From the Association of Engaged Buddhists Committee
Dear Friends,
We hope you are staying safe and well.
Firstly, we wanted to thank everyone who completed our survey to let the Committee know what you would like the Association to do for you and what you think we can do to bring life back into our group. The overall results are available here in summarized form.
We have absorbed and discussed the results and have formulated a draft action plan for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025 which we would like to present at the next Dana Day (Oct 27th 10am-1pm, Buddhist Library, Camperdown). With that in mind, we would also like to make this our Annual General Meeting for the year and give appropriate notice to members. We hope to see as many of our old friends there as possible to discuss the way forward together.
Please find a brief outline of our proposal below so you can have a think about it and how you might like to participate or contribute.
Teaching/Mediation Evenings
- We are proposing to reinstate Dhamma Talks/Meditation every two weeks on a Thursday night, starting in the new year at the latest.
- These will be held at a new venue in the inner city area which we feel will address many of the issues faced by members: it is relatively central, has plenty of parking, easy access and a large mediation space. More to come on this at the meeting, some details are still being finalised.
- Talks with be streamed on Zoom for our remote members
Dana Days
- Will be held on a monthly basis (4th Sunday of every month), again at the new venue, starting in November (24th)
Retreats
- We believe it’s important to give members and friends as much notice as possible regarding 2025 retreats, so the following dates have been put aside for Association retreats to be led by Bhante Tejadhammo at Vejjasala. Please mark them in your diary if you wish to attend, we will release booking forms in the new year:
- Easter 2025 (Thurs 17th April – Mon 21st April) for a longer retreat
- June long weekend (Fri 6th – Mon 9th)
- October long weekend (Fri 3rd- Mon 6th)
We recognize that there has been much disruption and not many regular activities in 2024 but we are hoping to change that in 2025, so in recognition of this we will be extending membership for all existing members to the end of December and starting a new membership year in Jan 2025. Membership will now run in line with calendar years to make it a simpler process. We will also look again at member benefits again such as discounted retreats and informal weekend retreats in the new year.
While we believe the above plan is both achievable and in line with members’ wishes for the Association, we need more involvement in order to make it a reality. After two years of great service to the community, our wonderful President, Megan Thorpe, is moving interstate so won’t be able to continue in the role. Committee Members Bill Shepherd and Jeff Newton are also unable to continue. With this in mind we have put together an outline of what we believe is a minimum viable Committee with clear roles and responsibilities, noting current Committee members who are willing to continue and the roles they have volunteered to fill:
President:
- Leads the committee, consults with Bhante, sets agenda, other roles as required
Chris Burgess (current Vice-President and prior President) has volunteered for this role
Treasurer:
- Manages the finances of the Association
David Wilson (current Treasurer) has volunteered to continue in this role
Retreat Coordinator
- Takes responsibility for the organisation of retreats including liaising with external groups, organising ticketing and registrations
Chris Burgess has volunteered to continue in this role in addition to President
Vejjasala coordinators
- Coordinates maintenance and other necessary tasks at VJ including working bees etc.
David Wilson and Robert Ljubicic (current Committee member) have volunteered to continue to share this role
Volunteers Required
Secretary
- Takes minutes at meetings, maintains documentation
- Maintains member lists
- Takes responsibility for sending monthly newsletter, updating website as required
Dhamma Teaching Coordinator (can be shared)
- In cooperation with Bhante, organises alternate teachers when Bhante is unavailable. We have a good list of alternate teachers already.
- Attends the fortnightly meditation sessions to make announcements, greet/announce visiting teachers, set up Zoom call etc. or organise for someone else to do so
- Updates website/social media with teaching schedule
Dana Day coordinator (can be shared)
- Ensure the venue is prepared, tidied up, bring necessary items etc.
Without the roles in blue above being filled by willing volunteers, the plan we have outlined cannot be realised, so please think deeply between now and then if you have the capacity to offer your time and energy to bring new life to the Association of Engaged Buddhists. If you would like to be nominated for the Committee in any of these roles in a sole or shared capacity, please let us know at office@engagedbuddhists.org.au or at the AGM.
We look forward to discussing these ideas with you on October 27th. The AGM will be held directly at the end of Dana Day at approx. 12.30-1pm.
Wishing you every blessing of the Dhamma now and always,
AEB Committee
