Dear JHRL Members, Friends, and Supporters,

As the JHRL Chief Community Officer, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the current state of our Community highlighting the achievements we have made in 2008, the projects and programs we are planning to undertake this year to help achieve our mission as well as the issues and concerns affecting our Community and how we can overcome these challenges.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2008
The year 2008 has been a very busy year for us. To sum it up, it was a year of laying the foundation of our Community and getting ourselves organized and known in the HR profession. Here is what we have achieved in the past year:

• Successfully launched JHRL's new website (in February) under the Collectivex platform which gave us greater tools to communicate, interact, inform, and learn using Web 2.0 technologies such as RSS feeds, Discussion For a, Blogs, Group Calendar, etc.
• Increased our membership base by around 400% from 50+ members in 2007 to 210+ as of end 2008.
• Received more than 32,000 page views for 2008 or an average of around 3,000 page views per month. Not bad for a highly specialized Japan-focused HR site.
• Conducted 3 JHRL -hosted events (i.e., Employee Assessment, Work-Life Balance, HR and EQ) and co-sponsored the Strategic HR Conference 2008 with C.C. Consulting/CareerCross.
• Formed our partnership with The AberdeenGroup for our members to gain free access to their vast HR-related knowledgebase.
• Created and launched 4 advocacy programs for members to interact with each other, to wit: The CEO-HR Forum, Women in HR, Green HR, ResponsibleRecruiting, and Japan HR Certification System.

PROPOSED PROJECTS/PROGRAMS FOR 2009

Leveraging the momentum we had in 2008, the following are what we are planning to do in 2009. Hopefully, the successful undertaking of these programs and projects will further solidify our foundation as a professional HR organization in Japan.

•  In association with HR Central K.K., creation and launch of the Annual Japan HR Confidence Index --- a measure of CEO's confidence level on their HR function to help achieve organizational success (Timeline: April 2009)
• Launching of the Japan HR Awards - to recognize individual HR professionals, HR vendors/suppliers, and companies as best places to work as HR (Timeline: Dec 2009)
• Name change and preparation for NPOship of JHRL in 2010.
• Shift towards a multi-level JHRL membership program - free and paid-memberships to deliver more value adding services and benefits. (Timeline: April 2009).
  
• Conversion of JHRL's newsletter, The HR Agenda, into an on-line edition to provide 24/7 access to those HR and recruiting tips and information our readers have come to love. (Timeline: Apr 2009)
• Conduct at least four (4) JHRL-hosted/sponsored networking and learning events.
• Expand membership base to the 500-level mark.

ISSUES AND CONCERNS

• Not enough member participation as evidenced by lack of postings at our Discussion Boards and Blogs [Possible Solution: Incorporate other tools such as on-line polls, surveys, and focused-groups to help generate discussion among the members.
• There is only a handful of "movers" of the Community. Most of the members are way too passive. [Possible Solution: Open the leadership team to include HR technical experts and other opinion makers. Form a Board of Advisers and a working Executive Committee to define the strategy of the Community.]
• Limited financial resources to carry out our projects to achieve our overall mission. [Possible Solution: Shift to a multi-level membership program to generate membership revenues. Accept donations or corporate sponsorships. Sell web and newsletter advertising spaces.]
• Credibility issues being a non-registered association at the moment. [Possible Solution: Prepare for NPOship status by convening a board of advisers, champions and supporters and work on the legal steps to register as an NPO.]
• Acceptance of 3rd party recruiters or headhunters into the Community. [Possible Solution: Adopt the 80-20 rule in accepting membership applications from "pre-qualified or member-endorsed" headhunters. That is, we will only allow a maximum of 20% of the members the Community as headhunters to ensure that the Community remains an HR practitioners group. Timeline: April 2009]

LOOKING AHEAD

Indeed, 2009 will be another defining year for the Community and its members. Given the backdrop of current economic crisis, achieving our goals and programs will be even become more challenging for us and a real test to the maturity, professionalism, and sincerity of our members in the HR profession.

However, I remain positive that with our collective efforts and a shared vision and mission to help advance the HR profession in Japan we can move forward and make a JHRL a vibrant HR community.

Finally, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the support and kind words of encouragement you have given me as your Chief Community Officer. The countless hours, efforts, and resources that myself and my company, HR Central K.K., has put into the Community are I think well worth it because of your continued patronage and support.

Have a great year to everyone!

Sincerely yours in HR,

Jun Kabigting
Chief Community Officer, The Japan HR Link Network and
Managing Director, HR Central K.K.

PS: My special thanks goes to our co-founder Dean Fujii for his logo design and continued strategic support; Jonathan Mattice for his invaluable contribution in organizing past JHRL events; our past speakers, Michael McCullah, Anne Good, and Philippe Grall for generously sharing their ideas and expertise to the Community; and Peter Lackner for giving JHRL an opportunity to co-sponsor the Strategic HR Management Conference. Your help and support are very much appreciated.

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