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Chan Academy is a registered trading name of
Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd
A.C.N. 005 701 806 A.B.N. 42 611 496 488

33 Brooking Street, Upwey, Victoria, 3158
Telephone / Facsimile + 613 9754 3334
Email: wbu@bdcu.org.au
Website: www.bdcu.org.au

World Fellowship of Buddhists Regional Centre
Associated Institution of the World Buddhist University
Member Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria


LOCAL AREA PLANNING AND ASSET MANAGEMENT
TASK UNIT REPORT

From 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2004

Prepared by Frank Carter

LAPAM is the backbone of our Centre. It provides the materiality and all required physical components to run our Buddha Dhamma Centre. Without the material structure our organisation would not exist in the human world and we would have no tools to practice or propagate Buddha Dhamma.

Contents

1. LAPAM Task Unit Members as at 30 June 2004
2. LAPAM Task Unit Responsibilities
3. Overview
4.0 Key Performance Indicators
4.1 Cash Generation
4.2 Value of Centre Assets
4.3 Estimate of the Dollar Value of Material and Labour Resources Contributed 5. Buying Policies
6. Occupational Health and Safety Report
7.0 LAPAM Work Activity 2003 - 2004
7.1 Occupational Health and Safety Works
7.2 Security
7.3 Fire Prevention
7.4 Insurance
7.5 Assets
7.6 Administration and Administrative Improvements
7.7 Places Maintenance and Improvement
7.8 Structural Maintenance and Improvement
7.9 Fittings Maintenance and Improvements
7.10 Garden Maintenance and Improvements
7.11 Super-Ordinary Maintenance and Improvements
7.12 Services


1. LAPAM Task Unit Members as at 30 June 2004 are:

LAPAM Manager: Frank Carter B.Ec.

LAPAM Members: Julian Bamford, Peter Boswell, Frank Carter, Lenore Hamilton, David Igracki, Leila Igracki, Brent Kerr, David Ley, Lisa Nelson, Kate Ryan, Amber Svensson, Paul Tyrrell.

Thank you to the Chief Deva of our Temple for enabling us to learn and practice the Buddha Dhamma at this place.

Thank you to our resident Teacher Anita M. Hughes for Teaching and supporting us as we follow the Buddhist Path to Full Enlightenment.

Thank you to all the Devas who have helped, protected and looked after our Teachers, our Buddhist Temple, our Members and our friends this year.

We wish and request you to please continue your great support to our Buddhist Temple and our Teachers and Members.

Thank you to all the Members and friends of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd who have contributed your valuable time and resources towards the care and prosperity of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd this year.

Thank you for kindly supporting and looking after our resident Teachers this year, particularly the extraordinary care given 24 hours per day to Master John D. Hughes whilst he was recovering from his illness.

Thank you for carrying out the plans and projects decided by our Teachers for the stability and prosperity of this Buddha Dhamma Teaching Temple.


2. LAPAM Task Unit Responsibilities

LAPAM is responsible for the materiality of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

This is both the fixed materials and the supply of all the material resources required to look after our Temple, our resident Teacher, the devas who reside and help us here and, the students and other beings who are our guests.

The responsibilities of LAPAM include:

Car parking management
Cleaning
Construction of altars
Construction of images
Construction of new suites
Essential Services Inspection System
Financing of LAPAM annual expenditure
Infrastructure planning
Manage compliance with government regulations and uniform building standards
Maintenance of altars
Maintenance of existing suites
Maintenance of images
Maintenance of machinery and equipment
Maintenance of the Centre's gardens in Chan style
Obtaining required permits for infrastructure development
Occupational Health and Safety
Prepare weekly food and grocery shopping list
Project research and feasibility reports
Providing fire and burglary protection
Provision of ceremonial artifacts
Reporting LAPAM activity
Shopping for food and groceries
Storage
Supply chain management of equipment and requisites
Supply of offerings for Deva of Work altars
Supply of offerings to the Gate Monks
Tidying of all suites
Upgrading of existing suites
Waste management


3. Overview - Generosity is the key to our services.

This LAPAM report is a catalog of dana practice done in many ways at our Centre during the past twelve months. The report shows some of the extraordinary opportunities we have as Dhamma practitioners to make multitudes of good causes in a Buddha Dhamma field.

It is by no means complete. For example, the dana of offering flowers is not recorded in our report yet it is one of the main practices our Teacher had recommended.

The donation of flowers for our altars is important.

LAPAM takes care not to destroy valuable flowers in the garden. Donations of plants are needed to replace garden wasting.

Looking after the Centre encourages gifts as many items need to be donated for maintenance of buildings, fittings and equipment or construction of new resources.

During 2003 - 2004 we had the great opportunity to carry out major works including the construction of the new private kitchen dining room (1,084 hours/20 hours per week), the construction of a new Southern fence, and relocating the Centre’s offices to the Sariputta Room. The building projects were carried out as private constructions in John and Anita Hughes name using their money and gifts.

Services contributed included 24 hours per day for 5 months caring for our Teacher John Hughes while he was recovering from his illness and supporting Anita Hughes.

We have a category of LAPAM work done at the Centre named by our Founder John D. Hughes as “Super-ordinary”. Our efforts of looking after John during his illness were Super-ordinary. We gave a combined total of more than 4,500 hours attending to John and attending to the support structures we had put in place to look after the Temple.

By comparison this was more than twice the total time given to all other LAPAM works done by all of us for the entire year. As it is a once off extraordinary event it has not been included in our statistics of LAPAM activities for the year as it would make it difficult to compare and analyse LAPAM work statistics in subsequent years.

Our Super-ordinary works included preparing for and conducting the Buddhist Funeral Ceremony for our Founder and Teacher Master John D. Hughes.

Major assets acquired or received during the year included the new dining room table, the new Southern fence and the donation of a full workshop of tools and equipment by Rodney Johnson.

The major LAPAM project planned for the year ahead is the commencement of construction of the new library building to house the Padmasambhava Image and Altar.

New positions of Assistant LAPAM Manager and Fuel Department Manager have been created to enable delegation of important LAPAM activities and to build our Centre’s next generation of Managers.


4.0 Key Performance Indicators

LAPAM performance lends itself to being analysed in dollars and cents because it deals with the management of physical assets which can be readily assessed and valued. Comparisons can be made to previous time periods and performance can be easily defined and measured.

Further analysis can be applied as statistics on task unit work hours over the period can be examined. This report makes an assessment of the dollar value of labour inputs in LAPAM activities so that a better appreciation is gained of the resources consumed and produced at the Centre.

4.1 Cash Generation

Date	Title	Amount	02 - 03
1 July 03 – 30 June 04	Camberwell Market Stall	$9,009 ($173 pw Av)	$8,037
April 2003	Easter Flower Stall	$433	$336
14 May 2003	Mother's Day Flower Stall	$1,390 (1 site only)	$1,780
18 Nov 2003 (drawn)	Chan Academy Christmas Raffle	$1,050 (approximately)	$1,472
17 Feb 2004 (drawn)	Chan Academy Summer Raffle	$1,622	$930
18 May 2004 (drawn)	Chan Academy Autumn Raffle	$1,080 (approximately)	$1,228
	Total	$14,484	$13,783

Total assets added	$11,250	(23.2%)	(2003) $10,370 (25%)
Weekly shopping	$ 6,200	(12.8%)	not recorded
Total labour	$30,940	(65.0%)	(2003) $30,555 (75%)
Total assets & labour	$48,390		(2003) $40,925

This is an increase of 5 % on the 2002 - 2003 period when the total LAPAM cash generation was $13,783.

Members benefited making many good causes by contributing their time and goods to the market stall and through the dana of buying weekly groceries for their Teacher and his family.

Members input about 24 hours per week to running the stall including the time spent prospecting for new stock. The dollar return to the Centre per hour worked on the stall is approximately $7.21.

Members and friends who contributed to the operations of the market stall in the past year are: Julian Bamford, Peter Boswell, Frank Carter, Evelin Halls, Lenore Hamilton, David Igracki, David Ley, Lisa Nelson, Julie O’Donnell, Lannie Smallwood, Amber Svensson, Kate Ryan, Paul Tyrrell.

One major reduction in expenses incurred by the Centre was due to not using the AMEX card to fund our weekly grocery shopping. The costs of shopping are now largely funded by the dana of Members each week.


4.2 Value of Centre Fixed Assets

Centre Fixed Assets were $432,885 at 1 July 2003 and $438,225 at 30 June 2004.

The new following items were the main new assets for listing on the asset register.

1 X Panasonic photocopier ($500)
1 X Sharp CD & cassette player portable sound system ($200)
Collection of power tools and hand tools ($2000)
1 X Garden Shed ($200)
1 X Dyson Vacume Cleaner ($770)
2 X Computer Systems ($400)
1 X Dining table ($1000)
1 X Glass fronted display cabinet ($200)
50% share of fence ($900)

Our Centre's assets are:

Buildings $ 49,249 (2003 $ 49,199)
Plant & Equipment $ 13,217 (2003 $ 12,825)
Artifacts $ 370,861 (2003 $ 370,861)

The value of depreciation was $5,687.


Estimate of the Dollar Value of Material and Labour Resources Contributed.

Members and friends of the Centre contribute resources to the Centre and to John and Anita Hughes in many ways. Some of these contributions can be identified through our financial reports however other donated resources such as the dollar value of labour cannot be identified through our financial reports.

The table below has been compiled from LAPAM work records and is designed to give a bigger picture of the resources contributed to the Centre and John and Anita Hughes from LAPAM activities during the past year.

The information is presented in broad categories to allow an overview without too much detail.

The three basic groups are:
(1) Maintenance activity - includes ongoing maintenance such as mowing lawns, fire hazard
reduction, sweeping paths, cleaning the water in our ponds, changing the ozone filters in the laser printers, replacing torch batteries and light globes, gardening.

(2) Asset activity - includes work which increases or adds something to an asset such as, for example, the new tool shed ($200), building the new kitchen and dining room for our resident Teachers John and Anita Hughes ($27,000 to date) and preparing for and paying for the construction of the new South boundary fence ($940).

(3) Service activity - this is made up of mainly labour and includes cleaning windows, cleaning the premises, supplying and cutting firewood, rubbish taken to the tip, provision of A4 paper for photocopying, supply of birdseed, weekly food and grocery shopping, off-site storage for Centre and John and Anita Hughes resources.

These groups each have two components being the dollar value of labour and the dollar value
of materials purchased or donated.

The following abbreviations are used for each category.

MC - Maintenance costs. ie: dollar value of the materials contributed or money spent on maintenance.
ML - Maintenance labour. ie: dollar value of the labour contributed to maintenance
AC - Asset costs. ie: dollar value of the materials contributed or money spent on assets.
AL - Asset labour. ie: dollar value of the labour contributed to assets.
S - Services. Combined dollar value of the labour contributed to services and money spent on services or the dollar value of materials donated to services. (This category is nearly all labour)

The hourly rate which has been applied to labour is $15.00 per hour which takes into account the mix of skilled and unskilled labour contributed in the different LAPAM work activities.

Quarter	Centre	J & AH	Centre	J & AH	Services
	MC .......... ML	MC .......... ML	AC .......... AL	AC .......... AL	J & AH | BDC
July - Sept	60 .......... 80	60 ........... 465	980 ......... 515	-- ............ 1760	2825 ..... 900
Oct - Dec	-- ........... 105	45 ........... 660	1000 ....... 255	5000 ........ 6540	2835 ..... 4350
Jan - March	-- ........... 290	-- ........... 120	200 ......... --	-- ............. 4280	2840 ..... 1575
April - June	-- ........... 60	-- ........... 100	4070 ....... 155	-- ............. 4010	2315 ..... 705
Totals	60 .......... 535	105 ........ 1345	6250 ........ 925	5000 ...... 16590	10215 ... 7530
Totals (2003)	490 ........ 2935	160 ........ 1290	3150 ........ 4015	6570 ...... 11315	3690 ..... 7310

This is $930 per week or $132 per day.

Using the LAPAM work activity data from section 7 of this report the value of goods and services produced per hour of LAPAM work at the Centre is $23.15 ($132 divided by 5.7 hrs per day) The 2002 - 2003 figure was $19.65 per hour.

The total materials cost and labour costs donated to the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd for the year was $15,300. This is a decrease of about 15 % on the previous year’s figures. ($17,900)


5. Buying Policies

For many years Members have been trained to use our resources wisely and this includes how we obtain our resources.

Our experience tells us that there are often alternative ways of obtaining resources we need other than buying them new at normal market prices. Some of the alternatives we use regularly are listed below.


- Use secondhand materials. There are many options to get goods donated for free if we use secondhand materials rather than new.

An example of this is our use of partially used laser printer toner cartridges. (Cost saving $40 per cartridge X 15 cartridges = $600 pa)

- Ask persons for donations of goods we can use. Next door neighbours or friends may have a water tank they don’t want or have wood from past building projects or trees which have been cut down.

Examples of this in the past year are David Igracki arranging a free fire wood supply from a furniture maker and Evelin Halls arranging the donation of a commercial stainless steel sink for the new kitchen dining room from a former neighbour.

Every Member who remembers to look will see opportunities such as these where they can obtain donations of goods for the Centre.

- Ask businesses to donate the goods we want. Businesses often have samples, seconds, items which were incorrectly ordered, or last years range which they will give away if the companies are approached in a suitable way.

As a charitable organisation we have the right profile for them to make donations to us.

Examples of this approach are many nurseries in the Dandenongs who are giving us over $2,500 of plants per annum as prizes for our Chan Academy Australia Raffles, the donation of two new dining table cutlery sets from Oneida Australia and the donation of the dining room table from law firm Mills Oakley.

Some companies have donated samples and seconds to our market stall in the past year.

- If we do have to buy new goods we can often get a better deal. We can:

- Buy in bulk.
- Ask for discounts. An example of this is the local hardware at Belgrave South will give us a 10% discount if we ask.



6. Occupational Health & Safety Report

The preparation and tabling of a Monthly Occupational Health and Safety Report at General Committee Meetings was introduced in the past financial year. This has provided a tracking and response process for OH & S matters which are identified by Members or friends of the Centre.

For the period 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2004 there were 3 reported minor OH & S incidents. This compares with 7 reported incidents for the same period last year.
The types of incidents recorded were:

2 X Cut finger
1 X Bruised finger

There were no incidents which required the person involved attending a hospital for examination by a doctor.

Comments in the “Follow Up” section of the previous years OH & S Record book suggest that wearing protective safety clothing at appropriate times would significantly reduce the frequency of the most commonly reported incidents such as minor cuts, burns and scratches.

7.0 LAPAM Work Activity 2003 - 2004

Hours worked per quarter.

	July - Sept	Oct - Dec	Jan - March	April - June	Total	2003
OH&S	11	3	-	5	19	19
Security	1	-	-	-	1	1
Fire Prevention	1	25	-	3	29	68
Assets	-	14	-	5	19	21
Administration	6	4	-	-	10	45
Places	8	7	66	-	81	176
Structural	128	436	272	279	1115	869
Fittings	23	52	2	1	78	56
Garden	48	17	27	8	100	167
Super Ordinary	-	188	-	-	188	7
Services	133	129	92	96	450	622
Quarter Totals	359	876	460	400	2095	2065
Quarter totals (2003)	461	693	463	429
Hours Per Day (Average)	3.9hrs	9.7hrs	5.1hrs	4.4hrs

Over 12 months this is 5.7 hours LAPAM work per day (40.2 hours per week).

This is less than 1 % higher than the previous years figures of 39.7 LAPAM work hours per week.

Details of the key works done in each work category are listed below.


7.1 OH & S Works

Installed a 12 volt lighting system around the rear house path (Cost donated $39)
Commenced producing Monthly OH & S Reports for General Committee Meetings

7.2 Security

Repair and maintain property fences.

7.3 Fire Prevention

CFA three month inspections carried out
2 new fire extinguishers were fitted replacing out of date ones (Cost $60)
Fire fuel reduction was carried out
Electrical inspection of the wiring in the house roof area.

7.4 Insurance

Public Insurance Liability cover was increased to $10,000,000 from 12 December 2002 onwards at an additional cost of $600 per annum.

The Shire of Yarra Ranges is noted as principle on our insurance policy to provide public liability cover for them on those occasions (3 times per year) when we operate flowers stalls from the site located at Swansea Road, Lilydale.

Annual cost 2003 - 2004:
$7,298 payable in 10 installments of $729.80 each which is $182 per week.
Installments due 12th of each month.
Policy Renewal 12 May 2005

7.5 Assets

New dining room table donated by Mills Oakley (Value $1000)
Free toner supply was sourced for laser printers (Cost saving 15 cartridges @ $40 ea = $600)
Construct the new storage shed (Value $200)

7.6 Administration and Administrative Improvements

Standardized Quarterly Landlord Reports were presented to the Landlord.
Insurance cover ($30,000) was arranged for the new kitchen dining room

7.7 Places Maintenance and Improvement

Moved the administration offices of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd into the Sariputta Room
Moved Anita Hughes bedroom into the main house area.

7.8 Structural Maintenance and Improvement

Construction of the Kitchen/Dining Room continued from 1 July 03 (Value to date $27,000)
$5000 donated funds
Completion of shelving in the Sariputta Room walk in wardrobe
Arrange installation of a window in Max’s new bedroom

7.9 Fittings Maintenance and Improvements

New Southern fence constructed (Cost $940)
Install phone line to the Sariputta Room

7.10 Garden Maintenance and Improvements - the garden must be ordered.

Lawns were mowed as required
Rubbish was taken to the tip as required to reduce mess
Selective weeding was done
Paths were swept with no killing
Leaves were raked with no killing
Created three new Feed-a-Buddhist Garden Beds near the Padmasambhava Altar
Grounds prepared for the visit of the Vietnamese Buddhist communities.

7.11 Super-Ordinary Maintenance and Improvements - from time to time we construct new altars.

Care and support of John D. Hughes while he recovered from his illness.
Preparation of the premises for John D. Hughes Funeral (Funds donated by Members and friends towards the funeral $4500)
Grounds prepared for the John D. Hughes Relic Installation Ceremony
Provide a new base for the Just Born Buddha Image

7.12 Regular Services - all services are done by Members dana in keeping the Centre suitable
for practice.

Cleaning was done
Ironing was done
Vacuuming was done
Window cleaning was done
Wood supply was maintained
Wood was cut
Birdseed supply was maintained
Put out rubbish bins weekly

Prepared weekly shopping list
Shopped for food and groceries (Funds donated Approx $120 per week = $6200 PA.

7.13 Miscellaneous - these are examples of what we want.

A4 paper was supplied
Assembled the Chan Exhibition Frame in the Chan Hall
Hung the Chan Exhibition
Caught and removed five vermin from the premises

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