Submitted by Alicia on Wed, 11/02/2011 - 12:31
At the rules conclave and general meeting of the Order held at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey in September the interim board was requested by the head of the Order and the assembly to continue its work for another year. This is the first board meeting since the conclave.
Board member changes
Andrew Taylor-Browne has retired from the board since our last meeting. We are immensely grateful to Andrew for all the work and skill that he has contributed since the board was formed, and for his willingness to continue to be of help in a consultative capacity. Rev. Master Meiko also wishes to retire as soon as a replacement can be found - we will very much miss the ability and experience that she brings to the board and are grateful that she is continuing for the time being. We will soon be sending out an email to members of the Order asking for one monk and one lay minister to join the board.
Working groups
The Public Statement issued by the Order at the end of the general meeting in September lists decisions made in response to the recommendations of the report of the FaithTrust Institute. This will entail the setting-up of a number of new working groups. We are starting to look at this list and work out what groups need to be set up. Once this has been done we will be issuing an invitation for people to take part in these groups. This has also prompted us to think about how these groups function and interact with the board and the Order and to start writing some notes that can be given to new groups.
Ethics working group
This group presented their work so far to the general meeting in September and we are in the process of confirming the details of their continuing work.
OBC website development group
An invitation to join this group, which will oversee the creation of the new site, was sent out in September and responses have been received. A couple of board members will be getting together with Rev. Leon, the project manager, to select the members of the group and send out an email announcing its formation.
Communication with the wider sangha
We still have no direct means of getting information out from the board to the wider sangha and this is something we will be working on.