I
have pleasure in presenting the FSFA Chairperson’s report for 2006/2007. It has
been a celebratory and wide ranging year. Thank you to all those people who
have worked on the Executive this year.
I
also thank the Frankston Council, in particular Chris Hodgins, for the
fantastic support of our work.
The
following outlines the highlights of our year. The diversity and richness of
our program is the subject of an ASCA Award submission for best overall
program.
Student Exchange Program
A
program established in 1983 for students of Frankston and Susono to attend
school and be hosted for up to 12 months in the other city. From time to time a
city will send a small group of students for short stays of up to 2 weeks.
Lachlan Hood spent 4 months
in Susono from last November. We hosted a student from Susono, Fuyuko Sanada
last year.
Applicants
are now being sought from both cities for the 2008 program.
Secondary School Visits to Japan
A group of 25 Frankston High
School students visit Japan every two years. They spend 2 weeks in Japan and
include a visit to Susono and to its sister school in Kawaguchi Kita. We
arrange home hosting for 3 days in Susono for the group. A group from Frankston
High School will be visiting Susono in September this year. Three students from
Susono, who are with us tonight will be in Frankston for 3 weeks. They are
attending Mount Erin College. Thanks to Principal Roger Page and his staff for
their support. Thanks to the Hood and Foxtell Families for hosting the
students.
Frankston Sea
Festival
The
Frankston Sea Festival is an annual event organized by the Frankston City
Council. The Festival was held on the Frankston
Foreshore with many activities and displays.
Australian
Arrow a subsidiary of Yazaki is the 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 Japanese Culture
to visitors to the festival. The concept works extremely well for both
organisations and will be become a major promotional vehicle for us. The
Council has also assisted by encouraging activities that have a Japanese theme. Our display at the Festival included Origami,
Kite making, Calligraphy, Shiatsu massage, Sister City Display and Japanese
Doll Making. While the Sea Festival is in addition to our Cultural Fair, we are
focusing more on the Sea Festival each year.
The Festival continues to attract a wide
cross section of people from the Community and further promotes Japanese
Culture in Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula.
ASCA Conference
Frankston
City and FSFA have been represented at the last 7 ASCA conferences in Darwin,
Adelaide, Bunbury, Bendigo, Orange, Noosa, La Trobe and Devonport. Frankston
Council’s General Manager Corporate and Governance Mark Brady is on the ASCA
Executive.
In
2006 we won the Best Single project award and have submitted for the Best
overall program award for 2007.
Japanese Teaching Positions
This year we have Tom
Gardiner commencing a Assistant
English Language Teacher position in the next weeks and replacing Therese
Sakamoto who is returning to Frankston.
We
have also filled a Community English Language Teacher position in Susono.
History of FSFA
This
is being updated and republished as part of 25th anniversary. The
updated written history and an electronically recorded pictorial history will
be distributed free of charge to FSFA and SOFA members.
Policies Manual
Michael
Fuller maintains 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.
Relationship with
Japanese Consul General
FSFA
has developed strong links with the office of the Japanese Consul General in
Melbourne. The Chairperson has been invited to the last 5 years Japanese
Emperor’s Birthday parties at the home of the Consul General.
Website
Friend of FSFA Bev Harris at
the Frankston City Council is creating a new website under the Council’s main
website. It will be found at http://fsfa.frankston.vic.gov.au/
25th Anniversary Brochure
In December 2006 FSFA
published an information and promotional brochure covering its activities,
achievements and a short history of the sister city relationship. The brochure
is used to convey information to the community, to recognize the work of many
volunteers and to celebrate our many successes. The brochure is also to mark
the commencement of the next 25 years of our sister city relationship.
25th anniversary Celebrations
The
25th anniversary of the Frankston and Susono Sister City
Relationship is 2007.
To
celebrate the occasion FSFA organized a number of events on behalf of the
Frankston City Council for 19th, 20th and 21st
of January 2007. The events coincided with the annual Frankston Sea Festival.
The Festival is a key part of our promotion of Japanese Culture and we work in
cooperation with Australian Arrow a major sponsor of the Sea Festival.
A
delegation of some 25 citizens from Susono lead by the Mayor Dr Shunji Ohashi,
visited Frankston for the Sea Festival and to celebrate our anniversary.
A
formal celebratory dinner was held on Friday 19th January 2007. Also on the Friday a ceremony was held at
Frankston High School to mark the 10th anniversary of the Japanese
Style Garden.
The
following is an extract from a global Yazaki newsletter:
The Susono delegation
arrived in Melbourne Friday morning, bringing with them some much hoped for
rain. Shaking off any fatigue, the group went directly from the airport to AAPL
Headquarters to enjoy the ever popular Australian morning tea, before touring
the office and factory. Next came a visit to Frankston High School to have
lunch with the students, and view its Japanese garden. The Japanese style
garden was constructed as a lasting symbol of Frankston's sister city
relationship with Susono. An Australian style garden has been constructed in the
grounds of Higashi Junior High School in Susono. In the afternoon, after
introductions, delegation members went off to spend time at the homes of their
individual host families.
On Friday night over
90 people attended the 25th Anniversary Festival at Frankston international
Hotel held under the auspices of the City of Frankston. The evening saw Dr.
Ohashi making a wonderful speech, as well as speeches by Mayor Aitken, FSFA
Cahirperson Peter Patterson, SOFA Chairperson Mr. Iizuka, Mr. Iwata from the
Japanese Consulate Melbourne and Mr. Kan Ito from Australian Arrow.
At the celebration, the honour of "Frankston Susono Friendship Association Lifetime Member" was bestowed upon AAPL, in honor of which AAPL President Ito presented traditional Japanese "happi" coats to the members of the Frankston and Susono City Friendship Association on behalf of Yazaki Corporation. All the attendees ate the traditional Australia fare with gusto as they enjoyed the astonishingly professional jazz performance of the Frankston High School Brass Band, and the traditional folksy sound of an Australian country music band. The Frankston High School Brass Band journeyed to Japan in 2005 to participate in the Aichi Expo, and also gave a brilliant performance at Y-CITY. All present agreed on the enormous power of music to forge the bonds of friendship.
Before they knew it, the Susono’s delegation busy weekend was drawing to a close, so to celebrate their stay AAPL decided to throw a farewell party. Among the many guests to offer kind words were Susono Mayor Ohashi, who gave a wonderful speech in English to the thunderous applause of all, AAPL President Ito, Frankston Susono Friendship Association Chairperson Peter Patterson, and Susono Overseas Friendship Association Chairperson Iizuka, who shared their experiences from the three days. Over and over again their words were interrupted with standing ovations.
After dinner, the party guests danced to the country blues music of famed Melbourne singer George Kamikawa. Many of the party-goers then formed circles to join in the “Awa-odori” and other traditional Japanese “O-Bon” Festival dances.
Those who attended
the Dinner included Mayor Glenn Aitken, Frankston City Councillors, Mr Steve
Gawler CEO Frankston City, Dr Shunji Ohashi Mayor of Susono and Mrs Ohashi,
Hideo Iidsuka, Chairperson SOFA, Mr Shinya Iwata, Director of Japan Information
& Cultural Centre, members of the Delegation, FSFA Executive members, and
invited guests.
My
speech on the night was:
Konnichiwa Hajime mashite. Watashi no namae wa Peter Patterson desu.
On behalf of the
Frankston Susono Friendship Association I welcome you to the 25th
anniversary celebrations and a special welcome to Frankston our dear friends
from Susono.
Thank you for being
part of our festivities this weekend and we hope you all have great time.
Many of the Susono
delegation are first time visitors to Frankston, so we hope you will go home to
Japan with great memories from your time with us. I am very happy to have my
friends Dr Ohashi, Mrs Ohashi and Mr Iidsuka with us tonight. Thank you.
We have a wonderful
program of activities planned for the Frankston Sea Festival. Many hours of
work has gone into its staging. Thank
you to the FSFA Executive, the team at Frankston High School and the staff at
Frankston Council.
Thank you to our host
families for giving the delegation from Susono an opportunity to experience
life in an Australian Home. I am sure that the host families will get as much
pleasure out of the experience as our visitors will.
Please enjoy the
weekend and lets celebrate our sister city relationship and the culture of
Japan. I have put together a visual presentation to show you some of our
significant achievements.
To recognize the 25th
anniversary of our sister city relationship we have published a booklet on our
work, our successes, some highlights of the journey and some memories from some
who have been involved.
Tonight is a
celebration of the work of many volunteers in two countries over 25 years. Our
relationship is unique in that it is managed and maintained by the citizens of
each city working on behalf of the city. It is our strength and passion that
glues us together. Together we look after and educate each others children, we
promote one another’s culture, make life long friends and share our lives with
one another. To those people of Frankston and Susono we salute you.
We win awards for our
work, we give life changing opportunities to our youth, we fall in love with
Japan and we have a bloody great time doing it.
Stand up everyone and
acknowledge the moment. Lets Toast
Arigato Gozaimasu
I
also made English/Japanese presentation on the Sister City relationship.
The
Sea Festival was held on 20th and 21st January 2007
between noon and 10pm on Saturday and noon and 5pm on Sunday. FSFA in association with SOFA had a large
display on the Frankston foreshore that included numerous Japanese games, Kite
Making, Origami, Calligraphy, Japanese Doll Making & Shiatsu Massage. Our
Susono guests also brought lots of Japanese treats to try. We also had Sushi
Making and tasting at 12.30pm each day
At 1.00pm & 3.00pm Saturday and 2.00pm Sunday we
organized performances by Wadaiko shamisen ensemble WASABI (Taiko) and for
possibly the first time in Australia, Awa Odori (Japanese Festival Dancing)
band and performers from Susono. We also organized functions for the Saturday
night and a farewell BBQ on Sunday night.
A
long remembered farewell party was held on the Sunday evening to conclude the
celebrations and to thank the visiting delegation.
Again from the Yazaki
global website newsletter
Together the guests
from Susono, their host families, and AAPL employees and their families enjoyed
an Australian style barbecue, later topped off by Australia’s famous “Pavlova”
meringue cake for dessert.
Everyone was having
so much fun that no one wanted to go home, but all good things must come to an
end, and so the party finally wound down to conclude the group’s whirlwind
tour. As Susono Mayor Ohashi said in his speech, the three days just flew by,
but short though it may have been, it was time well spent getting to know each
other and together looking to the future.
Thank
you to David Lee for making a fantastic DVD of the celebratory weekend.
City Sign
Communities and Cities
acknowledge their sister relationships in many ways. Signage at the entrance
and at the municipal boundaries is a longstanding and popular way of doing
this. Frankston’s roadside signage displays with pride their relationship with
Susono Japan. It would be fitting if one of those signs could be placed in the
community of Susono.
Therefore, FSFA and the
Frankston City Council decided to present to Mayor and Citizens of Susono, two
signs to be displayed in a public place in Susono. One is a large 2M x 1.5M
city entrance sign and one a smaller sign showing the kilometers from Susono to
Frankston.
The signs were presented by
Mayor Glenn Aiken of Frankston to Mayor Shunji Ohashi of Susono at the 25th
Anniversary Dinner in Frankston on 19 January 2007. The sign is now in Susono
and will be located in a garden and the front of the city offices.
Too often gifts are put in
cupboards or on restricted display. We wanted a lasting gift to be shared by
all the community of Susono.
Art Exhibition
In April 2007, the Frankston
Arts Centre in conjunction with the FSFA opened an Art Exhibition designed to
stimulate interest in our sister cities through art and the internet. Using
Google Earth as a means of exploring Frankston and Susono from above, youth are
encouraged to submit art about “My Street”. An art exchange program has been
organized with the exhibition in Frankston’s Cube 37 featuring art from youth
in Susono. Thank you to Merryn Tinkner and her team for her support of this
project.
Google Earth enables everyone
to “visit” and explore their sister city without leaving their home. You gain
an excellent understanding of the layout, topography and other features of the
city.
Japanese Garden
We continue to be proud of
the Japanese Style garden that FSFA constructed at the Frankston High School.
The 10th
anniversary of the garden was celebrated in January this year with both the
mayors of Frankston and Susono being present. A luncheon and ceremony was
organized by John Albiston the Principal of the Frankston High School. More
than 100 people attended the event including members of FSFA and SOFA. The
delegation from Susono presented several carved stone animals to be placed in
the garden.
Thank you to Mr Noel Ferguson
for writing a brief history of the garden and is part of our 25th
anniversary brochure.
Relationship with
Yazaki
I
participated in a Global Stakeholder forum conducted by the Yazaki Corporation
in Japan. The Forum was held on Tuesday 28 March 2006. I presented a paper at
the forum on the activities of FSFA and the work we are doing linking the
community of Frankston to Yazaki’s Australian affiliate company Australian
Arrow which is based in Frankston. This project was part of an ASCA award
submission in 2006.
Our
great work is acknowledged in Yazaki’s 2006 Social and Environmental Report.
In recognition of the relationship with AAPL/Yazaki
over more than 25 years, the company was awarded life membership of FSFA.
Thank you to the Councillors
and staff of Frankston City for their support and encouragement of our work. To
the host of volunteers and supporters of the Association, an outstanding
effort.
We administer the sister city
relationship on their behalf. The Yazaki Corporation has been part of our
relationship for the 25 years and we thank them for their part in the
relationship.
We also thank the communities
of Frankston and Susono for giving so much back to us in support and
encouragement.
We all look forward to
another 25 years working together.
