FROM OUR LEADER
CJST President Rob Bracey

I've been involved with the CJST since leaving Japan in 1991 and have seen the organization at several stages. In 1991, Japan was still a hot item and the CJST was involved with all sorts of events. The thrust at that time seemed to be more business oriented and we had events on a regular basis. The CJST had just pulled itself out of a financial crisis and was enjoying financial stability for the first time in several years.

I missed most of 1994 because my family and I were abroad, but when we returned to Toronto we saw a different CJST. Japan was no longer the burning issue in the public's eye and CJST business activities were becoming fewer, but there were renewed calls for cultural and social activities.

At some point in 1995 I became President and we did a number of things right away. We made it easier for the membership to contact us by getting a mailing address and a telephone number. We streamlined event organization, we added new board members and developed closer ties with other Japan-related organizations, such as the Japan Foundation. We also shifted the focus of our activities to have more social and cultural events resulting in a few more successes than failures.

Recently, the organization has changed again: some for the better and some for the worse. Our regular social event, Ichimoku-kai is still very popular, especially for our younger members and we have been involved in organizing some excellent, high profile events. Our website is a roaring success. We enjoy excellent relations with The Japan Foundation, the Consulate of Japan and many other Japan-related organizations. Unfortunately we have been holding fewer events aimed at our membership and we have not had regular mailings for quite a while. We plan to change this.

Like most volunteer organizations, we occasionally suffer from volunteer burnout or volunteer boredom. We fight that by making board meetings fun and infrequent and trying to get involved in things that our board is interested in. We have also streamlined event organization so that it takes less work to do more. However, we are clearly slipping in some areas and some new ideas should be reviewed. For example, we have discussed using a professional service to help publish our newsletter and we are going to evaluate using a service to help organize our events and CJST administration. If you have any ideas as to how this can happen - feel free to let us know - we’re more than happy to discuss other possibilities. Make sure you make it to the Annual General Meeting, where we’ll be able to get into more detail on complicated ideas. Knowing the CJST membership, I know we'll get some new ideas as well and we look forward to that.

As CJST President I get to do all sorts of very cool things. For example, on November 26, my wife and I travelled to Ottawa to have dinner with Prime Ministers Jean Cretien and Ryutaro Hashimoto. The event was held at the National Gallery and was a wonderful evening. For those of you who have not been to the National Gallery (I hadn't) you should go!!!. It is a beautiful building with huge glass walls set on the banks of the Ottawa River.

The evening was a black tie affair and was attended by leaders in the Japanese Canadian community from across the country. After drinks in a reception hall, the 100 or so guests were ushered up a long ramp leading to the brightly lit dining area. The entire structure has 50 foot glass walls that gave a perfect view of a raging snow storm outside and occasional glimpses of the Ottawa skyline. The food was great! Both Prime Ministers gave short, funny speeches that reflected the ever-deepening relationship between our two countries. What was moving about the speeches was that this time, I actually believed it. The number and depth of relationships between our countries is impressive and is something that we sometimes lose sight of. At the CJST we are having lots of fun, and we learn all sorts of things, but what we are doing is important and evenings like this remind us of it.

We are planning a bunch of amazing events for 1998. Some of the things we’ve been talking about at the Board level are: a talk by writer Robert Fulford to hear his take on Japan after he spent some time there on a Japan Foundation grant; a photo exhibit by Ken Straighton; an evening with Don Campbell, the former Canadian Ambassador to Japan; a lecture by Paul Sommerville, who is an Economist with RBC Dominion Securities; ex-Ambassador to Mexico David Winfield, who spent a lot of time living in Japan; and, an evening with Steve Strauss, who is the science writer for the Globe and Mail.

We will definitely keep you posted with mailers sent out with more regularity. Keep your eyes on the website - it’s always up-to-date!

Regards,

Rob Bracey

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