ISCP Business meeting Minutes (July 18, 2005)

 

An ISCP Business meeting was held at the 14th International Conference on Chinese Philosophy (ICCP) from 7:00pm to 8:30pm, on July 18, in Sydney, Australia. 

 

Honorary President Chung-ying Cheng, President Karyn Lai, Executive Director Vincent Shen, Treasurer Xinyan Jiang, and many members and non-members who presented at the 14th International Conference on Chinese Philosophy attended the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Professor Vincent Shen.

 

Prof. Vincent Shen, the executive director of ISCP, called the meeting to order, greeted Prof. Karyn Lai, and Prof. Xinyan Jiang, and all other participants, and explained ISCP Secretary Prof. Chenyang Li’s absence, unable to come because of his duty in the States, and his report to be read by Prof. Xinyan Jiang. 

Agenda Items included the following:

I.  Ceremony of giving plaques of dedicated service

II. Speech of the President

III. Report from the Executive Director

IV. Report from the Secretary

V. Report from the Treasurer

VI. The nomination of new ISCP President

VII. The nomination of new ISCP Vice President

VIII. Revision of Constitutions

IX. Announcement of 15th International Conference of Chinese Philosophy in Wuhan, China, date, and theme.

 

X. Recommendation of the 16th ICCP to take place in Taiwan in 2009, and to be hosted by Fujen University.

 

XI. Transmission of ISCP Flag

 

 

I. Ceremony of giving plaques of dedicated service

 

First of all, we congratulated Prof. Karyn Lai and her team for having organized such a successful conference. We thanked Prof. Lai for her wise leadership and her excellent organization of the 14th ICCP. Also we expressed our gratitude to Professor Sandra Wawrytko, who had served as the ISCP Newsletter Editor, from 1991 to 2005. In the name of ISCP, our Secretary has prepared a plaque for each of them for their dedicated service to ISCP. Professor Shen gave plaques to both Prof. Lai and Prof. Wawrytko on behalf of ISCP. 

 

2. Speech of the President

 

Prof. Lai gave a short speech. She first thanked Prof. Vincent Shen, Prof. Chenyang Li, and  Xinyan Jiang for their valuable suggestions on organizing the conference. She also thanked all who sponsored and supported the conference. She thanked all participants of the conferences for coming most of whom came from a long way. She said that she was very glad that the conference went so well and different groups were well presented at the conference, and particularly students were included as well.

 

3. Report of Executive Director

 

Below is a summary of Prof Shen’s report.

 

First of all, thanks to the effort of Prof. Chenyang Li, ISCP Secretary, and Prof. Xinyan Jiang, ISCP Treasurer, we have established the Society’s directory with ever-updating email addresses, we have a server list in the yahoo through which facilitates our communication, and, thanks to Prof. Chenyang Li, now we have a better website of the Society. In the future, we’ll try to have an org website to have more complete functions with easier access. Also, thanks to Profs. Chenyang Li, Peimin Ni and Robin Wang, ISCP maintain a regular presence at APA, namely, we have our sessions and panels in the Eastern, Central and Western divisions of APA each year. Our members are all welcome to these annual conferences. If you are interested in the future conferences, please contact them.

 

Secondly, in the future, we plan to organize, besides all these regular conferences, also some more specified conferences with smaller group for deeper discussion in view of publication.

 

Thirdly, Chair of ISCP Board of Officers, Professor Antonio Cua, has finished his term as chair, and according to ISCP constitution, a new Chair shall be elected among all the past presidents by a steering committee constituted of the six past presidents. I’ve consulted some of them and Prof. Robert Neville, of Boston University preciously shows his willingness to serve as the new chair. With this we can now proceed to constitute the steering committee and officially have Prof. Neville as our new Chair of ISCP Board of Officers.

 

Fourthly, we have a very successful 14th ICCP under the wise leadership of Karyn Lai. According to our constitution, our current vice-president Guo Qi-yong will become the new president for the term 2005-2007 after the official process of nomination and election. And under his leadership, we will have our 15th  ICCP in Wuhan, China. Prof. Chenyang Li and I have been working on the preparation of the 16th ICCP. As I have introduced to you in the first evening’s welcome party, Prof. Bernard Li, President of Fujen Catholic University, has generously agreed to host the 16th ICCP in 2009. I would move therefore, Prof. Guo and Prof. Li to be nominated as our next President and vice president and proceed to election around December 2005/January 2006.   

 

Lastly, we need to propose a revision of the term of ISCP Secretary and Treasurer from 3 years to 5 years, to be the same as that of Executive Director. According to our current constitution, there is the inconvenience that both Secretary and Treasurer have shorter term than the Executive Director that poses problems for them to work together as a team in a good term.

 

4. Report of Secretary

 

Read by Professor Xinyan Jiang.

 

Here is a summary of Professor Chenyang Li’s report.

 

1. We upgraded our society’s webpage, with a new, more professional design and more information of the society. I urge you to check our site at http://www.cwu.edu/~iscp/ and give me suggestions for further improvement.

 

2. In collaboration with Dr. Xinyan Jiang, our Treasurer, we have maintained an update membership list. Our membership list is in excellent condition.

 

3. I created an anonymous email list that includes email addresses of our members and some non-members who are scholars of Chinese philosophy. This list has been used to communicate with individuals on matters important to our society. Because this is an anonymous list, it is not subject to possible abuses that many of us worry about.

 

4. In consultation with Executive Director Vincent Shen and Treasurer Xinyan Jiang, I designed and have made three plaques in appreciation of three individuals for their dedicated service to our society (Chung-ying Cheng, Sandra Wawrytko, and Karyn Lai).

 

5. I maintained regular communication with the International Federation of Philosophy Societies (FISP), of which ISCP is a member. The next World Congress of Philosophy organized by FISP will take place in South Korea in 2008. Members are encouraged to participate. For more information, please check their website at http://www.fisp.org.tr/.

 

6. I maintained regular communication with ISCP officers on ISCP business.

 

7. I responded promptly to inquiries from members and potential members alike on a regular basis.

 

8. Under the direction of Dr. Vincent Shen, I met with ISCP senior member Dr. Bernard Li, president of Fu-jen Catholic University in Taiwan, while I was at a conference in Taipei in March 2005, and discussed possibilities related to our 16th conference in 2009.

 

9. Finally, in my capacity as ISCP deputy director for North America, I maintained regular contact with ISCP liaisons to the American Philosophy Association. I would like to thank Dr. Peimin Ni, liaison to APA Central Division, and Dr. Robin Wang, liaison to APA Pacific Division for their dedication in organizing ISCP panels at these divisional meetings. (I am liaison to the Eastern Division.)

 

5. Report of Treasurer

 

Xinyan Jiang gave a detailed 2004 financial report of ISCP, including the total income of 2004, each item of expense in 2004, and ending balance of 2004. She said that for the sake of security, the detailed financial report would not be published on ISCP website; a detailed financial report with all numbers was sent to ISCP members via email a few months ago.

 

According to her report, financially, ISCP was in good shape, although it is clearly not a wealthy organization.

 

6. Motion One

 

The nomination of Prof. Guo Qiyong as new ISCP President.

Result: Passed with unanimity

 

7. Motion Two

 

The nomination of Prof. Bernard Li as new ISCP Vice-President

Result: Passed with unanimity

 

8. Motion Three

 

Revision of Constitutions:

According to the current ISCP constitution, the Secretary and the Treasurer shall be elected by the membership for a renewable three‑year term. It has been suggested to be revised as “The Secretary and the Treasurer shall be elected by the membership for a renewable five‑year term.”

Result: Passed with unanimity

 

9. Announcement of 15th International Conference of Chinese Philosophy in Wuhan, China, date, and theme (by Prof. Wu Genyou from Wuhan University).

 

10. Recommendation of the 16th ICCP to take place in Taiwan in 2009, and to be hosted by Fujen University (Prof. Du Baorui spoke on behalf of Fujen University).

 

11. Transmission of ISCP Flag from President Karyn Lai to Prof. Wu Genyou (representing Prof. Guo Qiyong)

 

Professor Shen announced the business meeting to adjourn at 8:30pm.

 

(prepared by Xinyan Jiang on 7/31/05)