By Wayne Pennington
On July 1st of this year (2023) Morijiro Shibayama, long time JALT member and Gunma Chapter founding co-president passed away. Some of you may not have had the privilege of knowing Mori at all, others may only have a slight recollection of the mild-mannered elderly gentleman who so dedicatedly attended the monthly JALT-Gunma meetings prior to the outbreak of Covid 19, but during his fulfilling life of 87 years encompassing a teaching career spanning more than 60 years of teaching at high school, kosen, junior college, and university, he was a special person for a lot of different people in many different ways. I myself, am one of them. Perhaps you are, too.
I think it is appropriate at this time to remember Mori by remembering his contribution to JALT and especially to JALT-Gunma. The chapter would not have been founded and founded so successfully without his many contributions. As the other founding co-president, I’m afraid I cannot avoid inserting myself into the narration. I beg your indulgence. Mori acted as my go-between allowing me to come to Gunma in 1983. When I took up my new position in Maebashi, Mori also gave me a chance to help out at his workplace, the now defunct College of Medical Care and Technology, Gunma University. I worked with him there every Monday teaching nursing and medical technology students. During our weekly encounters, we soon began to toy with the idea of starting our own JALT chapter as the nearest chapters at the time were Omiya and Tokyo, and the few JALT members who lived in Gunma were categorized as Tokyo members though we could seldom attend their monthly meetings.
We were enthusiastic about making a chapter as soon as possible but our planning was delayed when Mori was given a chance to study in the US for a year in 1985. While he was away, I started the groundwork for forming our new chapter by contacting JALT National, going to special chapter formation meetings, doing the paperwork and getting things in motion. When Mori got back in June of 1986, we were ready to begin. The liaison with Tokyo Chapter and JALT National was complete.
Relying on Mori’s wide range of personal and professional contacts, we quickly put together a core group of interested teachers to plan a kickoff meeting. We enlisted the help of a lot of enthusiastic teachers who later became our first affiliate officers, and in September, under the kind sponsorship of the Tokyo Chapter, we successfully held our kick-off meeting at Kyoai Girl’s High School in Maebashi. At this meeting we successfully recruited many new JALT members and shortly thereafter, held a business meeting and confirmed a slate of officers. We were ready to take the first step in chapter formation by applying to JALT National as an affiliate. Eventually, the Gunma Affiliate was confirmed. By then we were off to a very good start and in due course, and after meeting all of the minimum requirements, our affiliate was approved as a chapter. Of course, this didn’t happen overnight. It’s actually quite a lengthy process.
For brevity’s sake I have made it sound very simple, but in reality, it was not. These were pre-internet times. Communication was done by snail mail, telephone and fax. Speakers had to be found and recruited – a difficult process with no internet. Venues had to be found, especially ones that were cheap or free. Then monthly announcements had to be sent out to newspapers and language teaching journals, lists of prospective attendees had to be compiled and announcement post cards had to be printed and mailed out to them. It was labor intensive and a great deal of work for the officers who were already too busy teachers.
But in short time, the Gunma Chapter became the envy of all small JALT chapters. Where chapters in areas with much larger populations were often struggling to keep enough members and having to double up to fill out their slate of officers, Gunma Chapter soon had around one hundred members and almost 20 officers including positions that no other chapter could boast. At national meetings, we were often asked how we did it. We were happy to share our success. The key was sharing and networking.
From the outset, we wanted our chapter to be different from other JALT chapters at the time. We wanted to be inclusive. Inclusive in terms of languages taught, teaching situations and teacher nationality. Everyone was welcome and we often had visitors who weren’t teachers at all. Our main goal was to create opportunities for all language teachers at all levels to interact, to share and learn from each other and simply enjoy being together.
Another aspect of sharing was to share the workload. We realized that if we could share the duties and responsibilities of being an officer among several people then it would be much easier to get people to volunteer. We had two officers in every position and sometimes more. It worked very well.
The other key was networking. We made our meetings and our organization a very social event. We had three or four social officers who worked very hard to make the monthly meetings quite enjoyable. Coffee breaks sometimes lasted 30 minutes. Social officers also organized excellent Christmas parties and other social events for our members to enjoy throughout the year. But their greatest task was the annual summer workshop at Kusatsu where they provided social activities, refreshments, and took care of accompanying family members – including JALT-kids – so that their JALT-Gunma member parent could enjoy the 3-day workshop featuring well-known language teaching specialists as well as local chapter member presentations.
The highlight of the Gunma Chapter was the Kusatsu Summer Workshop which was Mori’s brainchild. Being on the faculty of Gunma University made it possible for him to secure the use of the Kusatsu Seminar House for a large group of people at a reasonable cost. Every year, through the efforts of both Mori and especially Prof. Hisatake Jimbo, we were able to host internationally renowned speakers, enjoy their lectures, have campfire discussions over a friendly drink, and even share a relaxing dip in a world-famous hot spring. These were special times for all of us but especially for our overworked members and even their families.
I cannot list all of Mori’s contributions to our chapter but by far his greatest and most difficult task was hosting the JALT International Conference at Maebashi Green Dome in 1999. Yes, we rented the Green Dome for five days, built booths and partitions throughout the otherwise open areas, borrowed tons of AV equipment from local schools and universities, hired caterers and arranged for parties, booked hundreds of hotel rooms for participants, and enlisted the help of almost every JALT-Gunma member and even people who weren’t members. We had a very successful conference and once again it was due to Mori’s leadership as conference chair, his eagerness and enthusiasm, his ability to network and involve people and his ability to get the job done.
I have listed only a few of Mori’s most memorable contributions to the chapter. In no way do I wish to imply that he did it all by himself. The Gunma Chapter of today is the result of the concerted effort and constant dedication of so many people over the years. Each of their contributions have been valuable and resulted in the quality of the chapter we have today. But I think it is fair to say that without Mori’s leadership, the Gunma Chapter would not have been founded when it was, would not have grown and prospered as it did and perhaps would not have continued, as has been the case of other small local chapters. So, as we start our 38th year, let us remember Mori and all those who worked hard to make this all possible.
Speakeasy 