Toronto is lucky to have a robust JETAA chapter with genki and dedicated executive members who work hard to make JETAA Toronto one of the most active chapters in North America. There are few things we value more, though, than the opportunity to get together with representatives from the other Canadian chapters at the JETAA Canada National Conference. Every year our delegates at the Canada Conference learn a great deal from other chapters, returning with a wealth of innovation for JETAA activities and programs.
That is the real value of the annual JETAA national conference: the way it provides a forum for the various chapters to share ideas and activities, which results in broadening everyone’s perspectives on how to best support our particular chapter.
At this year’s national conference in Ottawa on June 6-7, we were lucky to receive the insights of CLAIR New York, who had invited two US country representatives to join us. Their unique American perspectives added to those of the representatives from Canada’s other six chapters, as we all shared our strategies for engaging with and supporting JET alumni as they return from Japan.
It would be tough to sum up all that was discussed at the National Conference in this one article (over the two days, I took 14 pages of notes). To summarize, the majority of our discussions focused on the upcoming 30th anniversary of the JET Programme and CLAIR’s plans for commemorating this prestigious anniversary. One of their main initiatives for celebrating the 30th anniversary of JET is the Satogaeri Project: a plan to have a group of JET alumni return and reconnect with their former Japanese host prefecture. We’ve previously posted information about this project, and how interested JETAA members can apply. If you would like more information about the project you can find it here.
Each chapter across Canada is planning to host local events to celebrate JET’s 30th anniversary. To that end, we’d like to put a call out to all of our JETAA members in Toronto. If you have any suggestions for how you’d like to see JETAA Toronto recognize 30 years of JET, please send those suggestions to info@jetaatoronto.ca.
We’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to CLAIR New York, the Embassy of Japan in Canada, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and JETAA Ottawa for working together to welcome our Toronto delegates to such an informative and inspiring national conference.
Written and bottom photos by Nicholas Jones