In the fall of 2003, the Evergreen Chapter of ASPA entered into an international Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Hyogo Administrative Policy Studies Association (HAPSA). This agreement was arranged, in large part, to honor a forty year history of Washington State and the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan, as sister-states. At the national level, ASPA has increasingly promoted international activities. The MOU with HAPSA is unique, as it was the first to be taken on by a chapter of ASPA, as opposed to a university, which is more common. In 2008 HAPSA came under the umbrella of The Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute, directed by Dr. Ryosuke Aota. A corps of HAPSA volunteers supports HAPSA’s collaboration with the ASPA Evergreen Chapter.
Over the last decade, our relationship with HAPSA has blossomed, especially with person-to-person exchanges, focusing on public policy, research, and issues that are of mutual interest to the sister-states. Examples of some exchanges are briefly described below and are highlighted on the various tabs on the menu above.
In March 2006 several ASPA-Evergreen Chapter members were invited to Kobe for an International Seminar on Public Policy Research and Education. A few months later, in September 2006, students from the University of Hyogo arrived in the Puget Sound region for a three-week institute. The culminating event of that exchange was an international symposium on disaster preparedness and emergency management, co-sponsored by the Evans School at the University of Washington, in partnership with the Evergreen Chapter. In March 2009, a delegation from the Evergreen Chapter was again invited to attend and make presentations at a conference in Kobe. These international symposia were co-hosted and sponsored by the University of Hyogo.