The Japan/Korea Trip kick-off meeting was held on October 14, 1997 at noon in E51-325. During the meeting, the following issues were discussed:

The Organizing Team
The following members of the organizing team introduced themselves to the attendees:

    Naoki Shimada ‘98, Hajime Higuchi ‘98, Tohru Ohtsuka ‘98,
    Hiroyuki Kawamura ‘98, Jacy Jeong ’98, C. D. Liang ‘98 

Trip in 1997
Information on the last trip was presented to provide a benchmark on how the trip will be organized. The Spring-1997 trip consisted of 38 students and 1 faculty member, traveled from March 18 to March 30, and spent 4 nights in Tokyo, 2 nights in Osaka, and 4 nights in Seoul. The demographics of the trip is summarized in Appendix 1. Companies and places visited by the trip are listed in Appendix 2.

Two members of the trip, Benjamin Mok and Elizabeth Yu, shared their trip experience with the attendees, and both agreed that it was a great trip. However, Ben and Elizabeth thought it is important to minimize transit time in airports, and that visiting government houses in Korea can be avoided.

Plan for the 1998 Trip
The up-coming trip will be organized with the following principles in mind:

• Visit as big a variety of companies as possible
• Include as many students as possible

• Student’s cost : US$1,500 / student
• Number of participants : 45
• Companies/places to visit : See Appendix 3

Organizing Tasks
Since this is a trip organized entirely by students, the quality of the trip depends heavily on the efforts spent on preparing for the trip. Based on his experience with the China Trip, C. D. presented the following list of tasks to be carried out in preparation of the trip:

• Fund-raising
• Company contact
• Travel arrangement and logistics (including visa application for some trip members)
• Education and course coordination (all members are required to take a half-semester course)
• Web-site maintenance and communication
• Accounting and financial functions
• Documentation and trip literature (survival book, resume book, etc.)

• Oct 23         - Announcement of first-round participant list
• Oct 28         - Deposit of $300 due for short-listed candidates
• Oct 31         - Announcement of second-round participant list and waiting list
• Mid Nov     - First trip meeting
• Early Dec    - Spring-term course bidding
• Feb ’97        - Trip course begins
• Mar 18 – 30- Welcome to Japan / Korea !