SI MONTHLY NEWS May 2007 Far East Asia Meeting
From SI Exco News
On April 6 to 8 we held our 4th regional conference at the Arirang Hotel in Pusan, Korea. It was attended by FEA members: Japan ( 11 ), China ( 1 ), Hong Kong ( 1 ), Taiwan ( 2 ), and Korea ( over 150 ). We also had special guests like Ms Mary Jane Mikuriya, Vice President, SI, Dr. Ramesh Sharma, NS, India and Mr Muhammad Naseen, NS, Pakistan.
At 6.00 p.m. on Friday 6 a special session was held in which Ms Mary Jane Mikuriya, VP, made a presentation about the importance of interviewing and LOI. She said an interviewer is a gate keeper for Servas. The interviewer decides if an interviewee can be suitable as a traveler, so the role of an interviewer is very important. Sometimes a traveler visits hosts in other countries without an LOI, which is out of the question. You should listen carefully to a potential traveler before issuing an LOI to him/her. To help determine if the applicant is a serious learner and is seeking a cultural exchange, there are five ‘must’ questions for an interviewer. They are:
1) What trips have you done what did you learn from them?
2) What are you interested in?
3) Have you had any Servas experiences before?
4) What peace activity have you been involved in before?
5) What is your purpose of your trip this time?
After the session some of the participants asked her questions, to which she replied by quoting real examples.
After the special session was over, VP called for a meeting joined by NS’s, FEA countries as well as AC. She told us what is required to develop and strengthen Servas. She introduced the resolutions approved by the EGA in 2006. Then we had a discussion of several topics on the Far East Asian region.
1) Which countries are in the region?
2) How is Servas functioning in each country?
3) What needs to be done to activate and strengthen Servas in the Region?
4) How can we help each other?
5) Who should lead?
6) Where will the next FEA Regional Conference be? When?
7) What are the regional goals for FEA?
8) What evidence will show that the goals were achieved?
We agreed that six countries should be included in our region: Korea, Japan, China,Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mongolia, though Mongolia has no member registered now. In each country Servas is functioning in its own way, and it is worth special mentioning that Taiwan has seen a remarkable increase in the number from 15 or 16 to nearly 60. Serena Tang, NS, said most new members are young. It is wonderful that in this regional conference more than 15 members of Servas Korea attended together with their family members.
We can help each other by making use of the SKYPE and Websites written in English. Regarding the AC, we agreed that Masahiro Nishiyama, the present AC, should lead our region with Mr. Kim Jong Soo, NS, Korea, as deputy AC.
We agreed the next regional conference be held in Hong Kong next summer. NS’s of China and Taiwan said that they will work with Servas Hong Kong to make it successful. The regional goals for FEA is, to recruit more new members, especially in China, and exchange more not only with each other in our region but also with other Asian countries.
The program started at 2 o’clock with the welcome greetings of Mr. Kim Jong Soo, NS of Servas Korea. Masahiro Nishiyma, AC, FEA, introduced the participants and guests from countries other than Korea. We should add a piece of good news. Ms Tserendulam Badamsuren, a Mongolian student, studying at a university in Korea, joined us. She is a lucky star to us. To our great joy, there were nearly 200 people present. Several members brought all their family!
Then each NS of FEA made an action report. Servas Korea has 11 branches and they hold a regional meeting regularly. EXCO Servas Korea has 4 or 5 meetings every year. It is noticeable they have planned to send several members to the Youth Camp in England this summer and will carry out a 6-month expedition from Seoul to London in 2010: Servas Eurasia Expedition 2010. The most significant decision by Servas Korea is they are thinking of hosting the SI conference in 2009! Servas China has been repeating winning and losing new members for the past several years. Dr. Chanxian Yi, NS, complains the registration has not been stable. Right now there are 15 day hosts in China, but they held a national meeting last year, attended by 5 members. Servas Hong Kong has had a steady number of members for the past several years. They have about 20 members. In March this year they had a general meeting in the city center and agreed on several points. First they will make every effort to increase the number to 40 from 22. They will invite non-members to their meetings, which may trigger increasing the membership. They decided they will begin exchange with China. Servas Taiwan had a lot of new members last year. Now they have about 60 members, though half of them are day hosts. In February they had a welcome meeting for new members, and completed to set up Servas Taiwan Blog. Servas Japan has seen a decrease in the number of members over the past several years, but seems to have touched the bottom recently. The present enrollment is 318. Last year about 60 Japanese members went abroad and nearly 200 travelers were accepted. In March they had a national meeting and discussed such matters as how to recruit more members and to make more accesses to their own homepage. They agreed that they should pay more attention to the activities of Peace Secretary.
After the presentation by each NS, Mary Jane Mikuriya, VP, SI, talked about her own experiences as a traveler and VP. One day she met two senior persons in Germany who survived the holocaust. She listened to their experiences. They, unknown to each other, decided that it was time to make peace with their past. Both visited young Servas families in Germany and had wonderful welcoming experiences. When they returned home they were surprised to discover that they were at peace within themselves and with Germany. It was a really precious lesson in peace: it supported the basic philosophy of Servas. Another person, a computer engineer, was using her trip as a Servas traveler to change her profession and sought out Servas members interested in professions that support environment and women’s rights. As a result she changed her career.
At 6 o’clock there was a ceremonial event: MOU Exchange between the Director of Pusan Convention and Visitor Bureau and NS, Servas Korea. It was watched with awe by all the participants. After the ceremony we sat at our dinner table to be served with delicious Korean dishes. We ate it with gusto! Our dinner was garnished by a troop of traditional musicians, whose performance was excellent like the dinner.
After breakfast the participants were divided into three groups and had a discussion on various topics like “Servas Activities,” “Exchange among FEA region,” and “Exchange with SEA countries.” To our regret, there was not enough time, because it was sandwiched by breakfast and departure for Kyongju.
The 2007 FEA conference was prepared by the EXCO team of Servas Korea and was helped by a lot of Korean members. We would like to give our hearty gratitude to Mr. Kim Jong Soo, NS, Mr. Eum Jay Ryang, the ex-NS, and all the Korean staff for their devotion to the 4th FEA conference.
Masahiro Nishiyama AC, FEA
uploaded by Amelia
