Sam Kidder
ACCJ Executive Director
September 29, 2010. The ACCJ Tokyo day began at 8am with our monthly Board meeting with Ambassador Roos at the Embassy Conference Room. President Whitson briefed the group on the presentation he gave at the Prime Minister’s Round Table the previous afternoon, and Government Relations Committee Chair Arthur Mitchell gave an overview of his committee’s activities and its extensive contacts with Japanese officials to date. The day ended shortly before 11pm when a meeting to set the PR strategy for the Growth Strategy White Paper broke up. Thanks to Kumi Sato for feeding the group.
Tom Jordan, Chair of the Community Service Advisory Council, directed the Accounting Section to dispense charity funds as decided by the CSAC, and worked with Sayaka Mori to explore setting up a joint council meeting with the Internal Affairs Advisory Council and Budget and Financial Affairs Advisory Council to study the issue of using reserves for charitable purposes. ACCJ Person of the Year Tadashi Yamamoto’s organization, the Japan Center for International Exchange, brought by a group of up-and-coming American business and political leaders for an hour-long briefing. In accordance with the Constitution, the Membership Committee busily circulated and unanimously approved the applications for 43 new members.
With only a day-and-a-half left before tee off, Hitoshi Maruyama was phoning and e-mailing the joint North American and European task force to finalize the prizes for the Mercedes Cup, while at the same time praying for good weather. Programs got out the announcement for the next Toiletries, Cosmetics and Fragrances Committee event, while Kyoko Fujii took a flurry of early signups for the Moonlight Matsuri Charity Ball. Garland Yu updated some key leadership information on the website. Financial Services Forum members came in to use the boardroom for an hour-long working meeting and confirmed that they are heading down the homestretch with the white paper they are putting together. I heard that afterwards, some of that group went directly to the Wine Tasting Event where they were able to support the Charity Ball charities and vote for the wines to be served at the Moonlight Matsuri.
Laura Younger was busy with Entrepreneurship Mentoring Initiative details, speaking with Patricia Bader-Johnson to make sure all the moving parts in this complex and exciting program were headed in the same direction. Arlene Hostrop, a key member of the Business Systems and Strategy team, exchanged ideas and information with Andrew Robinson. And so on. This is by no means all that was going on at the Chamber on a late September day. I haven’t tried to describe activities at Kansai and Chubu. But it is a slice that gives a taste of the energy of our members and the variety of things going on. If you’re involved, thank you. If you have not yet become a member or if you have joined but are not active, please join us and please join in.
