A crucial factor for parents of schoolchildren is the 連絡網 (renrakumo - phone tree), a contact information list handed out at the beginning of the school year with a tree so that one person contacted can contact the subsequent person and word can get out without some poor, beleaguered school official charged with contacting everyone alone. If there is a break in the chain, one continues to the subsequent contact. Starting teaching at a high school, I found a list of the 連絡網 for teachers on my desk and was relieved to find myself as the final link: the buck stops with me. 😎 - William