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INDEX
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+ Greeting from Chairman
+ Pangaea Ring - Ms. Yuri Takano
+ Office Relocation of NPO Pangaea
+ Establishment of Pangaea Laboratory Inc.
+ Other Activity Report in September 2011
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Greeting from Chairman - Yumiko Mori, Chairman
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Hi, everyone. It's been ten years since "911", the event from which Pangaea has started. It feels like the time has passed so quickly, but at the same time, many things have happened. This month, we got the opportunity to give presentation at UNESCO headquarter in Paris. We talked passionately about our mission, current activity, Webcam, new projects in Vietnam and our alliance with National Museum of Kenya (NMK). We could speak to various groups of people, which we believe will lead to the next step.
In Kenya, where we visited after Paris, we could have a meaningful discussion about the training and the program. We could also greet the people participating in the summer training program for the teachers. I never expected that I would be in Nairobi on the day of the 10th 911, but I was filled with the magic feeling that we are the same even though our color of skin and cultures are different. It was fortunate that I could meet people that I can get along and work together in Kenya and in Vietnam.
September 2011, the 10th anniversary from Pangaea's start, became the month to build the foundation for Pangaea's future expansion with events such as Kyoto main office relocation.
Pangaea Ring this month was written by Ms. Yuri Takano who spent two weeks in Kyoto as an intern at Pangaea, taking facilitator leader training and experiencing Pangaea activities in Mie and Kyoto. Yuri-chan, thank you so much for your help at our office relocation. We look to your leadership at Pangaea activities at Ebisu, Tokyo!
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Pangaea Ring - Ms. Yuri Takano
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I participated in the activity held at Ebisu, Tokyo on September 17th as a facilitator leader for the first time. Since the time when I was in Kyoto, I prepared agenda and the material to explain children about the activity menu and had meetings for it. Still, I had many concerns till the very last minutes. However, once the activity started, children actively participated and with the help from other staffs, too, it turned out to become lively and enjoyable time for children.
I feel I could make it as a facilitator leader at Ebisu this time, because I had the opportunity to experience activities at Kyoto International School (KIS) and Mie University.
KIS activity is held with a small group of four participants. They are looking forward to Pangaea activity and boys run into the room at the time of the start. Girls were absorbed in drawings, too.
Mie Univ. site is participated by many numbers of staffs and children, where the activity was full of energy. It was impressive to me that staffs and children were like friends, and it felt as if everyone was playing together. At Mie Univ., we made Pangaea playing cards and we discussed the design of the cards. The purpose of this activity is to let children at other sites know about Mie participants' daily lives. But I also felt that the playing card activity is a good opportunity for them to know anew about where they live.
At both sites, I learned that participating children are looking forward to the day of the activity and if we are fully prepared for it and create good atmosphere, then children would simply enjoy.
As I worked at Ebisu activity this time, I paid attention to the things I felt important when I visited KIS and Mie Univ. Going forward, I would like to continue to make our activities an even better one each time, second one better than the first, and the third one even better than the second, so children can feel the bond with their counterparts at other sites.
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Office Relocation of NPO Pangaea
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As we have informed you with our extra issue of the newsletter on September 20th, we have moved and our address and telephone / fax numbers have changed.
Our new contact detail is as below:
Shijo Hirano Bldg. #402, 716-1 Shin Kamanzacho, Shimogyo-ku,
Kyoto 600-8471 Japan
Tel: +81-(0)75-741-8877 | Fax: +81-(0)75-741-8876
The nearest station to our new office remains the same: Shijo Station of
Subway Karasuma Line and Karasuma Station of Hankyu Railways.
It is a three-minute walk to the west along Shijo street
from Exit 26 of both stations.
You can see the map from below URL:
http://www.pangaean.org/web/english/general/organizationoverview_en.html#hq_map
There will be no change to our email addresses and website URL's.
Thank you for your continuous support to Pangaea.
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Establishment of Pangaea Laboratory Inc.
Yumiko Mori, Chairman / Toshiyuki Takasaki, Vice Chairman
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It's been ten years since "911", the event from which Pangaea has started, and I am happy to be able to announce the start of Pangaea Laboratory Inc., which was established at this timing. Pangaea Laboratory Inc. is the corporation body with Yumiko Mori and Toshiyuki Takasaki as Representative Directors, which inherits the spirit of Pangaea that has been formed so far, and collaborates with Non-Profit Organization Pangaea to promote the enlightenment to spread Pangaea for its global implementation.
Pangaea Lab was set up mainly for the protection of the intellectual property. Current Japanese legislation in regard to non-profit organization (nonprofit activities promotion law) requires NPO's to equally accept the applications to the full membership, which entails the voting right, in principle. In a sense, this is the reflection of the spirit and the ideal of the law, so that the non-profit activities would be widely open to the general public, however, it can also expose NPO's to the risk of takeover, should there be any group of individuals who have specific purposes and if they obtain membership to exercise the voting right to take over the organization and/or its intellectual property. Especially, I have recently heard of the case of NPO that fell into such situation from my acquaintance. Another issue of NPO as a form of organization is the credibility in front of businesses and financial institutions. For example, if we would like to work with a business for a project, NPO may become the reason for disqualification at credit check (i.e. NPO's are not even in the scope of the survey by Teikoku Databank), or when we would like to get a bridge loan from a financial institution for our research and development, conditions for NPO's are really tight.
Going forward, Pangaea Laboratory Inc. will become the body for planning, research and development of contents and systems. NPO Pangaea will mainly implement and run Pangaea activities, provide trainings and be engaged in other public enlightenment, with the same members as before.
By this, we would like to go forward to be able to spread the Pangaea activity sites all over the world and to continuously provide the space for positive communication where children across the world can feel the bond. We would like to look to the continuous support from those who have helped us in various ways so far by helping us at the activity site, back office or development, and by donations. Thank you so much for your continuous support to Pangaea.
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Other Activity Report in September 2011
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Pangaea activity was held at Kyoto Univ. ("Kyodai"), Japan on Saturday September 24th. Participants completed playing cards preparation and started making animations.
http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2011/09/september_activ.html
Pangaea activity was held at MIZY Center in Seoul, Korea on Saturday
September 24th to complete their Pangaea Playing Cards.
http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2011/09/september_mizy.html
Pangaea activity of the new school year has started at Kyoto International School, Japan.
http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2011/09/kyoto_internati_2.html
http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2011/09/kyoto_internati_3.html
Pangaea activity was held at Mie Univ., Japan on Saturday September 10th, where children started making Pangaea Playing Cards.
http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2011/09/activity_at_mie.html
On Sunday September 4th, the Facilitator Leader Training and Technical Training were held at Pangaea Kyoto Office.
http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2011/09/facilitator_lea.html
Mie-Seoul Webcam Activity
Yumiko Mori, Chairman of Pangaea, will discuss the case and participate as a panel in the second part (14:00-) of "Fieldwork of Multi-Cultural Communication" of the 2nd International Conference on Culture and Computing 2011 to be held at Kyoto University on Saturday October 22nd, where she will cover such topics as the coordination between technology and children required as the non-profit organization that focuses on research and development.
