Special Community Meeting - August 9th, 2-4 pm

 "No Problems, just solutions" 
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Spiritual Director, Buddha House

Dear Buddha House student, member or friend,

I am writing to you to about a matter that has concerned the Buddha House board for some time.

Since our January 2007 move from Nelson St, Fullarton, the board has continued to seek a permanent home for Buddha House.

In mid 2007, when it became clear that it may take some time to find a suitable property, the board invested about half of the funds from the sale of Nelson St in a highly recommended ‘first mortgage fund’.  For some time this fund paid good interest. This subsidised our higher than previous costs of renting a centre and accommodation for our precious Geshe-la and supported a wonderful team of teachers.

With the onset of the global financial crisis, the investment fund manager took action to preserve the fund by freezing withdrawals and withholding interest payments.  With this loss of interest, rising costs and other affects of the global crisis Buddha House has had to draw on our cash reserves to meet operational costs.

Currently, we have no indication when our frozen funds will be released or when our interest will again be paid.  The situation may continue for some years.

In considering our $50,000 end of year loss for the past year, and in considering our budgets for the coming years, it is clear that we cannot continue to operate as we have been.  If we continue as we are going, Buddha House could be forced to close in 3 to 4 years.

We need to consider how to best manage the difficult financial challenge that lies ahead of us.

As a board, we want to discuss this dilemma with the Buddha House community. We want to tell you about our ideas for meeting this challenge and we want to work with you to ensure that Buddha house continues to bring the dharma to you and the broader community, for many years to come.

To talk with you, we have called a community meeting to provide you with the facts, present some options, listen to you and give you the opportunity to become part of the solution.

Meeting time and date:  2:00 – 4:00 pm, Sunday 9^th August at Buddha House.

Please bring a small contribution to afternoon tea.

Together we will be able to find solutions that we will never achieve on our own, so I look forward to meeting with you to work for a strong future for Buddha House.

As Lama Zopa says: “No problems - just solutions”

Yours in the dharma,
Lindsay Holmes