We (吳偉榮、魏正芳、許克利、江仁台) had a mini-1-day reunion on Sacramento trip yesterday (Oct 20) and discussed possible places (Taiwan, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Lake Taho, Cruise, or Mainland) for our 40-year reunion. After discussing, the most practical place for reunion still seems Taiwan. The following is my proposal:
Theme: 回饋、分享、度假
Time: 3/15/08(Sat)-3/20/08(Th) or 3/14/08-3/19/09 or 3/13/10-3/18/10 (Pick one)
Place: Taipei 師大綜合大樓、師大物理系(Sat-Tu), Taichung 日月潭 or 南投溪頭(Tu-Th)
Accomodation: Sat-Tu (three nights) 師大綜合大樓(about NT$1200 one night);Tu-Th (two nights) 日月潭 or 南投溪頭旅館
Programs:
Sat night (6-9 pm) Welcoming Reception at 師大綜合大樓
Sun Morning 遊故宮博物院 Afternoon 自由活動
Monday One day Symposium on Physics Developments (回饋) and Life Experiences Sharing (分享); Two parallel Sessions (one for Physics and the other for life experence sharing) at 師大物理系.
Thank Ren-tai for his proposal. I think, theoretically, Ren-tai's proposal is very nice and complete. But I have a second thought, in reality, most of our classmates either retired or changed their major. I don't know how many of us have the ability to 回饋 academically. For some of us who are able and want to 回饋 academically, they may contact the Physics Department individually to set some long or short term programs.
The reunion should be very relax and can be enjoyed by everyone. So I think that 分享 and 度假 can be done together in 日月潭 or 南投溪頭旅館 or other places in Taiwan (open for suggestions).
Another issue is the timing. March 2008 may be too rush for some people. Many people may need one year in advance to plan their vacation time.
The above is just my personal opinion for everyone's reference.
40-year reunion is still two years away but recent discussions from many of our classmates seem to agree to have the reunion to happen earlier. It is great. We are 100% for it. Here are a few of my comments:
(1) It is true that most of our classmates in Taiwan and abroad have already retired. But many are still working, full time or part-time. For example, as far as I know, at least 6 of them are still working and very active full time in the university environment in Taiwan. Therefore any reunion plan during a semester may not be an option for many of them in Taiwan. So, we definitely need to form an organization or steering committee to explore the most agreeable date and sites for our reunion. We have to include one or two committee members from those in Taiwan.
(2) Most of us abroad can be reached via e-mail but this is not the case for most of our classmates in Taiwan. Telephone call is the only way to reach most of them. Fortunately, we do have a directory consisting telephone numbers for most of them although it may need to be updated too. Therefore, it is definitely necessary to invite one or two committee members (or find volunteers) from Taiwan who can be reached via e-mail and are willing to reach out of our classmates in Taiwan.
(3) We have just returned from Taiwan in mid October. I spoke to a few of our classmates about the reunion issue we are currently talking about. Most of them are interested in the reunion and it seems that some sites in central Taiwan, e.g. Hsi-Tou, A-Li Shan, Ching-Zing Ranch or Lu-Shan, are ideal and acceptable for those from northern and southern Taiwan.
(4) Ren-Tai has proposed a good model of reunion program. We can definitely comment and modify Ren-Tai's proposal to finalize the plan. I agree with Geoege that the reunion should be more relax and entertainning. We would enjoy to hear from a few of our classmates about physics education and research today in Taiwan and abroad but most probably we will enjoy more in sharing our experience and to catch up the last "40 years". The exciting parts are that we will probably see someone we didn't meet since our graduation and may see some of our former professors for the first time after so many years.
(5) Therefore, I would recommend that we need volunteers to form an organization committee ASAP to update the directory, to explore the most acceptable date and sites for the reunion, and to plan for the programs of the reunion.
Finally, we are looking forward to seeing many of you, hopefully soon, in the reunion.
Thanks to George, Li Kang, Jer Ming, Yenhua, and Cheng-Feng for the feedbacks. Since the reunion is most likely in Taiwan, I encourage the classmates in Taiwan voice your opinions loudly in order to make this reunioin possible.
回饋 (not necessarily in physics; can be in physics applications to other areas such as engineering, too) is one way to pass our experiences to younger generations in 師大 and going back to 師大物理系 has its significant meaning. To respond to George's and Jerming's comments, this portion of the activity can be optional. I believe the Chairman of 師大物理系 and the 師大 President should welcome this 回饋 for the Department and 師大 interest and publicity . This activity will also enhance our 1970 Physics class'es imagage. Besides, 師大綜合大樓 is an ideal place for kicking off our reunion and welcoming reception because it is close to our old campus and inexpensive.
Although summer time is more convenient to the faculty members in schools, it is hot , crowded, and expensive for traveling. The pick of spring time at the end of March has following advantages: 1) the weather is more comfortable, 2) we can get low off-season rates for hotels, 3) it is more relaxing since fewer people show up at the scenery spots, and 4) the airfare is a lot cheaper (e.g., US$700 in March vs. US$1200 in summer from San Francisco to Taipei).
Thank Ren-tai to share his good memory with all of us. Thank Wee-yong to posted it so everyone can read it.
May be my last email is not very clear about my concerns. I Think reunion is a time for all and everyone of us (including our other halves) to get together and enjoy together at the same time. During the reunion I think many of us may not want to be separated. So all the activities shall be doable and enjoyable by everyone of us.
It's true many of us are scientists and engineers. But still some of our classmates may have pursued other interests for many years either in Taiwan or other countries and their email addresses may not not listed here so they may not have a voice here.
Of course, the "feed back" part of Ren-tai's proposal is a very nice and great thing to do but it's very academic oriented. My suggestion is that for some of our the classmates who want to do the "feed back" they may do it either before or after the reunion. Again this is just my personal opinion for everyone's reference.
Thanks to George for your prompt feedback and concerns. Your point is well-taken. Let me suggest the following:
1) To have a spouse program session to invite speakers from our spouses, or 師大美術、音樂、家政、衛教、社教、或其他系 professors to present or to have panel discussions on topics of spouses' interest--Wee-yong's wife 夏德瑩 (師大歷史系) and your wife 林淑貞(師大國文系) are good candidates for organizing spouse program.
2) To have a session on Physics education experiences panel discussions (This fits most of our classmates in Taiwan.); 李田英 is a 師大 professor in Physics Education and should be a good candidate for organizing and moderating this session.
3) Our reunion activities can be divided into two parts: a) Symposium (回饋、分享) and b) Sight-seeing (度假). Classmates can attend either one or both.
Successful reunion activities need enthusiastic participants, collaboration, and support. It is not easy to have reunion programs to satisfy everybody. We need put our heads together to develop good programs.
柯錦霞--Do you have any suggestion? Can you be one of the organizers?
Voluntary organizers are needed and please let us know you are willing to be one of the organizers. We can learn from each other through the organizing process.
Hello, Thanks Ren-tai and George for enthusiastic discussions. This is a good sign. I think just make all seessions optional and depend on number of participants. That will do it.
I suggest Ren-tai organize this 回饋 session and strongly sell it to participants. No one will object. Ha...
Thank Ren-tai for thinking about so many the different activities for us. Seems like a simple reunion becomes so complicated.
My only intention is to make the reunion event very simple and easy for everyone to attend. We simply get together and have a tour to certain beautiful places (like Hsi-Tou, A-Li Shan, Ching-Zing Ranch and/or other places) for several days. People can talk to each other in a very informal and leisure way. People can enjoy the beautiful natural scenic views and the fine foods together.
There will be no classroom / conference room activies designed for any specific group of people. No people will be treated specially or differently. So the reunion will be managed in a very simple and straightforward way.
I have spoken out what in my mind about the reunion and I have nothing more to say. Hopefully we can hear more people to present their opinions about the reunion. Again, thank Ren-tai for presenting his idea of the reunion for all of us.
It was always a pleasure to see all the correspondence among the classmates. Thank you all for sharing your stories and thoughts with me, which reminds me that we were together some time in our lives. I think it's a good idea to have a 40-year reunion and I have seen different ideas on the subject. The issue here is the purpose of it. Since I have been out of touch with physics since the graduation 38 years ago, I certainly don't have the passion which RT still has. So I would support your idea -- to my advantage. And I prefer to have it in a informal way. Am I too selfish to RT, and to the others? Please forgive me if I appeared to be.
Physics is a great science, and it is extremely important and has great contribution to human beings. But there are something else in life. At our age of around 60, it may be a good time to talk about something "less important" after a long pursuit in a special area. I do believe we have some other common interests in life. A more academic and more serious event focused on physics may be organized separately with smaller group of people with special interests at another time. Would that be more appropriate? Again, what's the purpose of the reunion? We may need a decision here before anything else.
Kuo-Wei, thank you for your comments. I agree with you that physics is a great science and it is extremely important and has great contribution to human beings. Personally, I think that the Physics Symposium is a very great thing to do and should be done at anytime or as soon as possible.
As Kuo-Wei mentioned what's the purpose of the reunion. My opinion about the reunion is to reunited our classmates to share our common interests and to create some long lasting memory to cherish. It may not be a good time to separate our people based on the knowledge in physics or something else. So I sincerely hope that our classmates will kindly accept Kuo-Wei's and my suggestion to make 40-year reunion and the physics Symposium as two independent items and will be held at different times.
The "good sign" so far appears mostly among the San Francisco Bay area classmates and we shall broaden our bases. Before we move any further, we should take some consensus.
1) Please update your phone number, home address, e-mail address and inform us those classmates e-mail addresses who are not on this distribution list. (for example, 洪洹娥's email does not show up)
2) Please inform us whether you are interested to attend the reunion. If the answer is yes,
a)please tell us your prefered year (2010, 2009, 2008), prefered month (March, June, October, etc), prefered duration (3, 4, or 5 days, etc) and preferred place.
b)please tell us your preference on reunion style: sight-seeing only or symposium and sight-seeing both.
3) Please tell us if being selected, do you have time to serve as a committee member or an organizer?
Please respond within three days to Wee-yong, George and me. If less than half of the classmates on this e-mailing list show interest to attend the reunion, we should stop the effort since there are not enough interest to proceed it any further.
Thank you for you and those who have been enthusiastic about planning a reunion for our 40 years anniversary. Although we are to live long, healthy and happily, I am skeptical that there will be another reunion for the next 40 years. To this end. I would hope this reunion is thoughtfully planned to embrace most (if not all) of the classmates to attend. Be diligent for continued learning is great, let's foster the atmosphere to make our gathering fun (learning is fun but may not need to be in the classroom setting) for a long lasting memory to cherish.
My contact information: .....
Time frame- 2010 or 2009. ( I'll be in Taiwan in 11/2008 for receiving my Tzu Chi commissioner certificate)
You're a high-efficient person. I think many people cannot respond within 3 days or even are aware of the reunion. So let the time limit go. Hopefully someone will tell someone, and we will get as many people as possible. I post the info online so people can always refer back to it.
We need a volunteer (I think it's you) keep pursuing the idea for long time to make it happen. Year 2008 is probably too rush but you still can try it. For me, I will be in Taiwan from Jan. 10 to Feb. 6, 2008, and will go to Singapore. It's hard for me to go back to Taiwan in March.
Below is my info (May be Jer-ming or you should update everybody's info).....
I agree with Wee-Yong that we should let the "reply in 3-days" go for as long as it takes because many of our classmates were either not used to check e-mail in daily basis or they have no e-mail at all. Therefore many of them can be contacted only via phone calls. We definitely need regional volunteers for eastern, central, and western US, as well as for northern, central, and southern Taiwan to get in touch with all classmates in each region. I will volunteer for the central US since we have only four families (S.Y. Wong, Andrew Chen, Thomas Fong, and myself). Also, I spoke to Lung-Ming Chen in Kaoshiung last Month when I was in Taiwan. He wasn't able to receive any of our e-mail. So, I will try to call him sometimes this weekend too.
Reunion in spring of 2008 is too rush but yes we still can try. I would prefer for a reunion in the spring of 2009 or 2010 but date can be discussed later after the census survey is done. I am updating our directory list as soon as anyone posted in recent e-mails. So far, our directory list is still very much updated. There are still a few missing classmates that we were never able to get in touch with. You can download the directory files (one in .doc and the other in .pdf format) from "umdrive.memphis.edu/jerchiu/public/phy59" anytime.
I agree with Wee-yong and Jer-ming that the "reply in 3-days" should be extended in order to get more people in. Also, March 2008 may be too rush.
About three days ago Ren-tai requested our classmates to send their responses to Ren-tai, Wee-yong and me. Based on all the responses we received so far, my perception is that some people want to make reunion (sightseeing) and the symposium as two independent items (no overlap), of course both events shall be held consecutively so it will be convenient for the people who will attend both. Please correct me if I misinterpreted the responses.
Rentai and Wee-yong, should we consider to clarify the proposal a little bit so people will know that there is no overlap between the two items? This way we may accommodate more people to attend the reunion.
Personally, I would like to attend the sightseeing only (no overlap). Time: 2009 or 2010 for 4 or 5 days. Of course, I would like to provide any kind of help.
Thanks for the directory file and willing to be a volunteer. We need more volunteers in Taiwan as Jer-Ming pointed out.
Based on the feedback from the classmates so far, it seems that:
1) Reunion and Symposium should be seperate activities; 2) Reunion should be no more than 3 days because some classmates are still busy at work and , consequently, a weekend (Fri-Sun) seems more proper; 3) Appropriate reunion time should be either late October 2009 in Fall or late March 2010 in Spring; one concern is the risk of raining. Classmates in Taiwan--please let us know which one has less chance to rain. 4) Symposium should be a one-day activity and could be held two days before the reunion (Wendsday). 5) Place: a scenery spot in central Taiwan for reuinion and Physics Department of Normal Univ. for Symposium.
Thanks for those who have responded to my requests. I have received 11 responses to my requests. The following are the response summary:
Style: Symposium and Sight-seeing (5), Sight-seeing only (5), either one (1)--- normal distribution with even spread
Place: Taiwan (all)
Time: vary from 2008 to 2010
Since there is no other proposal so far, I take the liberty to make the following recommendation:
1) Symposium and reunion are two seperate activities.
2) Symposium - Th (10/22/09) at Physics Department, Normal Univ. contingent upon the agreement of the Physics Department Chair. Two types of sessions are proposed: Physics and Life experience sharing.
3) Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09) at a central Taiwan scenery spot.
If you have comments, please let me know.
To organize these two activities, I propose to form the following two Ad Hoc Committees:
1) Symposium Committee Physics program -- 江仁台(RT Chiang), 汪禮康(LK Wang),梁琰華(YH Hsu), 洪姮娥(HE Horng), 李田英(TY Lee) Life Experience Sharing program -- 江仁台(RT Chiang), 李一心(Ising Fan), 吳偉榮(WY Woo), 夏德瑩(DY Hsia) [Wee-yong's wife for spouse program], 李財興 (Joe Li) [Mei-Ju's husband]
If all of the above proposed classmates agree to serve, thanks. If anyone of the above proposed persons is unable to serve, please let know.
If you are able to attend, please mark your calendar and let us know. It is about two years away. Let us put our heads together and work together. We shall have a very successful celebration and a lot of fun!!!!!!
Very good summary. The only uncertainty is the date now.
I would like to serve as one of the member on the life experience panel. May I also suggest that may be we can call it career/life experience? Career is a major part of our life and it sounds more interesting for the college students. As some of our classmates mentioned that lots of us are not in physics anymore. Any one want to talk about how and why the transition was made can be included in this session too. Thanks.
Thanks for your prompt suggestion and willing to serve on the panel, Excellent suggestion.
We will change the title to Career/Life experience and shall have a session including panel discusions on career transition experience. I believe you will be a primary speaker and panelist in that session. The students shall benefit a lot from your talk.
Life is an experience. It is always nice to share with each other's after 40 years on their joy, accomplishments, laughing and thinking. I would be glad to help out whatever I can on this event.
Concerning about the presentation, the academic fields are so vast it can be difficult to find a suitable topic with sufficient interest to the general audience. It shall leave to the presenters on the choice of the subject and content. After all besides us the young generations may have very different agenda in their mind.
In the past few days there are so many responses from George on the event. Please make sure to assign him enough duty for his enthusiasm.
Shall we spend some time to talk about Twain where we come from or still live there? It will be a tough topic -- may be dangerous. ( But I doubt it will explode.) Since we all have received good "scientific training" in "Normal" University, and have been seasoned in the past few decades (much longer than some popular brands of Cognac, Scotch, or good wines in the world) we may be able to handle it in a more "smooth", scientific, and "normal" way than average people. In a free world today, even in a family, it's impossible to have consensus on everything. But is that exactly the reason to talk about? Obviously, there are some important issues in Taiwan. ( I am not sure whether you know it or not.) Does it make sense to exchange ideas during the reunion to show our care about this island? ( We are talking about having a reunion on this island, don't we?) Is Taiwan a topic of interest to our classmates? Shall we have a session for Taiwan? Or it's just not important enough for us.
I would recommend Swen Ai-Bin or Lin Ping-Chou as a member of committee in Taiwan, instead of myself. The reason being : firstly, both of them have a company to run so they have the manpower to make things happen (contact, etc.)easily; secondly, both of them were active and famous in "the good old days" and they were the leaders at that time. I certainly can assist, but they are much better than me. Will RT contact them to see what they say? Or you want me to contact them?
We certainly concern about Taiwan. However, it seems to me that this subject is not appropriate to discuss it formally in our group. Different people have different opinions and political issues are controversial and emotional. I suggest we should avoid to discuss controversial issues during the reunion. It would easily lead to heated arguements and unpleasant situation, which we don't want it to happen.
I totally agree. I think the spirit of the topics should be factual based sharing, whether it is our research, career and/or life experience. Not opinions based debate. I am not saying debate is bad. It is just not appropriate for the short time that we will have together after 40 years apart.
Understood your point. Yes, it is truly hard to be rational, even withextensive training on science and aging. Look around the world, then we knowhow people solve the controversial issues in our lives. Tolerance? Fight?Escape? Ignore? Are they any better than "talk" in solving problems? Buttalk is not easy. That's why many people are pessimistic about our world. Thanks for your comment. It may be too serious for the reunion, which issupposed to be relaxing and friendly, not to argue and to debate.
I'll try. Please be ptient. I have been busy at doing street fundraising for Southern California Fires and doing subtitles for Tzu Chi Da Ai drama, 明月煦紅塵 (Moonlight Over Trouble Earth). I have been leading a team for 30 members doing subtitles for some well selected Da Ai dramas. Beginning Feb 2008, Da Ai TV will begining to play some popular Da Ai Drama with subtitles for global viewers.
Thanks for all your efforts to organize the 40-year reunion. You must work really hard to update and respond to all those related messages. I am a lazy guy so I didn't read my email everyday. Today when I open my email, I was surprised by so many emails related to the 40-year reunion and by your frequently updates. Your "memory sharing writeup" is really impressive. It also refresh me those good old days all of us shared together in the Bay area. And lucky enough most of us still get together very often despite of those changes in our life - good or bad.
I hope it's not too late to respond the reunion consensus:.....
The discussion (or argument) was over. Now it's time to get into business.
The Symposium is a much more complicated task than the sightseeing. It's may need much more time to prepare. Wish the 2009 Symposium will be a very successful one.
I only attend the reunion (sightseeing). Since the reunion will not happen after two years so now we may only need to spread the news to all of our schoolmates specially to those people whose email addresses are listed here. Until 5 or 6 months before the reunion, we will need a schoolmate (representative) in Taiwan to talk to several travel agencies with reputation to design two or three tour options for us to choose. Once a specific one is chosen, for the people who want to attend they just send the money to the representative so he/she can finalize the deal with the travel agency. This is only a 3-day tour, daytime will be busy for tour (sightseeing). The who evenings when we are in the hotel, personally I would prefer to have informal and easy events. Don't discuss any serious or sensitive topics. Anyway, now is the time for us (the sightseeing people) to sit down, have a cup of tea and relax until six months before the event.
Hi LK, do you still remember "da-dau-wang-wu"? Nearly forty years ago, you said that I handled certain business just like "da-dau-wang-wu" in a very simple and straightforward way. Ha! "Chiang-shang-yee-ga, ben-sing-nan-yee". For this event, I'm in the other side of the river (not in Taiwan and not in the Symposium group), so I really don't have much to do.
The discussion (or argument) was over. Now it's time to get into business.
The Symposium is a much more complicated task than the sightseeing. It's may need much more time to prepare. Wish the 2009 Symposium will be a very successful one.
I only attend the reunion (sightseeing). Since the reunion will not happen after two years so now we may only need to spread the news to all of our schoolmates specially to those people whose email addresses are listed here. Until 5 or 6 months before the reunion, we will need a schoolmate (representative) in Taiwan to talk to several travel agencies with reputation to design two or three tour options for us to choose. Once a specific one is chosen, for the people who want to attend they just send the money to the representative so he/she can finalize the deal with the travel agency. This is only a 3-day tour, daytime will be busy for tour (sightseeing). The who evenings when we are in the hotel, personally I would prefer to have informal and easy events. Don't discuss any serious or sensitive topics. Anyway, now is the time for us (the sightseeing people) to sit down, have a cup of tea and relax until six months before the event.
First, I need dates to be clarified: >2) Symposium - Th (10/22/09) at Physics Department: (I presume this is a all day event) > 3) Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09) (Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place? Check in Friday? Check out Sunday or Monday? 1 day, 2 days or 3 days event?)
With big group(I hope we do have), I think we may need to choose location and reserve a block of rooms in the hotel/motel/cabinets(then release later if we do not need some of them) earlier. Some one knows about tourism in Taiwan, please we like to have your input. (For the technical conference in general, the location/hotel is chosen 2 years in advance, although the hotel reservation only opens several months head).
Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09) * Starting place and time: Taipei at 10am, 10/23/09 * Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place: about two and a half hours *Check in Friday at noon; Check out Sunday at noon in hotel
Reunion:
1. Horng, Herng-Er (洪姮娥) kindly agrees to help to do the reservation
2. Saturday night after dinner will have 舊人新識 (Old classmates new outlooks) gathering fun event
Symposium:
1. Tentative Title: "Symposium on Physics and Physics Applications", sponsored by the Physics 59 Class, cosponsored by Physics Department and Graduate Institute of Electro-optical Science and Technology, National Taiwan Normal University
2. Will have kickoff on-line discusions among the Program Committee members soon
As you can see, the celebration train get started....
Thank you for your passion and efforts to produce all these proposals.
The biggest uncertainty is the meeting is 2 year away and people cannot foresee their schedule that early; especially people have to travel from outside Taiwan.
I think people may not give you commitment that soon. However, the waiting time may improve the program because you may get more inputs from the classmates.
Because there are many emails, I just achieved most of them in below for future tracking: http://physics-59.blogspot.com/2007/10/40-year-reunion-communications.html Any classmate's email address not on this email list?
Just a suggestion, although I understand that most of us have commitments during the week, but for sightseeing I would certainly recommend weekdays on account of the masses that flocks to Taiwan's major scenic spots at the weekends.
Wen-Tang's concern makes sense. Besides, it will be easier to make reservation and perhaps we can get lower weekday rate. Consequently, I recommend to move reunion from weekend to weekdays as follows:
Symposium - Tu (10/20/09) an all day event
Reunion - W-F (10/21/09-10/23/09) * Starting place and time: Taipei at 10am, 10/21/09 * Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place: about two and a half hours Check in Wednesday at noon; Check out Friday at noon in hotel or hotels
This is an important event for us. It really deserves a good planing, and we should reach out to as many classmates as possible for their opinions. I would recommend not to come to such a rushed conclusion. The event is 2 years away. I agree with Jer-Ming to form several local steering committees. The task is to jointly come up with a proposal in six months. In the process, the committees should try to reach every classmate in all possible ways, not just by e-mail. Sorry for the late response. I am very slow in writing mail.
Good idea, but we need volunteers. The Committees make recommendations; the implements need volunteers.
I recommend:
Wen-Tang (Recommended Coordinator in Taiwan), Chaur-tzong, and Kuo-Wei-- Please help to find those whose info is incomplete in Ching-Hsia's Roster in Taiwan, reach them, and let Ching-Hsia know the reaching data.
George (Recommended Coordinator in US), Jer-Ming, Ker-Li-- Please help to find those whose info is incomplete in Ching-Hsia's Roster in US, reach them and let Ching-Hsia know the reaching data..
More volunteers are needed. If you are willing to help, please inform the coordinators.
I think the reunion is a very simple issue and the real (true) 40-year reunion should be in year 2010 (but it's OK to make it in 2009). It's far away from now.
The Symposium is a much more complicated event and have a lot issues need be resolved.
So just let the people who are interested in symposium to prepare their event (Symposium) first. Once they are ready (including topics, attendants, date, location, etc.), then for their convenience, the reunion can be connected to either in the front or at the rear of the Symposium. Seems like the Symposium is more important than the 40-year reunion (just kidding :).
The "local steering committees" will majorly work for the Symposium. So it may be more efficient for the people who will attend the Symposium to be the coordinators or directors.
After one year when we have a better picture about the Symposium then we start to have people to coordinate the reunion.
The above is just my personal opinion for your reference.
The reunion is the main event, and it is for all classmates and their spouse. The symposium can, but not necessarily, be part of the reunion. The local steering committees are for the reunion not for the symposium. They are tasked to come up with a well surveyed and discussed proposal for a reunion that will be interesting to as many classmates as possible. The committees may recommend a completely separate symposium from the reunion or something less formal like a panel discussion.
Only 江仁台 summary proposal is posted here. Most the names in his various proposals are 江仁台 invention. Symposium - Th (10/22/09) an all day event Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09) * Starting place and time: Taipei at 10am, 10/23/09 * Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place: about two and a half hours *Check in Friday at noon; Check out Sunday at noon in hotel Reunion: 1. Horng, Herng-Er (洪姮娥) kindly agrees to help to do the reservation 2. Saturday night after dinner will have 舊人新識 (Old classmates new outlooks) gathering fun event Symposium: 1. Tentative Title: "Symposium on Physics and Physics Applications", sponsored by the Physics 59 Class, cosponsored by Physics Department and Graduate Institute of Electro-optical Science and Technology, National Taiwan Normal University 2. Will have kickoff on-line discusions among the Program Committee members soon As you can see, the celebration train get started.... Ren-Tai
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Dear All:
We (吳偉榮、魏正芳、許克利、江仁台) had a mini-1-day reunion on Sacramento trip yesterday (Oct 20) and discussed possible places (Taiwan, Hawaii, Las Vegas,
Lake Taho, Cruise, or Mainland) for our 40-year reunion. After discussing, the most practical place for reunion still seems Taiwan. The following is my proposal:
Theme: 回饋、分享、度假
Time: 3/15/08(Sat)-3/20/08(Th) or 3/14/08-3/19/09 or 3/13/10-3/18/10 (Pick one)
Place: Taipei 師大綜合大樓、師大物理系(Sat-Tu), Taichung 日月潭 or 南投溪頭(Tu-Th)
Accomodation: Sat-Tu (three nights) 師大綜合大樓(about NT$1200 one night);Tu-Th (two nights) 日月潭 or 南投溪頭旅館
Programs:
Sat night (6-9 pm) Welcoming Reception at 師大綜合大樓
Sun Morning 遊故宮博物院 Afternoon 自由活動
Monday One day Symposium on Physics Developments (回饋) and Life Experiences Sharing (分享); Two parallel Sessions (one for Physics and the other for life experence sharing) at 師大物理系.
Monday night banquet (invite former professors)
Tu-Th 日月潭 or 南投溪頭 (度假)
Proposed Committee Members:
Program: 江仁台、吳偉榮、顧團團、魏正芳、許克利
師大 Support: 洪洹娥、李田英
日月潭 or 南投溪頭 Support: 曾玄澤、林朝宗、鄭曼亭
Please review, comment or submit your proposal.
Regards,
Ren-Tai (江仁台)
Hi everyone,
Thank Ren-tai for his proposal. I think, theoretically, Ren-tai's proposal is very nice and complete. But I have a second thought, in reality, most of our classmates either retired or changed their major. I don't know how many of us have the ability to 回饋 academically. For some of us who are able and want to 回饋 academically, they may contact the Physics Department individually to set some long or short term programs.
The reunion should be very relax and can be enjoyed by everyone. So I think that 分享 and 度假 can be done together in 日月潭 or 南投溪頭旅館 or other places in Taiwan (open for suggestions).
Another issue is the timing. March 2008 may be too rush for some people. Many people may need one year in advance to plan their vacation time.
The above is just my personal opinion for everyone's reference.
George
Dear my old friends,
40-year reunion is still two years away but recent discussions from many of our classmates seem to agree to have the reunion to happen earlier. It is great. We are 100% for it. Here are a few of my comments:
(1) It is true that most of our classmates in Taiwan and abroad have already retired. But many are still working, full time or part-time. For example, as far as I know, at least 6 of them are still working and very active full time in the university environment in Taiwan. Therefore any reunion plan during a semester may not be an option for many of them in Taiwan. So, we definitely need to form an organization or steering committee to explore the most agreeable date and sites for our reunion. We have to include one or two committee members from those in Taiwan.
(2) Most of us abroad can be reached via e-mail but this is not the case for most of our classmates in Taiwan. Telephone call is the only way to reach most of them. Fortunately, we do have a directory consisting telephone numbers for most of them although it may need to be updated too. Therefore, it is definitely necessary to invite one or two committee members (or find volunteers) from Taiwan who can be reached via e-mail and are willing to reach out of our classmates in Taiwan.
(3) We have just returned from Taiwan in mid October. I spoke to a few of our classmates about the reunion issue we are currently talking about. Most of them are interested in the reunion and it seems that some sites in central Taiwan, e.g. Hsi-Tou, A-Li Shan, Ching-Zing Ranch or Lu-Shan, are ideal and acceptable for those from northern and southern Taiwan.
(4) Ren-Tai has proposed a good model of reunion program. We can definitely comment and modify Ren-Tai's proposal to finalize the plan. I agree with Geoege that the reunion should be more relax and entertainning. We would enjoy to hear from a few of our classmates about physics education and research today in Taiwan and abroad but most probably we will enjoy more in sharing our experience and to catch up the last "40 years". The exciting parts are that we will probably see someone we didn't meet since our graduation and may see some of our former professors for the first time after so many years.
(5) Therefore, I would recommend that we need volunteers to form an organization committee ASAP to update the directory, to explore the most acceptable date and sites for the reunion, and to plan for the programs of the reunion.
Finally, we are looking forward to seeing many of you, hopefully soon, in the reunion.
Jer-Ming and Shu-Chioung
Dear All:
Thanks to George, Li Kang, Jer Ming, Yenhua, and Cheng-Feng for the feedbacks. Since the reunion is most likely in Taiwan, I encourage the classmates in Taiwan voice your opinions loudly in order to make this reunioin possible.
回饋 (not necessarily in physics; can be in physics applications to other areas such as engineering, too) is one way to pass our experiences to younger generations in 師大 and going back to 師大物理系 has its significant meaning. To respond to George's and Jerming's comments, this portion of the activity can be optional. I believe the Chairman of 師大物理系 and the 師大 President should welcome this 回饋 for the Department and 師大 interest and publicity . This activity will also enhance our 1970 Physics class'es imagage. Besides, 師大綜合大樓 is an ideal place for kicking off our reunion and welcoming reception because it is close to our old campus and inexpensive.
Although summer time is more convenient to the faculty members in schools, it is hot , crowded, and expensive for traveling. The pick of spring time at the end of
March has following advantages: 1) the weather is more comfortable, 2) we can get low off-season rates for hotels, 3) it is more relaxing since fewer people show up at the scenery spots, and 4) the airfare is a lot cheaper (e.g., US$700 in March vs. US$1200 in summer from San Francisco to Taipei).
More comments are welcome.
Ren-Tai
Thank Ren-tai to share his good memory with all of us. Thank Wee-yong to posted it so everyone can read it.
May be my last email is not very clear about my concerns. I Think reunion is a time for all and everyone of us (including our other halves) to get together and enjoy together at the same time. During the reunion I think many of us may not want to be separated. So all the activities shall be doable and enjoyable by everyone of us.
It's true many of us are scientists and engineers. But still some of our classmates may have pursued other interests for many years either in Taiwan or other countries and their email addresses may not not listed here so they may not have a voice here.
Of course, the "feed back" part of Ren-tai's proposal is a very nice and great thing to do but it's very academic oriented. My suggestion is that for some of our the classmates who want to do the "feed back" they may do it either before or after the reunion. Again this is just my personal opinion for everyone's reference.
George
Hi George (顧團團) and Fellow Classmates:
Thanks to George for your prompt feedback and concerns. Your point is well-taken. Let me suggest the following:
1) To have a spouse program session to invite speakers from our spouses, or 師大美術、音樂、家政、衛教、社教、或其他系 professors to present or to have panel discussions on topics of spouses' interest--Wee-yong's wife 夏德瑩 (師大歷史系) and your wife 林淑貞(師大國文系) are good candidates for organizing spouse program.
2) To have a session on Physics education experiences panel discussions (This fits most of our classmates in Taiwan.); 李田英 is a 師大 professor in Physics Education and should be a good candidate for organizing and moderating this session.
3) Our reunion activities can be divided into two parts: a) Symposium (回饋、分享) and b) Sight-seeing (度假). Classmates can attend either one or both.
Successful reunion activities need enthusiastic participants, collaboration, and support. It is not easy to have reunion programs to satisfy everybody. We need put our heads together to develop good programs.
柯錦霞--Do you have any suggestion? Can you be one of the organizers?
Voluntary organizers are needed and please let us know you are willing to be one of the organizers. We can learn from each other through the organizing process.
More comments and suggestions are welcome.
Ren-Tai
Hello,
Thanks Ren-tai and George for enthusiastic discussions. This is a good sign. I think just make all seessions optional and depend on number of participants. That will do it.
I suggest Ren-tai organize this 回饋 session and strongly sell it to participants. No one will object. Ha...
Wee-yong
Hi Ren-tai and everyone,
Thank Ren-tai for thinking about so many the different activities for us. Seems like a simple reunion becomes so complicated.
My only intention is to make the reunion event very simple and easy for everyone to attend. We simply get together and have a tour to certain beautiful places (like Hsi-Tou, A-Li Shan, Ching-Zing Ranch and/or other places) for several days. People can talk to each other in a very informal and leisure way. People can enjoy the beautiful natural scenic views and the fine foods together.
There will be no classroom / conference room activies designed for any specific group of people. No people will be treated specially or differently. So the reunion will be managed in a very simple and straightforward way.
I have spoken out what in my mind about the reunion and I have nothing more to say. Hopefully we can hear more people to present their opinions about the reunion. Again, thank Ren-tai for presenting his idea of the reunion for all of us.
-George
Hi George and everyone,
It was always a pleasure to see all the correspondence among the classmates. Thank you all for sharing your stories and thoughts with me, which reminds me that we were together some time in our lives. I think it's a good idea to have a 40-year reunion and I have seen different ideas on the subject. The issue here is the purpose of it. Since I have been out of touch with physics since the graduation 38 years ago, I certainly don't have the passion which RT still has. So I would support your idea -- to my advantage. And I prefer to have it in a informal way. Am I too selfish to RT, and to the others? Please forgive me if I appeared to be.
Physics is a great science, and it is extremely important and has great contribution to human beings. But there are something else in life. At our age of around 60, it may be a good time to talk about something "less important" after a long pursuit in a special area. I do believe we have some other common interests in life. A more academic and more serious event focused on physics may be organized separately with smaller group of people with special interests at another time. Would that be more appropriate? Again, what's the purpose of the reunion? We may need a decision here before anything else.
Look forward to seeing you all.
Best regards,
Kuo-Wei Shao 邵國維
All,
The only reason for me to attend the class reunion is to meet the classmates - you and your family.
Andrew Chen, P.E.
Aramco Services Company
Hi Kuo-Wei and everyone,
Kuo-Wei, thank you for your comments. I agree with you that physics is a great science and it is extremely important and has great contribution to human beings. Personally, I think that the Physics Symposium is a very great thing to do and should be done at anytime or as soon as possible.
As Kuo-Wei mentioned what's the purpose of the reunion. My opinion about the reunion is to reunited our classmates to share our common interests and to create some long lasting memory to cherish. It may not be a good time to separate our people based on the knowledge in physics or something else. So I sincerely hope that our classmates will kindly accept Kuo-Wei's and my suggestion to make 40-year reunion and the physics Symposium as two independent items and will be held at different times.
Best regards,
George Ku
Hi Fellow Classmates:
The "good sign" so far appears mostly among the San Francisco Bay area classmates and we shall broaden our bases. Before we move any further, we should take some consensus.
1) Please update your phone number, home address, e-mail address and inform us those classmates e-mail addresses who are not on this distribution list. (for example, 洪洹娥's email does not show up)
2) Please inform us whether you are interested to attend the reunion. If the answer is yes,
a)please tell us your prefered year (2010, 2009, 2008), prefered month (March, June, October, etc), prefered duration (3, 4, or 5 days, etc) and preferred place.
b)please tell us your preference on reunion style: sight-seeing only or symposium and sight-seeing both.
3) Please tell us if being selected, do you have time to serve as a committee member or an organizer?
Please respond within three days to Wee-yong, George and me. If less than half of the classmates on this e-mailing list show interest to attend the reunion, we should stop the effort since there are not enough interest to proceed it any further.
Thanks,
Ren-Tai
My response to consensus:
1) ....(home phone) ......(home address) .....(e-mail)
2) interested to attend
a) 2008; March; 5 days; Taiwan
b) symposium and sight-seeing
3) willing to serve
Dear RT,
Thank you for you and those who have been enthusiastic about planning a
reunion for our 40 years anniversary. Although we are to live long, healthy
and happily, I am skeptical that there will be another reunion for the next
40 years. To this end. I would hope this reunion is thoughtfully planned to
embrace most (if not all) of the classmates to attend. Be diligent for
continued learning is great, let's foster the atmosphere to make our
gathering fun (learning is fun but may not need to be in the classroom
setting) for a long lasting memory to cherish.
My contact information: .....
Time frame- 2010 or 2009. ( I'll be in Taiwan in 11/2008 for receiving my
Tzu Chi commissioner certificate)
Place - Taiwan sounds fair.
Gratefully,
Angela
Ren-tai,
You're a high-efficient person. I think many people cannot respond within 3 days or even are aware of the reunion. So let the time limit go. Hopefully someone will tell someone, and we will get as many people as possible. I post the info online so people can always refer back to it.
We need a volunteer (I think it's you) keep pursuing the idea for long time to make it happen. Year 2008 is probably too rush but you still can try it. For me, I will be in Taiwan from Jan. 10 to Feb. 6, 2008, and will go to Singapore. It's hard for me to go back to Taiwan in March.
Below is my info (May be Jer-ming or you should update everybody's info).....
Wee-yong
Hello my dear fellow classmates,
I agree with Wee-Yong that we should let the "reply in 3-days" go for as long as it takes because many of our classmates were either not used to check e-mail in daily basis or they have no e-mail at all. Therefore many of them can be contacted only via phone calls. We definitely need regional volunteers for eastern, central, and western US, as well as for northern, central, and southern Taiwan to get in touch with all classmates in each region. I will volunteer for the central US since we have only four families (S.Y. Wong, Andrew Chen, Thomas Fong, and myself). Also, I spoke to Lung-Ming Chen in Kaoshiung last Month when I was in Taiwan. He wasn't able to receive any of our e-mail. So, I will try to call him sometimes this weekend too.
Reunion in spring of 2008 is too rush but yes we still can try. I would prefer for a reunion in the spring of 2009 or 2010 but date can be discussed later after the census survey is done. I am updating our directory list as soon as anyone posted in recent e-mails. So far, our directory list is still very much updated. There are still a few missing classmates that we were never able to get in touch with. You can download the directory files (one in .doc and the other in .pdf format) from "umdrive.memphis.edu/jerchiu/public/phy59" anytime.
Best wishes,
Jer-Ming
Ren-tai, Wee-yong and everyone,
I agree with Wee-yong and Jer-ming that the "reply in 3-days" should be extended in order to get more people in. Also, March 2008 may be too rush.
About three days ago Ren-tai requested our classmates to send their responses to Ren-tai, Wee-yong and me. Based on all the responses we received so far, my perception is that some people want to make reunion (sightseeing) and the symposium as two independent items (no overlap), of course both events shall be held consecutively so it will be convenient for the people who will attend both. Please correct me if I misinterpreted the responses.
Rentai and Wee-yong, should we consider to clarify the proposal a little bit so people will know that there is no overlap between the two items? This way we may accommodate more people to attend the reunion.
Personally, I would like to attend the sightseeing only (no overlap). Time: 2009 or 2010 for 4 or 5 days. Of course, I would like to provide any kind of help.
Directory : ....
George
Dear Jer-Ming and other classmates:
Thanks for the directory file and willing to be a volunteer. We need more volunteers in Taiwan as Jer-Ming pointed out.
Based on the feedback from the classmates so far, it seems that:
1) Reunion and Symposium should be seperate activities;
2) Reunion should be no more than 3 days because some classmates are still busy at work and , consequently, a weekend (Fri-Sun) seems more proper;
3) Appropriate reunion time should be either late October 2009 in Fall or late March 2010 in Spring; one concern is the risk of raining. Classmates in Taiwan--please let us know which one has less chance to rain.
4) Symposium should be a one-day activity and could be held two days before the reunion (Wendsday).
5) Place: a scenery spot in central Taiwan for reuinion and Physics Department of Normal Univ. for Symposium.
Please review and comment.
Ren-Tai
Dear Classmates:
Thanks for those who have responded to my requests. I
have received 11 responses to my requests. The
following are the response summary:
Style: Symposium and Sight-seeing (5), Sight-seeing
only (5), either one (1)--- normal distribution with
even spread
Place: Taiwan (all)
Time: vary from 2008 to 2010
Since there is no other proposal so far, I take the
liberty to make the following recommendation:
1) Symposium and reunion are two seperate activities.
2) Symposium - Th (10/22/09) at Physics Department,
Normal Univ. contingent upon the agreement of the
Physics Department Chair. Two types of sessions are
proposed: Physics and Life experience sharing.
3) Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09) at a central
Taiwan scenery spot.
If you have comments, please let me know.
To organize these two activities, I propose to form
the following two Ad Hoc Committees:
1) Symposium Committee
Physics program -- 江仁台(RT Chiang), 汪禮康(LK
Wang),梁琰華(YH Hsu), 洪姮娥(HE Horng), 李田英(TY Lee)
Life Experience Sharing program -- 江仁台(RT Chiang),
李一心(Ising Fan), 吳偉榮(WY Woo), 夏德瑩(DY Hsia)
[Wee-yong's wife for spouse program], 李財興 (Joe Li)
[Mei-Ju's husband]
2) Reunion Committee -- 江仁台(RT Chiang), 林朝宗(CT
Lin), 邵國維(KW Shao), 邱哲明(JM Chiu), 顧團團(George
Ku), 余麗華(Angela Chu)
If all of the above proposed classmates agree to
serve, thanks. If anyone of the above proposed persons
is unable to serve, please let know.
If you are able to attend, please mark your calendar
and let us know. It is about two years away. Let us
put our heads together and work together. We shall
have a very successful celebration and a lot of
fun!!!!!!
Cheers,
Ren-Tai
R.T.
Very good summary. The only uncertainty is the date now.
I would like to serve as one of the member on the life experience panel. May I also suggest that may be we can call it career/life experience? Career is a major part of our life and it sounds more interesting for the college students. As some of our classmates mentioned that lots of us are not in physics anymore. Any one want to talk about how and why the transition was made can be included in this session too. Thanks.
I-sing
I-Sing,
Thanks for your prompt suggestion and willing to serve
on the panel, Excellent suggestion.
We will change the title to Career/Life experience and
shall have a session including panel discusions on
career transition experience. I believe you will be a
primary speaker and panelist in that session. The
students shall benefit a lot from your talk.
Ren-Tai
RT:
Life is an experience. It is always nice to share with each other's after 40 years on their joy, accomplishments, laughing and thinking. I would be glad to help out whatever I can on this event.
Concerning about the presentation, the academic fields are so vast it can be difficult to find a suitable topic with sufficient interest to the general audience. It shall leave to the presenters on the choice of the subject and content. After all besides us the young generations may have very different agenda in their mind.
In the past few days there are so many responses from George on the event. Please make sure to assign him enough duty for his enthusiasm.
Glad to hear from you all.
LK Wang
Li-Kang,
Thanks for willing to help out. I agree with you that
"It shall leave to the presenters on the choice of the
subject and content."
Life is an emergency sometimes. We had better get it
right at the first try.
George is very capable. We need his help and I am
sure he will extend his enthusiasm to help.
Ren-Tai
Dear All,
Shall we spend some time to talk about Twain where we come from or still live there? It will be a tough topic -- may be dangerous. ( But I doubt it will explode.) Since we all have received good "scientific training" in "Normal" University, and have been seasoned in the past few decades (much longer than some popular brands of Cognac, Scotch, or good wines in the world) we may be able to handle it in a more "smooth", scientific, and "normal" way than average people. In a free world today, even in a family, it's impossible to have consensus on everything. But is that exactly the reason to talk about? Obviously, there are some important issues in Taiwan. ( I am not sure whether you know it or not.) Does it make sense to exchange ideas during the reunion to show our care about this island? ( We are talking about having a reunion on this island, don't we?) Is Taiwan a topic of interest to our classmates? Shall we have a session for Taiwan? Or it's just not important enough for us.
Interested to know your opinion, if any.
Kuo-Wei
RT,
I would recommend Swen Ai-Bin or Lin Ping-Chou as a member of committee in
Taiwan, instead of myself. The reason being : firstly, both of them have a
company to run so they have the manpower to make things happen (contact,
etc.)easily; secondly, both of them were active and famous in "the good old
days" and they were the leaders at that time. I certainly can assist, but
they are much better than me. Will RT contact them to see what they say? Or
you want me to contact them?
Kuo-Wei
Kuo-Wei,
We certainly concern about Taiwan. However, it seems
to me that this subject is not appropriate to discuss
it formally in our group. Different people have
different opinions and political issues are
controversial and emotional. I suggest we should
avoid to discuss controversial issues during the
reunion. It would easily lead to heated arguements
and unpleasant situation, which we don't want it to
happen.
Ren-Tai
I totally agree. I think the spirit of the topics should be factual based sharing, whether it is our research, career and/or life experience. Not opinions based debate. I am not saying debate is bad. It is just not appropriate for the short time that we will have together after 40 years apart.
RT,
Understood your point. Yes, it is truly hard to be rational, even withextensive training on science and aging. Look around the world, then we knowhow people solve the controversial issues in our lives. Tolerance? Fight?Escape? Ignore? Are they any better than "talk" in solving problems? Buttalk is not easy. That's why many people are pessimistic about our world.
Thanks for your comment. It may be too serious for the reunion, which issupposed to be relaxing and friendly, not to argue and to debate.
KW
Rentai and Wee-yong,
I'll try. Please be ptient. I have been busy at doing street fundraising for Southern California Fires and doing subtitles for Tzu Chi Da Ai drama, 明月煦紅塵 (Moonlight Over Trouble Earth). I have been leading a team for 30 members doing subtitles for some well selected Da Ai dramas. Beginning Feb 2008, Da Ai TV will begining to play some popular Da Ai Drama with subtitles for global viewers.
Angela
Ren-Tai,
Thanks for all your efforts to organize the 40-year reunion. You must work really hard to update and respond to all those related messages. I am a lazy guy so I didn't read my email everyday. Today when I open my email, I was surprised by so many emails related to the 40-year reunion and by your frequently updates. Your "memory sharing writeup" is really impressive. It also refresh me those good old days all of us shared together in the Bay area. And lucky enough most of us still get together very often despite of those changes in our life - good or bad.
I hope it's not too late to respond the reunion consensus:.....
Cheng-fang
Hi Ren-tai and everyone,
The discussion (or argument) was over. Now it's time to get into business.
The Symposium is a much more complicated task than the sightseeing. It's may need much more time to prepare. Wish the 2009 Symposium will be a very successful one.
I only attend the reunion (sightseeing). Since the reunion will not happen after two years so now we may only need to spread the news to all of our schoolmates specially to those people whose email addresses are listed here. Until 5 or 6 months before the reunion, we will need a schoolmate (representative) in Taiwan to talk to several travel agencies with reputation to design two or three tour options for us to choose. Once a specific one is chosen, for the people who want to attend they just send the money to the representative so he/she can finalize the deal with the travel agency. This is only a 3-day tour, daytime will be busy for tour (sightseeing). The who evenings when we are in the hotel, personally I would prefer to have informal and easy events. Don't discuss any serious or sensitive topics.
Anyway, now is the time for us (the sightseeing people) to sit down, have a cup of tea and relax until six months before the event.
Hi LK, do you still remember "da-dau-wang-wu"? Nearly forty years ago, you said that I handled certain business just like "da-dau-wang-wu" in a very simple and straightforward way. Ha! "Chiang-shang-yee-ga, ben-sing-nan-yee". For this event, I'm in the other side of the river (not in Taiwan and not in the Symposium group), so I really don't have much to do.
-George
Hi Ren-tai and everyone,
The discussion (or argument) was over. Now it's time to get into business.
The Symposium is a much more complicated task than the sightseeing. It's may need much more time to prepare. Wish the 2009 Symposium will be a very successful one.
I only attend the reunion (sightseeing). Since the reunion will not happen after two years so now we may only need to spread the news to all of our schoolmates specially to those people whose email addresses are listed here. Until 5 or 6 months before the reunion, we will need a schoolmate (representative) in Taiwan to talk to several travel agencies with reputation to design two or three tour options for us to choose. Once a specific one is chosen, for the people who want to attend they just send the money to the representative so he/she can finalize the deal with the travel agency. This is only a 3-day tour, daytime will be busy for tour (sightseeing). The who evenings when we are in the hotel, personally I would prefer to have informal and easy events. Don't discuss any serious or sensitive topics.
Anyway, now is the time for us (the sightseeing people) to sit down, have a cup of tea and relax until six months before the event.
-George
I will help as I can.
First, I need dates to be clarified:
>2) Symposium - Th (10/22/09) at Physics Department:
(I presume this is a all day event)
> 3) Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09)
(Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place? Check in Friday? Check out Sunday or Monday? 1 day, 2 days or 3 days event?)
With big group(I hope we do have), I think we may need to choose location and reserve a block of rooms in the hotel/motel/cabinets(then release later if we do not need some of them) earlier. Some one knows about tourism in Taiwan, please we like to have your input. (For the technical conference in general, the location/hotel is chosen 2 years in advance, although the hotel reservation only opens several months head).
Yen-hwa
All,
Clarification:
Symposium - Th (10/22/09) an all day event
Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09)
* Starting place and time: Taipei at 10am, 10/23/09
* Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place:
about two and a half hours
*Check in Friday at noon; Check out Sunday at noon in
hotel
Reunion:
1. Horng, Herng-Er (洪姮娥) kindly agrees to help to
do the reservation
2. Saturday night after dinner will have 舊人新識 (Old
classmates new outlooks) gathering fun event
Symposium:
1. Tentative Title: "Symposium on Physics and Physics
Applications", sponsored by the Physics 59 Class,
cosponsored by Physics Department and Graduate
Institute of Electro-optical Science and Technology,
National Taiwan Normal University
2. Will have kickoff on-line discusions among the
Program Committee members soon
As you can see, the celebration train get started....
Ren-Tai
Ren-tai,
Thank you for your passion and efforts to produce all these proposals.
The biggest uncertainty is the meeting is 2 year away and people cannot foresee their schedule that early; especially people have to travel from outside Taiwan.
I think people may not give you commitment that soon. However, the waiting time may improve the program because you may get more inputs from the classmates.
Because there are many emails, I just achieved most of them in below for future tracking:
http://physics-59.blogspot.com/2007/10/40-year-reunion-communications.html
Any classmate's email address not on this email list?
Just a suggestion, although I understand that most
of us have commitments during the week, but for
sightseeing I would certainly recommend weekdays on
account of the masses that flocks to Taiwan's major
scenic spots at the weekends.
Wen-Tang Lee
Wen-Tang's concern makes sense. Besides, it will be
easier to make reservation and perhaps we can get
lower weekday rate. Consequently, I recommend to move
reunion from weekend to weekdays as follows:
Symposium - Tu (10/20/09) an all day event
Reunion - W-F (10/21/09-10/23/09)
* Starting place and time: Taipei at 10am, 10/21/09
* Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place:
about two and a half hours
Check in Wednesday at noon; Check out Friday at noon
in hotel or hotels
Thanks, Wen-Tang. Good suggestion.
Dear Classmates,
This is an important event for us. It really deserves
a good planing, and we should reach out to as many
classmates as possible for their opinions. I would
recommend not to come to such a rushed conclusion.
The event is 2 years away. I agree with Jer-Ming to
form several local steering committees. The task is
to jointly come up with a proposal in six months. In
the process, the committees should try to reach every
classmate in all possible ways, not just by e-mail.
Sorry for the late response. I am very slow in writing
mail.
Ker-Li
Good idea, but we need volunteers. The Committees
make recommendations; the implements need volunteers.
I recommend:
Wen-Tang (Recommended Coordinator in Taiwan),
Chaur-tzong, and Kuo-Wei-- Please help to find those
whose info is incomplete in Ching-Hsia's Roster in
Taiwan, reach them, and let Ching-Hsia know the
reaching data.
George (Recommended Coordinator in US), Jer-Ming,
Ker-Li-- Please help to find those whose info is
incomplete in Ching-Hsia's Roster in US, reach them
and let Ching-Hsia know the reaching data..
More volunteers are needed. If you are willing to
help, please inform the coordinators.
Thanks, Ker-Li.
Good luck,
Ren-Tai
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Oh my, it's fun to see so many emails every day.
I think the reunion is a very simple issue and the real (true) 40-year reunion should be in year 2010 (but it's OK to make it in 2009). It's far away from now.
The Symposium is a much more complicated event and have a lot issues need be resolved.
So just let the people who are interested in symposium to prepare their event (Symposium) first. Once they are ready (including topics, attendants, date, location, etc.), then for their convenience, the reunion can be connected to either in the front or at the rear of the Symposium. Seems like the Symposium is more important than the 40-year reunion (just kidding :).
The "local steering committees" will majorly work for the Symposium. So it may be more efficient for the people who will attend the Symposium to be the coordinators or directors.
After one year when we have a better picture about the Symposium then we start to have people to coordinate the reunion.
The above is just my personal opinion for your reference.
-George
George and all,
The reunion is the main event, and it is for all classmates and their spouse. The symposium can, but not necessarily, be part of the reunion. The local steering committees are for the reunion not for the symposium. They are tasked to come up with a well surveyed and discussed proposal for a reunion that will be interesting to as many classmates as possible.
The committees may recommend a completely separate symposium from the reunion or something less formal like a panel discussion.
Ker-Li
Archived this post:
Only 江仁台 summary proposal is posted here. Most the names in his various proposals are 江仁台 invention.
Symposium - Th (10/22/09) an all day event
Reunion - Fri-Sun (10/23/09-10/25/09)
* Starting place and time: Taipei at 10am, 10/23/09
* Transportation time from Taipei to reunion place:
about two and a half hours
*Check in Friday at noon; Check out Sunday at noon in
hotel
Reunion:
1. Horng, Herng-Er (洪姮娥) kindly agrees to help to
do the reservation
2. Saturday night after dinner will have 舊人新識 (Old
classmates new outlooks) gathering fun event
Symposium:
1. Tentative Title: "Symposium on Physics and Physics
Applications", sponsored by the Physics 59 Class,
cosponsored by Physics Department and Graduate
Institute of Electro-optical Science and Technology,
National Taiwan Normal University
2. Will have kickoff on-line discusions among the
Program Committee members soon
As you can see, the celebration train get started....
Ren-Tai
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