Vol. 3 July 2005
Greetings to the members of the Masonic organizations in Japan
With the best part of the summer season near at hand you must be pleasantly busy preparing your plan.
Under the continued support of each member, we are pleased to provide you with the Vol No. 3 of the newsletter of the Masonic Foundation of Japan.
Trustees of the Masonic Foundation of Japan
1. Charity Donations
FY2004 (January-March 2005)
• We made our donations of public welfare articles through the public offering to official and unofficial small community workshop projects to accomplish our target to promote work training, self-support efforts and the quality life of the variously handicapped children and persons in the respective community.
| 1. | NPO Gifu Hashima Volunteer Association | 1 unit of braille printer | ¥1.55 mil |
| 2. | Shadan Hojin Chiba-ken Social Welfare Association for the Visually Handicapped | PC/printer in braille | ¥1.12 mil |
| 3. | NPO Support Center "Anshin" | Office furniture and equipment | ¥2.16 mil |
| 4. | Shakai Fukushi Hojin Kirisutosha | Gas oven for cake baking | ¥0.83 mil |
| 5. | Shakai Fukushi Hojin Ichikawa Renkon no kai | Kitchen reform and gas oven | ¥1.04 mil |
| 6. | Community Workshop "Yomogino" | Nissan "Caravan" | ¥2.67 mil |
| Total: | ¥9.37 mil |
• Charity concert hosted by Tokyo Masonic Lodge No. 2 to support "Hope for Children," a NPO in England providing artificial legs for children in Sri Lanka — ¥0.24 mil
• Disaster relief — Big earthquake/tsunami off Sumatra Island — ¥5.0 mil
We made our donation to Japan Foster Plan Association that opened temporary nurseries and schools at the emergency camp village in Banda Aceh on Sumatra Island. Their special attention was requested to protect children from trafficking disasters. Please refer to the attachment (A)
• Overseas Organ Transplants
Heart transplant for Miss Yumi Honda (17 years old) at UCLA — ¥1.0 mil
For your reference, Miss MikiTaira for heart transplant, Mr. Takumi Ueda, Miss Yoko Saito and Miss Rie Muraki for liver transplant whom we supported during the last fiscal year were all operated successfully and returned to Japan.
FY2004 (April-June 2005)
• FY2005 donation presentation ceremony
The FY2005 donation presentation ceremony was held at the Blue Lodge Hall on April 26 at 13:30. Bro. Kitamura, Chairman, Bro. Kobayashi, Trustee, Bros. Dennert and Murti, Counsellors, attended the ceremony. According to the FY2005 charity plan, Chairman presented checks or certificates of donations to 19 organizations (31 persons attended). They exchanged a good communication during the tea party after the ceremony. Attached is the list of charitable organizations (B) which Masonic Lodges and organizations directly support.
• Masonic Children's Festival (sponsored by the Grand Lodge of Japan, donation amount ¥3.8 mil)
The 30th Masonic Children's Festival was held on May 22. The Festival was a great success having 1,276 attendants of children, entertainers, volunteers and Masonic related people. Chairman received a flower bouquet on the stage from Miss Rie Muraki, who came back last month from the U.S. after the successful liver transplant. Her father's thankful speech was impressive to everybody. Also more impressive was the active performance of the "Come Come Band" with the blind singers arms opened high in the sky on the stage. They are all visually handicapped persons of "Kofuso," who came all the way from Ibaraki Prefecture. Thus, the 30th Children's Festival became a really memorial event.
• Disaster relief Fukuoka Seihooki Earthquake — ¥2.0 mil
(Donation is for a small island off Fukuoka, where the damage was especially heavy)
• Other donations were made from the Open Target a/c as follows:
1) Shakai Fukushi Hojin Yoneyamaiyo — ¥8.67 mil
Donation of air-conditioning equipment to Blind Children's Home and Children's Protection Home at "Yoneyama Sekirei no Sato"
This project of ¥637 million is finally coming to the completion this October after 4 years struggle, collecting a private donation as much as ¥340 million in addition to the central and local public subsidy.
2) Small Community Workshop "Oasis" (Shakai Fukushi Hojin Futaba)
Donation of Toyota car for wheelchairs — ¥3.15 mil
The industrial workshop for disabled persons "Fuku Fuku" (30 limit members) and Day Care Service "Harmony" (15 limit members) are expected to open in August 2005. Our present is the most critical one for them to secure the transportation service for the users of the Homes.
3) Preparatory Committee for the National Network of Transliteration Volunteers
Partial operation expenses for the national meeting — ¥1.0 mil
The progress and development of the information technology made it possible to distribute recording library through internet "Biblio Net," and it became very important that transliteration volunteer groups in the nation coordinate each other to establish a certain standard formula for recording libraries and to avoid a duplication of their work. Under the circumstance, we decided to support their project which was started by a certain volunteers in Tokyo and Kanagawa.
2. Revisions of the By-Laws of TMA
To clarify a certain ambiguous points of English translation of the By-Laws written in Japanese, especially to clarify the rules related to the election of Counsellors, an extensive review was made. You can refer to the details of the revisions at the Office as your require.
3. Renewal change of all lodge office keys and movement of the library
1) On March 1, all the keys of the Lodge rooms within the Masonic Center Building were changed to a new key which is safer. The holders and rules for key management remain unchanged.
2) Finally, during June/July, the Grand Lodge library is expected to move down to B1 to avoid the sunshine for a better preservation of books, while the Youth Groups room at B1, will take the library's space on the second floor.
4. Seminar on the Cabinet decision of the reform of the public interest organizations system
On May 28 (Saturday), the captioned seminar was given by Mr. T. Ohta., President of the Japan Association of Charitable Organizations, at the conference room of the Masonic Center Building. The 12 members of the Masonic Foundation, including Trustees, Supervisors and Counsellors attended the meeting. The lecturer gave his insights which are very useful to us, on the various important issues of the Reform Plan which should have a big impact on the future activities of the Masonic Foundation of Japan. For the outline of the lecture, please refer to the attached papers (C).
5. For the Financial Statements and Charitable Activities for FY2004, and Cash Flow Budget and Charitable Activities Plan (¥5 million increase over the last year) for FY2005, please refer to the homepage of Masonic Foundation of Japan or read the information file for public perusal kept at the Office.