2025 AGM Announcement
Sunday, February 2, 2024 – 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM
Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion
Please join us for us our Annual Genera Meeting. We will review what the VNCS accomplished in 2024, look at our financial status, introduce some initiatives for 2025, elect our 2025 Board and hear from Dr. Jennifer Thom, a University of Victoria professor in Curriculum Studies who will be presenting a project she is initiating called Ted Aoki: Walk With Me, a living curriculum about the life, lesson and legacy of Dr. Ted Aoki.
NOTE: To vote at the AGM you must be a paid up member of the VNCS. You can pay your membership at the AGM or do it online through our Web site. Plan to arrive by 9:45 to register.
Agenda
9:45am Registration
10:00 am Call to order
- Land Acknowledgement
- Approval of Agenda
- Approval of Minutes of Annual General Meeting held Feb 4, 2024 (2024 AGM Minutes)
10:15 am Annual Reports
NOTE: Reports to be posted by January 20th. In order to reduce the length of the AGM, only the Treasurer’s, the Cultural Fair, and the JC Legacies Grant Reports will be presented in full. For the other reports, the Committee Chairs will be available to answer questions. Please review the reports before the AGM and come ready to ask questions.
a) President’s Report | Tsugio Kurushima |
b) Treasurer’s Report | Dave Lawson |
c) Newsletter/Communications Report | Yukari Peerless |
d) Web Presence Report | Craig Mercer |
e) Heritage Committee Report | Mike Abe |
f) Uminari Taiko Report | Susan Kurushima |
g) Furusato Dancers Report | Tsugio Kurushima |
h) Sakura Fujinkai Report | Susan Kurushima |
i) Japanese Cultural Fair Report | Craig Mercer |
j) NAJC Report | Yukari Peerless |
k) Membership Report | Tsugio Kurushima |
l) Human Rights Committee Report | Misty Cozac |
m) JC Legacy Grant Report JC Legacy Capital Acquisition Grant Report JC Legacy Seniors Intergenerational Health and Wellness Grant Report | Karen Geiger & Patti Ayukawa |
n) Youngsei Report | Karen Geiger & Hannah Bell |
11:00 am New Business
a) | |
b) | |
c) |
11:10 am Election of Officers and Directors
Three incumbent Board members are stepping down this year. We have already recruited candidates to replace the departing Directors, Bios are available below. Further nominations can be submitted. To nominate a candidate, a Nomination Form (available through our Website) must be completed and submitted to VNCS at info@vncs.ca. Candidates can also be nominated from the floor at the AGM. The nominee must be present and a Nomination Form completed.
11:30 AM Adjourn AGM
Refreshment break before guest speaker
11:45 AM Guest Speaker (Dr. Jennifer Thom)
Journeying with Ted Tetsuo Aoki (1919-2012)

Today there is increasing societal recognition for and initiatives to support human diversity. Yet at the same time, local and global events call for collective perspectives and identities to expand human potential. In her presentation, Dr. Thom will share some of what she has learnt to date from Walk With Me Now, a project to honour and live forth Japanese-Canadian Dr. Ted Tetsuo Aoki’s lifework and legacy. Dr. Thom will highlight how the teachings and scholarship of Dr. Aoki, rooted within his everyday experiences in Western Canada before, during, and after WWII, hold important lessons.
Dr. Jennifer Thom is a Sansei (third-generation Japanese-Chinese-Canadian) teacher, educator, and University of Victoria Professor in Curriculum Studies.
12:15 PM Closing & Clean up
Director Nominee Bios
Mike Abe
Michael Kenji Abe, a Sansei, was born and raised in Ontario and lived in Japan for six years before settling in Victoria in 1993. He returns to the VNCS after finishing his role as project manager for Landscapes of Injustice and is currently the project manager for Past Wrongs, Future Choices. Mike would like to contribute to the VNCS with his past experience working on research projects in the Nikkei diaspora, the monument database and the VNCS heritage committee. He is also the tour manager and guide for the Nikkei National Museum’s Tomoshibi Sites of Internment semi-annual bus tours.
Mike is married to Izumi with two children, Kento and Natsuki. He enjoys golf, shodo, sumi-e and studying the Japanese language and holds a third-degree black belt in Yoshinkan Aikido.
Natsuki Abe
Natsuki Abe is a Yonsei on her father’s side and a Nisei on her mother’s side. She was born and raised in Victoria. Natsuki graduated from UVic with a degree in Canadian history and a certificate of Japanese Culture and Language Proficiency. Passionate about spreading the knowledge of Japanese Canadian history, she co-founded the VNCS Heritage Committee in 2020. She had been a director from 2020-2023, taking a break in 2024 for health and to get married. Energized, Natsuki is excited to once again contribute to the VNCS with renewed enthusiasm.
Taro Gurney
Taro lives and works in Victoria. His family on his mother’s side (Rieko Gurney, nee Mochizuki) was dispossessed during the war, eventually resettling in Kamloops, where they resumed their farming livelihoods. He has very fond memories of spending summer and winter vacations on Bachan’s farm, chasing grasshoppers and learning about tomatoes, Japanese food and the most rudimentary snippets of Japanese. He appreciates and admires the hard work that organizations such as the VNCS do to promote and share Japanese culture with the greater community — something that his own two children benefit greatly from — and is excited to support this work as best he can. Taro is Sansei.
Doug Kobayashi
A retired Professional Engineer, Doug has served in various senior executive and engineering positions in the aerospace industry in both Canada and the U.S for over 30 years. Doug graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada, receiving his Bachelor of Engineering with first class honours. He holds a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Cranfield University in England. Doug has served on a wide range of community organizations throughout Greater Victoria including Board Director of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Chair of the Advisory Council to the Royal Roads University School of Management, Board Director of the BC Aviation Museum, President of the Westshore Chamber of Commerce, Trustee of the Greater Victoria Library, and President the Westshore Rebels Football Club. Doug also served on the Board of Governors at Royal Roads University and on the Program and Research Council. He is currently serving as the Mayor of the City of Colwood and Director of the Capital Regional District.