Policies

1. Differentiation between guidelines and policies

1.1 – Guidelines

The ETJ-Coordinators group generally establishes guidelines for regional groups or other ETJ projects. These guidelines are intended to help a new group/project get off the ground or support a group/project that is having difficulty finding a successful format. Groups/projects have the freedom to choose whether or not to follow these guidelines.

1.2 – Policies

The ETJ-Coordinators group may occasionally decide on policies within its area of authority as defined in the ‘Managment’ section of this website. Policies are established when issues arise that have a fundamental effect on ETJ as a whole. In order to be a part of ETJ, a group/project needs to follow these policies.

2. Guidelines for new regional groups and those groups looking for a successful format

2.1 – The format of a meeting

ETJ regional groups generally have workshops about once every two months on Sundays, and the workshops normally last about 2 1/2 hours. There is likely to be one or more short presentations followed by opportunities for members to exchange ideas.

2.2 – A grass-roots style

A typical ETJ regional group meeting encourages the sharing of ideas among teachers. The emphasis is on grass-roots participation – short presentations and input by as wide a range of members as possible are encouraged.

2.3 – Building a committee

In order to make it easier to find presenters, increase attendance at meetings, and make it more likely that the group continues even when coordinators change, it is best to focus on building up a committee that contains teachers from a variety of teaching situations. There is likely to be a direct correlation between how broadly-based the committee is and whether it is possible to hold successful grass-roots style meetings over a period of time.

2.4 – General advice (longer version)

Find one or more presenters for a meeting or, occasionally, just have a workshop based around a theme. Even when there are presenters, it is best to encourage an interactive workshop style rather than a lecture, and when there is more than one presenter, it is usually helpful if the presentations relate to a common theme.

2.5 It is generally a good idea to encourage short presentations and avoid long ones. This is partly because when you are trying to find presenters for future meetings it will be easier to find teachers who are prepared to speak for a short time, but who may be intimidated if they feel they will be expected to give a long presentation. Another advantage of having shorter presentations is that it allows more time for all members to exchange ideas.

The presentations could be followed by an open discussion if the group is small, or by teachers working on ideas in pairs or groups and then reporting their main suggestions to the other pairs/groups. 

3. Guideline on social media

3.1 – All regional ETJ groups are encouraged to have a Facebook group (this is different from a Facebook page) that is kept active by the committee so as to build a local community and help promote meetings. Regional groups are also encouraged to build the local community by posting to their group in the Language Teaching Network.

4. Promoting and financing  regional groups

4.1 – Regional groups are encouraged to promote meetings  in as many of the following ways as possible.

• Setting up a registration form, such as a Google form, and sending a welcoming email before a meeting to those who register to attend.
• Sending details of the meeting by email to LTP a few weeks before a meeting.
• Posting to eltcalendar.com so that the post appears on the ETJ website and other websites. 
• Posting to the Language Teaching Network regional group. 
• Creating a public Facebook events page (not connected to a Facebook group) for the meeting and encouraging committee members and others to invite their facebook friends through the events page.
• Posting to the regional group’s Facebook group and other relevant places on social media.

4.2 – Each group meeting can be supported by by a 10,000 yen advertisement on the LTP Facebook page. Groups with accumulated funds will pay for this from these funds. For other groups, this will be paid for from the central fund.

4.3 – Regional group workshops should do everything possible to break even, but it is understood that this is not always possible. A loss at a workshop will be covered first by money the group has accumulated from previous Expos if they have any and then from the central fund. Financial support will be given provided that the following conditions have been met: 

• No honorariums or traveling expenses are paid to speakers or organizers.
• There are no excessive expenses apart from basic things like the venue cost.
• All ETJ members pay 500 yen to attend and non-members 1,000 yen to attend.
• The group agrees to listen to the advice of the financial advisory group for future meetings.

4.4 – If a regional ETJ group has a Facebook group (see proposal 3), this will be promoted on the LTP Facebook page twice a year (currently 10,000 yen each time) in order to bring in new members to the group, provided that the following conditions are met:

• The group is kept active by the local committee.
• Membership is restricted to people living within reach of the community that the regional group supports.
• The group is being moderated so that it is not being used for commercial purposes.

5. Inactive regional groups

5.1 – If an ETJ regional group does not have a publicly-announced meeting for a year, the coordinator and committee will be considered to have stepped down. This policy will take effect from April 2018.

5.2 – When a new group has stepped down Language Teaching Professionals, as the central office for ETJ, is authorized to try and set up a new group.

6. Relationships with publishers and commercial interests

6.1 – There are four General Sponsors of ETJ – Language Teaching Professionals, Oxford University Press, Cengage Learning, and IPI. There are also Associate Members. To become an Associate Member, it is necessary to pay for a two-table (or larger) display at four or more Expos.

6.2 – Presenters at ETJ regional group meetings should have no direct or indirect relationship with publishers or commercial interests except with Associate Members or General Sponsors.

6.3 – Individual ETJ members or schools with self-published physical materials and who don’t use a third-party publisher or Japan distributor can present at local ETJ meetings

6.4 – Publishers and other businesses that wish to advertise to members of ETJ should be encouraged to attend the Expos. It is also possible to publicise through the ETJ Linkedin group.

6.5 – If a regional group or another ETJ project would like to organise a special event which publishers can attend, this should be done with the agreement of the general sponsors.

7. Policies on the national e-mail lists

7.1 – There is currently an understanding among publishers and others not to do self promotion or post commercial messages to the ETJ discussion lists. It is in the best interests of the lists to ensure that this understanding continues and applies equally to all publishers and commercial interests.

7.2 – Spam and overtly commercial messages should not be allowed on the lists. Recommendations of books and commercial services by members with no commercial interest in these materials/services should be encouraged.

8. Guidelines for posting events to the national e-mail lists.

8.1 – Non-ETJ events should be posted to ELT Calendar or the Language Teaching Network, not to the national ETJ lists. ETJ events may be posted to the national lists.

9. Policy on presentations at the Expos

9.1 – There are three kinds of presentations at the Expos, ‘Sponsored’, ‘Local’ and ‘Guest’

9.2 – Sponsored presentations are by publishers and other companies that have displays at the Expos. Companies wishing to have a sponsored presentation should apply by e-mail to David@ltprofessionals.com. These presentations are decided on by Language Teaching Professionals as stated in the ‘Management’ section of this website following guidelines established through discussions with potential sponsors and the ETJ Coordinators.

9.3 – Local presentations are decided on by each Expo organising committee. These are for local teachers. A teacher should present at the Expo nearest where they live/work . The aim is to gradually deepen each Expo’s role in the local community and build up grass-roots support and involvement. Local presenters should have no connection with a commercial organisation, particularly with a publisher. The main reason for this is to ensure that all sponsors are treated fairly . After exhausting all avenues for finding local presenters, EXPO organisers can invite presenters from other regions to fill vacant local presentation slots. Applications to make local presentations should be made by e-mail to the regional ETJ group organising the Expo.

9.4 – Guest presentations are by presenters that local teachers usually have no chance to see. A guest presenter is normally decided on by the Expo organising committee and is funded by the regional group(s). ‘Guest’ presenters, in contrast to local presenters, are normally from another area of Japan. There should be a maximum number of two guest speakers at an Expo so that the number of presentation slots available for local presentations is not affected too much. It is possible under some circumstances for regional Expo committees to invite a guest speaker who has a connection with a publisher. If a proposed guest speaker does have a connection with a publisher,the regional Expo coordinators should get the approval of the members of the ETJ-Coordinators list before inviting the speaker. The coordinators will consider whether the invitation will be considered fair by other sponsors, and may check with sponsors.

8. Bookselling at the Expos

10.1 – With two exceptions, The ETJ Book Service will be the only bookseller at the Expos, and book sales at the Expos will go through the ETJ Book Service.

10.2 – One exception will be small local dedicated booksellers, who will be able to have displays and sell. Another is independent publishers who don’t have distributors and do things completely by themselves, who will also be able to sell from displays. Other major booksellers who are direct competitors of the ETJ Book Service will not be able to take part.

10.3 – It is understood that this policy may need to be relaxed if an Expo is run jointly with another organization.

10.4 – ELF Learning, Maple Leaf and AGO will be able to have one free presentation (one on each day in Tokyo) until the 2019/2020 Expos where they have displays.

11. Expo coordinators

11.1 – Each Expo can have up to two voting representatives in the ETJ Coordinators group. These positions are intended for teachers who are currently key organizers or volunteers at the Expo and have helped actively with a local ETJ group. It is not intended for teachers with a strong commercial interest or who are primarily affiliated with another teachers’ association.

11.2 – The representatives will be decided by the coordinators of ETJ-Miyagi for the Tohoku Expo, ETJ-Tokyo for the Tokyo Expo, ETJ-Aichi for the Chubu Expo, ETJ-Osaka for the Kansai Expo and ETJ-Fukuoka for the Kyushu Expo. If one of these groups has no coordinator, Language Teaching Professionals, as the central office for ETJ, will decide.

12. ETJ Jobs Service

12.1 – An ETJ Jobs Service will be run by Jobs in Japan. The service will be under ETJ branding on the Jobs in Japan site. School owners who are ETJ members will receive heavy discounts when advertising jobs, almost at cost price. A representative of Jobs in Japan will also give presentations at many Expos on advising school owners on how to find teachers and on advising job seekers on how to get jobs. The representative of the ETJ Jobs Service will become a voting coordinator.

13. Who can vote on ETJ policies

13.1 – The following can vote on ETJ policies and guidelines:

• Up to two representatives of each active ETJ regional group.
• Up to two representatives of each Expo.
• Up to two representatives of each General Sponsor.
• The Moderators of the ETJ, ETj-owners, ETJ-Activities, ETJ-LifeinJapan lists.
• The ETJ/JALT liaison.
• The ETJ website coordinator.
• The representative of the ETJ Jobs Service.
• The coordinators of the ETJ-Independents Facebook group
• FETJ has a group of 10 voting ETJ Coordinators who are appointed by the FETJ National Executive. Other FETJ chapter presidents may also join the coordinators group, but not vote.
• Nobody can have more than one vote. Members of the ETJ-Coordinators list who step down from their positions are encouraged to become advisors. 

14. Financial policies

14.1 – All Expo door money from February 2019 should go to a central fund. This money should then be used to support groups through a  simple system according to their activity and need. More active groups will get more support and less active groups will get less support.

14.2 – This central fund would be administered by LTP as the central office of ETJ following policies established by the ETJ coordinators. LTP would make an annual financial report on this fund to the coordinators.

14.3 – A financial advisory group will be established to handle applications for financial support by regional groups. These applications will be assessed based on policies decided on by the coordinators as a whole. The following will be eligible to be members of the advisory group if they wish to be:

• Coordinators of groups that have had at least three local meetings over the last year 
• The main coordinator of each Expo unless he/she is already a member of the group 
• One administrator of LTP 

14,4 – Some regional groups have accumulated money from past Expos. Groups that have had 3 meetings over the previous year can keep all of their accumulated money. Other groups can keep up to 100,000 yen provided that they have at least three meetings between April 2019 and March 2020. Any money in excess of 100,000 should be paid to the central fund in April 2019 or used for specific purposes decided on by the financial advisory committee.

14,5 – The financial advisory group may occasionally approve miscellaneous ETJ expenses.