-Ming Zheng on April 8, 1997
There are two lines of events that finally led to the establishment of HBMUOAA: the alumni gatherings in Eastern US and the alumni web site.
On November 11, 1995, alumnus Yidao Cai (class 7906/7901/7904) established a web site for the alumni of HBMU. In the "alumni association" section, he called for the establishment of an alumni association. On the web site, Dr. Cai maintained an alumni list through some automatic procedure. The alumni list started with only 4 or 5 people Dr. Cai contacted and grew steadily from there, as more and more people found the site from internet. By the time the our HBMUOAA was established, there were more than 40 people on the list. Taking into account of the fact that some people prefer not to put their names on the list, it is quite a complishment.
On the other line, Drs. Ren Ke, Zheng Zhi-ming, Prof. Tian Hongshen and others had long began discussing the issue of setting up an alumni association. Their first such gathering was on the Mid-Autumn Day in 1995, in Washington DC. When Dr. Zheng found out our web site, he immediately wrote Dr. Cai the following message informing him of local alumni activities:
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From: "Zheng, Thomas" Zhengt@dce41.nci.nih.gov
To: "'cai yidao'" caiy@novell.boystown.org
Cc: Ke Ren knr001@dental3.ab.umd.edu
Subject: HMU Alumni
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 96 15:50:00
Hi, Dr. Cai. I am so proud of you setting up a home page for Hubei Medical University Alumni. You did a gread job. Last year, Dr. Ren Ke and I gathered at least eight families associated with Hubei Medical University in the D.C. area for celebrating the Chinese Moonday and discussed briefly if we could establish formally a Hubei Medical University Alumni. Yahong Liu, a former graduate student from the HMU Dept. of Pathology, put together each attendee's phone number and address and later spread out to each attendee by E-mail. Dr. Tian Hongsen, former Professor and Department Chairman of Pathology initiated the suggestion again to establish the Hubei Medical University Alumni Oversea during my picnic party for four former HMU faculty members in this area past weekend (9/28/96). I think it is time now to discuss the issue and to ask each member of the HMU alumni for the comments. Since you already set up the Home page, it will be easy for you to put our suggestions on the HMU Home Page for the comments. Thank you and with my best regards.
Sincerely yours,
Zhi-Ming Zheng, Ph.D.
Former Vice Director and Assoc. Prof.
Virus Research Institute of HMU
Attendees of the Picnic 9/28/96
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The call got very positive, if not overwelming, responses from alumni around the world. What happened next was quite natural. The acivitists discussed the form and nature of the organization and all sorts of stuff. Under the request of Dr. Zheng, Dr. Cai drafted a bylaw and the draft was then modified several times by Drs. Zheng Zhi-Ming, Ren Ke, and Ye shui-Qing on its terminology, membership, organization structure, and goals. Subsequently, the revised version was sent to several members of the tentative preparation committe for further comments before driving to its final form.
On February 1, 1997, most of our alumni member near Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area were gathered again, under Dr. Ye Shui-Qing's invitation, to discuss the matter in his house in Baltimore. They approved the bylaw and declared the establishment of HBMUOAA.
Here is a message from Dr. Zheng to Dr. Cai about this historic event:
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From: Zhengt@dce41.nci.nih.gov Wed Feb 5 18:05:08 1997
To: Yidao Cai
Subject: HBMU Alumni Association
Hi, Yidao,
I was glad to hear you back to the States safely! We had a meeting at Dr. Ye Shuiqing's house in Baltimore on Feb. 1, 1997 and formally established our Alumni Association on that day! It was to my surprise after four such historic meetings that everyone in the party was very supportive and voted for it. I originally thought that we might need to set a scheduled date on the matter but instead we don't need it anymore! Attached are the first term HBMUAAO officers elected during the party which will take part in its duty for next two years.
Sincerely,
Zhi-Ming Zheng
Attendees of Dr. Ye Shuiqing's Alumni Party on Feb. 1, 1997
Kang Xiaoqiang NCI/NIH
Li Qing NICHD/NIH
Liu Zhifang University of Maryland
Ren Ke University of Maryland
Tao Shiying Naval Medical Research Institute
Tian Hongsheng NIDR/NIH
Ye Shuiqing John Hopkins University
Zhang Liqin John Hopkins University
Zheng Zhi-Ming NCI/NIH
Zou Shiping University of Maryland
He Peijun University of Maryland
Wang Yanlin John Hopkins University
Tu Jiancheng John Hopkins University
Members were not in the party:
Chen Huaxian NIA/NIH
He Xinjun NIDR/NIH
Liu Yahong, GTI
Meng Xiangjin NIAID/NIH
Shang Shizhang Geogetown University
Wu Xiaozai NIDDK/NIH
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