A Brief History of the IFCSS Newsletter that I Know of
Lai Anzhi (9/14/1993)
The IFCSS Newsletter (the NL hereafter) was initiated
in the 2nd term of the IFCSS. It was designed to be an internal
"magazine" of the IFCSS to report the activities
of/associated with the IFCSS, to bridge the IFCSS leadership to its
member organizations, and to provide a forum for the members to
comment/debate on the operation of the IFCSS and other issues of
interest. From its birth, the NL has been circulating free of charge
mainly among the IFCSS activists and the leaders of its local
organizations because of the constraint of the tight IFCSS' budget.
In the 2nd term, the NL was under the charge of Chen
Ying of Cornell University with Hu Sen and Huang He as the editors.
There were about 6 or 7 issues published. These issues discussed
various topics concerning the IFCSS as well ad reported the main
activities of the IFCSS. At the end of this term, the circulation
reached about 400. I have no data on how many schools/states the NL
had reached in this term; however, the circulation of the NL was
regarded one of the most important operations of the IFCSS. I believe
that the general IFCSS public considered the NL a necessary
publication, and its quality and quantity should be increased and
improved. This desire was reflected in a proposal by Chen Xingyu, the
2nd term President, to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an
organization closely associated with the US Congress. This proposal
listed the NL as a separate project of the IFCSS to be financially
sponsored by the NED. The proposal was approved a strict item-by-item
budget of $12,600 independent of that for the general IFCSS operation.
The original agreement requires a publication of 24 issues, but was
revised to 10 to 12 issues after the NED was informed about the
manpower difficulties. It should be mentioned that the budget did not
allow any payment for the NL workers.
When the 3rd term came to the office, it called for
bidding for the NL. Three groups of CSS at Virginia Tech, University
of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin Madison submitted their bids.
The IFCSS HQ accepted the one from Virginia Tech for it asked no
payment for the editors. With substantially larger budget than that of
the 2nd term, the editorial board of the NL put the highest priority
as the increase of the quantity and improvement of the quality of the
NL. Again, the circulation was still mainly among the IFCSS activists
and local school leaders, with the style of the NL being basically the
same as that of the 2nd term except that various columns were created.
The printed NL reached a circulation nearly 1,000 covering all major
universities in 48 or 49 states. Besides the printed NL, the editorial
board, with the help from Li Gang, Zhang Yunfei and Pi Xiaoqing, also
sent out electronic version. The e-version had a readership about 800
- 900. There were total of 10 issues (plus 4 issues of 4Da reports)
circulated. The public responses about the NL was encouraging in
general, and the NED, to whom quarterly reports had to be submitted
with the original NL's, was satisfied and decided to continue its
support to the NL. It should be pointed out that the budget was under
close monitor from the NED. No money under a particular item could be
used for another. At the end of this term, the NED hired an
independent accountant auditing the whole transaction of the NL
account. It was found that all the money had been properly used and
all the records had been clearly documented. As a result of strictly
following the financial regulations, the award of $200 from the HQ to
the NL editorial board was not (and will not be) deposited to the NL
account and thus still outstanding (which one could consider as saved
for the IFCSS). The persons who volunteered for the NL were Wang
Jianan, Hwang Kai, Hou Ruan, Shi Heping, He Baoping, Huang Shaoli and
Zhu Junlin at Virginia Tech, and Tao Ye and Liu Daosheng (for the 4Da
reports) at the University of Minnesota.
It should be pointed out that, with the quality and
contents of the NL as it is now, the cost of each copy without
counting the volunteered labor can hardly be reduced to below
$1.00/copy. This imposes a challenge to the IFCSS whether the NL
should be kept a free circulation in the future; however, if it is to
charge a minimum subscription fee, then the readability of the NL must
be substantially increased, which will require more effort and
possibly higher budget.
The 4th term NL was charged to a single person, Wang
Jianan, who was paid half time. This change was mainly because of the
almost unbearable work load of the NL for full time students as
experienced by the Virginia Tech group. Once again, the style, the
quantity and the quality of the NL continued with more effort in
providing service information to the IFCSS public. There were ten
issues published with three 5Da reports. It is reported that the NED
decided not to continue its commitment to the NL due to various
reasons. This will impose further financial difficulties to the IFCSS
should the NL be continued.
I would like to give a few brief comments regarding
the NL.
1) The NL needs further improvement as most people
see.
2) It takes commitment and possibly personal
sacrifices for editing and circulating the NL.
3) There are a lot of good suggestions about the NL. I
hope that the HQ and the Council of the IFCSS will carefully examine
all these suggestions, and find the best and yet feasible approach to
produce a better newsletter.
Postscripts: 1) cost $1.00/copy was based on the 3rd
term situation, which may not apply to the later terms, since the 3rd
term spent a lot of money on hardware (PC, Laser Printer, Fax Machine
etc). 2) the amount of the NED budget for the 4th term NL was $10,000.
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