It’s not an entirely new idea. I remember it being vaguely discussed at a JETAA International Conference about 5 or so years ago.
But what if everyone who goes on JET were to be given a name@JET.Prefecture.com email address that could be forwarded to whatever email you want? Basically the same way that universities offer name@alumni.university.edu addresses to everyone. And what if alumni could go online and sign up for an address as well?
In addition to giving everyone a lifelong way to stay connected with JET, it would also give the prefectures and local governments a lifelong way to stay connected with JETs who worked in their prefecture as well as an easy way to identify everyone by prefecture or locality. This notion is important to the future of JET because prefectures and local governments currently do not have a good way to reach their JET alumni for the sake of “Return on JET-vestment” which is in turn needed to encourage prefectures to choose JETs over alternative ALT options.
(Actually, prefectures can reach their alumni through the 47 JET alum prefecture groups on LinkedIn. Though as of yet these groups still only represent a fraction of the total alumni out there.)
From a JET perspective, it might also be nice to list one’s JET address on your resume and be able to use it for other Japan-related communications.
I’m sure there are logistical issues that would need to be addressed. But I just wanted to put the idea out there as something to consider for the future.
2 comments so far...
I think this is a great idea and would be really helpful to the alumni associations for contacting current and returning JETs from their areas.
I really like this idea.
Who would be responsible for hosting it?