WHAT'S NEW - ISPS

Subsequently, on October 4, an official registration as a legal personality was carried out. Then on October 25, a notification of establishment ISPS as the legal personality was submitted to a revenue office. Thus with much pleasure, I would like to inform and to express thanks to you that all necessary procedures have been taken for ISPS to acquire a status of a legal personality.

Acquisition of a legal personality had been a dream since establishment of our society. I hoped for a long time that with an increase of the number of members and strengthening of the financial structure, the society should quickly acquire a legal personality leaving the status of a voluntary association. Happily, my dream was realized earlier than anticipated thanks to the recent inauguration of the nonprofit activities (NPO) promotion law.

Despite the high aim of ISPS, it was regarded to be weak financially as well as organizationally. Since NPO is not a magic wand, acquisition of a legal personality does not overcome our other weaknesses. As a matter of fact, a member told me that if ISPS should acquire a legal personality, he would leave the organization. Since the will and aim of members vary, I think we would do ourselves an injustice to create a strictly defined organization. Originally, since ISPS is an organization whose aim it is to enjoy playing Shogi with the people of the world, I am of the opinion that the internal organizational structure can be flexible. Simply by acquisition of the non-profit status, contact with other organizations outside may be changed. The judgment of outsiders for us may need to be changed for the better and can be a big benefit of this status change. The scope of our activities can be expanded much wider than ever.

As to the financial side, if we remain inactive, we will rely on increasing the number of members and the current membership fee. However, because of the acquisition of this legal status, we can more positively explain the objectives of ISPS and acquire understanding and cooperation from outside. On such occasion, I am sure that the status of a legal personality rather than a voluntary association can work more positively. One of the most important works that a new Chairperson and Directors should do is the collection of necessary funds by positively utilizing the newly acquired legal status.

As I stated before, a motto of ISPS is “to make dreams as big as possible with a commitment to work steadily”. Now let us try harder to realize our dreams by making the best use of our newly acquired non-profit legal status.