Dear Fellow Members,

   At the end, or close to the end of a year one tends to look back at what that year meant for the Club but one also looks forward and tries to imagine the future of a Club like ours. Rick Brueggemann, our Transition Sub-Committee Member wrote an excellent article in the Feb./Mar. 2010 edition of the Spotlight. Everybody interested, and we all should be interested in what the future will bring for the Club, would do well to re-read this message and remind ourselves of the legal implications. Also what will the regulatory impact of the future oversight authorities mean for the Kobe Club?
  The Transition Sub-Committee had meetings to determine the legal and financial aspects of a transfer to the new status. Serious discussions have taken place and all possible actions were considered. But the sheer amount of work to be done to prepare updated Articles of Association, prepare a spending plan, accept new accounting standards imposed by the Authorities, not to mention the preparation of the legal application documents, meant that it is simply not possible to handle this without expert consultants. We have therefore decided to hire such a consultant firm, with the necessary financial, legal and technical means to work together with the Kobe Club to comply with the new system. This still means a lot of extra hours will have to be spent to discuss and implement the basic requirements needed to see the Kobe Club through this regulatory maze.
   While these are the legal and regulatory aspects of the mission to be accomplished, the other side of the coin is the financial viability of the Club. In other words, what has to be done to keep the Kobe Club “going”? This will be tackled by another group, in close consultation with the Transition Sub-Committee, and should include a wide segment of our members. We have a talented member base including our Japanese members, and we want them to participate in such discussions. Since the above mentioned applications should be finished for approval by the Authorities by mid-2012, the view on our Club and its future will have to be on a firm base by that time.

Dear Fellow Members,  


   A little over a year ago, the Kobe Club celebrated its 140th Anniversary with a Gala Ball that will be well remembered for having been an extraordinary social affair. It was one year ago and, perhaps, some of our members have forgotten this special occasion already. However, somebody remembers such special events.
   The Kobe Club was recently informed by Mr.Toshihiko Ono, Managing Director of the Kobe International Center for Cooperation and Communication that those 140 years mean something after all. In other words, for participating in the growth of Hyogo Prefecture and Kobe City, the Kobe Club together with the KR&AC was granted the great honor by the Iue Foundation to join a select group of persons and organizations who contributed to culture, learning, society, regional development, as well as news reporting, such as NHK Kobe and Kobe Shinbun (newspapers). The award for multi-cultural understanding went to the Kobe Club and the KR&AC. Both were honored for the furthering of international understanding and building a bridge between foreign and Japanese nationals to make Kobe a melting pot for international communications. The award by the Iue Foundation carried a prize of 1,000,000 yen to be equally shared between our Club and the KR&AC. After all, both Clubs have been active for 140 years.  
   We have to appreciate Mr. Ono’s efforts in recommending both clubs to the Iue Foundation. The Iue Memorial Foundation was established in 1969 primarily through a private donation (one billion yen) contributed by Toshio Iue, the founder of Sanyo Electric Co.Ltd. This year’s award presentation was the 34th since its inauguration.

 

Dear Fellow Members,

　　The pool opening party is behind us and I trust you are enjoying the summer days. Some of you will be taking their well-earned holidays, going home or visiting exciting places. But some of us will stay behind, and for you our events conveners have racked their brains to come up with interesting summer events that will help ease the sweltering heat of midsummer.
　　The pool will become a gathering place for young and old. A dip into the pool will certainly let you forget the heat, while the Pool Bar is ready to serve cool drinks, our traditional snacks and ice creams to make you feel as if you were on holiday and staying in a first class hotel. A phone call to the Bar will also get for you a fancy tropical drink, such as a Mojito, with fresh garden-grown mint leaves, crushed ice, rum, sugar and lime juice, etc. For sure, it is a refreshing drink for the summer months. Why not try something more exciting than having a beer – not bad either, though?

  
  

     As I am about to write this message, we are looking forward to the “usual” Hanami Party at the Club. One source of worry is the yearly declining number of attendance by our members. While 2 years ago we could still count on 110 members and their guests to enjoy themselves under a blue sky, this year we expect less than 50 members to come.        This goes like a red thread through the attendance records of the Club these days, which look more and more dismal. Our P/L statement clearly supports this fact. You all have to realize that the office works hard to keep us afloat by actively promoting our Club’s ambience and it’s now well known and appreciated cuisine to garner a greater share of Third Party Sales. Most is done by word-of-mouth. Without such “outside” events we would be looking at a less than pleasing situation. While third party business pays for more than half of our outlays, it is the lack of spending by our members that is a great worry to the General Committee. But it should also worry you as this will have an impact on the Club’s financial health in the longer term.

Dear Fellow Members,
    In the aftermath of the 140th Anniversary issue this article will just have to make do with saying “THANK YOU” to so many of the volunteers who worked hard to make this event such a success. Frankly, when we started out formulating ideas and how to convert them into reality, I never believed that this 140th Anniversary of the Kobe Club would eventually surpass our highest expectations. In fact, we had to turn good members away due to space concerns.
    Personally, I strongly believe that the impetus behind this extraordinary achievement and the foundation to attract such a large number of Kobe Club members and friends came from the way the SPOTLIGHT was presented. The fall issue (Sept./Oct.) set the stage for a strong interest in the Anniversary Ball, and we all have to applaud our editor Kei M. Foran for the excellent work she did in making this issue such a rich and historic document with the Anniversary Supplement. Her untiring effort to have so many sponsors lined up is commendable. Thank you, Kei, for a difficult job well done. Furthermore, I would like to thank all the sponsors who supported the Anniversary Supplement.