Tom Whitson
ACCJ President
twhitson@accj.or.jp
The ACCJ held its extended Board Planning session on January 15th to outline the leadership lineup, inform (or remind) Board members about their responsibilities and, most importantly, to discuss priorities and agree on our direction and activities for 2010. The 2010 Board has a mix of new and experienced people and represents a good cross-section of our membership.
In retrospect, if we were to put a theme to 2009, it would be “Quick Reactions to Unpleasant Realities,” or in Japanese, it was maybe “背水の陣.” Looking forward, our theme for 2010 will be “making the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) work for our members.”
This emphasizes Japan’s 2010 hosting of APEC as a focus for our advocacy, networking and information-sharing activities. We have established an APEC Task Force led by Bruce Ellsworth and Tom Clark to coordinate the work of our committees who have issues that we want to get on the APEC agenda. Bruce, Tom and others are familiar with the APEC process and can help keep us involved in the various APEC events in 2010. If you or your company wants to participate, please talk to them and volunteer.
My overriding 2010 concerns are Membership and Finances. These are inextricably linked and will determine whether we will finish 2010 as a stronger organization or not. Although we finished 2009 in the black and have funds to spend on special projects or other purposes, our membership has slid in all categories and the full financial effect of our 2009 membership losses will wash over us in 2010. Our Treasurer, BFAC (Business and Financial Affairs Advisory Council) and the Chamber office are all committed to monitoring our fiscal results and recommending action, drastic if necessary, to protect our fiscal soundness.
Membership is the measure of our strength as an organization and the key to our success. Although ACCJ members are generally quite satisfied today, we need to consider the preliminary findings of the Membership Value Proposition Task Force and re-evaluate how we treat different membership categories to develop programs that will make ACCJ membership a more compelling proposition. We think that this will attract more new members to our organization and make it easier for current ACCJ members to decide to upgrade their memberships.
Our Chubu and Kansai Chapters have bought into these efforts and are planning activities that will further raise the ACCJ profile in those areas.
Vice Presidents Andy Conrad and Jim Foster will lead our External Affairs Advisory Council which coordinates our external advocacy activities. Although I think that our basic principles of free and fair competition, a transparent process of financial system regulation, and reform are still valid, we need to take a close look at our vocabulary and our advocacy viewpoints and make changes to ensure that we are relevant in the changed political environment.
I think that we are finding it challenging to communicate with Japanese and U.S. governments that are intensely focused on other issues they consider more pressing. We need to speak to them in a language they are ready to hear. A great example of “new language” is the Insurance Committee’s statistics which show that foreign insurers employ an increasing number of Japanese and pay a greater percent of income taxes than their market share would indicate.
With these points in mind, I think that this is a good time to focus on the fundamentals and a great time to be an ACCJ member.
