Start: 15:00 End: 16:43, on 22. Aug. 2024.
Location: Online Zoom-Meeting
Attendees: Tsu-Wei Chen, Kuan-Hsun Chen, Jian-Jia Chen, Chih-Jen Shih, Hsin-Fang Chang, Chia-Ju Yu (Joyce)
Top 1: Opening of the meeting and establishment of the quorum
Everyone agreed to have a board meeting today.
Top 2: Setting of the agenda
All attendee agreed with the agenda.
Top 3: Approval of the protocol of the last Executive Board Meeting
All attendee agreed the 10th meeting protocol.
* Urgent ETAST meeting on June 10th (10th ETAST board meeting): JJ mentioned that the conference will be held in Dortmund instead of Bonn.
Top 4: Report
➔ Chair and Vice Chair (Jian-Jia and Chih-Jen)
- Jian-Jia discussed the matter of re-electing ETAST’s Executive Board (理事會) and Managing Supervisors (監事會) during the General Assembly in 2024. For the re-election, each member will have four votes for Executive Board candidates and two votes for Managing Supervisors. The candidates with the highest votes will serve in the next term of the ETAST Executive Board and Managing Supervisors. Additionally, there will be two backup members for each board section.
- Jian-Jia reported that members who registered and paid for a one-year membership in 2023 or 2024 will be considered valid members until December 31, 2024. Additionally, those who registered and paid for a five-year membership will have their membership valid until December 31, 2028.
- Tsu-Wei will check the payment of registered members.
- Tsu-Wei and Chih-Jen will record the protocol for the General Assembly in writing. Tsu-Wei will translate it into German for the final version.
➔ Finance (Joyce / Tsu-Wei)
- Tsu-Wei reported that the 2023 report was submitted to the Finanzamt. On August 20th, the Finanzamt replied to Tsu-Wei, stating that the Jahresabschluss needs to be sent back and will be discussed and approved by the Managing Supervisors, as well as all members during the General Assembly.
- Tsu-Wei checked the membership payments in the account, but there hasn’t been much incoming.
- According to the ETAST Satzung, Jian-Jia will send the financial report to the Executive Board before forwarding it to the Managing Supervisors.
➔ General officer (Tsu-Wei)
- Concerning the 2024 conference, Jian-Jia reported that NSTC can also sponsor the event. JJ will inquire about sponsorship from the Informatic Center at TU Dortmund. After balancing the budget, the only remaining cost will be the coffee break catering fee. The predicted budget will be between minus 500–1000 euros.
- Regarding the September 2025 conference in Dresden, JJ will submit the application for an international conference to the DFG in October for the Taiwan-German workshop in 2025. According to the regulations, the application for an international conference must be submitted at least six months in advance.
- JJ will inquire about potential candidates for the semiconductor workshop on September 4, 2024, Dresden.
- JJ mentioned that Dr. Chou from NSTC, who is in charge of the region of Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, is organizing the annual meeting on October 20–21 in Rotterdam. Dr. Chou plans to involve several Taiwanese scholar-associated organizations in the meeting. One day will focus on the biomedical field, while the other will be more of a social activity aimed at personal and association connections. Jian-Jia, Kuan-Hsun, and Hsin-Fang will participate in the event. Jian-Jia will ask Dr. Chou if we (ETAST) could participate in this event as one of the co-organizers. The plan is to support our members’ participation with up to 500 euros.
➔ Web master (Kuan-Hsun)
- Kuan-Hsun reported that some of the open-source plugins used on our website have been updated, but their functionality is now incompatible. As a result, he had to invest time in finding alternative solutions to maintain the website. To ensure better maintenance, Kuan-Hsun purchased software services. He mentioned that using commercially available features would be a better long-term solution for website maintenance than manual updates. These features include conference presentations, ticketing systems, registration, banking, and member management.
➔ Membership status (Hsin-Fang/ Kuan-Hsun)
- Hsin-Fang reported that there are a total of 100 registered members, with 12 new members since 2024.
- In 2024, there was a new membership application from Iraq. All board members agreed to refuse the application due to unclear motivation.
- JJ mentioned that the original restriction on membership was implemented because of a large number of applications from other organizations might attempt to take over ETAST e.V. As the number of members has increased, we could consider loosening this restriction. Jian-Jia, Kuan-Hsun, and Hsin-Fang confirmed that they would pre-screen new applications to ensure that applicants are related to Taiwanese scholars or the technology discipline. All board members agreed to this regulation.
Top 5: Further Planned Activities 2024
- The tentative date and location for the Mentor Program on November 9-10, 2024, will be in Berlin
- The ETAST conference 2025 is as mentioned.
Top 6: Misc.
- The next Executive Board meeting will be held after the conference on Wednesday, October 18th, at 15:00.
- Chih-Jen will write the next protocol.
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