華粵學院半歲啦！
時光荏苒，轉眼半載。感謝每位與華粵學院並肩作戰的能人義士，尤其與我一齊承擔法律責任的兩位董事。
美國法例非營利組織只需三個董事，即是我只需要找兩位志同道合又敢於逆流而上的就夠了。兩位說來容易，但要找也不易，因大家總有很多推卻的理由，主要就是一個怕字。怕付出時間多，怕責任重，怕被滅聲，怕家人反對。而我們這三位董事，一位因不怕而遠度重洋幫另一個組織攪活動，結果從此不能再踏足家園﹔一位剛到埗仍臨時寄居未有穩定工作，但已答允擔任﹔一人未知可留多久卻毅然開始籌組事宜，只因大家都不怕前路，認為正確就去做，能走多遠就走多遠。三位董事在各項議程上商討到有一致意見才通過，其中一人兼任CEO，全時間監督及執行各項工作﹔另一位自掏腰包為學院買了一部宣傳車，且每周兩天的假期就是修理及駕駛這部車。只是，若然三位董事其中一位有事要退出，按美國法例華粵學院便要即時停止運作。因此，我們必須未雨綢繆。但我們遭受諸多拒絕，事緣不少人雖已是安全國度的公民卻還有莫明的怕，所以，我們雖已開啟新董事候選程序，仍未能找到第四位董事。還好，有些義工雖仍在鐵蹄之下卻因不怕而仍為學院日夜辛勤。當中，我在與他們傾談時才驚覺有些還在求學，有些工餘需進修但仍為們不斷義務工作，有些在身處地區及個人資源限制下仍在咖啡室為我們耕耘,真使我感動不已。
我們也不怕在缺乏經費及資助下孜孜不倦地經營，網上教學正如箭在弦，教學材料都準備就緒，各類圖片及影片製作已如火如荼，聯繫各相關組織的工作也密鑼緊鼓。
可稱為香港象徵之一的珍寶海鮮舫忽傳“死訊”，勾起好多人的哀思，包括我也曾發悼文。但請想想，為何我們總要在生命中重要的人或物不復存在時去追憶，而不能在它仍努力掙扎時幫上一把？要挽救一艘海鮮舫於既倒實超出我們一般人的能力，但要匡扶一間像華粵學院這樣初成立的非營利組織，任何一個重視粵語與正體中文的都可出手相助。
請不要忘記我們共有的使命：“光復粵語！還我正體！“ 任重道遠，一齊努力。
ICAC celebrates its half-birthday!
Time flies, it is half-year now. Sincere thanks to every volunteer who has fought side by side with ICAC, in particular the two directors who bear legal responsibilities with me.
According to the Law of the United States, a NGO only requires three directors. That means I only need to find two people having the same dream as me to join our upstream path. Two look easy to find, but actually not. There are many undefined personal reasons for saying no, the major one being “afraid” – afraid that the role might demand too much time, afraid that the responsibility might be too big, afraid of external powers, or afraid of family objections. The story of our three director goes like this: the first one bravely came to the US to help organizing activities for another organization, ending up unable to return home; the second one bravely agreed to be on board with us, even without a permanent place to live or a steady employment; the third one has already begun organizing works for ICAC before having a permanent status to stay in the US. The only strong reason for their commitment is that all three directors are not afraid of the road ahead, and determine to keep going for as long as it is possible to do so. Decisions made on all agenda items during our board meetings have been unanimous. One director acts as CEO, oversees and executes all tasks on full time work schedule but no pay, while another director used his own money to buy a private car for business and publicity purpose of ICAC - moreover most of his two weekly off-days were spent on servicing and driving the car.
Under the Law of the United States, if one director resigns, ICAC has to suspend operations immediately. For this reason, we have to act fast and start our director recruitment process without delay. Unfortunately up to this day we are still unable to find the fourth director. We had a number of rejections, reason again being “afraid”, even for those who are already permanent residents in a safe country. On the positive side, we have some good volunteers who, though under a shadow of menace, are not afraid to contribute diligently to ICAC. Through our interactions I was surprised to find out that some are still full-time students, while some have used their after-work hours to help with Under the Law of the United States, if one director resigns, ICAC has to suspend operations immediately. For this reason, we have to act fast and start our director recruitment process without delay. Unfortunately up to this day we are still unable to find the fourth director. We had a number of rejections, reason again being “afraid”, even for those who are already permanent residents in a safe country. On the positive side, we have some good volunteers who, though under a shadow of menace, are not afraid to contribute diligently to ICAC. Through our interactions I was surprised to find out that some are still full-time students, while some have used their after-work hours to help with volunteer work; and some often do work for us at cafés, for lack of space or internet resources. I was deeply moved.
We have operated and worked diligently despite lacking in resources and experience. Our on-line courses are ready to be launched anytime, as teaching materials have all been prepared, images and videos have almost completely finalized, and liaisons with relevant organizations have been moving in earnest.
The unexpected news of the “death” of the Hong Kong iconic jumbo floating restaurant aroused much sorrowful thought of many people. I even wrote a eulogy to express my sad feelings. This incident also led me to contemplate: Why should we feel sad only when something or someone precious to us has gone? Why not we try to give a helping hand when it is still struggling to survive? To save the jumbo floating restaurant is beyond our abilities, but to give a helping hand to a newly established NPO like our ICAC is within the ability of anyone who treasures spoken Cantonese and written traditional Chinese.
Don’t forget our mission: “Restore our Chinese! Revive Our Cantonese”. Let’s put our joint efforts behind these important and far-reaching tasks.