20081107 – Members Meeting

UMTC 3^rd Members Meeting

Theme: Leading a Simple Life

Date/Venue: Nov. 7^th, 2008 (Friday), School of Social Work Room1804

Attendees:

Huey Shann Sue, Mei Chen Chua, Keen Yee Liau, Szu Ling Yeap, Hsin-Hsin Le e, Yueh Ping Chung, Kai Liang Nyoi, Cunn Yong Goh, Karen Quek, Hui Ying Chin, Yuching Lin, Jesse Tsaur, Sabrina Wang, Jackson Cheng, Kah Loong Chong, You Ning Lee, Beth Chen, Edward Jan, Manch Lin, Stephanie Wang, Morgan Merlanti

Short Description/ Outcome:

This time, the meeting was held based on the theme—leading a simple lifestyle. A simple lifestyle basically means to live frugally and to treasure what we have. It also means to be grateful always, and not to be greedy of wealth, power and status. It has been discussed in the meeting too that being able to give can earn happiness. Wealth and status are just impermanent, and they are not a source of happiness. The meeting started out with us watching a life wisdom video on this topic. It was then followed by a game. Each person was asked to relate stories and exchanged stories with one another based on 9 values: gratitude, forgiveness, good deeds, contentment, filial piety, happiness, respect, treasuring blessing and also not to be wasteful. The person who managed to relate the most stories in shortest time won the game. The winner was presented with a small gift. In this meeting, all members got to share their stories, to learn from each other and to know each other better.

Reported by,

You Ning Lee

20081010 – Members Meeting

UMTC Fall 2008 2nd Member Meeting

What: Fall 2008 2^nd Member Meeting

Theme: Environmental Protection

Why: To increase members’ awareness of the importance of environment protection and to share “go green” habits we can assimilate into our daily lives.

Where/When: October, 10^th, 2008(Friday) 6-7.00pm at room 1804, School of Social Work

Number of people who attended: 22

Name List: Huey Shann Sue, Mei Chen Chua, Szu Ling Yeap, Karen Quek, Beth Chen Yi-wei, You Ning Lee, Morgan Merlanti, Stephanie Wang, Kai Liang Nyoi, Kai Hsiang Chan, Yu Ching Lin, Ket Seng Koh, Ellie Wang, Jessie Tsai, Jason Hung, I-Hsuan Wang, Jackson Cheng, Jesse Tsaur, Edward Jan, Hui Ying Chin, Wen Xin Xiao, Manch Lin

Short Description:

On October 10^th, 2008, UMTC had its second member meeting for Fall 2008. 21 members attended included some new freshman members. Different from previous member meeting, we discussed about an environmental issue which was held by Beth after watching the video of Life Wisdom. The purpose of discussion was to have more interaction between members, to get to know each other better, and to emphasize the importance of the issue. The topic of our first discussion was “reuse and refuse.” All of the members were divided into three groups, and shared their own opinions and experiences toward the topic. After discussing, one member from each group represented their group and made a brief presentation. Kai-Hsiang said that he used to buy bottle water, and then produced a lot of avoidable garbage. So he decided from now on he would use pitcher instead. Manch Manju Lin shared her experience that when she was in Japan, almost everyone used one plastic bag, plastic lunch box, and disposable chopsticks every day. She made her effort to convince one of her co-worker to refuse taking plastic bag even though they gave you without even asking. It is believed that no matter how small difference one person can make, it will be a great change if everyone keeps doing the same thing. At the end, Beth also mentioned the EP project which was still in process. The main idea is to encourage people bring their own lunch box when buying take-out. After the meeting, we managed to enjoy some refreshment. Special thanks to Szu Ling for baking the chocolate cakes, to Huey Shann for the Green tea and to Hui Ying for the chips.

Written by,

I-Hsuan Wang (Sabrina)

20080919 Members’ Meeting

UMTC Fall 2008 1st Member Meeting
Reported by You Ning Lee
Edited by Huey Shann Sue and Szu Ling Yeap

On September 19th, 2008, UMTC had its first member meeting for Fall 2008 at room 1804, School of Social Work. More than 20 members attended the meeting and most of them were new members. This was a more informal event, compared to the Tea Party, hoping that the planning team members can interact and know more with the new members.

We wanted to have this meeting because we wanted to introduce Tzu Ching, our activities, and the Planning Team. Also, we introduced Tzu Chi by watching a video entitled “Story from the East”. The meeting started off with 2 ice breaker games. All of us had a great time getting to know each other in a fun way.

First Ice Breaking Game

Second Ice Breaking Game, trying to guess who was on the other side.

All of us had a good laughing time

The meeting was then followed by presentation from Huey Shann, UMTC President and Szu Ling, UMTC Vice President. They introduced the activities we will be holding this semester including Morning Sharing Group, Parkway Meadows Care for the Elderly program, Nursing Home Visit etc. They also gave a review on what we have done so far such as attending various retreats and camps, United Nation Assembly, and also disaster relief. Other than that, each planning team role’s was also being explained to the members. Finally, they wrapped up their presentation by talking about the requirements to become an official Tzu Ching, ie. to get a Tzu Ching Uniform. Some of the requirements were to have a certain amount of volunteer hours, to participate in at least 3 different kinds of community service and to attend at least one Tzu Chi retreat/camp.

Huey Shann and Szu Ling’s presentation

Next, we displayed a video entitled “Story from the East” about Master Cheng Yen and Tzu Chi Foundation. The video was carefully chosen by Beth and Edward, our Tzu Ching Seniors. It was a very touching video and all of us watched intently and mindfully.

Video “Story from the East”

Around 7pm, our meeting ended when we served some refreshments and presented souvenirs to the new members.

Souvenirs were bookmarks made by reused materials courtesy of LA Tzu Chi HQ.

Refreshments were cookies prepared by Beth and Edward.