RESOLUTION: GBR-2008021 Marketing/Communication Operations

Resolution
GBR-2008021

Title
Marketing/Communication Operations

Content
1. Goals
1.1 In the spirit of better serving USTC and its global alumni community, AF
recognizes the advantages of improving and consolidating some of its marketing
communications (Marcom) activities.
1.2 The Marcom activities include
1.2.1 Web site design and maintenance
1.2.2 Drafting and distributing regular press releases and newsletters
1.2.3 Designing, printing and distributing brochures
1.3 The AF recognizes the quality of much of the Marcom work by USTCIF, and wishes
to obtain from USTCIF assistance in its Marcom operations.
1.4 The Marcom activities shall be limited to those that achieve the following
objectives:
1.4.1 Presenting a clear and strong positioning statement of the AF through all
media channels, such as the web site, newsletters, press coverage, etc.
1.4.2 Presenting a professional image of the AF in all of AF's external
communications, especially on the AF web site.
1.4.3 Facilitating the easy interaction between AF and it's existing and
prospective members.
1.4.4 Maximize the reach of the various forms of AF communications.
1.4.5 Maximize the impact of the various forms of AF communications.
1.5 We'll strive for a long term goal of, through a collaborative effort between the AF
and IF, establishing a user-friendly web-based platform to form a global online
community for all USTC alumni.

2. Organizational Structure
2.1 The GB executive committee shall appoint a sub-committee responsible for
marketing communications, within the beginning 3 months of each GB term.
2.2 This committee shall be called the Marcom committee. The executive committee
will act in places of such sub-committee until it is formed.
2.3 The Marcom committee shall consist of no less than 2 members.
2.4 Marcom committee's leadership structure can take one of the follow forms, for the
purpose of being flexible and reduced overhead.
2.4.1 The GB executive committee may appoint one person as the chair of the
committee.
2.4.2 The GB executive committee may decide not to appoint any chair person,
in which case the AF chair serves as the chair person of the Marcom committee.
2.4.3 The GB executive committee can dissolve the Marcom committee at any
time, and optionally at the same time make a new appointment according to the
rules above, once in any given time period of 3 months. This is to afford the GB
executive committee the due authority and to preserve to a degree the stability
of the Marcom committee.
2.5 The GB Executive Committee shall publish in writing, including sending to every
GB member, the goals for the Marcom committee to achieve, including:
2.5.1 Clarifications of the the previous section for the specific term of the
Marcom committee, and
2.5.2 Any additional goals beyond those outlined in the previous section.
2.6 The Marcom committee shall dissolve automatically at the end of a GB term.
3. Budget
3.1 The Executive Committee shall set the annual budget in a dollar amount for the
Marcom committee when it is appointed, or when the time covered by its current
annual budget elapses. This shall be called the "Annual Marcom Budget".
3.2 The amount of the "Annual Marcom Budget" should not violate the guidelines of
the AF by-law.
3.3 The "Annual Marcom Budget" covers the period of time starting from the first day
of the month when the Marcom committee is appointed, till the last day of the 12th
month.
3.4 An annual budget is only available to the Marcom committee, and ceases to be
available to anyone for any purpose after the dissolution of the Marcom committee.
3.5 When the Marcom committee engages a 3rd party service provider with a written
proposal, the proposal is considered to exceed the budget if there exists a possibility
that the payment terms contains an aggregate amount that exceeds the "Remaining
Budget" of the current year.
3.4.1 The "Remaining Budget" of a year is defined as the amount of the annual
budget, subtracted by previous payments for Marcom projects, further
subtracted by possible future payments in the current year under all of the
work-in-progress projects with agreements entered into by the Marcom
committee.
3.6 When the Marcom committee engages a 3rd party service provider without a
written proposal (see the Operational Procedures section for details), the
recommended payment is considered to exceed the budget if it exceeds the
"Remaining Budget" of the current year.
4. Operational Procedures
4.1 The Marcom committee is encouraged to procure services provided to us by
volunteers without compensation.
4.2 The Marcom committee is allowed to enter into fee-based agreements with 3rd
party service providers to assist in our Marcom activities (as defined section 1.2)
4.2.1 The service providers need to provide a written proposal with information
on deliverables, cost, and payment schedule before the Marcom committee can
enter into an agreement with one of them.
4.2.2 The Marcom committee can pledge monetary payments for service
provided in such agreement, but shall not pledge anything else on behalf of AF
without the approval of the Executive Committee.
4.2.3 If an intended project involves modifying a significant part of the AF web
site, a set of samples should be provided by the intended service provider
demonstrating the "look and feel" of the proposed changes. The samples need
to be approved by the Executive Committee before the Marcom committee can
enter into an agreement to procure services from the service provider.
4.2.4 For a given project, if the Marcom committee is not able to secure a
proposal from USTCIF as a service provider, it shall seek at least 2 proposals
from 2 independent service providers. The proposal shall contain a clearly
written statement of work, plus specific amount for the project and a payment
schedule.
4.2.5 The chair person of the Marcom committee is responsible for determining
the progress and quality of work for the service provider on a given project, and
is solely responsible for releasing payments according to the agreement with the
service provider.
4.2.6 The Marcom committee shall not enter into any agreement that may result
in payments that exceed the budget in any given period for which a budget is
set. (See previous section on budget)
4.3 The Marcom committee is specifically prohibited from making verbal or other
implicit commitments of payment for work performed by 3rd party service providers.
4.4 The Marcom committee shall not alter the key positioning statements on the AF
web sites or in any other medium without the approval of the Executive Committee.
4.5 The Marcom committee shall publish a report of its activities, especially spending
and budget related information, promptly after the completion of every 3-month
period starting from the effective date of the "Annual Marcom Budget".
5. BILL OF CONFLICTS
Were there any conflict of interests, AF will reserve the final rights to interpret this article.

Add'l info
Background
From its inception in 1995 until 2007, USTCAF has taken its place as the de facto alumni
foundation, soliciting donations from the global alumni community for the benefit of USTC,
its faculty, students and alumni. It has been one of USTCAF's fundamental tenets that
USTCAF shall employ no full-time staff, and solely rely on the volunteer services to support
its normal operations. The establishment of a separate Beijing-based USTC Initiative
Foundation (USTCIF), which employs full-time staff in addition to volunteers, has challenged
USTCAF to review its fundamental operation philosophies. It should be recognized that AF's
web site, in particular, could benefit from many improvements in terms of appearance and
ease-of-use, if dedicated staff were available to manage the project.
Therefore, it is the main objective of this resolution to improve certain AF marketing
communications activities, including the AF web site, by proactively soliciting cooperation
from USTCIF. It is also recognized by many on the 2008 GB that it is in the best interest of
the alumni organization, as well as both AF and IF, for the two organizations to collaborate
and cooperate more closely in at least some of their activities.
The authors of this resolution are hopeful that this could serve as a first step toward a closer
relationship between the organizations, which ultimately culminates in a sustainable model
of either a single or co-existing alumni foundations.
Revision History
* April 3, 2008: LI Xun edited the org structure section to allow for multiple leadership
structures of the committee.
* March 30, 2008: LI Xun edited the "Budget" section originally written by Xiaoxun.
* March 28, 2008: LI Xun filled in the "Background" section with text from Xiaoxun,
restructured and expanded the "Goals" section.
* March 27, 2008: LI Xun added the "Operational Procedures" section
* March 24, 2008: ZHU Xiaoxun produced the 2nd draft
* March 24, 2008: ZHU Xiaoxun produced the 1st draft

Author
ZHU Xiaoxun, LI Xun

Sponsors
DING Jian

Last Change
2008-04-14