JETAA USA Country Representative

Quarterly Report: Q1

April-June 2013

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The 2013-14 Country Representatives have been elected and were announced on the US Chapters Google Forum on April 21, 2013:

Casey Mochel (PNW JETAA) will be joining the team for her first year as CR (US1.jetaausa@gmail.com)

Christina Omori (NE JETAA) will be serving a second year as CR (US2.jetaausa@gmail.com)

Jennifer Butler (JETAA MC) will be serving a second year as CR (US3.jetaausa@gmail.com)

Votes were accepted from April 6-20 via an online election format.We had a great turnout for votes this year according to Jessyca Livingston, 2013-2014 Elections Officer, so thank you to chapters for submitting your votes. Incoming and outgoing CRs held several Orientation and Transition calls the first week of May.

Melissa Chan from JETAA NC has stepped down as CR this year, but we would like to thank her on behalf of the JETAA USA community for her time, energy and dedication over the past year. She was a driving force behind the success of the 2012 JETAA USA National Conference. Melissa will remain involved as a member of the JETAA USA Working Group.

As initially discussed at the 2012 National Conference in San Francisco, the JETAA USABoard of Advisors, the CRs, and the Working Group, have been collaborating with JET alum Paige Cottingham-Streater of the US-Japan Friendship Commission (among others) on the opportunity to grow and strengthen JETAA USA and its chapters. Thanks to JET Alum Paige Cottingham-Streater’s hard work, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP) accepted the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation’s request to secure a grant that would be used towards institutionalizing JETAA USA. CGP created a part-time position to work for the US-Japan Bridging Foundation to support this mission. The Project Director position announcement was distributed on May 20.

At the end of June, the Bridging Foundation hired JET alum Laurel Lukaszewski to fill the position. We are looking forward to working together with her. Laurel has maintained a strong connection with Japan and the Japan-US community since her time on the JET Program by previously serving on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Japan-America Societies (NAJAS), as the Executive Director for the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C, and as a Program Director of the Japan-America Society in Seattle.  She also served on a panel at the JETAA USA National Conference in 2011 hosted by JETAADC. For more information, please see the USJBF press release here.

Laurel begins her position on July 9 and we will continue to keep you informed on things relating to this initiative.

2013 National Conference host JETAAMN has secured the conference venue and hotel as the Crowne Plaza Hotel Minneapolis – Northstar Downtown. The dates are Thursday – Sunday, Sept. 26-29, 2013. JETAAMN has assembled a conference planning committee and are finalizing budgets and session ideas for the agenda. Please note that the Thursday evening reception this year will be a formal reception, so it’s advised that delegates plan on arriving at Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport (MSP) around 3:00-3:30pm. As in previous years, the latest updates will be posted on the JETAA USA site here, so continue to check back for updates.

NEJETAA, New England chapter, and CR2 Christina Omori have begun exploring the possibility of hosting the Regional Conference in late January/early February of 2014. Past hosts have included 2012 – RMJETAA in Denver, 2010 – JETAA Portland, 2009 – JETAA Heartland in Kansas City. Although the previous two Regional Conferences were focused on technology, NEJETAA proposed the topic of Membership Management for 2014, with a secondary focus on applied technology. NEJETAA requested US and Canada chapters interested in participating to indicate their level of interest and number of delegates they plan to send by end of June to coincide with the GiA application deadline. Depending on the level of interest and chapter feedback on the proposed Regional Conference topic, NEJETAA will consider further planning discussions with current officers and scheduling a meeting with Consulate-General of Japan Boston representatives about collaboration opportunities and funding request procedures.

Bob Schnyder, past JETAA Portland Webmaster, who manages the jetaausa.com domain and hosting services, will be migrating our content over to a new theme. This will enable CRs to independently manage and update the site more effectively moving forward. The migration is scheduled over the July 4 weekend and following the migration, Bob and the CRs will schedule a training session to review the updates.

After a 3 year lull, the JETAA USA Facebook Page has been reactivated! You can now get JETAA USA updates right in your newsfeed: facebook.com/jetaausa We’re still here on Twitter as JETAAUSA. CR1 Casey Mochel will be managing our social media channels.