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The success of the 1995 picnic inspired alumni enthusiasts such as Kewei
Yang to set up an e-mail list for to connect reach alumni. The e-mail list was set up and initially maintained by Kewei Yang, and from then on, alumni in the Silicon Valley have their own place to share information, exchange ideas, help each other and carry on the spirit and tradition of their alma mater. The name of SVTN (Silicon Valley Tsinghua Network) was first used to name the email list.
In the next couple of years, the responsibility of organizing and maintaining the alumni organization was passed on to different alumni enthusiasts year after year, the names of them are Xuejun Du in 1996, Bing Zheng in 1997, Jianan He in 1998, James Qingwen Deng in 1999. In the meantime, the alumni group was growing up rapidly. Using the spring picnic index (people showed up at the spring picnic) as a reference, there were an average of 350 – 400 each year to participate in the event. In addition to the spring picnic, many other events were organized to bring alumni together, such as Sunday branch, group hiking, dancing party, professional seminar and job fair.
Alumni Bing Zheng [18] and Hao Liu developed SVTN’s first website – www.tsinghua.net used for events announcements, reports, pictures and news of things that are interesting to Bay area alumni.
The boom of Silicon Valley in the late 1990s also accelerated the growth of SVTN. The 1999 SVTN leaders led by James Deng, including Jack Ke, Guoying Ding, Jiangan He, Bing Zheng, Hao Liu and Ning Zhuang, built SVTN into a mainstream association, including the registration of SVTN as an official organization in California, increasing membership to more than 400 by the summer of 1999 and starting signing up sponsors. The 1999 SVTN leaders also made effort to promote SVTN to the public. Jiangan He(CS82) promoted SVTN's web www.tsinghua.net to China News Digest (CND). James Deng, Jack Ke, Ning Zhuang, Bing Zheng held events together with other Bay area organizations including Eureka club, Tongji, Nanjing University, Beda, Zheda, Fudan, Tianjin, Wuhan Univessity alumni associations. As a key members for the China 50th Celebration Committee, James Deng and Jack Ke successfully promoted SVTN brand-name to tens of local Chinese organizations.
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