‫بســـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬

‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

Report of the International Workshop on Leadership and Administration for the

Heads of Local Associations of Muslim Students in Japan

Introduction
All praise is due to Allah the Almighty for the successful planning and execution of the
maiden edition of the International Workshop on Leadership and Administration for Leaders
and head of Committees of Student Societies in Japan on May 8 to 9, 2010 organized by the
Muslim Students Association in Japan (MSAJ) under the auspices of the World Assembly of
Muslim Youths and in cooperation with the Islamic Centre Japan, and Qudratt for Human
Talents Establishment. The workshop was directed by specialists in areas of human
management in persons of Engr. Tarik Alharbi from Saudi Arabia and Dr. Tajudeen Yusuf, a
Lecturer in the Faculty of Administration, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
This work was primarily organized for the heads of student societies across Japan and also
for the heads of sub-committees of the MSAJ. The training course which lasted for two
days witnessed positive interactions and active participation from all attendees. The
workshop mainly focused on the acquisition of basic skills of managers and leaders thereby
providing the participants with the skills of excellent management and the efficient and
effective use of administrative tools for achieving the objectives of the organizations or
societies.

The participation of experienced members contributed immensely to the success of the

programme by providing a medium for exchange of ideas and experiences among the past
and newly elected leaders thereby enhancing hands-on practical experience and leading role
knowledge transfer between generation of leaders on the reality of team leading actual
practice in multicultural society as it exists in Japan.

The following is a detailed report on the training program

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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

Programme Title
1st MSAJ International Workshop on Leadership and Administration 2010 (IWLA 2010)

Banner showing the name of the programme and the logos of the Organizer
(MSAJ) and Sponsor (WAMY)

General Objectives
The main objective of the training program is to develop the leadership skills of
leaders of student Societies in Japan and also for the exchange and transfer of
experiences between past and new presidents of student Associations.

Programme Specific Objectives:

1. Training for leaders of local Student Associations and officials of the Sub-
committees and executive members of the central Association in order to improve
their managerial and planning skills.
2. Empowering the leaders of Student Societies and Subcommittees of the central
Association with the advocacy role of building ideal Muslim society within Japanese
cultural set up.
To attract new members for leadership succession..3
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

4. To provide a conducive environment for friendly and brotherhood discussion and

exchange and transfer of experiences among the student leaders.
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

The Trainees
Target of the training program: heads of student societies and members of the
executive offices of those associations and former heads and current members of the
Executive Office of the central Association - MSAJ.
The programme was attended by trainees from various parts of Japan. The number of
participants in the programme sessions is thirty (30) representing approximately 16
student Associations. They were heads, deputy heads or representatives of the
following student societies:

Table 1: Participants Distribution Data based on locality

S/N City Name of Local Society
1 Okayama Okayama Muslims Association (OMSA)
2 Saitama Saitama Muslim Student Association
3 Kitakyushu Muslims association Kita Kyushu (MAKITA)
4 Kumamoto Kumamoto Islamic Center (KIC)
5 Fukui Fukui Muslim Association (FMA)
6 Tokushima-Shi Tokushima Muslim Association (TMA)
7 Matsuyama Matsuyama Islamic Culture Centre (MICC)
8 Osaka Osaka Muslims Association (OMA)
9 Nagoya Islamic Culture Association Nagoya University (ICANU)
10 Gifu Gifu Muslims Association (GMA)
11 Tokyo Tokyo University Islamic Cultural Society (TUICS)
12 Hitachi Hitachi Muslims Student Association (HMSA)
13 Hiroshima Hiroshima Muslim Association (HMA)
14 Kumamoto Kumamoto Islamic Center (KIC)
15 Machida Nagatsuta Muslim Student Organization (AMOSO)
16 Toyama Toyama Musilm Students Community, Japan (TMSCJ)
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

The Trainers
Because a larger percentage of attendees (approximately 80%) do not speak Arabic. It was
incumbent on the organizer to provide instructors fluent in English language which is the
common language among all the trainees.
Thanks to Allah The Almighty and then thanks to the efforts of the Youth Committee of the
World Assembly of Muslim Youths (WAMY) in Asia, the workshop was coordinated with
two capable resource persons who are fluent in English namely: Engr. Tarik Al-Harbi, an
instructor at Qudatt for Human Talents Establishment in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Dr.
Tajudeen Yusuf, a Lecturer in the Faculty of Administration, University of Lagos, Nigeria.

The Trainers: Engr. Tarik Alharbi (right) and Dr. Tajudeen Yusuf (left)
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

Period of Workshop and Training Hours (May 8 -9, 2010)

The Workshop effectively commenced on May 8 2010, at ten O’ clock in the morning until
nine o'clock in the evening. Then the Workshop was completed on the second day, 9th of
May with the activities from eight O’clock in the morning until the three O’ clock and a half
in the afternoon. Due to time constraints which do not provide the opportunity to extend the
duration of the session for more than two days as a result of circumstances such as leave to
attend (as all the attendees are students or researchers) as well as limited financial support
for the programme, therefore the organizers had to step up the sessions of the programme as
much as possible with the use of every minute in the program. The total hours training was
13 hours (Find enclosed with this report the detail programme of the Workshop).

The Venue
Lectures and workshops: in the meeting hall, International House of Okayama, University,
Okayama City, Japan, 730 km west of Tokyo.
Accommodation: Royal Hotel, Okayama City, Japan. The Hotel provided Bus for
movement to and from the Venue to the hotel.
MSAJ IWLA 2010 IN PICS
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

‫‪Part of the participants in attendance during the lecture session‬‬

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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

Workshop Contents and methods of training

A number of training strategies have been employed in fulfilling the objectives of the
programme. Those are:
1. Lecture courses: The training program contains four lectures of a total of 6 hours. The
material of the training course including video and PowerPoint presentation will be
published soon by MSAJ in shaa Allah.

Dr. Tajudeen Yusuf during the implementation of immediate workshop exercise with
the Trainees
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

‫‪Engr. Tarik Alharbi during his commentary on the Life Pattern Circles‬‬
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

2. Workshop Exercises online:

The trainers provide simultaneous workshop exercises for the participants and the latter
supply answers to them during or at the end of the Lecture. This method provides two
opportunities: firstly, it enriches responses and contributions from the participants and
secondly, it affords the trainers to enlist robust submissions at the end of the workshop
activities.

Implementation of Lectures simultaneously with exercises eliciting remarkable

attention and interaction from participants
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

3. Effective discussion: The trainers provide subjects of vital importance and solicit the
views of the trainees. The discussions were centered on societal issues to test ability of
participants in solving them.
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

4. Group Discussion: Participants were divided into groups so that each group discuss
specific issues of utmost importance to the Central and local Associations.
The groups discussion were implemented for discussing the following issues:
1. MSAJ Annual Meeting
2. Amendment to the constitution
3. MSAJ Mosque projects
The outcome summaries of these group discussion will be send to you later in shaa
Allah

A group Discussion: on Annual Summer Camp

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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

A group Discussion: on amendments of the Constitution of MSAJ

A group Discussion: on Mosques Project

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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

.
4. Case Study: Participants were divided into groups and were given a case study of
leadership and administrative errors in a minutes extract of a volunteer Student
organization to examine and brings out those identified errors in the minute extract and
give suggestions on how to solve those problems.

Side view of workshop groups during the study case of

a meeting of the executive committee of a student
Association

6. Semi Annual Report

MSAJ Semi Annual Report has been presented in front of all participants. Some
arguments were raised by several brothers; more ideas for improving MSAJ works
have been suggested
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

Training packages, Notes and Other educational materials

Each trainee was provided with the following
1. Workshop Bag and Pen with the mark and Logo of the Workshop
2. Workshop CD-ROM: a training collections containing the training lecture
materials in Microsoft power points format and other useful materials.
3. Printed Handouts.
4. Writing Memo (from WAMY) for notes taking during the programme
5. Evaluation Sheet to assess the programme at the end.
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

Reception Desk showing Participants receiving training packages

Part of the presentations using a display device (LCD Projector) and personal
easily accessible Workshop CD display on the trainee laptop during the
programme

Certificate of the Programme

Each trainee that participated through the full length of the programme received the following:
1. Certificate of Participation countersigned by the organizer and facilitators of the program –
Dr. Tajudeen Yusuf and Engr. Tarik Alharbi.
2. Certificate of Foundation supported the development of human capabilities (will be delivered
later to the trainees).

Evaluation of Programme
Each trainee participating in the workshop was given an evaluation form to fill at the end of the
workshop to assess the performance of the programme. The evaluation parameters are: General
organization of Workshop, Relevance of workshop theme/lecture titles, quality of lectures
delivered, suitability of the venue used, performance of officials, adequacy and relevance of
workshop materials, accommodation, feeding and interaction between participants. Thirteen
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

(13) out of the total twenty-six evaluation forms distributed were returned and the ratings of
trainees against those items are noted in the Table 2 below.
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

Table 2: Overall Assessment of Programme by Participants

Item Evaluation Parameters % Ratings per Item by Item Average parameter
4 3 2 1 0 overall rating (%)
1. General organization of 30.7 46.2 23.1 0 0 3.08/4
Workshop (4) (6) (3) (77%)
2. Relevance of workshop 38.5 61.5 0 0 0 3.39/4
theme/lecture titles (5) (8) (85%)
3. Quality of lectures 30.7 46.2 23.1 0 0 3.08/4
delivered (4) (6) (3) (77%)
4. Suitability of the Venue 30.7 38.5 23.1 7.7 0 2.92/4
used (4) (5) (3) (1) (73%)
5. Performance of 46.2 38.5 15.3 0 0 3.31/4
Officials (6) (5) (2) (83%)
6. Adequacy and 38.5 46.2 15.3 0 0 3.23/4
relevance of workshop (5) (6) (2) (81%)
materials
7. Accommodation 76.9 23.1 0 0 0 3.77/4
(10) (3) (94%)
8. Feeding 76.9 23.1 0 0 0 3.77/4
(10) (3) (94%)
9. Interaction between 38.5 46.2 15.3 0 0 3.23/4
participants (5) (6) (2) (81%)
General overall programme rating (%) 3.31/4 (83%)

Other Ratings:
A. The Question: Is workshop of benefit to participant?
Yes No
13 (100%) 0

B. Aspect of Programme Enjoy Most

Rating (%)
3(23.1)
Discussion 5 (38.5)
g participants 2 (15.4)
2 (15.4)
1 (7.6)
Recommendations/Suggestions by Trainees
1. Organizers should increase the period (no. of days) of such program in the future.
2. Extension of Invitation of professionals from many countries subsequently.
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

3. Outcomes of the Workshop should be summarized and made available to

participants at the end of the programme or within 1 month.
4. To prepare the Workshop videos so that others can benefit from it and also serve as
memoirs.
5. Effort must be made to prevent side attractions or distractions during lectures.
6. To involve sisters in similar Workshop programme in the future.
7. To make the programme more relaxing to facilitate assimilation and interactions
among the participants.
8. To focus more on MSAJ specific leadership problems.
9. More time should be allocated to Workshop activities in order to allow everybody
to explain his goals clearly and be able to receive comments and guide from trainers
and other participants.
10. Workshop should focus on how to make effective da’wah to the Japanese.
11. To introduce some outdoor activities such as games and sports.
12. Organizers should increase the frequency of this workshop as it is beneficial.
13. Medium such as internet should be employed for holding similar programme in the
future at regular intervals e.g. monthly or bi-monthly.
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‫ـــــم ال الرحـــمــن الرحيـم‬

‫‪Finally, a commemorative group photo‬‬