News from your National AJET Rep: March ’12

Greetings from National AJET!

Put the kotatsu away, pack away your sweaters, and get ready for spring (well maybe not quite yet but soon)! Along with the longer days, and the wait for Hanami season, we also have a new year of National AJET approaching. Elections will be open from March 5th-21st for the new AJET council.

So why should you vote?

The winners will set up how AJET, your representative organization, is directed to better serve you between June 2012 and 2013.  They will recruit for and run the Tokyo Orientation Presentations, direct the resources that AJET provides, and be responsible for accurately representing you to CLAIR and the other ministries.

Several candidates will be running for National Council Chair, Vice-Chair, and Treasurer Positions. There is also one Block 6 Representative candidate! Go to http://ajet.net to view the platforms and vote for the best candidate!

In other news, AJET is busy preparing for the Conference for Returning JETs, where we will facilitate the Career and Information Fair, as well as provide a Professional Development Issue of the AJET Connect (soon to be available online as well).

We are also writing reports on based on your responses to the AJET surveys! This year’s spring reports will cover the topics of Language and Culture Acquisition and Self-Evaluation of JETs. Thanks to all the Hyogo JETs that filled them out—they will be presented to CLAIR and the ministries in May.

For now, that’s all, but stay tuned in the spring for more updates, events, and resources from AJET!