Sarajean's notes

I recently read this top 10 list from a small business group that focuses on getting people moving in growing their own companies. I thought most of these were also useful for people in the nonprofit community. Here is the nonprofit version of 10 effective ways to grow your business – newly titled 10 effective ways to develop your community organization: 1. Accomplish needs then wants Know how many of your working hours are actually moving you towards your goals. Often we get caught up in unnecessary things like requests to distribute info for another group or do some thing that seems very important to one particular board member. Staff can get burned out by spending much time on things that are not really related to the objectives of their project – sus out how to stream line extras 2. Kiss – keep it simple stupid As an org grows it can be easy to get caught up in activities that are quite peripheral to your work. Keep focused on the mission and your objectives. 3. Take control over t...

I recently interviewed Peter from TELL - Tokyo English Life Line for the DAJ's new podcast. Have a listen: http://www.dajpodcast.org Oh yeah and don't forget to join the run on May 5 - I will be the MC so come by and say hello!

On April 20, 2007 I went to a breakfast meeting coordinated by the ACCJ CSR committee. The presenter was the founder and chief person behind the organization Room to Read , who introduced his top-ten list for nonprofits and CSR Below is the list with some of my own comments: 1. Have an ambitious goal * Good point - we need to challenge our selves to aim high and encourage others to see that things can change 2. Short-term fix vs. long-term solutions * while it is still necessary to provide emergency assistance – more and more nonprofit NGOs realize we need to have long term plans to deal with on-going problems 3. Community co-investment * Stakeholders need to be directly involved in program development 4. Strong local teams * We need to develop local leadership so we are no longer necessary 5. Intense focus on results * Measurement can be both qualitative and quantitative but outcomes need to be concrete; should not conflict with #2 6. Nonprofit NGO CSR message * use the trend here in...

Here is another interesting and easy to join global campaign - the global campaign for education - here is the action site: http://www.campaignforeducation.org/action/2007/action.html and on this site you can find out about the ratings given to countries on their investment in education - hence children and the future. Japan, the US and Italy all got D's. ... check it out. http://www.campaignforeducatio n.org/schoolreport/index.html Campaign note from ACE on the work they are trying to do to get more participation in japan before 4/26 .... 「世界中の子どもに教育を」キャンペーンでは、世界中の子どもに教育を実現するために、世界一長い人間の鎖への参加をよびかけています。 世界には7700万人の義務教育を受けられない子どもがいます。 （UNESCO、2006年） その子どもたちが学校に行けるよう、「世界一長い人間の鎖 」を作って政府にア ピールすることが、今年のキャンペーンのねらいです。 この人間の鎖はWEB上でも参加者をつのっており 、世界の人たちとインターネッ トを通して手をつなぐことができます。 自分が選んだアバターに教育協力の拡充を政府にお願いするメッセ ージを書くと、 これが様々な国から同様に書き込みをしている人たちとつながって 、世界一長い 人間の鎖になります。 このアクションは、世界120カ国で行われ、世界一長い人間の鎖 としてギネスブッ クに掲載される予定です。現在世界で3万人、日本から150名が 参加しています。 日本では、4月26日に麻生外務大臣に子どもたちがこの鎖を提出 することになり ました。子どもたち...

okay this has nothing to do with Japan - but worth viewing: freewayblogger.com - any one can get their message out if they are creative.

Went to a meeting filled with interesting people last night - many doing similar or related work. Many trying to bridge the gaps between Japanese and non-Japanese activists. Hopefully we will get something together in terms of centralising events and program listing and then maybe later address the issue of how to get more articles and info without the conservative slant to people that want to be more active. We talked a bit about indy media and tokyo progressive - time for me to do my homework... インディメディア Japan.indymedia.org ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー メディアを知ろう。メディアを変えよう。メディアになろう。 あなたの声もグローバルな市民のメディアネットワークに～ Know, change, be the media! Add your voice to the global network of citizen-level media... ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー ☆投稿する： To post: http://japan.indymedia.org /newswire/index.php?functionfil tered=publish ☆カレンダーでイベントをしらせする To add an event to the radicalendar: http://www.radicalendar.org /group/index.php?view=&group =imcjapan

A fellow SIPA grad is currently being sued by a huge company about something he supposedly said in an interview. Get more information here in English http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/recent/lastword.asp on his blog in Japanese http://ugaya.com/ in Japanese (translation) and French (original) http://ugaya.com/column/070210RSF.html To raise money for his defense fund there will be a party this Sunday April 22 from 8pm. I have heard good things about the bands but more importantly - it is probably just a good chance to find out more about what is going on and what freedom of speech really means here in Japan. Find out more and take a stand.

Many of you ask me about this all the time so here you are - Below is a partial listing of online sites to get information on events going on in Tokyo and all over Japan (if you want an English listing, click here) ・東京都国際交流委員会 http://www.tokyo-icc.jp/event /calendar/ecalview.cgi ・国際協力NGOポータルサイト http://www.ngo.ne.jp/ ・「国際協力情報掲示板」～国際協力のひろば http://www.clair.or.jp/ClairBBS /kyoryoku.html ・JANIC情報掲示板 http://www.janic.org/blog.html ・NPO/NGO Walker (メルマガもある） http://www.npo.info/ ・pepop(みんなで創る平和のポータルサイト) http://pepop.jp/ ・反戦運動インフォメ掲示板 http://awn.ath.cx/cgi/info /webcal.cgi ・国際協力・NGO情報ブログ http://globalcitizen.jp/ ・VIVA！～ボランティアとNPOのコミュニティサイト http://www.viva.ne.jp/ ・ネット新聞JANJAN(イベント欄) http://www.janjan.jp ・ボラ市民ウェブ http://www.tvac.or.jp/di/9043 .html ・レイバーネット http://www.labornetjp.org/ ・イーココロ（イベント掲示板） http://www.ekokoro.jp/forum /dpv-1-8.html ふらっと人権情報ネットワーク http://www.jinken.ne.jp/ 日本ジャーナリスト会議（JCJ）市民運動掲示板 http://www.jcj.gr.jp/on-board .html 　(メルマガもある）

Went to an opening last night of photos related to al lthe rights listing in the UDHR (universal declaration for human rights) it was very interesting and really worth seeing. the only thing was - most people were important embasssy and MoFA staffers - a few NGO people - wish there had been more. Definitely worth a visit - here - more unhcr event info - here . I had to say hello to sadako ogata - i think she is just great and very inspiring. I did not want to trouble her - so many people were waiting just for meishi kokan - but i thought it was more meaningful to just tell here thank you for your hard work you are truly inspiring to all women.

Happy to annnouce that i will be working in a new training program - this time aimed at people who want to work in international organizations not just NGOs. Yes - i probably did not ask for enough money - but hey we need to get the program off the ground first. Get more info on the courses ... here . we will have an opne house/setsumei kai on the evening of Th April 26 ... meet the faculty and see the course materials. should be fun. Still need to work out the fact that - No i can not teach in Japanese - and the course materials are high level English.

someone asked me last week --- so did the Japanese change article 9? i was surprised - i did not know what was going on. i have done a bit a research and was happy to say no it had not changed without our noticing. there is so much to see and pay attention to and to study to get a better understanding ... just have to keep it all perspective. can not do it all or feel guilty about what we missed.