It was a true honor and privilege to serve OCAIR as the 2019-20 Chair. This year has proven to be challenging for most of our members due to the pandemic of COVID-19. In this difficult time, I am hoping that the greetings find all of members healthy and safe.

The activities of OCAIR 2019-20 were guided by three In’s: Inspiration, Involvement, and Innovation. We hoped that the OCAIR 2019-20 inspired and involved our members in interesting and innovative way! A series of professional development activities was organized from August 2019 to May 2020 by our talent and dedicated 2019-20 Steering Committee members (SC) and volunteers, including:

• Newsletter 2019 –  Edited by Shiwei Jiang & Lan Gao
  The Newsletter collects research articles, tech tips, insights on higher education and personal stories. We publish it annually.

• Member Directory Information Update – Edited by All SC members.
  Member directory was updated on website. More than 300 members’ info were listed and open only for our members. My special appreciation goes to Amy Yang, our website and listserv supporter, for her continuous technical support and IT expertise.

• Seven Wednesday Wisdoms – Coordinated by Mingli Yang and Timothy Chow
  We shared a discussion topic on the second Wednesday of each month. To inspire and involve our members, we also had an OCAIR holiday fun, a special issue of wisdom, to celebrate holidays. About 15 questions were included to see how much our members know about AIR and OCAIR. We highly encouraged participation and we had 15 winners who received a gift card.

• Eight Friday Fun via Webinars – Coordinated by Xiaoyan Liu and Timothy Chow
  Friday Fun via Webinar presented by our members was one of our new approaches to engage our members this year. We tried to line up discussion topics between Wisdom and Webinar to benefit our members via a thorough learning for each topic. Thank you so much for our invited presenters: Yang Zhang, Yan Xie, Lanlan Mu, Ying Lin, Hanyan Wang, Ying Zhou, Yihui Li, Kirsten Dreyfus, and Sarah Bauer.

• 2019 OCAIR Reading Club – Moderated by Ying Zhou and Henry Zheng
  It was our first-ever reading club. Thank you, Ying Zhou and Henry Zheng, for facilitating discussions on the book named Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Joseph E Aoun. My special appreciation goes to Zhe Jiang, our treasurer, to purchase and mail reading books to our registered members.

• OCAIR Panel Session – Presented by Richard Lee and Hui-min Wen
  They shared their personal experiences and lessons learned with the topic of Let’s Talk Teamwork! In IR office and Cross-Campus Collaboration.

• OCAIR 2020 Virtual Business Meeting
  Although the in-person AIR forum in New Orleans was canceled, we had our first-ever OCAIR Virtual Business Meeting in late May, 2020. It was great to “meeting” our members online and exchange our thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. During the meeting, we recognized and congratulated all of our awards and grant winners as follows: 

• • Eric Zhao Yang: 2020 OCAIR Outstanding Service Award
  • Dai Li, Shiwei Jiang, and Mingli Yang: 2020 OCAIR Spirit Award
  • Hanyan Wang and Ying Zhou: 2020 OCAIR Best Presentation Award
  • Yihui Li and Kristen Dreyfus: 2020 OCAIR Best Practice Award
  • Kai Zhou: 2020 OCAIR Young Professional Travel Grant

Special appreciation goes to Dai Li and our Award Selection Committee members for the leadership and the award selection process.

Reviewing what OCAIR achieved last year, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere appreciation to all SC members and volunteers who shared news, insights, and opportunities with our community. It’s my great honor to work with all of you!

Recent situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have created a new normal for daily learning and communication. I am proud that our members continue with the OCAIR’s caring spirit — “OCAIR, We Care!” to collaborate and exchange ideas actively via different platforms. With more talent, creative, and dedicated colleagues joining OCAIR and working in the SC, I believe that OCAIR will grow stronger as we connect each other more and will have another productive year.

Xiaoyan Liu