Activity report
2002 JAOS General-Meeting: Spring
June 17, 2002
at Shibuya Forum 8 in Tokyo
The 2002 Annual Spring General Meeting was attended by 24 participants from 22 member organizations, among which, 7 organizations participated via absentee vote. The new membership of 1 agency was approved at the meeting. The ‘Four Task Teams’ (1. JAOS Standardized Agreement, 2. New Membership Recruitment, 3. ERA, 4. Member Support) organized during the last General Meeting presented their activity reports, in which the contents were discussed. In addition, FELCA reported that they plan to open a new office in Bangkok, Thailand. FELCA also plans to launch its website from the autumn of 2002. Special attention was paid to the work of the ‘JAOS Standardized Agreement Task Team’. Though a number of difficulties are expected, it was agreed upon that the team would be focusing on the ‘cancellation policies’ of ‘individual language programs’. As these types of programs make up a large share of the overseas study market, any improvements that can be made will have a major positive consequence for both consumers as well as for the study abroad industry as a whole. The following are major policies that were discussed and agreed upon at the General Meeting. ・ Self-imposed restrictions among study abroad organizations under JAOS, (where there are currently no existing codes of practice) will contribute to fair and trustworthy business development within the industry. ・ Through the above actions, JAOS members and non-members will de differentiated, members acquiring ‘trust’ from general society for being part of a dependable group. This will result in JAOS membership growth. ・ Although the ‘Guidelines’ have already been established, the ‘Task Team’ will take concrete actions in order to better establish the ‘JAOS Standardized Agreement’ (also referred to as ‘Model Terms and Conditions’) as a means of gaining the public’s confidence. ・ As an initial step towards forming the ‘JAOS Standardized Agreement’, the Task Team will first work towards establishing a ‘Partially Standardized Agreement’ by reaching a consensus with JAOS members regarding ‘Cancellation Policy ・ All of the above actions shall not conflict with ‘Anti-Monopoly Law’