The Frankston Susono
Friendship Association has had another successful year. We have made many new
friends, we continued to promote Japanese Culture and we plans for some
forthcoming events including our Japanese Cultural Fair in October.
Thank you to Executive members
for their work over the past year. Margaret, the two Bevs, Bill, Michael, Phil,
Des, Olivia, Peter and Elleisha. We were joined by two new friends Yoshio Noda
and Yoshinori Hashimoto from Australian Arrow. Yoshio has recently returned to
his home in Susono. Thanks also to Chris from Frankston Council for her work
through the year.
Emma Cater served with us for
a while before her new husband whisked her off to Sweden
We continued to have a circle
of friends outside the Executive who contributed in many ways during the year.
Thank you to them.
Thanks to Rochelle our
Councillor representative for her assistance and input. We are grateful.
Student Exchange
Mariko Kudo and Akane Watanabe
from Susono stayed with us for 2 weeks in August 2003
Over the last 12 months both
FSFA and SOFA have been coming to terms with the new Victoria Education
guidelines for Student Exchange organisations. It has taken some time to work
through the implications for our program and the impact particularly for host
families.
Natasha Nicol and Hailey Paine
spent 9 months in Susono during 2003. Both made a presentation to the FSFA
Executive on their return.
We now have guidelines in
place for the Student Exchange Scholarship.
Frankston High School
29 students from Frankston High School
Policy and Procedures Manual
During the year Michael Fuller
put together our Policy and Procedures Manual which is a collation of all our
documentation. It is an excellent reference source for new members and members
taking on new roles. Great work Michael.
Frankston Sea
Australian Arrow a subsidiary
of Yazaki was a gold sponsor to the Frankston Sea Festival, which gave them an
opportunity to help promote Frankston Susono Friendship Association and for us
to work with Australian Arrow to promote the Association to visitors to the festival.
The concept worked extremely well for both organisations and will be become a
major promotional vehicle for us in the future. Thanks to Australian Arrow for
having us involved and giving us the opportunity to meet Yoshio Noda and
Yoshinori Hashimoto. Our links to Australian Arrow lead to us receiving a
$12,000 donation from the International Distribution Company. It is planned
that this money will be used to help fund the Frankston School Band venture to
the 2005 World Expo in Nagoya
Australian Fair in Susono
A delegation of 10 people from
Frankston made the trip to Japan
·
Councillor Barry
Priestley and his wife Helen,
·
Peter Patterson
Chairperson of FSFA
·
Olivia La Combre
FSFA Executive member and saxophone player extraordinaire.
·
Christopher
Patterson Community Representative and group translator
·
Tom Ellis student
from Karingal Park Secondary
College
·
Adele Hodson from Frankston High School
·
Maddison Cooper
from Patterson River Secondary
College
·
Brie-anna Howson
& Shaun Matheson from Langwarrin
Secondary College
The trip was very successful
with very positive feedback from our hosts in Susono.
Australian Language Teachers
During the year we keep amused
and infomed of the happenings in Susono and the Harris household. One of our
ALT’s Meredith Harris and her husband sent us weekly detailed emails of their
experiences. These emails and other tales are forming the basis of a book that
Phil has written of the couple’s year in Japan
FSFA is helping with the
recruitment of 3 ALT positions a the moment buy SOFA has indicated that they
may ask us to help with all 5 positions they have in Junior High Schools in
Susono.
Australian Garden
Phil Harris left his mark in
Susono with the design and construction of an Australian Style garden at Higashi Junior High School
Mayoral Picnic
FSFA had a stall at the
Mayoral Picnic this year and gives us another avenue for promoting our
activities.
Presentations to Frankston Council
I made several presentations
to the Frankston Council on our activities that we undertake on their behalf. I
also provided a briefing to the Mayor and CEO on preparations for the Japanese
Cultural Fair.
Yazaki Summer Camps
Australian Arrow hosted almost
200 children of Yazaki staff at two summer camp visits on the 23rd
and 30th of March. The children stayed for two days in the Frankston
area and included a half day visit to Frankston High School
2005 World Expo
A proposal has been sent to
the State and Federal Governments to put the Youth of Frankston on the World
Stage. In conjunction with Peter Sharp, I have proposed that a group musicians
at senior high school level to be the nucleus of a delegation to Japan Aichi Prefecture Victoria
ASCA Conferences
The 2003 ASCA Conference was
held Orange Japan
The 2004 ASCA was held in
August in Noosa Queensland
Japan
Great work by Bev Hannan for
her work on the organising committee of the Japan Festival held in the Box Hill
Town Hall
Japanese Cultural Fair
The people of the City of Frankston Sunday 17 October 2004 . The fair is a
fabulous celebration of all things Japanese and will offer a wide range of
visual and interactive experiences of traditional Japanese culture, music, art
and craft together together with the wonders of modern Japan with an emphasis
on youth interests, technology and food.
The Frankston Susono
Friendship Association arranges and runs the Fair on behalf of the Frankston
City Council. A contingent of officials and citizens from our sister city of Susono Japan
Japanese Speech Contest
Des Dean continues his great
work in putting together our annual Speech Contest. It is an important part of
our obligation to promote the Japanese language in schools
The Year Ahead
We have another exciting year
ahead of us and we look to taking our work in many directions and seek to look
for innovative ways to meet our charter.
Thanks again to all of you who
helped make things work so well. It was fun, it was invigorating and most
enjoyable.
