Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2008 Meeting (Aug. 7th, 2008)    - TOP -

By Wei Zhang

Attendees (alphabetically by family name): Xiguang Chen, Lu Liu, Jing Gan, Li Guo, Xuyong Tu, Jiele Xu, Wei Zhang

Date: Thursday, August 07, 2008.

Time: 11:00pm-12:25 pm (CST)

1. Self-introduction

The meeting started with a self-introduction by each of the board member.  Three committee members (Kun Liu, Xuyong Tu, Wei Zhang) from the 2007-2008 committee continue to serve in the present 2008-2009 committee.  The committee has four new members to come in.  Xiguang Chen is a MS candidate in University of California at Davis and will continue on to his PhD study.  Lu Liu is a PhD student in University of Tennessee at Knoxville.  Li Guo and Jing Gan are both PhD students at Kansas State University.

2. Briefing 2008 ASABE Annual International Meeting

Wei Zhang reported to the committee on the 2008 ASABE Annual International Meeting at Providence, Rhode Island.  Approximately 78 attendees joined together for the AOC Student Banquet.  From the entries on the student register forms, 33 attendees were students, and 26 faculty or company employees.  The rest were probably attendee’s spouse and friends.  During the banquet, Mr. Fanglin Ai from the China’s Consulate in New York and Dr. Ruixiu Xu from Texas A&M University each delivered a talk to the students.  The funding raising event, T-shirt sales, sold 15 T-shirts in total and there are 123 T-shirts left and stored in Wei Zhang’s place.  The China Exchange Session, moderated by Dr. Zhongli Pan from UC Davis and Ryan Woolbright from Oklahoma State University, drew a large audience.  Xiguang Chen briefed to the committee on the AOC business banquet.

3. SAC future activities

The board members discussed the SAC’s future activities.  As advised by Dr. Naiqian Zhang, Wei Zhang proposed to conduct a survey on the students studying at the major universities in the North America to facilitate the exchange and communication of fellow students.  The board members agreed with this proposal and Lu Liu is going to assign the responsible survey areas for each board member.  The survey will be finished by the end of December, 2008.  The board members also agreed to maintain and promote the SAC student BBS website.  Wei Zhang asked helps from board members to post the job information and serve as moderators.

Regarding the SAC activities during the ASABE annual international meeting, the board members had a great discussion.  Jiele Xu suggested that the SAC should organize more events to facilitate the exchange between the fellow Chinese students attending the meeting, except for the student banquet.  Lu Liu proposed to have photography volunteers to take photos for the student presenters.  Jing Gan suggested to divide the email list by the study fields so that the messages delivered is more relevant to the field of receivers.  The board members also discussed the possibility of fund-raising events.  As a student committee overseen by AOC, the SAC will not have its own treasure.  All its finance affairs are supervised through AOC and the SAC will receive the AOC’s guidance and maintain a close cooperation with AOC.  The board members acknowledged that the detailed event plans will be discussed in the future meetings as needed.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2008 Meeting (June 19th, 2008)    - TOP -

By Xiao Wu

Attendees (alphabetically by family name): Jian Jin, Peng Li, Kun Liu, Zhiming Qi(Chair), Xiao Wu, Wei Zhang

Date: Thursday, June 19th, 2008.

Time: 9:00pm-10:00pm (CST)

Agenda: 1) Zhiming Qi introduced coming AOC activities; 2) SAC activities arrangement at 2008 ASABE annual international meeting; 3) 2008-2009 SAC chair election.

1. AOC Activities

1) AOC business meeting will be held at 6pm on July 1st at ASABE annual meeting in Providence, where AOC activities in 2007-2008 will be reviewed and plans of action for 2008-2009 will be discussed. 2) AOC dinner banquet will be set right after business meeting, charge $15 for student and $50 for faculty and others. SAC board member certificates will be awarded to Jian Jin, Kun Liu, Zhiming Qi ,Xiao Wu and Peng Li. 3) China Exchange Session at ASABE annual meeting will provide a forum for sharing visions, experiences, and new ideas for developing scholarly cooperation activities between the China and other country in agricultural, biological, and food engineering area. Zhiming encouraged every student board member to attend these activities during the meeting period.

2. SAC activities arrangement during ASABE AIM

1) AOC T-shirt sale: About 140 AOC T-shirts have been mailed to Wei Zhang, Peng Li and Kun Liu will be in charge of T-shirt sale at the time of AOC business meeting and student dinner during ASABE AIM. More SAC members would be encouraged to support T-shirt sale to earn the cost back and increase SAC funding. 2) Student gathering dinner: The Student gathering dinner will be held on June 30th, 2008. Each student will pay $5. Wei Zhang will go to the restaurant in advance to make sure everything is going well and charge all the affairs on the spot, such as greeting and note-taking for the presentations. Also he will go check with the restaurant as soon as possible see if they have got a TV set for Karaoke. Dr. Yang has invited Mr. Ai Fanglin, the Consul of Education at China Consulate General in NY, to give a speech at the dinner. An AOC faculty member will be also invited to give a speech, Peng Li will talk to Dr. Wang see if she is available otherwise Zhiming will contact Dr. Sui as an alternative.

3. 2008-2009 SAC chair election

Based on vote and discussion, Wei Zhang was elected to be the 2008-2009 SAC chair and will take over the position from 2008 ASABE AIM. This will be announced at the AOC business meeting. Five SAC board members will leave the board because of graduation within the year whereas Xuyong Tu will stay. Several board members are needed and will be selected from student members with new students preferred.

4. Others

Zhiming, Wei, Peng and Kun will print out some student gathering dinner flyers for distribution at the registration site at ASABE AIM.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2008 Meeting (February 28th, 2008)    - TOP -

By Peng Li

Attendees (alphabetically by family name): Peng Li, Zhiming Qi(Chair), Xuyong Tu, , Xiao Wu, Wei Zhang

Date: Thursday, February 28th, 2008.

Time: 9:00pm-10:10pm (CST)

Proposed Agenda: 1) Zhiming Qi reported recent AOC activities; 2) Discussed SAC gathering dinner, such as location, budget and invitation; 3) Student BBS issues.

1. AOC Activities

Zhiming reported current AOC activities including: 1) AOC and the government of Shaanxi province, China, are planning to setup an international agricultural research institute in Yangling city. 2) AOC planned to invite four professors from China to present in China Exchange Session of ASABE annual meeting. 3) The deadline of paper submission for AOC student paper competition is April 15th,2008. Zhiming also encouraged each board member to attend this contest. 4) The deadline of news and other information submissions for the latest AOC newsletter, IMPACT, is March 15th,2008. 5) AOC and CSAE (Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering) are planning to have cooperated publication. The first issue of this publication is to be published in July & August, 2008. 6) Each of the former SAC board members will get a member certification from the AOC.

2. Student Gathering Dinner

It is four months away from 2008 ASABE annual meeting in Providence. In order to provide a social opportunity for everyone to get to know each other, SAC will also host a student gathering dinner as usual. Based on the discussion, the dinner will be held on June 30th,2008. Wei Zhang will be in charge of restaurant searching nearby the meeting center. Zhiming will be responsible for the presenters¡¯ invitation. Zhiming proposed to have a performance during the dinner. Based on this suggestion, all boards discussed existing issues like equipments, area and performers. As for the prize for the performers, All boards agree to take the T-shirt as a award. The final decision on the performance will be made in next meeting.

3. BBS Issues

The Student BBS has been set up, however, the visited times are less. It needs to be publicized widely. Let more students know this BBS and make good use of this platform. Peng Li will design the BBS Lego as soon as possible.

4. Others

Zhiming proposed to publish a supplement of IMPACT, especially for Chinese students in the US. Wei Zhang suggested to publish one issue tentatively. Xuyong suggested to combine this issue with BBS somehow. The final decision on creating the supplement of IMPACT will be made in next meeting.

5. Next Meeting

Next meeting will be around the middle of May. Zhiming will send an email to specify the date.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2007 Meeting (October 10th, 2007)    - TOP -

By Wei Zhang

Attendees (alphabetically by family name): Jian Jin, Peng Li, Kun Liu, Zhiming Qi(Chair), Xuyong Tu, , Xiao Wu, Wei Zhang

Date: Thursday, October 10th, 2007.

Time: 9:00pm-10:10pm (CST)

The agenda of this meeting was to discuss the development of the newly established student electronic forum before its final launch on the internet.

1. Student BBS comments and suggestions

The board members unanimously approved the overall design of the BBS and appreciated the effort of Zhiming Qi, which has made this website possible. The board members also provided many comments. Jian Jin believed that the BBS should have less content sections to make the forum more compact and help with the content providing and easy management. Wei Zhang found that the content division was appropriate and very field specific. Peng Li thought that a new SAC logo is needed and will design a new logo. Xiao Wu found that the title of the forum was limited only to the application topic. Zhiming Qi brought up the issue about the necessity of an independent domain name to reflect the genuine student-oriented objectives of this website and avoid the misconception purely based on its name.

The board members discussed these issues and arrived with the following decisions. The BBS will be tentatively divided into Electronics and Machinery, Structural, Environmental and Soil Water Engineering, and Food and Biological Engineering with respect to the technical field sections. If the future development requires more sections, the SAC committee will address the issue accordingly. The sections such as BBS Issues, Openings, and ABE Student Life Oversea will be kept intact. An independent domain name will be applied from a commercial server provider and the BBS will be named as abfestudent or something alike. Zhiming Qi will be in charge of this issue.

2. BBS Management and Publicity

The management and publicity of the BBS after its final launch were also discussed. Zhiming Qi asked every board member to be involved in the job opening information collection and posting. The moderator for each section was assigned. Briefly, Jian Jin, Peng Li and Kun Liu will moderate Electronics and Machinery; Wei Zhang and Xiao Wu will be assigned to Structural, Environmental and Soil Water Engineering; Zhiming Qi will oversee BBS Issues and Openings; Xuyong Tu will manage ABE Student Life Oversea; a moderator for Food and Biological Engineering will be searched. For publicity, the target communities are the Chinese student in the universities in US, the university in China, and also other relevant BBS. After the BBS’s launch in the internet, Wei Zhang will send an email to the registered student members of AOCABFE to inform the establishment of this new website and kindly ask them to spread the message to the relevant community. Wei Zhang will also post the information about this website on Taisha, Gter, and his university mailing list. Other board members are also required to post this information on their university mailing list or BBS if possible.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2007 Meeting (July 12th, 2007)    - TOP -

By Zhiming Qi

Attendees (alphabetically by family name): Jian Jin, Peng Li, Kun Liu, Zhiming Qi(Chair), Xuyong Tu, , Xiao Wu, Wei Zhang

Date: Thursday, July 12, 2007.

Time: 9:00pm-10:10pm (CST)

1. Self-introduction

This conference started with a self-introduction by each of our board member. Xiao Wu, a Ph.D. student at University of Minnesota, received her B.S. degree from Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Her research focuses on producing hydrogen gas by hog manure. Zhiming Qi is a Ph.D. student at Iowa State University, working at agricultural drainage water quality. He got his B.S. and M.S. from China Agricultural University. Wei Zhang, originally from Hubei Province, is a Ph.D. student at Cornell University. His research project is involved in water quality issue on dairy farms. Before joining Cornell, he obtained his MS at Okalahoma State University. Kun Liu, a native of Heilongjiang Province, is studying the effect of military vehicle on environment in the Ph.D. program of Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee. Jian Jin, a Ph.D. student originally from Jiangsu Province, devotes himself to agricultural machinery and intelligence at Iowa State University. Peng Li, originally from Inner Mongolia, is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in agricultural machinery and sensor at Kansas State University. Xuyong Tu, born in Zhejiang Province, is doing his Ph.D. in agricultural automatics at Iowa State University.

• Zhang, Wei / Cornell University / wz47@cornell.edu / 607-206-9690
• Tu, Xuyong / Iowa State University / tuxuyong@iastate.edu / 515-450-7652
• Wu, Xiao / University of Minnesota / littlexiao@gmail.com /612-978-9446
• Jin, Jian / Iowa State University / jinjian@iastate.edu / 515-520-9621
• Liu, Kun / University of Tennessee / kliu4@utk.edu / 865-964-9893
• Li, Peng / Kansas State University / lip@ksu.edu / 785-317-5122
• Qi, Zhiming / Iowa State University / qzhiming@iastate.edu /515-520-9583

2. Photo submission

Before the introduction, every board member was requested to send his or her picture for upgrading the SAC website. Everyone will get a chance to record our meeting and write the minutes in the order of Jian Jin, Wei Zhang, Xiao Wu, Xuyong Tu, Kun Liu, and Peng Li.

3. Report on previous work

Zhiming reported financial situation and work that was accomplished in the year of 2006-07. AOC monetarily supported two SAC events in 2007: $1000 for AOC T-shirt making and approximately $700 for the Gathering Dinner in Minneapolis. The revenue including $565 from T-shirt sale and $230 from SAC membership fee and dinner tickets for faculty and spouse was submitted to AOC after the events in June, 2007.

Work that was done in 2006-07 includes: 1) A survey on Chinese students in the department of agricultural engineering in North America via internet. Around 160 Chinese students were recorded in 44 universities. 2) A Mailing list through google.com. 3) Making and selling T-shirt. Two hundred T-shirts were made and 57 were sold, one was sent to Dr. Wang as a gift. Currently we have 142 T-shirts left, 16 of which are kept by Peng Li at Kansas State, and the others are saved by Zhiming Qi at Iowa State. 4) The Gathering Dinner in Minneapolis. Two plans were proposed but not finished: internet upgrading and setting up a SAC network in China.

4. Tentative proposal on 2007-08 Session

All board members agreed that a BBS would be helpful in promoting the communication of SAC members and be beneficial to agricultural engineering applicants in China. A simple commercialized BBS downloaded from internet source works fine. Zhiming will consult a BBS manager then figure out how to set up our BBS. After the BBS has been set up, each board member is responsible for managing one section. A bimonthly electronic communication is another item proposed in the meeting. News, travel journals and the insights and thoughts are all welcomed to be pulished in PDF format.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2007 Meeting (May 10th, 2007)    - TOP -

By Zhiming Qi

Attendees (alphabetically): Haitao Xiang (chair), Jian Jin, Qi Wang, Shuhui Dun, Yali Zhang, Zhiming Qi.

Date: Thursday, May 10, 2007.

Time: 9:00pm-10:10pm (CST)

1. AOC T-shirt

Two hundred AOC T-shirts have been produced at the lowest cost under the coordination of Haitao, 50 in Small size, 100 in Median and 50 in Large and Extra Large. The total cost is $1092, $5.76 each. They will be arriving at Urbana, IL on next Monday May 14, 2007. Proposed price is $10 each. Wang Qi accepted the task of shipping them from Urbana to Minneapolis and will be in charge of selling and advertising issues at ASABE meeting. We planned to sell the T-shirt on the afternoon of Monday June 18 when/before China Exchange meeting is going. Shuhui will be the cashier of the T-shirt business.

If this T-shirt business is profitable, $1000 will be sent back to AOC to cover the total cost, and the net profit will be reserved for SAC's future usage.

2. Student Gathering Dinner

It is only five weeks away from 2007 ASABE annual meeting in Minneapolis. SAC is planning to host a student gathering dinner to provide a social opportunity to student members to get to know each other. Based on the discussion, the dinner will be held on June 19, 2007. Jin Jian and Zhiming will try to find a Chinese restaurant around the Minneapolis Convention Center ASAP. Haitao mentioned that there are 12 Chinese restaurants within 1 mile of the convention center. Jin Jian reported Xiangyuan Restaurant as the best choice under some research, but the final decision will be made under the consideration of distance and response from the manager of a restaurant. Proposed capacity is 30-40 seats.

Haitao will design a flyer to the restaurant. Zhiming and Yali will form a greeting group at the dinner, and take care of registration and membership fee, $5 for new SAC members. Dinner is free for SAC members but faculty members will be charged, depending on the per capita cost.

Haitao will discuss more about presenter invitation with Dr. Zhang. Four topics were brought up in last conference:

1. How to write a high-quality research paper? ( Shuhui proposed Dr. Wu at Washington State in an email after the tel-conference)

2. What do professors expect from graduate students during the research?

3. Introduction of P.E. test.

4. Introduction of agricultural engineering in China (will invite a professor from China to give this talk, Dr. Wang Maohua was considered as a potential speaker. Wang Qi will contact Dr. Wang)

3. Miscellaneous

• Wang Qi has booked a hotel Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403 USA. It is nice if we can live close;
• Haitao will send an email to all members about the SAC dinner one or two week in advance;
• Wang Qi and Yali suggested we collect our cell phone number to facilitate our communication in Minneapolis. Five numbers were obtained at the meeting and a message has sent to Shuhui for hers.

Haitao Xiang 217-721-7141

Jian Jin 515-520-9621

Qi Wang 217-721-8331

Shuhui Dun N/A

Yali Zhang 785-317-4262

Zhiming Qi 515-520-9583

4. Next meeting will be held on June 7, 2007.

If there is any error about the minutes above, please let me Zhiming know.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2007 Meeting (April. 5th, 2007)    - TOP -

By Haitao Xiang

Attendees (alphabetically): Haitao Xiang (chair), Jian Jin, Qi Wang, Shuhui Dun, Yali Zhang, Zhiming Qi.

Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007.

Time: 9:00pm-9:50pm (CST)

All six board members attended the meeting. Issues on place the order of AOC T-shirt and prepare the student gathering dinner during ASABE annual meeting. The details are as following.

1. AOC T-shirt

SAC made the decision to use the design submitted by Haitao as the final version of AOC T-shirt.

Haitao has contacted several T-shirt companies about the price and he will choose one who offers the lowest price. The material of T-shirt will be 100% unshrink cotton. Estimated sale price during ASABE meeting would be $10 per piece.

2. Student gathering dinner

It is only two and half months away from 2007 ASABE annual meeting in Minneapolis. SAC is planning to host a student gathering dinner to provide a social opportunity to student members to get to know each other.

Based on the discusses, the dinner will be held on June 19, 2007.

Jin Jian will check with his friend in University of Minnesota about the choices of restaurant.

Haitao will contact AOC board members to request the support about this event.

Several topics SAC is interested in to hear from invited faculty speakers have been brought up as following:

1. How to write a high-quality research paper?

2. What do professors expect from graduate students during the research?

3. Introduction of P.E. test.

4. Introduction of agricultural engineering in China (will invite a professor from China to give this talk)

3. Next meeting

Next meeting will be the early of May. No specific time was scheduled.

 

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2007 Meeting (Feb. 2nd, 2007)    - TOP -

By Haitao Xiang

Attendees (alphabetically): Haitao Xiang (chair), Qi Wang, Shuhui Dun, Yali Zhang, Zhiming Qi.

Date: Thursday, February 8, 2007

Time: 9:00pm-9:50pm (CST)

1. AOC T-shirt design

The meeting was aimed on discussing AOC T-shirt design. Three designs had been received by the deadline (Jan 30, 2007) of the T-shirt design contest. Based on comprehensive discuss, SAC made several comments on each design:

The first design submitted by Haitao Xiang(University of Illinois) is simple and formal, which is more suitable for a professional association. On the back of T-shirt, this design is planning to demonstrate all fields included in the AOC, i.e. Biological, Food and Bioprocess, Soil and water, Bioenviromental and Off-road equipment. The ASABE division names: 1. Biological Engineering; 2. Education; 3. Ergonomics, Safety, and Health; 4. Food and Process Engineering; 5. Information and Electrical Technologies; 6. Power and Machinery; 7. Soil and Water; 8. Structures and Environment have been suggested to replace the name on current design.

The second design from Ning Tang(Kansas State University) looks elegant and artistic.

However, this style maybe more proper for a student association.

The third design was from Shuhui Dun(Washington State University). This was designed to show the Chinese scissor-cut style and represent the traditional Chinese flavor. It might be too complicated for a professional T-shirt.

At the end of meeting, SAC came to an agreement of combining the first and second design to achieve a design with simple, artistic and professional style. Ning Tang has agreed to help SAC to finalize the design.

2. Next meeting

Next meeting would be around early march. Haitao will set out an email to specify the date.

P.S.

After the meeting, a new design from Zhiming Qi (Iowa State Univesity) was sent to SAC. The design was consisted of six sketches representing six areas in AOC. The designer hopes to put each of pictures on the back of one T-shirt.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Meeting (Oct. 26th, 2006)    - TOP -

By Qi Wang

Attendees (alphabetically): Haitao Xiang (chair), Jian Jin, Qi Wang, Shuhui Dun, Yali Zhang, Zhiming Qi.

Date: Thursday, October 26, 2006.

Time: 9:00pm-9:50pm (CST)

The forth conference call of SAC (2006-2007) was held as scheduled. All six board members attended the meeting. Issues on email list, website update, efficient group communication and T-shirt design were discussed. The details are as following.

1. New email list

A new email list in Google was created by Haitao Xiang. The Google email list is more friendly than the previous one in Yahoo. The change will give SAC members an easier access to subscribe, unsubscribe and send information. Thanks to the survey in the past two months, the Chinese students' roster is helpful to create a list that covers all our members and potential members in North America. Haitao Xiang will send a greeting email to the list, which will inform the change to all the members and introduce AOC to nonmembers. For those nonmembers who are listed but not willing to receive the emails , they can unsubscribe easily online.

2. Website update

The online registration web page developed by Zhiming Qi was published. This new function will be tested in following month.

A new Open Letter to Students composed by Haitao Xiang was published online. Shuhui Dun provided some valuable suggestions to revise it.

Haitao Xiang and Jian Jin modified the structure of the SAC web page, and more information, including Student Roster, Success Stories, Awards and Job Info , is now available online.

3. Efficient group communication

The SAC online meeting has been proposed so that all the student members can be familiar with each other. All the board members supported this suggestion and discussed how to implement it. Most of the board members were in favor of a meeting using an online instant messenger. Haitao Xiang will explore the possibility of an instant messenger meeting online.

4. AOC T-shirt

Haitao Xiang and Zhiming Qi provided information on manufacturing T-shirt in both China and US, including the T-shirt quality and a cost comparison. Board members were in favor of manufacturing the T-shirts in China, because the lower cost would make it easy to budget. More details like logistics and importing into US will be discussed in later meetings.

Qi Wang reported his idea in T-shirt design and suggested a design competition. Members and nonmembers of AOC are all welcomed to be involved in the competition to show their own understanding on agricultural, biological and food engineering. The best designers will be awarded. Haitao Xiang will make a draft for the competition rules.

5. Next meeting

Next meeting was scheduled at 9pm CST on Nov. 26th, 2006.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Meeting (Sep. 28th, 2006)      - TOP -

By Yali Zhang

Time: 9~10pm CST, Thursday, September 28th, 2006.

Attendees: Haitao Xiang (chair), Jian Jin, Qi Wang, Shuhui Dun, Yali Zhang, Zhiming Qi.

Absentee : None

All six board members were able to attend today's meeting. During this meeting, board members mainly discussed three topics, which were Chinese students' rosters submission, AOC T-shirt design and SAC vice-chair selection. The detailed procedures are as follows.

1. Chinese students' rosters

A survey of Chinese students studying in ABE programs in North America has been conducted by board members since the last meeting. Although board members encountered many difficulties during this survey because of the limited resources, everybody has made good effort in collecting the information. Some AOC faculty members also offered great help. They are: Dr. Jinglu Tan, Dr. Jun Zhu, Dr. Yanbin Li, Dr. Qiang Zhang, Dr. Ning Wang and Dr. Yifen Wang. SAC appreciated their help very much. Based on this survey, there are about 160 Chinese students who are studying in ABE programs in North America at present. This survey also includes 3 universities in Canada.

2. AOC T-shirt design

In the last meeting, SAC decided to design AOC T-shirts that can be considered as a prize to those students contributing articles to SAC website in the future. This proposal received big support in AOC board members teleconference. They agreed to provide the manufacturing cost. Qi Wang will take care of the T-shirt design. Haitao will be responsible for the detailed manufacturing process and Zhiming will help.

3. SAC vice-chair selection

In order to carry forward SAC's good tradition to the next term (2007~2008), a vice chair is necessary and he will stay in the new board helping new board members . Zhiming Qi was selected to be the vice chair of SAC. In the meeting Zhiming expressed his thanks and he'd like to work hard for SAC of AOC in the future.

4. Other issues

Zhiming designed an interactive membership application form. This work will simplify the student membership application process. Haitao has put the webpage into AOC website. The link is http://www.aoc-web.org/student/sacapplication.html .

To encourage Chinese students to contribute articles for SAC website, all SAC board members agree with the bilingual format in SAC website.

5. Next meeting

Next meeting was scheduled on October 26th, Thursday, 9PM CST.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Meeting (Aug. 30th, 2006)      - TOP -

By Zhiming Qi

The Board Members of Student Activity Committee, AOC met via teleconference on August 30 th , 2006. Haitao opened the meeting at 9:00 pm. The Board Member, Haitao Xiang, Jian Jin, Qi Wang, Yali Zhang, and Zhiming Qi, attended the entire meeting with the absence of Shuhui Dun.

1. SAC Membership. Haitao forwarded the roster and reported the recent situation of SAC membership. SAC has 48 members composed of ABE students from 18 universities in the North America and 35 students from 7 Chinese universities. With the exception of the 18 schools, there are still 27 universities with ABE program which do not include any SAC member.

To organize the administration and enrolling of SAC members, 44 US universities with ABE program were assigned to the 6 Board Members. Haitao sent the university lists soon and every Board Member was required to survey the schools they got and fill the table Qi Wang made.

Membership fee was discussed. Every Board Member agreed that any newly recruited SAC member can either submit their $5 membership fee by mailing a check right with the application form or do that at the ASABE annual international meeting.

2. SAC Homepage . SAC-AOC homepage needs to be updated. A simple static homepage with more information will be established. Every Board Member was asked to conceive a frame of the webpage and collect materials.

Haitao stated that he would contact Dr. Wang for the newest list of SAC members, so the AOC Student Members for 2006 can be published through our webpage.

3. T-Shirt. Yali proposed making T-shirts for SAC. Every Board Member agreed with that. Yali would talk to the treasurer of AOC for financial support. Qi Wang would think about the pattern design.

4. Next Meeting Time. The next meeting will be on Sep. 28, 2006.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Meeting (Aug. 2nd, 2006)         - TOP -

By Haitao Xiang

Attendees (alphabetically): Haitao Xiang (chair), Jian Jin, Qi Wang, Yali Zhang, Zhiming Qi.

Date: Wednesday, August 2, 2006.

Time: 9:10pm-10: 35pm (CST)

This was the first meeting of the new term (2006-2007) SAC. During the meeting, attendees comprehensively discussed the missions of SAC and potential activities in the coming year. A great many wonderful and constructive suggestions had been proposed during the meeting.

Detailed procedures are:

1. Welcome new SAC board members

The new term SAC, which was formed during the ASABE 2006 annual meeting in Portland, OR, consists of six students from four universities. They are: Haitao Xiang and Qi Wang (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Jin Jian and Zhiming Qi (Iowa State Univeristy), Yali Zhang (Kansas State University), Shuhui Dun (Washington State Universiy). As a former SAC board member, Haitao expressed a great welcome to all new joined board members. Also, new SAC would like to appreciate the efforts and achievements of former SAC had made.

2. Discussions on the mission of SAC

SAC has been growing rapidly, more than forty student members in North America and thirty in China have joined us so far. Based on partially statistics, there are more than one hundred Chinese students studying in ABE field on the North American continent and plenty of students in China now are willing to study abroad in ABE related area. SAC believes we still have a great opportunities and resources to expand our organization bigger and stronger. We realized that more attractive services should be provided to our student members in order to recruit more members. SAC will dedicate to build such a community that our student members are able to get acquainted, to communicate and to share with each other. SAC also likes to help our student members in North American to complete their academic studies and to build up their professional career by means of providing job opening information. As for student members in China, SAC is willing to help them to come abroad, such as informing them real time information about RA or TA.

3. Modify the current student webpage

Jian Jin has volunteered to be our new webmaster of student webpage. Some possible improvements about webpage have been put forward:

• Enrich the contents of student webpage. Share successful experiences from all AOC members with student colleagues on the topics students are interested in, such as how to succeed in academia in abroad, how to apply for graduate school in ABE field etc.
• Manage to integrate some interactive functions which provide a communication platform for all student members to get to know each other and share information.
• Prospect student members could submit their application forms electronically via our webpage directly. Therefore, it simplifies application procedure.
• In order to attract more students in China, a Chinese version student web-site has been proposed. And the Chinese mirror website under CAU could be used in the future to publicize ourselves.

4. Six districts in North America

As we know, Chinese students studying on Agricultural and Biological Engineering area in North America are distributing among more than fifty universities. All those universities will be divided into six districts, each of SAC board members is going to take charge of one district to organize Chinese students in that district.

5. Establish sub-committee in China

The suggestions have been made to look for some representatives from our current student members in China to form a sub-committee. This committee could help SAC to connect students in related field in China and recruit more student members.

6. Next meeting

Next meeting was scheduled on August 30th, Wednesday, 9PM CST.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Spring Meeting (April. 27th, 2006)       - TOP -

By Jian Shi

Time: April 27, 2006 . 9-10:20pm EST

Attendees: Dr. Naiqian Zhang (Advisor), Changying Li (President), Min Min, Xianglian Li, Haitao Xiang, and Jian Shi.

Absentee: Jianqiang He

During today’s meeting, the board members discussed several topics which included preparation for student gathering in Portland , speaker invitation, paper competition, and award nomination, progress of member recruitment from China and also business of next E-news. Detailed information is:

1. SAC student gathering this summer at Portland

The time for SAC student gathering was confirmed at 6 pm on July 10, the Monday evening. The format will still be buffet dinner plus two invited speakers. Changying has talked to Dr. Lin for reservation of restaurant as well as the presentation equipments. We also discussed the potential speakers. Dr. Han Shufeng is still in highlight regarding his experience in both industry and academic areas. As suggested by Dr. Naiqian Zhang, the second speaker will be a female speaker or a fresh faculty member.

After the location and speaker is determined, SAC will prepare for invitation flyer which includes detailed information such as map, bus route, and topics. We will also publish SAC student gathering information in next IMPACT to attract more participates.

2. Progress of member recruitment in China

Xianglian give a brief report on the status of student members in China . We confirmed 35 student members in China . As mentioned by Jian, a formal procedure for membership management has been created. Xianglian will like to run a statistics on the origin universities of existing members. Based on the results, we could send advertisement again on those omitted universities.

As proposed by Haitao, Dr. Qin Zhang and Dr. Naiqian Zhang will help us to distribute hard copies of recruitment flyer on their trip to China .

3. Find delegates from North American Universities

In order to get more efficient reply, AOC President Ruihong Zhang would like to help us to send email to faculty members in representative universities and let them recommend delegates for SAC. Changying will talk to Dr. Zhang to follow up in the upcoming AOC board meeting.

4. Next E-news

Min Min will be the chief editor of next issue of E-news. Min Min will email AOC regular members and ask for news resources recently. We expect the E-news to be released in early June 2006.

5. Award nomination and paper competition

Dr. Naiqian Zhang mentioned again the deadline for annual award nomination (May 15th) and Paper competition (June 15th). Dr. Zhang will send a revised version of paper competition poster. SAC will take important responsibility to distribute this information to all AOC student members, especially student members in China .

6. Next meeting

Next meeting was scheduled on May 25th, Thursday, 9PM (EST).

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Spring Meeting (Mar. 30th, 2006)       - TOP -

By Min Min

Time: March 30, 2006. 9-10pm EST

Attendees: Changying Li (President), Jian Shi, Xianglian Li, and Min Min.

Absentee: Haitao Xiang and Jianqiang He

During this meeting, the board members mainly discussed several topics which included E-news, progress of member recruitment from China and preparation of student activity in upcoming annual ASABE meeting. Detailed information is:

1. E-news in April

Next issue of E-news will be released in early April 2006. Haitao will be in charge of the preparation and distribution of this E-news, and Min will help Haitao on editing. All AOC regular members are encouraged to contribute news resources. If you have any news or information, please send email to: hxiang@uiuc.edu.

2. Progress of member recruitment in China

SAC members worked really hard on distributing information about AOC organization to relative universities in China. Jian Shi did good job on this member recruitment. He reported that more than 30 students responded the invitation letter. The problem is that most students in China use mailbox ended by 163.com, which can not accept email sent from us. Possible solution is to request student in China use Yahoo mailbox. We were very happy to see the growing number of student member in China. With incensement of student members form China, membership management will become the next issue. Xianglian would like to contribute time and take care of this problem. Jian will send us an email of these schools and we need to send advertisement again based on these feedbacks.

3. Find delegates from North American Universities

In order to get more efficient reply, AOC President Zhang would like to help us to send email to faculty members in representative universities and let them recommend delegates for SAC. Changying will send email to Dr. Zhang to follow up.

4. SAC student gathering this summer at Portland

The time for SAC student gathering was scheduled on July 10, Monday evening. The default format will still be buffet dinner plus two invited speakers. We discussed the potential speakers. Since Dr. Han Shufeng has been working in both industry and academic areas, his experience will be interested to most of the students. We would like to invite Dr. Han as one of the speakers. We need to find another speaker.

For gathering location, Changying and Jian will be responsible for searching a restaurant. Based on the expense of last year, $300 which will be provided by AOC board should cover the dinner expense. However we still need to estimate the number of students who will join in this event.

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Spring Meeting (Feb. 23th, 2006)       - TOP -

By Xianglian Li

Type of meeting: Teleconference

Attendees: Changying Li (President), Jian Shi, Haitao Xiang, and Xianglian Li.

Absentee: Min Min and Jianqiang He

Date: Thursday, Feb. 23 rd, 2006 Time: 9:00pm-10:00pm (EST)

Board members mainly summarized work since last meeting, discussed possible improvement and made new plans on the meeting. General procedures are:

1. Delegates from North American Universities

Changying had sent invitations to different universities in North American to recruit SAC representatives. However, there were only two responses so far. We may need to send invitations to a particular person for efficient reply.

2. Feedback from member recruitment in China

As the response to the advertisement of recruiting members from China, students from several universities in China had sent request to join SAC. Though the total number was small, it was glad to see the progress. There also raised problems and concerns. Among the applicants, some students were not studying in agricultural, biological, or food engineering (ABFE) fields. Some students were daunted by reading information in English and gave up application.

3. Scope of ABFE, poster, and application form etc.

Based on the feedbacks from the member recruitment in China, the board proposed some improvements:

• Changying will re-address current professional development in ABFE field and give an accurate scope of ABFE, which will be included in the new advertisement.
• Changying will also contact Dr. Naiqian Zhang for some funding support and print recruitment poster and send them to relevant departments and international office in universities of China.
• Many students might not see the advertisement because of the official holiday last month in China. So we will send the improved advertisement this month.
• Jian will design a formal application form for applicants in China.
• Delegate from each university in China will be chosen, if necessary, for both better management and students’ convenience in application.

4. Next issue of Enews

Haitao will take care of the development and distribution of next Enews. Min Min will offer a hand in editing. The new issue of Enews will be released in early April 2006.

5. Next meeting

Next meeting was scheduled on March 30th, Thursday, 9PM (EST).

Minutes of Student Activity Committee 2006 Spring Meeting (Jan. 26th, 2006)       - TOP -

By Xianglian Li

Type of meeting: Teleconference

Attendees: Changying Li (President),Jian Shi, Min Min, Haitao Xiang, and Xianglian Li.

Date: Thursday, Jan. 26 th, 2006 Time: 9:00pm-10:00pm (Eastern Standard Time)

Procedures:

1. Welcome new Board members and approval of member leave

Welcome Min Min ( University of Florida), Haitao Xiang ( University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and Jianqing He ( University of Florida) to join SAC Board. We are glad to see the growth of our group with effort from each member. Special thanks to Min Min who attended the meeting on her way traveling. Chunxia Wu asked to leave this Board since she has graduated. We thank her for her great work in the past year.

2. Release the second issue of SAC Enews

Changying will compile the second issue of SAC Enews and release it in the first week of February 2006.

3. Recruit members from China and apply activity fund

Shijian will organize people to send ads to several selected agricultural and/or engineering universities in China. Each of the board members may choose one or two schools and contact right persons to help us sending invitation letter on his/her school BBS or on school’s website.

Changying will revise the invitation letter before our distribution of ads. Also, Changying may ask Dr. Zhang Naiqian for SAC funding to distribute print ads to schools in China.

4. Recruit members/representatives in North America

To activate the community in Yahoo AOC-SAC, the board plans to recruit SAC representatives, who will be responsible to ask their schoolmates to join SAC Emaillist or to be a member, from each university in US or Canada. Thank Haitao for good suggestion. Changying will send emails to different schools and recruit representatives.

5. Schedule regular Enews publication and Board meeting

The Board proposed to release E-news bimonthly in the first week of a month. SAC Board meeting will be set monthly on the last Thursday of each month (next meeting should be on Feb. 23.), from 9-10 pm (EST).