I was reflecting alot on the way back from SICA's Opening Ceremony tonight. This is my 6th OC since I entered Peking Uni. There's a tinge of soury sadness amidst the heartwarming familiarity when I see peers who were recruited together with me during the Fall of 2006. How time flies!

When I first joined SICA, I chose Projects Team (项目部) over the others as I wanted a different experience from my senior Regina. It was back to basics during the first semester, and that was what the seniors always told us: Do not belittle the power of simple tasks like pasting posters at chinese student hostels or simply distributing flyers at 三角地. We helped to plan the SICA OC during that year, and I vividly remembered it was held at 正大国际中心二层. The following semester, I helped out with NEAN (Northeast Asian Network) held at Yonsei Uni, took charge of International Cultural Festival's stage performances. I was really happy back then being able to have the chance to work with chinese students in a student association like this and SICA is truly the place where I befriended my closest friends. :) Thereafter, I proceeded to FACES and I'm still learning, bit by bit everyday. It takes a lot to lead a group of people who grew up in a culture very much different from mine, knowing each and everyone's working style, their strengths and weaknesses, thinking about what is best for FACES on the whole. It's really a balance between individual benefits and that of a group's. Another thing is about retaining talent in the association. Very often, we recruit people based on their individual talents and predicted contributions they can make to the association. Yet these people are the hardest to retain as they are always on the lookout for greener pastures. I must admit it's a come-and-go thing and I shouldn't be brooding over this. But I realised these are the intricate things that we have to balance in a group's dynamics during recruitment. We can't have all the capable ones in a team, many of them will end up feeling not valued. But because FACES itself is very much academic in the sense that we focus a lot on knowledge of Sino-US relations, I wouldn't want most of my members to end up not knowing anything in this field, especially if they are the ones who are now going to take up important roles for the conference next November. I'm hoping that while they gain experience with organizations and stuff, they can also be well-equipped with knowledge in this area too. Is it too idealistic? Well perhaps everyone is just too caught up with their own stuff, and they can only spare a bare minimum at FACES. Nevertheless, we still appreciate their commitment very much! After all, student's main priority is still school work!

This semester, even though it's a transitory phase to the conference itself, is still very important for us. We need to work out lots of logistics and administrative cooperative measures with Renmin Uni to ensure a smooth transition to the co-hosting of the November China Conference. And human dynamics is the toughest to tackle! But I'm glad the two chapters kind of complemented each other in the gender ratio...we've an overwhelming number of female officers.