President's Message

The fall colors are beginning to show in Kyoto. While many of the temples and shrines "light up" their foliage to attract more visitors at night, the Kyoto Palace, for two nights last month and two nights this month, have had "Light Down" nights so that we can experience the beauty of the palace without the glaring lights of the 21st-century city. An interesting idea, and perhaps not too distant from where the Board members found themselves at our recent meeting.

The Board of Directors had its annual fall meeting in early October. We also had a joint meeting with the members of the NCJLT Board. There were a number of important issues that the ATJ Board discussed, including the potential revision of the Bylaws, fund-raising, and our relationship with our sister organization, NCJLT. These three issues are delicately intertwined.

First, I want to thank the four members of the Bylaws revision task force for taking a close look at our current Bylaws. It appears that we need to re-examine the mission statement of the organization to make ATJ a professional organization that is distinctive from other related organizations. Another recommendation of the task force is to consider revising the term of the president so that future ATJ presidents will have multi-year terms for better continuity. The task force is working on the details of the recommendations based on the discussion at the meeting. We also discussed the various ideas for fundraising recommended by the Fundraising Task Force, headed by Professor Wesley Jacobson. As I have reported in my previous message, raising a solid capital fund base for the organization is a must. In the current bleak world economy, donors may be reluctant. But this situation makes it even more imperative that we become financially stronger with minimum reliance on external grants for the operation of the office. The board members expressed their unanimous support of having an administrative officer separate from the office of the presidency. Much of the joint meeting of ATJ and NCJLT was spent discussing the organizational structure of the two organizations, which may have the appearance of competitiveness. We are about to form a joint task force to examine the pros and cons of an official merger of the two organizations. I hope to be able to report on their work in my next message.

Last but not least, let me remind you to please renew your membership and to plan on attending the ATJ Seminar, which will be held in conjunction with AAS in Chicago on Thursday, March 26, 2009.