{"id":14824,"date":"2010-11-16T18:49:33","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T22:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=14824"},"modified":"2010-11-16T18:49:59","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T22:49:59","slug":"message-from-jetaa-international-chair-shree-kurlekar-on-the-future-of-jetaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/16\/message-from-jetaa-international-chair-shree-kurlekar-on-the-future-of-jetaa\/","title":{"rendered":"Message from JETAA International Chair Shree Kurlekar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The following is the text of an e-mail sent out to the JETAA chapter representatives listserve by newly elected <a href=\"http:\/\/jetalumni.org\/\">JETAA International<\/a><strong> <\/strong>Chair<strong> Shree Kurlekar (Shiga-ken, 2005-07)<\/strong>.\u00a0 With Shree&#8217;s permission, we&#8217;re re-posting a slightly edited version here on JetWit for the benefit of the JET alumni community.\u00a0 For more information about JETAA International, you can visit the website at <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/jetalumni.org\/\">http:\/\/jetalumni.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Greetings members of the JET alumni community,<\/p>\n<p>My name is <strong>Shree Kurlekar<\/strong> and I was elected Chair of JETAA International at the JETAAI meeting October 1-3 in Edinburgh, Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a list of what will be covered below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Introduction to me and the new JETAAI Board<br \/>\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Future of JET and JETAA<br \/>\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2010-11 Action Plan for Country Representatives<\/p>\n<p>*******************<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Introduction to me and the new JETAAI Board<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A little bit about  my-self\u2026 I was on the JET program from 2005-2007 in Shiga-ken. I  returned from Japan to the United States in September 2007 and have been  living in New York City. In true JET alumni form, I am once again  planning a life move, this time to London, England, where I will reside beginning  January 2011.<\/p>\n<p>My  involvement in JETAA started as the Vice President of the New York  Chapter in 2008. I have been one of the three JETAA USA Country  Representatives since 2009 and am very happy to be leading as Chair of  JETAAI.<\/p>\n<p>The 2010  International Meeting was held in Edinburgh, Scotland from October 1-3,  2010. Country Representatives from 13 of the 19 International countries  attended. Unfortunately, due to changes in the budget for both CLAIR  and MOFA, there will not be an International Meeting in 2011. However,  CLAIR and MOFA will revisit feasibility of funding for an International  Meeting in 2012 and one of our missions for the Executive Board is to  provide ideas and suggestions for additional funding.<\/p>\n<p>The new JETAAI board elected at the International Meeting are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chair- Shree Kulekar, USA: jetaainternationalchair@gmail.com<\/li>\n<li>Vice Chair- Barbara Gill, Scotland: jetaainternationalvicechair@gmail.com<\/li>\n<li>Secretary- Kay Dunkley, Jamaica: jetaainternationalsecretary@gmail.com<\/li>\n<li>PR- David Boyd, Australia: jetaainternationalpr@gmail.com<\/li>\n<li>Webmaster (non-elected position)- Paul Donovan (Canada) &amp; Bob Schnyder (USA): jetaainternationalweb@gmail.com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2. Future of JET and JETAA<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am sure that across the world  in\u00a0your local chapters the subject of the future of the JET program and  JETAA has been at the forefront. This past  summer, in Sydney and New York City, an auditor from Japan came to meet  with the JETAA members of those chapters to learn about exactly what the  organizations do on a local level.<\/p>\n<p>As I am  still currently a USA Country Representative and live in NYC, I was  lucky enough to be asked to attend the meeting with the auditor. In  short, it went very well in both cities. We provided the Minister with  some resources that I will speak about more later and described some of  our local activities like the pre-departure seminar, cultural  activities, etc.<\/p>\n<p>I also  attended both the JETAA USA National Conference and of course, the  International Meeting and across the board representatives from CLAIR  and MOFA have assured that JET and JETAA would not be cut in the near  future.   \u00a0 The\u00a0Japanese  Government is currently trying to define the success and value of JETs  (English teaching vs. grassroots internationalization) and is looking at  ways to better utilize JETs in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>In that,  JETAAI would like your help in putting together resources that will  help us align our organization and easily allow us to show our worth.<\/p>\n<p>The  first resource that we need your help with was also the most important  result of the International Meeting. At the meeting the delegates  discussed our future and tried to come up with a \u201cStatement of  Purpose.\u201d\u00a0 You will find a draft put together by our out-going vice  chair Ryan Hart attached here, it is titled \u201cJETAA International  Positions Itself for the Future,\u201d  \u00a0 We would  like you all to review it and share it with your local chapters so that  we can collect feedback to construct the final draft.\u00a0 Please send feedback to <strong>Kay Dunkley at jetaainternationalsecretary@gmail.com. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Second,  at the end of the JETAAUSA National conference, JETAAUSA released a  press release stating, &#8220;The JET Program and JETAA are crucial to Japan&#8217;s  international outreach and to increasing mutual understanding between  Japan and the United States. JETAAUSA hopes that upon review, the  Japanese government will rediscover the necessity and value of the JET  Program and JETAA. Japan needs both JET and JETAA to continue building  bridges between Japan and the United States.&#8221; This press release  actually brought a lot of positive attention to JETAAUSA and JETAAI and  multiple articles have been written about the alumni organization. \u00a0The rest of the press release can be found as an attachment.  \u00a0 If  your chapters have put together anything like this or have suggestions  for creating a template for other chapters to get media attention,  please send feedback to our <strong>PR person, David Boyd at jetaainternationalpr@gmail.com <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Third, we would like to have your chapter reports\/election cycles, ASAP to <strong>Kay Dunkley at jetaainternationalsecretary@gmail.com. <\/strong>Both  of these things are important for us to help MOFA and CLAIR show the  Japanese government and public that it is beneficial to them to continue  to fund our organizations. The reports show the events that we conduct  and the election information show that we make our chapters accountable.    \u00a0 Other  resources that JETAAI suggest local chapters work to put together  include a database of members including professional positions, relevant  local articles on JETAA or the JET program and testimonials from  members. I know that many chapters have already begun this and we would  love to hear about it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. 2010-11 Action Plan for Country Representatives <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Also  attached [to the e-mail that was sent] is the Country Representatives Action Plan 2010-2011. As there  is no International Meeting planned for 2011, you will see that some of  the Action Items have had to be revised.   \u00a0 I  know that this was a lot of information but we believe that now is the  time that we can really move forward as an aligned organization.   \u00a0 As always, please visit the <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/jetalumni.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">JETAAi website<\/a> and get some ideas for events from other chapters across the world.   \u00a0 We would also appreciate you forwarding this e-mail to all of your local\u00a0e-mail lists.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you very much for all the hard work you do,<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Shree Kurlekar<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Chair, <a href=\"http:\/\/jetalumni.org\/\">JETAA International<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is the text of an e-mail sent out to the JETAA chapter representatives listserve by newly elected JETAA International Chair Shree Kurlekar (Shiga-ken, 2005-07).\u00a0 With Shree&#8217;s permission, we&#8217;re re-posting a slightly edited version here on JetWit for the benefit of the JET alumni community.\u00a0 For more information about JETAA International, you can visit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jetaa-chapters","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-3R6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14824"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14829,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14824\/revisions\/14829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}