Making A Better Tokyo American Club (MABT)
Tokyo American Club- A Better Place For Our Members, A Members Forum
There is a new blog on the Tokyo American Club website. It has the name of “The Heard”. Although there is no need to hire a brand consultant, we wonder where they got this name?
Our biggest concern with doing those posts there is that things will filtered and we’re back to the same lack of transparency that got the management of the club and the board of governors into trouble in the first place.
We’ll put up the first post shortly here so you can comment.
It’s certainly been a lively time for the TWG2 team during the summer holidays. We’ve been digging into a wide variety of topics that include root cause analysis, the Club’s revenue and expenditure projections for the next few years, F&B, strategy and governance issues, outsourcing opportunities, and benchmarks for compensation. We’ve also made a pretty significant contribution to the Traders’ Bar balance sheet!
Some of our members have been active participants in discussions with the Club’s committees, including Finance, Compensation, F&B, Membership, House and others. Special thanks to the Committee chairs and BoG for their cooperation in this process. And similarly, thanks to those of you who have taken the trouble to give us your ideas and opinions these last few months. TWG2 sees the membership as its constituency, and we’re focused on delivering outcomes that ensure the Club meets and exceeds your expectations.
We’d also like to recognize the effort put in by the management and staff in backing us up – we’ve been asking some pretty difficult questions and sticking our noses into every aspect of the Club’s operations, and it’s gratifying to see the positive way in which people are responding to the need for change.
It’s interesting to note that we’re not the only private members club facing these sort of challenges right now. That makes our work, and your support, even more important as we deal with a much more competitive environment going forward. Our goal is to make sure that TAC is well-placed to thrive over the next three to five years, by delivering on a unique lifestyle and community proposition that just can’t be beat!
We’d like the chance to report back to members and get feedback before submitting our final report, and are planning a town hall meeting later in the month for that specific purpose. Please support us – and your Club – by coming along and letting us know what you think.
Hope you’ve had a good summer. It has been quiet around the club, but not for the MABT.
Well, the team has been working with the Board of Governors to come up with ideas on how to Make A Better TAC . You got some ideas from here. There have been weekly meetings and it has been a bit quiet from us as we wait for to hear results of this work.
There will be a townhall meeting coming up this month. We’ll keep you posted as to how things are going. Please come and make your voice be heard. More on the data and time to come.
Thanks to everyone who continues to participate in making a better TAC! it’s our Club, and each of us has a role to play in securing its future.
Per Lance Lee’s recent note, we’ve been quietly working in the background looking for positive ways to bring the Club back on to a solid financial footing. While not everyone will agree with our approach, we are operating under the following principles:
We think we’ve made some solid gains so far:
There are many other points that have been discussed, so we believe there is much work still to be done. Current priorities include the framing of RFIs for potential outsourcing opportunities, the potential to better leverage marketing opportunities, and setting the framework for the BoG to create a medium-term strategic plan.
Again, we know that not everyone will agree with our principles and priorities. That’s your right, and we expect you all to continue to be passionate about the future of our Club. So please stay / get in touch … and come along to the proposed meetings!
Terry White for Making A Better Tac (MABT)
There is an understandable urge to parse and analyze the vote results for deeper meaning. Both those who voted “No” and those who voted “Yes” may be inclined to search for verification of “their” position.
Looking at the bigger picture implications (rather than the micro-analysis of how which sub-group voted) we can say that – with a turnout of nearly a thousand votes – one thing above all is clear: we all want to see the right actions taken to ensure a successful future for our club.
A thousand votes is more than 3 times the average turnout for a board election. That sort of active participation is exactly what we need. Tell us your concerns and ideas of how to make a better club. Your opinion matters, your voice counts.
Suggestions are flowing in from the membership and many are adding comments. Please keep contributing your comments and stay positive. Quick update points are
-Tomorrow, the BOG will be meeting to discuss how to proceed with communicating better with the TAC membership as represented through the MABT.
-We are encouraging the BOG to have a real Townhall meeting and get people a chance not just to make suggestions but to get involved. We would like to see this by the end of July.
Members Comments-
-A member from the finance industry suggested that the current TAC is “much like we have built this Tokyo American Club Taj Mahal that cannot sustain itself. All the governance systems need to be rethought and brought to date”. The TAC needs to be run like a business that is competitive.
Updates
-135 people visited this website yesterday. 110 visitors on Monday.
We’ll keep you posted of new developments. We will only send out emails to all membership as barely necessary. There won’t be much email because we are collaborating via this website. You can subscribe to updates via the RSS feed below.
Staying positive and construtive with you!
Making A Better TAC (MABT)