Sunday, March 15, 2009

The First Attendance to CSR Meeting of ACCJ

I have attended a meeting of the Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility of the American Chambers of Commerce on March 13. It was held early in the morning over light breakfast. It is the first time for me to meet committee members.

In a relaxed atmosphere, everyone took food and drinks before the meeting began. Most of the attendants were professionals managing small businesses, and also, some college staff, civil society members, and so forth.

At the New Member Orientation on February 17, I learned that ACCJ related activities are participation-oriented. That is, it is a member who takes an initiative in one’s own agenda. At the same time, one has to be careful to suggest something, because he or she must assume responsibility in the remark. The fundamental idea is that one has to participate in and make contributions to the activities, rather than making fabulous and airy-fairly suggestions.

It sounds quite tough. However, once a participant contributes something to the group, he or she can expect some gains from it. Therefore, it is worthy of exploring what one can do for the committee and small groups.

In addition, it was a good opportunity for me to see the discussion to explore systematic help for public interest activities. For example, a humanitarian assistance group to help disadvantaged children in earthquake hit Sichuan in China, called Professionals for Children, gave a presentation on the way of luring non-monetary assistance, such as legal, accounting, and technical help for their activities.

Other issues discussed were employment diversity and green market.

CSR committee is involved in various agendas. In view of recent economic crises, the committee will hold a forum of corporate governance to explore new style capitalism, which is a mixture of Anglo Saxon and Japanese one.

More issues of interest will be discussed this year. I would like to mention them on this blog.

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