BWA
I want to thank the SLOBC BWA for allowing me to represent it at the Federation of Buddhist Women’s Associations (FBWA) in Bellevue, Washington. It is always a pleasure to meet new BWA Members and renew old friendships.
Friday October 7th, 2016 was the Representatives’ Meeting from 7:45 - 9:30 pm. This is the general meeting where Resolutions are presented and voted on and bylaw changes are made. The BCA FBWA Secretaries-General requested that the FBWA membership approve the proposed World Federation bylaws as the newly amended bylaws for the World Federation; and that the Secretaries-General be permitted to vote in its favor at the next World Federation Representatives Meeting in San Francisco, CA in 2017. This motion was passed.
Two resolutions were presented to the Resolution committee. One from Northern CA District and one from Northwest District. The Northern CA proposal is a notice of intent to propose an amend-ment to BCA FBWA Standing Rules and Proce-dures by adding section 15 which is as follows:
Section 15: Lady Takeko Kujo Memorial Service.
BCA FBWA recommends each chapter act as fol-lows on the second Sunday of February:
Observe the memorial service for Lady TakekoKujo, founder of BWA, as "Kisaragi-ki" or "February Memorial", and
Follow Lady Takeko Kujo's spirit of Dana and practice Dana as "Day of Dana". This resolu-tion passed.
The second resolution, from Northwest District, is as follows:
Establish an Eshin-ni- Kakushin-ni Endowed Chair at the IBS with a funding goal of $3 million.
The BCA FBWA supports the following request to all Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha temples for the financing of an Endowed Chair in Jodo Shinshu Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, in honor of Eshin-ni and Kakushin-ni:
Request and strongly urge an average of 30 individuals, young and old, men and women, from every Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha temple throughout the world to donate a minimum of $10.00 per person to achieve overall funding of$3 million for the establishment of the Eshin-ni and Ka-kushin-ni Endowed Chair in Jodo Shinshu Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies.
An amendment to this motion was to allow this to be pre-sented to World Representatives in 2017. Both passed. A motion to send this to committee for further study did not pass.
One of the Secretaries-General, Jeanette Arakawa is step-ping down after 9 years. There was an election of Secre-tary General and the position was filled by Peggy Okuba-yashi. This concluded the business meeting.
Gassho,
Greer Nishikawa