On Sunday, December 16, 2007, Hamamatsu JALT Chapter had its final meeting for the year. The meeting had two elements; first, a “My Share” session followed by an open meeting to discuss the situation and future of Hamamatsu Chapter.

For the “My Share”, two people presented briefly about some ideas they had used in their teaching over the year. First, Dan Frost talked about a grammar book written by the noted grammarian, Michael Halliday. Dan said it had taken him almost a year to get through Halliday's book, but that many insights had given him a fresh perspective on his teaching. Second, David Stephens, an Assistant Language Teacher in junior high schools, showed some creative materials he had made and was using to teach young students how to communicate about where things are. He made a rather intricate set of plastic pockets which enabled him to illustrate many different positions of objects - a method that he said attracted junior high school students' interest.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to an open discussion of the Chapter’s difficult situation and in particular about recruiting more members for our local JALT chapter.

A membership report by Adam Jenkins (Membership Chair) outlined the current situation, after which he lead a discussion on his beliefs for the decline and the need for a membership drive. David Stephens suggested that more be done to advertise meetings to secondary school ALTs. The meeting closed at noon.

After the meeting finished at midday, the Executive committee held its own meeting to continue the discussion of the following agenda items:

Discussion on Executive committee posts and actions for 2008. At the November meeting, as there were no new nominations, it was resolved that the existing Executive members would remain in their posts until replacements could be found. What we need is some new blood, that is, members willing to take up the challenges of running the Chapter.
Suggestions for themes for 2008 presentations and meeting dates. Dan Frost (Chapter Treasurer) kindly volunteered to survey the membership to see what topics would be attractive form presentations in 2008. We also discussed and decided to have more meetings on Sunday afternoons. As of this writing, the schedule for 2008 is: March 9 10am to 12pm, April 13 1pm to 4pm, June 8 1pm to 4pm, July 13 1pm to 4pm, October 5 1pm to 4pm, Nov 9 1pm to 4pm and December 14 1pm to 4pm (all Sundays).
The possibility of producing a Chapter newsletter (both web and hard-copy versions) was discussed. The Executive members will endeavor to produce such a newsletter as a way of connecting more with members; the newsletter would summarize past meetings, advertise future meetings and events and contain other content of interest to members. Mike Boyce (Facilities Chair & Web Master) and Adam Jenkins (Membership Chair) agreed to work on the format for the newsletter as they have toe computer skills necessary for such a task. The newsletter would be posted to members a few weeks before a scheduled meeting.
Completion of Chapter Officers’ reports for 2007. Greg O’Dowd (current President) asked Executive members to submit their individual reports for inclusion in the required Chapter Report as required by JALT National; the deadline for the report was 28 December.
The Executive meeting finished at 2:15 p.m.