THANK YOU!
It has been an honor to serve our members over the last 2 years. It has been both challenging and rewarding as anyone willing to take the plung
e surely will tell you. We have had some good events, and high activity periods and some lackluster, low engagement periods. We worked with some local institutions on events, partnered with other DA country committees for both capacity development and issues oriented work, enhanced our social media presence and welcomed interns who made our work much easier.
As the pandemic waned, it became increasingly challenging to gather large numbers for online events - even when we arranged for some amazing speakers (see the DAJ Youtube channel!). This Feb, we returned to monthly in person events in Osaka and Tokyo and hopefully that will restart the building our communities. Before the pandemic and so too now - personal contact and individual outreach are the most impactful ways of building our base. I hope this year our chapters can organize major annual events again - 4th of July and Thanksgiving - now that people seem ready and will to go out and enjoy life together face to face again. I felt that by asking each and new member personally to get involved and be more than just a member in the database, we were able to bring in some amazing new people. Some of them are now your leaders! There are so many volunteer needs and the new leadership will need you to have an impact in both the 2023 and 2024 elections. There are no off election years
As I step back - I would like to give final shout out to my Executive Committee and Chapter leaders who were often pushed to go above and beyond. This is what made DAJ a leader in the Asia-Pacific. A final thanks to a few special people who made it all happen;
DAJ 2021-2023 SUPERSTARS
-
TOP PHONE BANKERS for 2022
- 1. Eric Gondree
- 2. Dave Brauer
- 3. Jenise Treuting
- 4. Michele Cenzer
- INTERCOM STAR - Matthew Axvig
- EVERYTHING GOTV - David Brauer, DAJ National Secretary
- GOTV COORDINATOR - Rebecca Tompkins
- SUPER STAR TRAINER - Messaging and communications workshops for DAJ and DARoK, Michael Wagner
- TUJ STAR INTERNS - Cami Kidwell, spring 2023, Meg Sumpaico Summer 2022
Congratulations to the new DAJ National and Chapter leadership!
This week we hand the baton to a new team of talented people, ready to take on building the organization and voter base at the local and national levels. But they cannot have an impact alone. Democrats Abroad Japan is only able to accomplish its goals with the participation of members like you. 
I hope you will help the new officers get off to a good start by volunteering at the nation or local levels - the Volunteer page has more info.
Announcements and Reports of the 2023 DAJ National and Chapter Elections can be found HERE
The Minutes of the 2022 Annual General Meeting can be found HERE:
Sarajean, 2021-2023 DAJ Chair