The 2017 JETAA Oceania took place this year in Auckland, New Zealand, on the weekend of Oct 7th - 8th.
With the theme of sustainability, delegates from Australia and New Zealand focus on topics and strategies to continuously maintain JETAA's relevance and dynamism for the future. A broader theme of adaptability and continual process improvement emerge from this year's conference.
JETAA Wellington (Mark Dittmer and Seamus Brady) presented on the use of social media in promoting their chapter.
JETAA NSW (Eden Law and Ashlie O'Neill) spoke about change as part of sustainability. With the availability of Japanese-related information on the internet, and with the pervasiveness of Japanese groups, JETAA must define itself to offer something unique to JETAA.
JETAA QLD (Richard Wilding and Brett Middleton) talked about the evolving nature of the JETAA committee's responsibilities, from the creation of new roles, and what JETAA has changed since its inception 30 years ago.
JETAA VICTASSA (Maia Martucci and Catherine Dunn) discussed their experience of growing community links through JETAA.
JETAA WA (Natasha Sjahrir and Andrew Patterson) presented on JETAA recruitment, and how they work to maintain a connection with current JET participants, sending newsletters that maintain a constant reminder of what will await JETs upon their return.
JETAA Canberra (Tessa Barker and Ben Raven) spoke in detail about how they rebuilt their subscriber database after its loss several years ago.
JETAA South Island (Michael Smith, Charlotte Hutchinson, Lauren Campbell and Daniela Mageanu) spoke about how they maintain a direct relationship between JETAA and Japan, through their small exchange programme with a sister city in Japan, where a JTE is hosted to work in New Zealand.
JETAA Auckland (Natalie Chambers and Anthony Gray) presented on future proofing chapters, and minimising burnout within committees.
This year, JETAA Singapore was invited to join the Oceania conference by Skype. Country Representative Cheryl Phua presenting on maintaining links between JETAA chapters as part of sustainability.
In the Country Representative joint presentation, Daniela Mageanu (NZ) and Eden Law (Australia) focused on mental health support of JET participants, and encouraged chapters to find ways to incorporate information and awareness of these issues into their activities, primarily pre-departure orientations. With the death of a NZ JET (Kelly Savage) this year, it has helped pushed these concerns to the forefront.
Other segments also included a review of the previous year's conference, and what JETAA chapters have found useful and have implemented since then.