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Place: Meeting Room on the 4^th floor, Ford Hall, University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA

The United Societies of China Studies (USCS, www.uscs-us.org) held its Council meeting among the five founding organization members during the International Symposium on the Rise of China and Its Impact on Asia, organized by United Societies of China Studies (USCS) in association with the Association of Chinese Professors of Social Sciences in the U.S. (ACPSS) and hosted by the University of Louisville Center for Asian Democracy (CAD).

[1] Meeting with a five-member delegation from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) to discuss future collaboration.

[3] Deliberating on the proposal presented by the Association of Chinese Political Studies (ACPS);

Also present was Dr. Helen Xiaoyan Wu, University of Toronto, Canada, Secretary and Newsletter Editor of ACPSS. She was designated as the USCS Acting Secretary to take notes at the Council meeting and draft the minutes afterwards.

At 7:45 PM, the USCS Council and the CASS delegation began an extensive discussion about the possibility of future collaboration on various aspects such as joint research projects, guest lectures, training program for graduate students in China, co-sponsorship of academic seminars and symposia, scholarly publications, and etc. Both sides agreed to work hard to make the proposed collaboration into concrete steps.

After the CASS delegation left, the USCS council meeting began at 9:30 pm.. Through a very frank exchange of opinions, the following agreements were reached:

1) Dr. Shiping Hua’s term as the founding council-chair of USCS ends at the end of the Council meeting, on March 20, 2009. Members expressed their deep appreciation to the leadership and dedication he has displayed to create USCS and to organize its activities in its first three years. Without his tremendous effort, the CAD 2009 International Symposium was not possible. Dr. Hua expressed his gratitude for everyone’s support.

2) Council member for the USCS can be president or any member designated/ appointed by the president of the participating organization.

3) Term for the Council Chair of USCS is one year, from September 1 of the year to August 31 of the following year.

4) Position of Council Chair-Elect is created to facilitate USCS leadership succession, and Council Chair-Elect is expected to assist with the incumbent Council Chair in managing routine operations. The council chair-elect automatically becomes the council chair in the designated due time and the new council chair-elect moves in position following the agreed-on rotation order (see Item 7).

5) Council members from the five current participating organizations take turns to chair USCS. However, to start with this new procedure and as a special case, Dr. Jieli Li, President of ACPSS, was elected as the new council chair of USCS, serving the term from March 21, 2009, to August 31, 2010. The term of any subsequent chairship for USCS council is limited for a period of 12 months from September 1 to August 31.

6) After the election of council chair (Dr. J. Li), Dr. Yawei Liu, a representative of CHUS, was elected as Council Chair-Elect to serve from March 21, 2009 to August 31, 2010.

8) ACPS’s proposal to give veto power to each USCS participating organization was discussed, but the general consensus at the end of discussion was to prefer the absolute or overwhelming majority rule to veto power of single member organization in the council’s decision-making process, which means that any motion or initiative may not proceed provided that there are two vetoes from the current five member organizations.

9) Council members suggested a number of potential professional organizations with a focus on China and/or Chinese studies with which they will contact to encourage them to join USCS.