ROCKY MOUNTAIN (US-10)
JETAA USA Country Rep 2022 / 04 –
Japanese Studies Librarian/Associate Professor: 2013 / 05 –
JETAA Rocky Mountain, Secretary: 2020 / 03 – 2021 / 10
Hosted JETAA USA National Conference, Denver CO: 2018 / 09
JETAA Rocky Mountain, President: 2017 / 04 – 2019 / 03
JETAA Rocky Mountain, President: 2017 / 04 – 2019 / 03
JETAA Rocky Mountain, Secretary: 2014 / 04 – 2017 / 03
JET, Hyōgo-ken, Kōbe-shi, ALT 2004 / 07 – 2007 / 07
I’ve had the pleasure of serving as Country Rep for one year, from April 2022. This shift to a broad perspective gives me the chance to make informed and long-term goals for interconnection between our chapters. Many chapter officers now of my effort to codify chapter information in central easy to access places. These include spreadsheets for basic information on chapters and chapter officer status. Those two spreadsheets greatly simplified communicating with officers.
I will pursue more data projects that better facilitate chapters and help onboard new officers. I have two major projects in mind:
- Creating a hub to see how events for the year generally ebb and flow. I created a prototype last year and want to develop something that better integrates budget schedules and connects chapters to resources to hold events without reinventing the wheel.
- A better guide to GiA and MOFA funding, especially collaborating with CLAIR. The guide should focus on not just what the treasurer needs to do, but what ALL officers need to do for smooth chapter operations. I want the budget process to be easier to understand and encourage more alumni to be excited about the Treasurer role.
Committee work is an opportunity to bring more Alumni into national opportunities without the full commitment of becoming a Country Rep. in 2022-23 we saw the Bylaws Committee led by Megan and the NatCon Committee led by Valerie bring more alumni together to improve the community at large. I will continue this trend in 2023-24 with the Matthew Gillam Award Committee (MGAC). Many of you may have seen the call for volunteers and I’m excited to say I will be able to assemble a committee soon.
Finally, I feel that there is a general contracting of many chapters. The “post pandemic” era is seeing chapters stretched thinner. I want to work very closely with my fellow Country Reps, the 19 chapters, CLAIR, and USJETAA to figure out how to address this contraction of Chapters, Chapter burnout, technology debt, and officer recruitment and onboarding. These are complicated issues that will take more than a year to solve. In that spirit, if I am Country Rep for another year, I would like to explore becoming an Information and Data officer who works on behalf of the Country Reps and the Chapters after my would end in March 2024. As someone who has professionally published research in onboarding and work with data as a career, I would like to help keep consistency and knowledge available to the next Country Reps and chapter officers. That may happen with the creation of a committee to do this work, or possibly a bylaws change to create such a position. Whatever way, I would like do that in collaboration with alumni and the chapters in a fair and transparent manner.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my platform and to represent our 19 US chapters.
To view Adam Lisbon’s CR Endorsements, see below:
