2015 Kansai Consular Corps Annual General Meeting (2015関西領事団年次総会)

The 2015 Kansai Consular Corps Annual General Meeting commenced at 15:30 on Tuesday 17th March 2015. Mr. Roderick Wols, Consul-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Dean of the Kansai Consular Corps, chaired the meeting. Ms. Catherine Taylor, Consul-General of Australia, and Mr. Dieter Sommerhalder, Honorary Consul General of Switzerland, kindly performed the role of accounting committee. There were 39 confirmed attendees (please refer to the tables below for detailed information regarding attendance).

The KCC Chair, who welcomed and thanked attendees for their participation, opened the meeting (which lasted for approximately 1.5 hours). A special welcome was also extended to Ambassador Miwa, Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before proceeding to the business at hand, all members rose from their seats and offered a moment of silence in remembrance of beloved KCC member, Mr. I. Martakis, Honorary Consul of Greece, who passed away in late 2014.

The meeting progressed according to the agenda, with lively discussion among all participants spanning a variety of topics including the planning and promotion of KCC events, financial projections, protocol for endorsements of outside activities, etc.

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(KCC members arrive for the 2015 AGM)

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Occuring in parallel but separately from the AGM was informal coffee gathering for the KCC Partners Networking Group. Three guest speakers (from Community House and Information Centre (CHIC), Japan American Women of Kansai (JAWK) and Kobe Women’s Club(KWC)) provided information about community events in Kansai KCC spouses and partners.

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(Nicola Shearer presents the results of the KCC Partners Networking Group Meeting)

The AGM and the Partners’ Networking Group meeting were followed by a dinner reception for members and friends. The theme of this year’s KCC reception was “Celebrating Friendships Old and New”, reflecting the this year’s committment to renew old friendships within the KCC, welcome newly-arrived members, and strengthen network our organizations role within the Kansai community.

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Table 1 indicates the AGM attendance by role (title) of the participants. However, since some Consulates and Honorary Consulates kindly sent multiple representatives to the AGM, a second table has also been provided for your convenience. Table 2 provides a breakdown of the 2015 AGM attendance as a portion of total KCC membership.

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