RESOLUTION: GBR-2012-2-28 Guidelines for Establishing USTCAF Named Awards and Scholarships

Resolution
GBR-2012-2-28

Title
Guidelines for Establishing USTCAF Named Awards and Scholarships

Content
Title: Guidelines for Establishing USTCAF Named Awards and Scholarships

(Note: AF is a shorthand name for USTC Alumni Foundation (USTCAF); GB stands for the governing board of USTCAF.)

1. PURPOSE AND EXPLANATION

The purpose of establishing AF named award is to accommodate the requests from donors who wish to set up award programs with specific names. This program is aimed to enhance fund raising so that AF will be able to aid more students and faculty with outstanding achievements.

In addition to the right of naming the gifts, the donors will work with GB to define the nature of the awards and the criteria for recipient(s). Each award will bear its own name and with custom-made award certificate(s). There will be a dedicated webpage for each such award on AF's website, including a brief description of the award and the chronicle records of its awardees.

This guideline does not introduce new categories of award, but rather, it sets standards, procedures and requirements of entitling a new award within the existing merit-based award and scholarship categories, and possibly with additional requirements.

All such awards will have a two-year trial period at the beginning. The new awards will continue if no objection is raised to GB by the end of the trial periods. The awards will terminate if there are no remaining balances.

2. AWARD CATEGORIES

The new award must fall into one of the existing USTCAF merit-based award categories, as determined by previous AF resolutions. At the time of drafting this guideline, there are six existing award categories:

  • High School Scholarship (HSS);
  • Outstanding New Student award (ONS);
  • Excellent New Student award (ENS);
  • Teaching Excellence Award (TEA);
  • Young Faculty Achievement Award (YFAA);
  • Young Faculty Career Award (YFCA);

Based on the selected award category, factors such as, but not limited to, grade, sex, school, and department can be added as extra requirements but such requirements shall not be exclusive such that only one person qualifies.

3. THE PROCEDURE

1). The donor informs AF about his/her intention of setting up a new AF named award. Upon receiving the request, GB shall initiate the procedure of establishing the new award.

2). Unless GB designates a different person, the current secretary will be the AF representative to handle this new award establishment. This AF representative will then contact the donor, and discuss the award criteria, including the category of the new award and the extra criteria the donor wish to add, if any.

3). After the initial discussion, a memo will be drafted, either by the donor or the AF representative, and it will then be submitted to GB for discussion. The memo should include at least the following information:

a)          the name of donor (the donor may be an individual, a group, or an institution); specify the contact person if the donor is not an individual;

b)         the proposed name of the award;

c)          the award criteria, including the award category and any other specific constraints, if any;

d)         the award amount and the number of awardees allowed annually;

e)          details supporting that the donor meet the requirement of establishing AF named award

The terms on the memo will be negotiated between the donor and the GB if necessary until a mutual agreement is reached. As deemed necessary, the AF representative may also want to contact USTC side to obtain their comments.

If no objection is raised to GB for five consecutive days after the submission of the latest version of the memo, it will be considered silent approval.

4). Once the memo is approved by the GB, a sub fund will be established for this award. All donations associated with this award (per donation pledge or written letters) will go to the sub fund.

5). Announcement regarding the new award will be published on AF’s website as a news article, and it will be included in the next AF newsletter. Dedicated web page for the award will be created when the first award is issued.

6). All related information will be properly documented and archived.

7). The candidate selection process for the new award will be the same as other awards under the same category, and they will be processed together for each academic year. After the awardees have been selected and confirmed by the GB, the award certificates will be made and mailed to USTC officials, who will then distribute them to the awardees.

4. FINANCIAL REQUIREMENT

The donor must make commitment on one of the following:

1). Meet all the criteria as follows :

  1. Make an initial donation equal or greater than sum of ten years of the newly established annual awards;
  2. Initial donation is no less than $10,000;
  3. Make the minimum annual donation(s) specified in the memo during each following year (i.e. the annual donation could be the amount needed to support one Goodwill student for one year; currently at $450 per student)

2). Or make an initial commitment over $100,000. The total committed amount may be donated in a lump sum or over a 5- to-10 year period of time.

5. BILL OF CONFLICTS

AF is the only legitimate organization in authorizing new awards for the donation. AF is entitled to make final decisions on the awards and revoke any award in case of violation of terms as outlined by this article. If there is conflict of interests, AF reserves the final rights to interpret this article. Any decisions made by GB on matters regarding to the awards are final. AF bears no legal obligations to the recipients of the awards, USTC or concerning parties.

6. EXEMPTIONS

Any exemption of the guidelines listed in this article and/or modifications concerning the awards will have to be approved by 2/3 of GB members.

Add'l info

Passed on Feb 22nd 2012. Total 7 committee members, 7 of whom cast their vote, 7 “For”, 0 “against”, 0 “abstain”

Author
YING, Linghang

Sponsors
GONG, Xiaohua; LI, Xun

Last Change
2012-02-22

RESOLUTION: GBR-201027 On hiring professional accountant to audit AF's finance for fiscal year 2009

Resolution
GBR-201027
Title
On hiring professional accountant to audit AF's finance for fiscal year 2009
Content

 

January 15th, 2010

 

Note: AF is a shorthand name for USTC Alumni Foundation (USTCAF);

GB stands for the governing board of USTCAF. GB2009 refers to the governing board elected in March, 2009.

 

1. Background

USTCAF’s finance and accounting operation has been managed by AF’s treasurer, Mr. Shangyou Zhang since it incorporated in 1995. USTCAF is approaching its 15 year anniversary and has cumulated donations surpassing 2 million USD. The financial transparency and management, investment policy and management, as well as its variety taxation issues have become growing concerns for some of USTCAF’s members. As a matter of fact, USTCAF’s accounts and financial management procedures have not been audited or reviewed by any independent professional accounting firm since its inception.

 

2. Resolution

 

USTCAF GB2009 would like to request that the AF treasurer, Mr. Shangyou Zhang, engage an independent creditable accounting firm to conduct a full audit for the fiscal year of 2009 and provide professional guidelines for USTCAF’s financial management in the future as well. This audit must be performed before the USTCAF 2009 tax form be filed to the IRS. GB2009 would also like to recommend having an annual audit for future years.

 

The treasurer should release or make it available of the full auditing report to all of USTCAF members within one week after the auditing report will be officially available to him.

 

The auditing related expenses should be covered by either the operation and the professional service sub-funds, or the general fund of USTCAF.

 

3. Bill of Conflicts

 

If there be any conflict of interests, AF will reserve the final right of interpretation of this article. The decisions made by GB on matters related to professionally auditing the finance of USTCAF for fiscal year 2009 are final.

 

4. Exemptions

 

Any exemption from the guidelines listed in this article or modifications concerning this matter will need to be approved by at least 2/3 GB members.

 

 

Add'l info
Author
ZHANG, Xiaohua
Sponsors
FENG, Xin
CHEN, Xiaogang
Last Change
2010-Jan-28

RESOLUTION: GBR-201025 Form of the legal committee and Approval of paying legal fee for professional assistance, 2009GB

Resolution
GBR-2010025
Title
Form of the legal committee and Approval of paying legal fee for professional assistance, 2009GB
Content

January 5th, 2010


Note: AF is a shorthand name for USTC Alumni Foundation (USTCAF);

GB stands for the governing board of USTCAF.


1. Background

 

On December 28th 2009, Mr. Li, Xun raised a lawsuit against the USTCAF GB2009 challenging its legitimacy. Please see attached letter from court for details

 

2. Resolution


In response to this challenge, USTCAF GB2009 decided to form a legal committee to take charge of all legal matters associated with this lawsuit as a result of the board meeting held on January 1st 2010 EST.

The legal committee consists of the following six members from the USTCAF GB2009: Xuejun WU, WeiJia WANG, Xiaohua ZHNAG, Hua JIANG, Xiaogang CHEN, Tian XUE.

In order to make sure that our following decisions comply to the US federal and Delaware State laws, USTCAF GB2009 decided to seek professional legal assistance from a well respected law firm (to be determined and announced as soon as the legal committee makes the final choice), including reviewing of the bylaw proposed by GB2009, negotiation with the attorney of the plaintiff and possible appearance in court (even though, GB2009 and the legal committee will strive the hardest to avoid such a result).

There will be cost incurred from the professional legal assistance. Although GB2009 tries to minimize the operational cost, in view of the currently unfortunate development and in order to avoid any delay in legal response, GB2009 decides to approve this legal cost and to authorize Shangyou ZHANG to send necessary legal fee to the chosen attorney in a timely manner. GB2009 may set up a special fund accepting pledges for the legal cost if the majority GB2009 members vote so. The Chair of GB2009 will notify Shangyou ZHANG about the exact number of fee and the time it should be sent. No other resolution is needed for each such transaction, but GB2009 and Shangyou ZHANG should formally record every transaction clearly, openly and separately for accounting purpose.

 

3. Bill of Conflicts

 

Were there any conflict of interests, AF will reserve the final rights to interpret this article. The decisions made by GB on matters related to set up the legal committee and to handle the legal fee are final.

 

4. Exemptions

Any exemption from the guidelines listed in this article or modifications concerning this matter will need to be approved by at least 2/3 GB members.

 

Add'l info
Author
CHEN Xiaogang
Sponsors
WANG, Weijia
WU, Xuejun
Last Change
2010-Jan-05

RESOLUTION: GBR-201026 On legal review of 2009 Bylaws, 2009GB

Resolution
GBR-2010026
Title
On legal review of 2009 Bylaws, 2009GB
Content

January 6th, 2010

 

Note: AF is a shorthand name for USTC Alumni Foundation (USTCAF);

GB stands for the governing board of USTCAF. GB2009 refers to the governing board elected in February, 2009, which consists of 20 members.

 

1. Background

GB2009 passed a new version of Bylaws for USTCAF during August 2009 (2009 Bylaws) in the hope to achieve higher operational efficiency, to bring formality and better structure to the organization.

 

In December 2009, a few former GB members, including Mr. Xun Li, Mr. Dongzi Liu and etc., pointed out that some changes and definitions in the new Bylaw may conflict with the spirit of the previous Bylaw (2003 Bylaws) and potentially might not totally comply with the corporate laws mandated in Delaware State, which the AF is formally registered as a non-profit organization. On December 28th 2009, Mr. Li, Xun filed a lawsuit against the USTCAF challenging the legitimacy of GB2009 and therefore the lawfulness of the 2009 Bylaws.

 

GB2009 had been very careful in the process of revising the Bylaws and had taken great efforts to make sure that the new Bylaws comply with the Delaware State laws. However, members of GB2009 do not possess the specific expertise to be absolutely sure on all the legal issues. On the other hand, in order to maintaining the traditionally near-zero operational cost, following the tradition of the past revisions of the bylaws, GB2009 did not retain legal professionals reviewing the Bylaws before the Bylaws were passed.

 

2. Resolution

 

Under such a situation, it is GB2009’s fiduciary duty to retain legal professionals to review the 2009 Bylaws to make sure the Bylaws are in total compliances with the US federal and Delaware State corporate laws.

 

Hereby, GB2009 decided to take the following actions:

 

  1. GB2009 will retain professional corporate attorneys from reputable US law firms to review the Bylaws 2009 to make sure they are complying with all required federal and State laws, this task will be performed by the newly formed ad-hoc legal committee within 2009 GB (please refer to GBR-2010025);

 

  1. GB2009 will setup a special sub-fund, “Professional Service Sub-Fund”, to collect donations from AF members to cover the cost incurred for the legal reviewing process so that the master fund of USTCAF will not be used for such purpose.

 

  1. GB2009 will suspend the 2009 Bylaws as soon as this resolution is passed and the coming GB election in 2010 will be governed under 2003 Bylaws; During the time period, which starts from the moment this resolution becomes effective and ends at the moment that GB2010 passes another resolution on USTCAF's final action towards 2009 Bylaws, USTCAF will operate under the 2003 Bylaws.

 

  1. Given the fact that the term of GB2009 will shortly conclude, GB2009 decide to let the coming GB elected in 2010 to determine the final action that AF should take on the 2009 Bylaws reviewed by the legal professionals.

 

 

3. Bill of Conflicts

 

Were there any conflict on the content of this resolution, USTCAF will reserve the final rights to interpret this article. The decisions made by GB on matters related to 2009 Bylaws are final.

 

4. Exemptions

 

Any exemption from the guidelines listed in this article or modifications concerning this matter will need to be approved by at least 2/3 GB members.

 

 

Add'l info
Author
CHEN Xiaogang
Sponsors
Xue, Tian
WU, Xuejun
Last Change
2010-Jan-15

RESOLUTION: GBR-2009023 Exemption to GBR-2005014 (for donation from Tabula, Inc. to YIBing fund)

Resolution
GBR-2009023
Title
Exemption to GBR-2005014 (for donation from Tabula, Inc. to YIBing fund)
Content

Proposal of Transferring Total Donation to YI, Bing Fund

University of Science and Technology of China Alumni Foundation Governing Board (USTCAFGB) of 2009 sincerely and deeply regret the tragic loss that happened to our alumni YI, Bing of USTC class 856. We cardinally thank the generous donation from Tabula, Inc. to Bing fund in the amount of $20,000. Based on the bylaw of USTCAF and the donor's explicit request, we hereby proposed to transfer the donation to Bing and waiver the first $100 to the scholarship and the deduction of 50% above $1000 to general fund required by USTCAFGB resolution GBR-2005014.

Note:This Proposal should be approved by 2/3 USTCAFGB 2009 members. Please cast your vote no later than Wednesday, June 10th of 2009.

Note on June 16 2009. The company arranged for another means of giving donations to YI Bing, not via USTCAF.

Add'l info
It is passed by 18/20 GB.
Author
CHEN Xiaogang
Sponsors
ZHANG Xiaohua
Last Change

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