CAPT's name -- setting the record straight

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

The following was posted on another thread:

CAPT’s name has always been problematic. When I first joined the CAPT EC, there was only one – 1 – person on the committee who literally fit the bill. The rest of us were Taiwanese, Taiwanese-returnees, Parachute kids, TAS brats, a Korean-American, and a Filipino (uh, that was me). Granted, there was no “non-ethnic Asian” – although when I left to focus on ORIENTED, I handed over to one (although he is not “trash”, he is most definitely white :slight_smile: and he still is white as far as I can tell)

Everyone back then wanted to change the name or did not have a problem in changing it. The problem was that we flat that changing the name meant sacrificing CAPT’s history, too. CAPT 1 (the 1992 version), for all its shortcomings, is remembered as very successful and effective. When its level of success was considered too difficult a standard to maintain, it was shelved.

When CAPT was resurrected, on the back of everyone’s mind was that it did not need to seek the same goals as the original. CAPT 2 became a scaled down version of CAPT 1.

I argue that the success of ORIENTED.com (visit www.orientedhappyhours.com to see what I mean) scales down CAPT 2 even more.

Btw, the most popular proposed name for CAPT back then was Greater China Professionals (GCP). When I rejoined CAPT last year while I was in grad school, there was no longer any talk about changing the name – although the EC had turned over twice by then, so almost all the officers had long accepted the name. I did make it a point to not use the name Chinese-American Professionals in Taiwan at all. Indeed, you will not see it spelled out on its website.

I think that if an organization called WBHEEW’sABNCAPT was indeed formed, it should consider a shorter name

Although I am no longer part of the CAPT EC, I am still a CAPT member – I’m on the e-mail list (and there are no dues :slight_smile:). I hope CAPT redefines itself, especially since ORIENTED.com has effectively usurped CAPT’s position.

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What do you mean by the “success” of Oriented.com?

Is the Web site making money? Is it successful financially?

Or is Oriented.com charging people to attend the happy hours and making money that way?

Or is it successful because it is still around, and hasn’t folded like many Web sites/e-businesses/ etc. from years past?

3

Good question. I meant the second, that it is now charges an entrance fee (since the summer), but attendance hasn’t waned (or at least, this my impression). Plus, CAPT chose to permanently move their Happy Hours to the 2nd week of the month becuase of ORIENTED’s schedule. This is a big move for CAPT because before ORIENTED’s happy hours, the unofficial slogan of CAPT was “First Thursday” – the organization is built around this singular monthly event.

I dropped by last week’s Happy Hour at the American Club and I was impressed. Well over a hundred paying people showed up. I met some very interesting people and I ate well, too. The idea that ORIENTED (the happy hour) is happening in almost a dozen places on the planet on the same day amazes me. Making one Happy Hour at CAPT was (and probably still is) a struggle – making 11 ORIENTED’s happen (also with volunteers) impresses me.

I was skeptical about ORIENTED as a web business and I still am. I told this to Christine when we first split the site years ago, and just recently here in Taipei. There would never have been Segue had I thought differently – or at least, I wouldn’t have started it.

I’m not crazy about the main ORIENTED.com website, although I’ve told Maoman that I would like to Forumosa to deep link into it in the way that we now deep link into Amazon.

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Thanks, Gus.

I appreciate the candor in your replies to my questions.

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I was looking for some information about TAS and this topic caught my eye.

Poor Gus… and everyone else that is forever trying to defend CAPT in earnest… myself included. =)

CAPT should actually explain these very points on their website and ask for name suggestions (plus donations to help pay for the cost of rebranding, changing business cards, website design, etc.). I’ll let Mike know!

Fee, to answer your question about our charging door fees at the ORIENTED Happy Hours, they’re only used to cover (and recover) our costs. Once people do the math themselves and realize that the door fees is just to help us keep these Happy Hours going, they’re pretty supportive and are happy to help.

See orientedhappyhours.com/guide … funds.html

Based on my own rough calculations (though I’ll have the exact numbers soon), door fees alone won’t be able to recover our investment in them for another 2.5 to 3 years, but they do help us to pay for our monthly operating cost to run them.

Profits will come from what we do with other revenue-generating channels, see orientedhappyhours.com/guide … tners.html

Commission structures and guidelines are being set up (literally as we speak, walking into a meeting about this in about 2 hours) so that everyone who cuts these deals for us – so many people just within our own Organizers network alone, friends of friends, etc. keep wanting to bring in advertisers and sponsors for us, I guess because they love what we do! – will also benefit. As is, we don’t have the resources or time to respond to all the requests coming in! Not a bad situation to be in though, just puts the pressure on us to hurry it up.

So, good for the people who are helping us to grow our revenue base, which in turn is good for the company as it allows us to offer even more services to our Members than just the Happy Hours, which in turn is good for the Members as they will be able to receive great discounts to products and services that are meaningful to them.

If ORIENTED can negotiate 20% off a great meal at Dan Ryan’s for our Members in Taipei… porque no?

When Gus and I split the original site (oriented.org) into two independent entities, the jury was out as to whether a volunteer-run entity could sustain in the long-run and still provide meaningful services to its community (which I questioned), or whether a for-profit, start-up company could do the job better (which he questioned), especially given the rise and fall of the dotcom boom.

See heychristine.com/journals/08-16-02.html

We shook on it and wished each other the best of luck, as neither of us wanted to hold the other one back from doing what we each thought was in the best interests of the community we set out to serve.

1.5 years later, it would appear that both are doing just fine. :smiley: