2012_07_13 My Resignation

Joseph Chow (周國忠)
President, Overseas Alumni Association of
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Northern California)
...
Dear Joseph,

The current controversy of revising the OAA-CUHK Bylaws, the issue of anonymous voting and the ongoing insulting comments and provoking wrongful accusations from certain directors are making it uneasy to work with those directors. My wife, Amy Kwock (鄧瑋), and I feel that it is no longer enjoyable and challenging to serve as OAA Directors. Please accept our resignations, effective immediately.

There is a member of The Internet Committee ready to take over the OAA-CUHK website. This is a great relief as I feel comfortable to release the long-overdue duty. Please accept my resignation as the webmaster also, effective immediately. The next webmaster will take full responsibility for deploying a new website and for managing related functions; the lease for the current website ends in July. I will not be involved in any function or question from now on.

Not too long ago, Edward Lee (李海滋) resigned his OAA presidency. I begged him to "任勞任怨" to stay on as OAA President. In deep agony, Edward responded "Pardon me to weight my health/life above a detrimental job". Ironically, his only option then has now become mine. What an enlightening and inspiring precedent!

Sincerely yours,

Tony Kwock (郭堂)
Founding President, Overseas Alumni Association of
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Northern California)
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                                   July 13, 2012

Subject:  Recap of My Service to OAA and Motivation for My Resignation

Dear All,

I enjoyed as the president of Chung Chi College Student Union during my school day and being the founding president of the OAA since 1981.  During the past thirty years, devoting my time and financial resources, together with the support of the local CUHK alumni, we have bridged alumni in a foreign land to a happy home, enjoying fellowship.  Over the many years, in various roles as either a leader or a member, I have been always open for suggestions to improve the OAA and myself.  Our work was finally noticed.  In 2007, the chairman of the CUHK Honorary Fellowship Committee wanted to nominate me for the honorary fellowship.  I declined his offer as it would put myself apart from our members and distract my dedication to OAA in the Bay.  In a word, I refused to glorify myself.

As a webmaster, I have dutifully kept it lively with fair coverage on significant news from members.  Above all, there is an “Opinion web page” on the OAA web, by which alumni can reflect their feeling about the way that we conducted the OAA affairs.  If they do not like their pictures appeared on the OAA web, they can request to remove them.

The following background information derived from the recent emails of the OAA directors is for your information.

One of the directors proposed and passed a revision of OAA bylaw to get rid of some directors using anonymous voting in order to create room for new recruits.  This is not necessary since the OAA bylaw has provision to enlarge the board of directors, we can expand the board of directors to recruit more fresh energy to the board.  At the same time, we can retain the devoted and experience directors.  With a large base of active alumni on board, the functions of OAA can easily have large participants.  Using “decision by the majority vote” approach in the “OAA by-law revision committee” sounds democratic.  Sometimes, it is just “pseudo-democratic”.  A “win-win” strategy to resolve conflicts is to “seek common ground while reserving differences”.  A manipulative individual can use the name of “The Board” as a majority vote to fulfill a wish/justify an issue.

Another director, an old timer of OAA, rich in imagination and pessimism, slanders me with untrue stories (his email dated June 10, 2012), using “founding president” to glorify myself, self-claiming as first class members of OAA, etc.  I am the founding president of OAA.  That is the fact.  I have never claimed that I am the “first class members of OAA” as Frank asserted in his email.

A new director joined the Internet Committee recently and immediately demanded the password to manage OAA web without proper knowledge of the system.  While I, as the webmaster, need to safe-guard the web, I suggest keeping the OAA web-site intact while we are searching for ways to improve it.  His accusation “difficult to work with me” and blackmail with his resignation are really disturbing me.

Have a good day!

Tony Kwock (郭堂)

Founding President, Overseas Alumni Association of
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Northern California)