Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2010 OCEF WorkReport
2010 OCEF WorkReport
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
IT Group ..............................................................................................................................................22
7.
Web Team...........................................................................................................................................22
8.
9.
10.
1.
1.1
1.2
b)
Revised the application forms for high school group and include the application form for
college scholarship. With the establishment of dedicated volunteers from Beijing, all the new
application forms along with the feedback for Form 403 will be sent to the mail box in Beijing
by coordinators. They will then be compiled by the volunteers into an electronic version
before being sent to the high school group for processing.
c). Re-discussed the criteria for scholorship, i.e. family poverty threshold and academic
performance. The selection criteria remains unchanged annual income lower than 1500
per person within family, top 25 percentile or higher in academic performance within for new
applicants and top 30% percentile or higher for renewed applicants.
d). With the graduation of the large number of high school aid recipients in 2010, the number of
renewed applicants for high school scholarship dropped to its lowest level in Fall 2010. This
has generated opportunities for establishing support for focused areas that was discussed in
2009. The High School Group and China Affair have discussed and established a 3-year
plan for the High School Group. This means that at an annual rate of ~150 new student
applicants, the support will reach 400-500 aided students by 2012.This plan may be adjusted
based on donation and the conditions of Chinas high school education.
1.2.2 Operation Affairs
a) The total amount of scholorship is 521,000 for 2010 Spring and Fall seasons.
b) 283,000 is for 2010 Spring season, of which 262,000 is for high school study and 21,000
for scholarship for college.
c) 238000 is for 2010 Fall season, of which 156,000 is for high school study and 82,000 for
students who were admitted by colleges.
e) Up until fall 2010, High School Group has provided scholorship to 19 schools, with the help
of 12 coordinators. Most recipients are from less developed regions or minorities territories
like Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Gansu and Henan provinces.
g) High School group is financially stable currently. Scholarship amount is still set at 1000 per
person/term, extraordinary cases will be handled separately.
1.3
In 2011, we plan to continue funding the Temporary Teachers who were originally funded.
Meanwhile, to realize the goal of improving the education standard in rural and poverty-stricken
areas, we will explore to provide teaching aid materials and books to Temporary Teachers in rural
and poverty-stricken areas, with the aim to improve the teaching standard of the funded teachers
and the teachers in the surrounding areas.
1.3.3 Implementation Plan for 2011 work outline
Building the team: Recruit volunteers with expertise in education, to enhance the service by the
Teachers Group. In order to help the teachers in poverty and improve the level of education in
those regions, we need to strengthen our professional knowledge in education. With the help of
Human Resources Group we will try to recruit some professionals with relevant background and
passion in charity, to help carry out our tasks better.
Internal communication: Administration team will improve the communication and feedback
channels between them, coordinators and OCEF.
We will reinforce the implementation of the aid withdrawal policy, which requires an effective
communication with the Auditing Group. Before we decide the number of beneficiaries of our
support, we will require the coordinators to monitor the beneficiaries' economic and educational
status, with self-auditing, to avoid abusing our support. Meanwhile, for the regions where we have
found problems last year through auditing, and the regions where such problems happened often,
we hope that the Auditing Group can investigate their status again for this year.
Standarize the feedback: Given that the internet is now widely used, the feedback can be
received through IT solutions. We plan to provide a standardized table on feedback information,
and ask the coordinators to bring the tables to the sponsored teachers. The contents of such
tables include whether the donations are delivered to the teachers, their working status, life status,
and whether the temporary teachers are no longer working as teachers. By doing so, we can
gather more useful information from the front-line to help our decision making.
Expansion plan: This year we plan to explore different options to provide reference books to the
teachers in poor, rural regions, in order to improve the quality of their teaching and hopefully the
quality of teaching in their surrounding regions. We can collaborate with the Library Group, but we
will first focus on the existing coordinators and sponsored regions, and expand from there. We
plan to start arranging this in the spring semester, and finish (should it be "implement") it in the fall
semester, starting from the teachers who have actively sent us feedback before.
1.4
Drinking water project in Weimin elementary school, Qiaodi town, Xichang, Sichuan
province
Project site: 1st group, Masan Village, Qiaodi town, Xichang, Sichuan province
1.4.2
Project content: Drinking water project in Weimin elementary school, Qiaodi town,
donated by OCEF, HELP
Amount: The total project cost was 63,460.00
Contract system: Contracted by the Sichuan Xichang Ding Hao Solar Product Co.,
Ltd with contracting for labor, materials, quality, safety, and project cost
Construction time: 03/15/2010 - 04/08/2010
Picture of the Completed project
1.4.3
Shui Cao Ba complete primary school construction project in Lan Ni Jing village, Ning
Lang county, Lijiang, Yunnan province (OCEF was involved in transferring)
Project site: Shui Cao Ba complete primary school, Lan Ni Jing village, Ning Lang
county, Lijiang, Yunnan province.
Project content: OCEF was involved in helping part of Wenxuecity users in Myhouse
board colleting donor contributions, and transferring to domestic construction unit.
Amount: The total project cost was 600,000.00, equally split among yoyo Lan Xuan
Team, OCEF/part of Wenxuecity users in Myhouse forum, and Lao Yang Team.
Contract system: Xintianjinyou Team was responsible for all construction projects.
Construction time: 06/2010 - 09/2010
Picture of Completed project
1.5
From 2004 to 2010, a total of 338705 used and new books were donated to help 368 schools to
build up their libraries.
Year
No. of
No. of
Journals
Donated Old
Purchased
Libraries of Libraries of (Volume)
Books(Volume) New
Old Books
New Books
books(Volume)
2004
29
11
55
16,243
10,672
2005
53
60
47,340
2006
101
20
72
95,000
16,984
2007
60
40
48,031
15,254
2008
26
31
16,949
8,165
2009
19
11
27,183
4,788
2010
18
41
21,211
10,885
Total
306
154
187
271,957
66,748
1.5.2
Subgroup of Beijing: In March 2010, the subgroup of Beijing held a joined book donation activity
with the Zhuozhou Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting. Most of the donated books are from the
primary schools and local residencies. The activity gathered about 12,000 books in total. In
December 2010, the "SanFu Christmas Party", which had been taking place for the last 5 years,
was held as scheduled to thank donors and volunteers for their support. The party gathered a
total donation of more than 10,000 RMB.
Subgroup of Shanghai: gathered more than 12,000 donated books, distributed those books and
other office supplies to 7 schools in YunNan and SiChuan provinces. In January 2010, the
Shanghai subgroup of Books Group was honored as an "Extraordinary Youth Public Welfare
Organization" by the ChangNing District Communist Youth League Committee.
Subgroup of Nanjing: Cooperated with the Nanjing YiXian Primary School, who donated 5,000
used books. The books were distributed to two schools of GuangXi.
Subgroup of Wuhan: Continued the cooperation with WuHan DouBan Bookstore and donated
two libraries.
Subgroup of Chengdu: Set up a new book donation center, donated new books to a primary
school in ChongQing.
1.5.3
Book Purchase: In the past, the new books the Books Group used to purchase were mostly at a
discounted clearance rate of 15% or 20% of the original price. However, the variations of these
books are limited and the qualities of these books are not ensured. In 2010, after reviewing
several organization's primary schools and high schools' book list, the Books Group chose Beijing
Red Clay Children Book Club and Brooks Public Welfare Book Platform to be the channels of
book purchase. The books purchased this way have a high quality and a reasonable price. In
2010 the Group totally purchased 10885 volumes of new books for 41 schools.
Donate and Name a library: In 2010 two donors from the U.S. supported several village schools
in YunNan and DaBaShan area of Sichuan. We named the library per the request of the donors
and made the signboards accordingly. One of the donors also planned to visit the school with his
children during the summer holiday.
Donors are welcome to name the libraries they donated, and they are welcome to visit the school
and follow up with the utilization of the donated books.
Pictures: FengYing library, and Children in the classroom (YunNan NingLang TongChang River
Primary School)
1.5.4
One key focus area of the Library Group this year is was to collaborate with the Smile Library
organization to set up Model Library. OCEF selected Zhijing (Guizhou Province), Ninglang
(Yunnan Province) and Dingtao (Shandong Province) as the pilot locations. The purpose of this
project is to establish best practices in management and utilization of libraries.
This is the first in-depth experiment of the Library Group in promoting reading activities, not only
supplied reading materials, but also helped the teachers in carrying out reading activities and
implemented trainings tailored to the teachers for reading activities. We've gained a lot of
experiences during the process, including:
First, it is paramount to identify the pilot locations, where the school headmaster values the
importance of reading and is willing to take initiatives and to work with us to promote reading
activities, which makes our job much easier.
Second, it is very important for the teachers to read. Only after the teachers started to read that
the students would follow suit. To this end, we have supplied reading materials to the teachers
and have also given reading instructions tailored to teachers.
Third, we need to encourage students to be engaged. In many schools where they are already
understaffed, there was no capacity for teachers to participate in book reading. This issue can be
resolved by getting students involved in book management.
Pictures from Minghua Primary School in Zhijin, Guizhou Province: (1) A teacher reading stories
to the students; (2) Drawing by a student
1.6
Auditing Group
In 2010, ten OCEF inspectors conducted site visits to fifty-five OCEF-funded schools in thirtyseven counties/cities across fifteen provinces, covering 713 students, 91 teachers, and 46
schools with OCEF donated books. The site visits covered 100% of financial aid program
recipients, 100% high school scholarship and teacher aid program recipients and 80% of schools
that received book donation. All site-visits reports have been submitted.
It is concluded from the site visits that most of the funded programs were properly implemented:
the coordinators had done a good job, and schools had distributed funds or donated books
following OCEF policy and procedures. Coordinators at some sites put in tremendous amount of
work to OCEF projects besides working a day job. We witnessed how they went on interviewing
trip in the muddy mountainous areas by foot, saw their meticulously hand-written documents for
accurate record-keeping, and were moved by their devotion to helping teachers and students in
impoverished areas. We also learned that, to better utilize the donated books, some school
teachers and directors went out of their way to initiate programs to encourage the students to
read. On these site-visit trips, we shared the childrens laughter on the school compounds, were
impressed by the high-school students determinationto get an education for themselves, and
were touched by how the substitute teachers eagerly discussed curriculum in barely furnished
teachers offices.
To better work with OCEF, some sites made adjustment to implementation methods to suit local
circumstances. For example, Kashi No. 1 Middle School, with a special team for OCEF fund
allocation, relied on Uyghur speaking teachers to interview and communicate with students and
their families, who are mostly Uyghur speakers, and they let these teachers share the subsidies
for
coordinator
for
gas
mileage
and
meals.
Similarly,
coordinators
for
Hutubi No. 1 Middle School worked closely with school administrators to publicize OCEF
scholarship. The school followed OCEF procedures, and incorporated the scholarship into the
character building program of the school to motivate students.
For Book Program, Red Bridge Middle School in Ninglang county, Lijiang city of Yunnan province
is considered to have done the best implementation work. Specifically, the coordinator worked at
the school the year before and was actively involved in the reading program. Every student was
assigned a library card, which made the school among the only few funded schools that had the
system. With the card, the students could check out books every afternoon. In addition, the
school encouraged students to hand-copy selected newspaper reports and showcased good
student writings, all of which was done with good organization.
Pictures: (1) Investigator on site visit at Lingyun, Guangxi province; (2) Work Note of a substitute
teacher at Huaibin, Henan province
Pictures: (1) Students getting water from a well, Lanxing Elementary School, Dingxi, Gansu
province. (2) Students reading at the windowsill, Nanchuan Center School, Chongqing, Sichuan
province the library is used as a reading room
No. 1 High School in LiuZhi Specialized District, GuiZhou providence (high school
scholarship project, mostly qualified. But the coordinators had a hard time communicating
with the school, and the school did not follow the scholarship awarding procedure.
Currently no new applications are accepted);
BaiLuZhou No. 1 High School in JiAn city, JiangXi providence (high school scholarship
project, mostly qualified. But this region's economics are relatively good, and the school
has other kinds of financial aid. Currently no new applications are accepted);
several schools in FuPing, ShanXi providence (high school scholarship project, mostly
qualified, and accepting new applications);
No. 1 High School in HuTuBi county, XinJiang providence (high school scholarship project,
qualified. Both the coordinators and the school collaborated well with OCEF, building a
good environment on campus. They continue to accept new applications);
No. 1 High School in KaShi, XinJiang providence (high school scholarship project,
qualified. The coordinators' job was carried out by a team, which is worth recommending
to other schools. They continue to accept new applications);
No. 2 High School in BaChu, XinJiang providence (high school scholarship project, mostly
qualified. They continue to accept new applications);
No. 2 High School in ShuFu, XinJiang providence (high school scholarship project, mostly
qualified. They continue to accept new applications);
High School in HeJiang, XinJiang providence (high school scholarship project, mostly
qualified. They continue to accept new applications);
No. 2 High School, and No. 5 High School in HuiNing, GanSu providence (high school
scholarship project, mostly qualified. They continue to accept new applications);
LiuZhi Specialized District, in LiuPanShui, GuiZhou providence (temporary teacher project,
mostly qualified. The local living conditions are improving, and the temporary teachers'
compensations are increasing);
GuLang in GanSu providence (temporary teacher project, qualified. More sources to
support the temporary teachers will be desirable).
Some problems existed, but they have been corrected or partially solved:
JiaoTong XiWang Elementary School in TanTou village, and TanTou Middle School in
LuanChuan county, HeNan providence (financial aid project. The coordinators didn't
report the students' absence or withdrawal immediately so that the financial aid were
distributed more than what was needed, but the excess has been returned);
XiaCunXiang School in YanLing county, HuNan providence (financial aid project. This
school used to hold part of the financial aid for magazine subscriptions. Now the
coordinators have been changed);
YaoXia Middle School in SuiChuan, JiangXi providence (financial aid project.There were a
few unauthorized substitutions of the student beneficiaries, one third of the students'
household conditions were not qualified. Now only the qualified students are sponsored);
Six schools in Lan county, ShanXi providence (financial aid project. The coordinators
couldn't track down the sponsored students after they graduated to attend new schools or
transferred to other schools, causing difficulty to distribute the funds. Currently the funding
is distributed according to the roster of present students);
High School in HuaiBin county, HeNan providence (scholarship project. Some of the
students' household conditions were not qualified or received duplicate funding. Such aids
had been stopped);
In 2010, a total of 38 funded schools were visited, counting to 19.9% of the funded
schools in 2009 (191 schools in total). 588 beneficiaries were visited, counting to 24.22%
of the total 2424 beneficiaries.
After the auditing in 2010, the funding to 11 schools was terminated due to violations and
other reasons, counting to 6.4% of the funded schools in 2009 (191 schools in total).
After the auditing, the funding to 241 students was terminated, counting to 9.93% of the
total 2424 beneficiaries. Among them:
140 students belonged to such schools, where the schools had violations and hence
all the students were removed from the funding program. The 140 students count up
to 5.77% of the total beneficiaries, 23.81% of the total audited beneficiaries, and 58.09%
of the total beneficiaries who stopped receiving funding after auditing.
36 students were no longer qualified due to local economic improvements or other
reasons, counting to 1.48% of the total beneficiaries, 6.12% of the total audited
beneficiaries, and 25.71% of the total beneficiaries who stopped receiving funding
after auditing.
34 students were no longer qualified due to household situation improvements or
severe fraudulence, counting to 1.40% of the total beneficiaries, 5.78% of the total
audited beneficiaries, and 14.11% of the total beneficiaries who stopped receiving
funding after auditing.
26 students dropped out and hence were no longer qualified, counting to 1.07 % of
the total beneficiaries, 4.42% of the total audited beneficiaries, and 10.79% of the total
beneficiaries who stopped receiving funding after auditing.
5 students were no longer supported due to all the other reasons, counting to 0.21%
of the total beneficiaries, 0.85% of the total audited beneficiaries, and 2.07% of the
total beneficiaries who stopped receiving funding after auditing.
Scholarship Projects
In 2010, a total of 17 funded high schools were visited, counting to 58.62% of the funded
schools in 2009 (29 schools in total). 212 beneficiaries were visited, counting to 39.70% of
the total 534 beneficiaries.
After the auditing in 2010, the funding to 4 schools was terminated or put on hold due to
violations and other reasons, counting to 13.79% of the funded schools in 2009 (29
schools in total).
After the auditing, the funding to 42 students was terminated, counting to 19.81% of the
total 534 beneficiaries. Among them:
8 students were no longer qualified due to household situation improvements or
severe fraudulence, counting to 1.50% of the total beneficiaries, 3.77% of the total
audited beneficiaries, and 19.05% of the total beneficiaries who stopped receiving
funding after auditing.
22 students stopped receiving funding because their academic grades did not meet
the requirements, counting to 4.12% of the total beneficiaries, 10.38% of the total
audited beneficiaries, and 52.38% of the total beneficiaries who stopped receiving
funding after auditing.
7 students stopped receiving funding because they received duplicate funding before,
counting to 1.31% of the total beneficiaries, 3.30% of the total audited beneficiaries,
and 16.67% of the total beneficiaries who stopped receiving funding after auditing.
5 students dropped out or transferred and hence stopped receiving the funding,
counting to 0.94% of the total beneficiaries, 2.36% of the total audited beneficiaries,
and 11.90% of the total beneficiaries who stopped receiving funding after auditing.
2.
3.
4.
4.2.2Donation Methods
Check was the most popular form of contribution used by donors in 2010, while company check
transfers made up the majority of funds. This indicates that OCEF has attracted more contribution
from corporations; more and more donors utilize company match or contribute through preauthorized payment by corporations. The number of patrons using payment tools on the Internet,
such as Just Give, Network for Good and Paypal, has been increasing steadily. At the same time,
the number of patrons using cash or money order has abruptly decreased to almost negligible,
totaling $510. (Note: all statistics were derived from donations registered in 2010 calendar year,
including checks that have not been cleared. As a result they are slightly different from the actual
recorded donations in financial reports.)
Note: all statistics were derived from donations registered in 2010 calendar year, including checks
that have not been cleared. As a result, they are slightly different from the actual recorded
donations in financial reports.
4.3 Major Fundraising Projects in 2010
4.3.1 Chase Community Giving Fundraising Project
Chase Community Giving fundraising competition at the beginning of 2010 is the first large project
of OCEF in 2010. Fundraising group and other groups formed CCG committee and mobilized
internet users to vote on Facebook and on Chinese discussion boards in North America, China
and Europe. Over 5000 small and medium-sized NGO participated in the competition. With the
support of internet users, OCEF entered the final round of Top 100 and won a prize of $50,000.
Even though OCEF didn't win the one million prize, this internet fundraising competition and
America Giving Challenge have important impact on OCEF fundraising. For the first time, OCEF
mobilized the internet users to vote and donate. Besides raising funds with the new social network
tools, OCEF also won many supporters. For the management team of OCEF, this competition
activity was a major challenge for a charity organization operated by volunteers. The event
enhanced organizational capacity, coordination ability and project management ability of OCEF.
4.3.2 2010 Fall Fundraising
2011 fall fundraising started at the end of September in 2010. Fundraising group communicated
with local groups, contacted donors and prepared for fundraising materials. The fall fundraising
activity also promoted the establishment of online propaganda group in the fundraising group.
2011 fall fundraising set the pace for fundraising in Thanksgiving and Christmas.
4.3.3 Facebook Causes Facilities and Happiness Project
The Facilities and Happiness Project started from Facebook Causes fundraising project. The
project aims at providing financial support for school hardware facilities, attracting donation, and
introducing comprehensive financial aid project during the activity. Facilities and Happiness
Project is the first step of OCEF's comprehensive donation project. To advance educational
quality in rural China, OCEF improved the facilities of schools there and then introduced training
and financial aid to the teachers, greening project and lunch project, etc. As the first school to
receive financial aid from the Facilities and Happiness Project, Jiale Elementary School in Zhijin
County, Guizhou Province raised over $6000 by the end of 2010 from the Causes fundraising
platform as the initial funding to improve school building.
4.3.4 Local Fundraising Activities
OCEF New York group and California group organized fundraising cocktail parties and art charity
auctions during Christmas and New Year Holidays. The events facilitated the local publicity and
volunteer communication in New York and California area. Nicole Li and David Cao, volunteers in
the fundraising group, held the charity cocktail party in New York City jointly with Rural China
Education Foundation and New York Chinese professional managers union. The party enlarged
the impact of OCEF on Wall Street white collar and brought in many new volunteers for OCEF.
4.4 Re-org of the Fund-Raising Team
Vicky Kwan officially joined the Fund-Raising Team as the Deputy Team Leader in October 2010.
The team has been reorganized since November 2010 and is now comprised of the 6 following
teams:
4.5 Summary
Most donations received between 2005 and 2010 were contributions from 20% of all donors.
Donation received in 2010 grew in the highest rate with an increase of 52.41% over 2009. If
OCEF does a better job in attracting corporate donations and in converting impulse donor to
Habitual Donors, annual contribution to OCEF is likely to grow by 20%. Therefore, it has become
the most crucial issue of the Fund-Raising Team to make sure more and more donors identify
with the organization's mission.
5.
Dallas
10 volunteers in Dallas team organized a picnic in January, discussed and developed the plan for
2010. They participated in Dallas Asian Arts Festival, Dallas dragon boat racing activities in May,
and Chinese Art Event in September. Through these three activities, they publicized and raised
funds for OCEF. In each activity, they made OCEF known to more people by hanging OCEF
banners, puting up posters, handing out leaflets, and playing videos. Through these activities,
they also got familiar with a number of families with adopted children from China, who were
potential OCEF donators and volunteers.
San Diego
In June, the San Diego team joined Dragon Boat Festival celebration and Chinese Culture Day
hosted by North University Community Branch Library to introduce OCEF to more people. In
August, the team organized an annual picnic together with Sino-American Biomedical and
Pharmaceutical Professional Association (SABPA). By performing Chinese calligraphy and face
painting setting up an OCEF booth to show pictures and videos, distributing flyers and answering
questions, they introduced OCEF to the public
Houston
The Houston chapter was responsible for all fundraising activities in fall 2010. After a pleasant
day of fast-paced work on September 19th at Houston Hua Xia Chinese School, 13 volunteers
(including a high school student and a minor) sealed and sent out more than 900 fundraising
letters. The letters, full of deep gratitude and enthusiastic expectations, would reach prospective
donors all over the world, which marked the official kick-off of the fundraising of fall 2010!
Approximately 50 volunteers spent 3 weeks on those letters, including preparing fundraising
documents, verifying donors addresses, making copies of the documents, and finally sending
them out. We are proud of and grateful to these dedicated volunteers and their team work..
The Houston chapter also actively took part in many activities organized by the local Chinese
communities, hoping to introduce OCEF to local residents.
On May 16th, the Houston Chinese Activity Center (a community mostly consisting of overseas
Chinese) held a dinner celebrating its 14th anniversary as well as the opening of the Shanghai
World Expo. Several volunteers from OCEF Houston chapter were present at the dinner and
established contact with the local Chinese community.
On October 24th, Li Feng, captain of the Houston chapter, organized a picnic party at a local park
in Houston. The original estimation is that about 40 participants would attend. However, due to the
reputation of OCEF, more than 80 people showed up, of whom more than 70 registered
as volunteers on the spot. Apart from delicious barbeques and fun-filled card games, the picnic
also featured an exhibition of OCEF pictures. Staffs of the chapter took the opportunity to describe
the development and operation of OCEF to participants. The picnic lasted from 11am to 4pm.
Many residents in the Chinese communities also became aware of OCEF because of this picnic,.
Liang Gan, director of the foundation, hosted a dinner party on July 31st, which was to show his
gratitude to friends and Houston volunteers for their care and encouragement upon his car
accident two years ago. Out of more than 60 participants, several were OCEF volunteers in the
Houston chapter. The dinner party was also a celebration of the 25th wedding anniversary of
Liang Gan and his wife.
Pictures: (1) Houston team preparing for the fall 2010 fundraising; (2) The exhibition booth of
OCEF Dallas team
Despite the successful activities by all the chapters of OCEF in 2010, we expect many difficulties
and challenges in 2011. LBMC needs to develop a system of policies to ensure communication
and cooperation among different local groups and to help the OCEF chapters maintain steady
development.
6.
IT Group
In 2010, IT Group has made significant progress on new projects in addition to its routine
services. Currently we have a regular volunteer team that provides basic IT services, including
email management, WIKI monitoring, JIRA account management, and supervision of
implementation of the training procedure for entering volunteers.
Moreover, we have re-organized the OCEF mailbox.. and as a supplement to Donation Group we
have sent out donation letters during annual donation-collection periods and holidays. IT Group
has also been supporting Esys development and uploading One-to-One student information. We
have enabled a few internal links in providing donation reports via the upgraded website.
Human resource system has been improved as well, which allows volunteers to update personal
information online. An updating window of key member information has been added that provides
basic support for the reimbursement system. The monitoring system Subversion has been added
to better the management of future OCEF software.
Finally, an online reimbursement system is forthcoming in 2011.
Despite that a portion of IT Group volunteers have only served for a short time, we have secured
a number of long-term members committed into continuous service for OCEF. The improvement
of the education assistance system and its smoothier merging with Esys remain a major challenge
in our work.
7.
Web Team
Web Team has been in charge of the maintenance and update of OCEF website in 2010. For
website maintenance, Web Team has regularly checked and confirmed the consistence and
accuracy of the contents of OECF website. For website update, Web Team has guaranteed the
request updates from Secretary Team and other volunteer groups (via jira system) be reflected
on OCEF website in a timely manner. .
In addition, Web Team has provided web column designs and a variety of assigned ad hoc
adjustments for Secretary Team and other volunteer groups to meet their respective setting
requirements on OECF website.
Web Team has also explored a few specific and useful functions and settings in the joomla
system employed by OCEF website. The discoveries have played an important role in the web
column designs.
Finally Web Team has successfully recruited new members, whose participation has been an
immediate and indispensible contribution to the maintenance and update of OECF website.
8.
Chase Community Giving: From the end of 2009 to the beginning of 2010, JPMorgan
Chase has organized a Chase Community Giving donation contest on Facebook. As a
participant of the contest, Public Relations Committee, Donation Group and other OCEF
volunteer groups have worked together to fundraise via the online forum, from
communities across North America, China and other world regions. Thanks to our
collective talents and efforts, OCEF has successfully entered the finalist list of the Top100
in the contest and as a reward won $50000. In this activity, the Committee has cooperated
with other OCEF volunteer groups in designing and distributing the promotion materials,
experimenting and exploring the online platform and communicating with media in China .
We hope that this initiative will serve as a foundation for future OCEF promotion activities.
Finance Talents magazine report: Finance Talents is a well known Chinese magazine
focusing on finance, economics and talents. The OCEF teachers donation project has
been reported in its May issue, with featured pictures, in the column of pubic welfare. This
magazine report increases OCEFs social impact and credibility in China.
World Journal newspaper report: World Journal is an influential Chinese newspaper in
the United States. At the end of 2010, one of its journalists conducted a focused interview
with the OCEF President and published a featured article on its journal with the title
Featured Report: Oversea China Education Fund on December 12. The article includes
a comprehensive introduction of OCEF. The news report increases OCEFs social impact
and credibility in North American Chinese communities.
9.
Secretary Group
In 2010, Secretary Group has continued our regular work of drafting appointment letter and
resolution, updating and maintaining contact list and updating and archiving articles on OCEF
website.
In particular, Secretary Group has drafted 14 announcements related to personnel issues and
other important OCEF decisions, received and processed over 20 voicemails and telephone
inquiries, and effectively coordinated communication between OCEF groups. Also, Secretary
Group has compiled the 2009 Annual Report, attended Skype conferences of OCEF groups and
documented meeting minutes.
Some of us were also involved in the books donation activity organized by the Library Group
and the book program auditing activity led by the Auditing Group, both of which made
rewarding experience. Our suggestions are that the book program be carried out more
extensively and that focus be given to the elementary schools.
10.2 Newsletter Group
The Newsletter Group was severely understaffed in 2010. Yet we managed to publish two
Volunteer Newsletters in March and July thanks to the great efforts by Chief Editor Xu Yang
and the substantial support from the Design Group. Focus of the Newsletter Group in the
second half of 2010 shifted to the compilation of the annual report. While past annual reports
focused on summarizing the works done by each of the functional groups of the foundation,
the new annual report published in November 2011 targeted donors as the main audience
and showcased stories of patrons, financial aid projects and volunteers, making it a gateway
for the public to see the impact of OCEFs work and appreciate the importance of our charity
projects. The new annual report is vividly illustrated and aims at attracting public attention
with real stories and rich statistics in order to publicize OCEF's educational charity mission.
This is one of OCEFs efforts towards becoming a more professional organization by learning
from other successful NGOs. What we need to improve in 2011 is the timing for the annual
report to come off the press, which was seriously delayed in 2010.
10.3 Design Group
The members of the Design Group made great efforts in 2010 to accommodate the design
requests from other functional groups. We have designed promotional flyers, the OCEF page
in the Houston Chinese Yearbook, the Volunteer Newsletter, the new Annual Report and
other fundraising materials.
10.4 The Village Kids Magazine
10.4.1 Overview of the magazine
Issue 13 contains 44 pages, almost 50 thousand words or 31 articles, including 13 originals
from volunteers, one article from a donor, one from a teacher and three letters from funded
students. Most of the illustrations are originals by the art editors. The same cover style from
Issue 12 is adopted. Starting from this issue the magazine launches surveys to collect reader
feedbacks and publishes selected pieces of outstanding response. Also starting from this
issue, the magazine announces the name of students whose articles are accepted for
publication in the magazine.
Issue 14 contains 48 pages, almost 50 thousand words or 32 articles, including 12 originals
from volunteers, one article from a teacher, seven letters or articles from funded students and
one courtesy article from an NGO. Most of the illustrations are originals by the art editors. We
continue to use the same cover style from Issue 12 and 13. The magazine continues to
publish the surveys and selected pieces of response, as well as names of the student authors
of the accepted articles.
10.4.2 Publication of the magazine
1. Spreading the word. I constantly reminded the students of the magazine Village Kids and its survey
and article reward program during class recesses, student assemblies and other occasions. I
mentioned as often as possible the loving care shown to our students by the OCEF volunteers.
2. Advocating the benefit of reading. I would advocate the benefit of reading at the teachers meetings.
The magazine Village Kids provides an excellent platform for the students to improve their writing and
reading skills. I tried to get the teachers involved by giving them tokens of appreciation, such as roller
ball pens, which could be useful to their work.
3. You write, we reward. Getting a reward for providing feedbacks or submitting an article is a great
way of motivating students. These rewards, such as new books, shining stationery and drawing paper,
are highly attractive to students.
4. Motivate the students often with the rewards. A reward is something all the students eagerly look
forward to. Frequent mentioning of a tangible reward drives home the message that a reward is
winnable as long as they are willing to work for it.
5. Deliver the reward on time. It seems to me that the majority of the schools target more on the senior
students rather than getting all students involved. A student would have a feeling of wasted effort if
they graduate before receiving the reward. It is therefore important to give rewards on time. It is also
imperative that teachers be impartial and give the rewards to their rightful owners, wherever they
might be by the time the rewards arrive. I had two students whose articles were published in an earlier
issue of Village Kids and were therefore rewarded by the magazine. These two students, however, had
already graduated from my school. I tried many ways and finally got their home addresses. On the
Chinese New Years Eve last year, I rode on my motorcycle for miles on mountainous roads and handdelivered the rewards to these students. The students and their parents were very delighted. Their
heart-warming words rushed through me and cheered me up on an otherwise icy day.
In addition, I made it a priority to print and post the names of the reward recipients on schools
bulletin board to publicize the event.
6. Giving rewards with great fanfare. A reward given with fanfare will greatly increase the awareness
of the event and encourage student participation. It turns the mindset of the students from an event I
was made to participate to an event I want to participate. I believe that these activities would
positively impact their lives and make them want to give back to the community in the future.
I hope my experience could be of help to others. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Thank you and regards,
Jiang Junsheng, Chaling, Hunan.
Mr. Jiang's work has been both a great help and an inspiration to us.
Improve our work through the feedbacks
Based on the feedbacks we collected from the student submissions, we conducted an
assessment which greatly helped us to understand students' need. For example, we found
that many students expressed their frustration in learning English. Therefore our volunteers in
North America wrote up a series of articles to share their English-learning experience. In
another case, many students were curious about some health related issues, such as cancer
prevention, AIDS and etc. Yuyue, a volunteer with medical background, responded to the
questions with abundant information. It was also noticed through the feedback that many
students showed great interests to the news and events, so we took a deep dive on some of
the hot news stories such as the World Expo. Due to space limitation here, please refer to the
following link for detailed accounts of Issue 11 and 12 of the magazine:
http://bbs.ocef.net/bbs/cgi-bin/forums.cgi?forum=7&show=0
10.4.4 Volunteer Engagement
None of the above-mentioned projects could have been completed without the dedication and
hard work of our volunteers. The volunteers actively engaged in the production of the 2010
Village Kids magazine include (in random order):
Huahun, Amo, Xiaoxiong Pangpang, Tongyi, Thirty-two, Mu Yunping, Bushi, Richard, Sean,
Cao Hui, Wang Jingxia, Shi Zai, Chen Jin, Xiyuan, Pan Hong, Tianyu Liufang, Dandanying,
Tongtong, Baiyunpiao, Funjustine, Rachael, Concord, Mingming Rao, Xu Yunyi, Xinyun,
Tumbler, Lin Canxian, etc.
We thank the Correspondence Group, Human Resource Group, Library Group, Financial Aid
Group, Senior High School Group, Teachers Group, Finance Group, and Network Group for
their great support.