Minutes of BC meeting 2011-03-14
A Jesse Jiryu Davis
Fellowship & VP of Buddhist Council, Jolie Gorchov of NY Insight,
Leslie Joren Wagner of Still Mind Zendo, Marjorie Markus of NY
Community of Mindfulness and Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Isabelle
Bernard of NY Buddhist Church, Doyeon Park of Won Buddhsim, Seicho
Fleischman of Village Zendo and Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Michelle
Dunson of Staten Island Buddhist Vihara, Myong Haeng Sunim of Korean
Jogei Zen Temple, Nick Gershberg of Chogye International Zen Center,
Heather Harlan Nakagaki of NY Buddhist Church, Swamini Sri Lalitambika
Devi of Lalitamba Mandiram.
A. Jesse Jiryu Davis of Village Zendo & Communications Secretary of
BC, taking minutes.
== BUDDHIST FORUM ==
Seicho says the Forum will be Saturday April 16, 1-5pm at Still Mind
Zendo. Still Mind's capacity might be 60 people in the Zendo room,
and 90 in the whole suite. Setup will start at noon, and cleanup will
finish by 6. The topic is "What In Buddhist Practice Is Important to
Me?" The format will include speakers and a variant of Open Spaces
called Sangha Space, similar to last year's Forum, although shorter.
We'll start with 3 speakers from the 3 Vehicles, for 10 minutes each,
posing 3 aspects of the topic. (Joren recommends some of the teachers
from Interdependence Project.) We'll have refreshments (but no full
meal) and those attending will come up with topics for small-group
discussions. The small groups will discuss their topics, and people
can move freely among groups. Near the end, there will be short
presentations from each group, and perhaps a discussion among
everyone. Based on what we learned from previous years, there won't
be any grand document produced afterwards; the discussion itself is
the output.
We've got almost no RSVPs from our email invitation, so Seicho asks
how we can further promote the event. We discuss this. We could send
a snail mailing; Jolie has a mailing list. We'll make a flier image
and email it to sanghas; they can choose to print copies for their
members, and we'll use it for a Facebook page for the event. We could
use some help reaching out to specific sanghas.
We need some volunteers to help produce the event, if you'd like to
help write ju...@sensingwonder.com.
== VESAK DAY ==
It's planned for May 1 in Union Sq Park, but Chris says nothing
concrete has been done. Nick says we should start getting a permit
now if we're going to do it. Myong Haeng Sunim says it takes 6-8
weeks to get a parade permit. He says Myoji Sunim says she doesn't
want to repeat her temple's production of last year's event with the
Int'l Buddhist Committee -- too expensive. Chris says there's also a
UN Vesak celebration on May 16, so Myong Haeng Sunim asks why we need
our own parade just two weeks before. Judy Chen, Bhante Kondanna, and
Myoji Sunim are all out of the country, so we're unclear what's been
done so far. Nick says that if we have the event something like last
year (regardless of whether there's a parade) we'd need a PA system,
tents, and seating. Isabelle wiill inquire about the Council's old PA
system -- she says it exists but we don't know where it is.
The Sri Lankans have invited the Council to participate in a 2600-year
anniversary Vesak at the UN. We pass a motion to support to the UN
celebration rather than creating our own this year. Once Bhante
Kondanna comes back, Michelle will make sure he connects the Council
with the proper folks at the UN.
== CHAPLAINCY PROGRAM FOR LAGUARDIA COLLEGE ==
Bhante Kondanna first told us about LaGuardia College's chaplaincy
program on Long Island City a year ago, the college is getting started
now and they want a Buddhist representative as a chaplain there.
Michelle Dunson volunteers to do it, depending on the exact duties.
== NEXT MEETING ==
April 4th or 5th; we'll leave it up to Judy Chen to schedule the next
meeting when she returns.
A Jesse Jiryu Davis
Reverend TK Nakagaki, not the NY Buddhist Church. NYBC was represented
by Isabelle Bernard.
Jiryu