Dear Alumni,

First, we'd like to wish you and your families a happy and healthy Year of Tiger!

Like each of you, the four of us graduated from Nanjing University and currently pursue our career aspiration in the San Francisco Bay Area. As we strive for success along different paths, we have all recognized the power of alumni network. There is no doubt that an active alumni network will promote social and professional connection among alumni, add value to the Alma Mater's brand equity, and ultimately make substantial impact on the career development of each alumnus. As alumni, we want NJU to be a world-class university and we want to have a world-class alumni network. Therefore we feel a strong sense of urgency to revitalize Nanjing University Alumni Association in the Bay Area (NUAABA).

In the past, the four of us have chatted with some of you regarding the NUAABA. Each time we came across clear dissatisfaction of our alumni network's status quo. Despite the challenges we face, what has inspired us is a unified voice that all the alumni do want a stronger network, because the potential power is so evident to everyone.

Now we have two choices to make. Choice No 1, we can always wait for others to develop the desirable NUAABA while continuing the same old complaint. Or Choice No 2, let's take our initiative, start from now and drive the NUAABA to what we envision. How do you like the second choice? Isn't it much better than sitting there and doing nothing?

We'll be very proud and certainly not surprised if the second choice is indeed your pick. But let us also stress that there will be no shortcut that makes instant changes. Instead, it will be a journey that needs all of us with passion and persistence. Collectively we WILL make an impact on NJU's brand, NUAABA and each alumnus.

As we write to you, a few steps have been taken.

* A LinkedIn Sub-Group for the NUAABA "NJUAlumni-Bay Area" (click to browse) has been created to maintain an open alumni directory and improve the alumni outreaching channel for future communications.

* A panel of prominent alumni is being sought after to share their success stories and insights into career development. Please let us know if you want to nominate any alumnus/a for this panel. 

* Small-group lunches are being planned on various topics, such as doing business in China as returnees. Google Docs will be used for the sign-up.

The list should not stop here. You are all strongly encouraged to share YOUR vision, demonstrate YOUR creativity, and lead a team of alumni to execute YOUR initiative. The process presents a perfect opportunity to cultivate leadership outside the regular work hours.

Please write to us with your input, stay tuned for near-term events, and most importantly, show your generosity with time to help the NUAABA - please do let us know whether you can assist the NUAABA in any capacity (such as hosting events, locating low-cost venues, and so on). There's no such thing as insignificant volunteer work, because every piece counts.

We got a lot of exciting work to do. Let's get started!

Warmest regards,

Hairong (Charles) Cao (International Trading '98)
Han Shen (Chemistry '98)
Shaojie Xu (Mathematics '82)
Kai Yu (Electrical Engineering '98)