Making A Better Tokyo American Club (MABT)

What would you do if you were asked not to come to the club for 14 days because your were around?

Keeping Your Club Safe: COVID-19 Precautionary Measures

Dear Member,

The Club learned today that a Member has tested positive for COVID-19.
The Member came to the Club most recently on October 8, between 11am and 1pm, to have lunch at American Bar & Grill.
Members who may have had close contact with the Member have been informed and have been asked to avoid visiting the Club for 14 days.

Staff who served the Member are self-isolating at home while awaiting the result of PCR tests.

On top of the frequent sanitization of all Club areas, places visited by the Member have received additional deep-cleaning.
You can find information on Club safety measures and updates on a dedicated page on the Club website.

As has been the case throughout the pandemic, our priority is the health and safety of all Members and staff, and we strongly encourage you to follow all public health guidance.

Stay safe.

Mike Alfant
Representative Governor
Tokyo American Club

Dear Fellow Members,

I was quite surprised that after all the BOG promotion efforts to swing the vote, fewer than 50 new voters joined to sub 700 registered members. That says a lot about member enthusiasm and involvement.

Maybe the write-in BOG candidates have a chance if they present one or two compelling arguments. But the status quo is likely. The good news is that the Covid crisis and the failed loan vote have forced TAC into reducing its outrageous running costs and looking to its Reciprocal Club network for best practices and ideas. Outsourcing is also on the menu.

Members need to vote the status quo out.

This week at the rainbow the staff were frustrated. They only had three people working the floor and despite telling the members they could not cover the closed section, three members ignored them. All other members were seated in the serviceable area. My heart went out to the staff. I suggested that they let the three know.

They said they have multiple times. Sadly of the three, one member is currently on the board of governors and the other is running to be a governor.

Let’s be more considerate of our staff and not make extra work for them. The good news is the offending members have NOT made it into the recommendations of the TAC BoG 2020 voters guide. You can check that out here.

What do you think about the second loan vote? Will the Representative Governor try to re-vote again in another month? What’s the rush if he’s finishing his term and we don’t ‘need the loan’ right now?

Michael Alfant’s Note on the Re-Vote

Dear Member,

Thank you to everyone who voted in the September 24 Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).

The Board-proposed financial plan failed to pass by just one vote.

Following July’s vote on the same proposal for the Club to take out a line-of-credit loan of up to ¥1 billion, 728 Voting Members cast their ballots in this vote.

A total of 81.5 percent of Voting Members were in favor of the proposal, with a two-thirds majority required by the Club’s Articles of Association.

The Club’s constitution also requires the approval of 80 percent of US Voting Members. This time, 79.6 percent of American voters were in support of the proposal, with 11 failing to vote.

The Board will take stock of the result and carefully consider the options available to ensure the Club’s financial health.

Once again, my sincere thanks to all those Members who took part in this vital governance process. A recording of the EGM is available to watch through the Club’s YouTube channel.

Michael Alfant
Representative Governor
Tokyo American Club

Members have received a slate of candidates for the board that was approved by the Representative Governor (another member posts about the nomination process here). Judging from the list, many are ‘status quo’ or of the persuasion that think they know better than most of members. Concerning.

Our Members Union is strongly against the attempts by the current Representative Governor and board to push members into voting “YES” on a loan that they have yet to clearly explain. (Despite repeated requests from many members). We recommend that you VOTE NO on the club line or credit or loan without a concise explanation. Nor do we want the same leaders to continue what has been done in 2020.

The current slate is mostly ‘STATUS QUO’ candidates. With the many TAC missteps of 2020, other members have encouraged competent members to get their names on the ballot.

In order to get your name on the Board of Governors voting ballot, you are required to get signatures from 30 voting members (non-voting members are not counted). You must have also been an active voting member. If you have questions about the process please contact our Assistant General Manager who oversees the process.

SUPPORT The Can DO Candidates

Also, if a member that you know with a CAN DO attitude asks you for a signature to get on the slate, please support them. Remember they have to do it THIRTY times!

We want to see the status quo candidates step aside, as the club needs some CAN DO men and women in member leadership.

Vote CAN DO!
Stay Tuned for our Making A Better TAC Voters Guide

The purpose of the MABT is to bring members together towards transparency for our club from 2010. Members voices should be ringing past the politics of the committees, boards, and other personal interests. After all, we all ‘own’ the club.

Thank you to those who have written posts for the site. We got experienced members on operations, hospitality, nominations, F&B, finance, as well as board members contributing. Who would have guessed all these members would all be working towards clarity again in 2020? Frankly, we all have better things to do.

Most members were perplexed that despite voting down a loan, the board thought it appropriate to do a re-vote, just one month later. With an all out propaganda machine in our lobbies playing videos telling us to vote “yes” on something that was already rejected.

Based on our members social media groups, as well as various member meetings around Tokyo, things are looking good. It looks like a bigger NO this time. Be sure to vote ‘NO’ on a loan. We support our club, and are happy to approve whatever necessary. However, we have to have clarity on getting a loan that could result in losing our facility to a bank if not paid back.

Let’s stay positive and hopeful that people with related experience and guts will take up leadership roles in our club. We’ve got a lot of know-how in our membership.

-Team MABT

As one of the other members recently wrote (read here), TAC committee chairs are approved by the representative governor. For a corporation he/she owns, this is fine but as the TAC is supposed to be ‘member managed’ this is not democratic. TAC management requires diversity, ideas, and innovation. These things are tantamount in these trying times.

Several hotel/hospitality owners as well as famous hospitality brands populate the TAC membership roster. One of the Making a Better TAC (MABT) team shared a written comment from a large hotel brand that described the TAC COVID response as

I think TAC has mismanaged the situation, financially and operationally. They could have easily reached out to [our chain] or our colleagues of [hotel chain B] and or [hotel chain C] as we could have given some good advise. After all, we are having their problem times 30!!

Thankfully, many members have stepped up to the plate to try to help get some positive member action and attitude back into our club. Members in varying fields with experience managing people and large businesses (including medical) that could really help bring the TAC back to life. Some of those members expressed interest, while others have been recommended multiple times. Great news, right? Many were recommended to the nominating committee and all were rejected by the nominating committee chairperson. Why?

MABT is not sure but we did discuss that the nominating committee chairperson seems to be a long time business partner of the representative governor. The chairperson is not too socially involved at the club. Would they want to cross the Representative Governor that placed them there?

But not to worry! If you have a passion to help the club, you can get 30 signatures from voting club members (which is a quite small and hard to guess who they are) to get your name on the ballot. Challenge- You are not allowed to electioneer or you will be disqualified. By whom? The nominating committee head, who is connected with whomever our representative governor is at the time.

In other words, a representative governor can stamp out membership diversity of thought and innovation because he/she approves all the committee chairs who make decisions to submit back to the representative governor. Could results be manipulated in this case?

You decide. 😉 Might be an area to fix so it cannot be questioned in the future.

COMING SOON- VOTERS GUIDE– We are getting member feedback from the Representative Governors approved list of proxies and other candidates for the upcoming TAC election announced this week.

One issue that TAC continues to struggle with is transparency. Members still have issues with trusting the Board, Management & the information they are given. This is clearly evidenced by the reactions to the various votes, presentations & the general feedback from members to committees, the Board & management. 

Who Owns The Club?
In businesses it is standard practice for a new CEO to bring in his own management team & department heads. TAC, as we have been told, is not a business. The Representative Governor is not the CEO. The Board is made up of non-executive volunteers. In general both the Board & the Committee Chairs should be composed of people with expertise in their fields, an ability to commit to the time required of them, & a desire to put the Club’s needs & interests above their own . Short of this & there will continue to be questions around how or why decisions are made or policies are created. 

In looking at the current Board & the current Committee Chairs, are we following good governance? Do the current Board members have committee or Club experience? Are they experts in their fields? Are the Committee Chairs experts in their fields? If not why is that? If we are making poor decisions as a Club is it a result of the Board or the Committee chairs? One would have to surmise that the answer is yes. If not then what is the point of both the Board & the Committees? 

Who Chooses the Committee Chairs?
The Representative Governor chooses the Committee Chairs. Those Chairs select who will serve on the Committees. The Nominating Committee Chair selects both who will serve on his committee & has an overwhelmingly strong position in determining who makes the slate of candidates and eventually who is elected to the Board. Is this selection process transparent? If not is it in the best interests of the Club for the Chair, Committee & by extension the Board selections to be made this way? Or the ‘Task Forces’ that are often created? Who has oversight of this process & the selection?

It would make sense for Members (in particular voting Members) to look at the Committee Chairs, those on the Committees, the Board & the slate of candidates. We know what we are told but what are we not told? Why were those members selected but more importantly why were others ignored or left out? 

It seems obvious that change is required not just to the current leadership but in the way that leadership is formed & what their goals are. The Club has developed habits over time that need to be adjusted. It is at times such as now where you can see the cumulative effects of decisions from the past few years from a small, protected group within the Club. 

“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.” Walter Lippmann