The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

Financial Members of our organisation are in the workforce in the general community.

They dress much the same as other persons.

Some of our Members run their own businesses, either full or part-time, some work in the helping professions, some are consultants, some work in factories.

Others are sales managers, some work as translators, some work as the cabin crew on international jet planes.

Others are electricians and carpenters - having served their time as apprentice tradespersons.

We are pleased when friends of Members help us with their technical skills.

For example, yesterday afternoon, a builder friend of one of our Members came to help us nail mirboo decking onto the base of a new outdoor pavilion in our Centre's garden.

He was able to could supervise six of our Members to help him drill and nail the decking into place. Our men and women Members who helped him enjoyed working together to make good causes.

Lending a helping hand with labour is a form of dana, as it was called in Pali language.

Another form of dana is offering food to Noble persons.

Yesterday morning, we offered this form of dana to a 70-year-old Buddhist Nun who visited our Centre. This Nun is a translator of Pali Buddha Dhamma writings to the English language.

Next month, the Venerable is to return to her birthplace in Sri Lanka.

The Venerable Nun has translated 100 suttas from the Pali language to the English language. She has been kind enough to provide us with copies of them on floppy discs.

From that format, we have entered the translations onto our e-library records.

Within our organisation, we have Members who are excellent at finding the technical information we use to improve the merit of our offerings.

They meet a wide range of persons in different occupations.

In their working life, our Members meet many persons who may not be aware they had an opportunity to meet with one of the many Buddha Dhamma followers who live and practice in Australia.

A matter that needs to be kept in mind, particularly in professional degrees that prepare persons for work in the service professions, is the matter of dealing with persons.

It is needed to understand we may find it difficult to teach some persons the skills needed to use complicated knowledge.

This week our archive office is continuing indexing books and journals.

A few years ago, to upgrade the fire rating of our collection, we removed paper journal holders and replaced them with metal filing containers.

These are now full.

We need more metal filing containers to hold recently arrived journals.

We would be pleased if any of our listeners could donate these.

There is no tax deduction available for such a gift.

One method of making merit for yourself is to give donations.

It is agreeable to enter and use a well ordered library In such a place, you can find the journal you are looking for quickly.

Archive officers depend on a supply of appropriate filing containers to provide this type of information service.

If you consider your future needs are to meet with well-organised library references, you must enter the supply chain which brings such things about.

Our Archive Officer needs to purchase about $1000 worth of metal filing holders.

Persons who can help us with goods or money may contact our Centre at 97543334.

Many persons have found that learning to navigate around our library is a worthwhile skill.

Although we do not issue any type of qualification certification for the skills gathered by study at our Centre's library, many persons have found that by joining our library, over time, they discover they can find material they need in fresh ways .

.We are not too old-fashioned.

We move with the times. We encourage our Members to continue studies.

In 1995, Mary O'Kane published a paper entitled: "To Have Is to Be the Bourgeoisie ­ Have a Degree; Thoughts on The Education of Information Professionals.

More generally, she stated, having a degree in these times of high unemployment is often seen as increasing the chances of getting a job, or holding a job that one might already have. Some persons decide to do a degree because they wish to extend their knowledge in a particular field.

Today, our Members with degrees and responsible jobs agree they need to learn in faster ways than they learned when studying for their degrees.

This is needed in their work since modern information age work styles requires extra more and more scrutinising of fresh information.

May you develop the skills needed to learn complicated knowledge.

May you learn how to learn faster

May you be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes and Leanne Eames.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with pleasure that I present to you the President's Report for the year 1998-99 for The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

The Company has met all the legal corporate requirements under the Companies Code.

We are able to meet our financial commitments with east.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the Sangha for their help in maintaining our Centre as a suitable location for the learning and the practice of the Buddha Dhamma. Thank you to our Teacher John D. Hughes for showing us the way to correct Practice. Thanks to Robin Prescott and all the Bodhisattvas. Thanks to all the Office Bearers, Members and Friends of our Centre who have contributed to the high-grade output of the B.D.C.(U) Ltd.

The year just ended has been characterised by:

--A gearing up of our organisation to have a more global presence and consequent need for a change in management culture
--Restructuring of our 9 committees of management into four S5-style Task Units
--Increase in the quality and quantity of output by all Task Units
--Publication of the new series of the Brooking Street Bugle to provide, among others, timely information to our Members and as a tool for team building.
--A shift from our strategic orientation for best practice from "growth now, profitability later" to a "profitable growth now" paradigm.
--Increased utilisation of Key Performance indicators to focus on a more effective utilisation of our resources to deliver better service to our Members as well as those organisations in Australia and overseas who stand to benefit from the Dhamma activities of our Centre.
--Improvements in the methods of supply chain management where our corporate targets are made known to Members by e-mail
--Development of Correspondence Database
--Improvements in Archiving Company Documents
--Formation of an Occupational Health and Safety Committee

Under the old structure of nine development committees, we had no room to move because we lacked experienced managers and it takes about four to six years to prepare S5 socialised managers. So, in order to save time, we formed four S5 style Task Units; meaning we had two or more experienced socialised managers within each Task Unit.

S5 management style implies individual Members of the Task Units operate with an increased sense of responsibility and initiative in an organisational climate where team success is measured by a person's own effort to improve their standards rather than having these standards imposed by someone else externally posing as a leader.

The publication of the new series of the Brooking Street Bugle has the following objectives:

To provide accurate, relevant and timely information to Members
To guarantee Members responsible to our four Task Units are kept seasonably informed of enrichment changes
To detail project technicalities to supply information suitable for current public relations activities
To list coming events
To suggest additional Occupational Health and Safety Performance Indicators

List of Task Units:

Local Area Planning and Asset Management (LAPAM)

International Dhamma Activities (IDA)

Knowledge Management (KM) (which includes the KnoxFM radio broadcasting team)

Corporate Governance and Reporting (CGR)

A major paradigm shift has occurred in the field of international operations, where the emphasis on "growth now, profitability later" has been shifted to "profitable growth now". An analysis of the reasons for this change in strategic orientation would be too long here but suffice to say that at its very essence lies Buddha's praise for dana but not for excessive waste of resources.

Here it is appropriate to re-state the necessity for our Organisation to generate sustainable profit for its continuity during the time it is meant to be operational and to keep discouraging Members to consume and waste excessive quantities of the own or our Member's assets: those, in fact, who did not take heed of such advice have left our Centre. The law of cause and effect is in operation here and certainly we do do not want to lose valuable Members in the future.

Under this new paradigm, we would continue our efforts to spread the Dhamma at the international level and participate in international Conferences, but we would have a plan to come back with increased assets donated by the wealthier Regional Centres.

By October 2000, key Members of all other Task Units ought to have rewritten their policies to actualize the new system.

This new policy can give us clearer guidelines to define whether certain transactions are satisfactory or not.

More socialised managers are being sought to advise us of how we can set up and service our new international ventures: our proposals for retraining in the work skills needed stress friendliness and cultural adaptability.

Because of limited resources and the high status of our computer systems, we need you to convince us that you are likely to be able to benefit from management training and that you can operate at high intensity levels of concentration.

We are looking for leads that gain alliances among the new Task Unit Members whose task it is to turn measurable goodwill into one million dollars profit within the next three years to come.

Increased utilisation of Key Performance indicators

The recording of data for various projects has been greater this year than in the past; for example, the participation at the radio program Knox FM has been tabulated for an entire year and we have been able to extract valuable information which will enable us to focus on clearer goals for the coming year.

In 1998-99 there has been an increase in program participation of 33% with an increase in the percentage in Members participating of 17%.

For the coming six months we aim to increase the program participation rate of Members by 33% and an increase in the retention rate from 17% to 34%.

Obviously, we would not be able to formulated these goals if the effort of recording the data had not been made in the first place. The same is valid for all other projects from any Task Unit.

Improvements in the methods of supply chain management where our corporate targets are made known to Members by e-mail

For the 1999 International Dhamma Activities (IDA) Task Unit policy of "profitable growth now" to be implemented, all outgoing correspondence should have a powerful Public Relations component.

This means IDA will write current policy of which organisations they intend to prospect and track as patrons from which they will gather more resources. IDA must advise CGR on these names so a "united front" can be formed. This is to be treated as strictly confidential information for Members only. It will be done on e-mail.

Our credibility for gathering local and international funds and gifts of resources depends on our sustained efforts in building the correct image and style.

Members need to be able to link our Public Relations statements into the context of letters to organisations.

This year, a style manual is being compiled by Arrisha Burling and Peter Jackson.

Development of correspondence database

A database will be designed in Microsoft Access in which all incoming and outgoing correspondence will be recorded. The database will contain a user-friendly from for entering data, which will halve the time taken to enter correspondence records.

Data will be filtered to provide performance indicators and statistics, eliminating the present need to prepare such information manually.

Improvements in archiving company documents

This year, with the building of Suite 11, it was possible to archive many of our CGR files. These must be kept secure for taxation purposes and for legal requirements under Australian Company Law. We need a new filing cabinet to deal with the expected increase in filing.

Formation of an Occupational Health and Safety Committee

The formation of an Occupational Health and Safety Committee on 4 May 1999 expedited the development, implementation and recording of OH&S Policy. Our resource information was obtained from the Victoria Work Cover Authority. Our aim is to have accident free months: in June there were two accidents and in July 99 there were two accidents recorded up until 20 July.

We intend to implement our policy through raising our awareness of hazards in our environment and we need to develop work practices in all areas so that we are able to provide a safe and healthy environment.

Our Centre is a residential, teaching and healthy environment.

Significant chronicles in 1998-1999

John D. Hughes, using our library resources, has produced several important documents:

1. A key paper for the WFB Conference at the Nan Tien Temple in NSW, November 1998, entitled Buddhism and Challenges in the 21st Century, published in English and Chinese in recent BDDRs;

2. Weekly KNOXFM "Buddhist Hour" radio scripts;

3. New work in progress by John D. Hughes Collection and how to operate a Buddhist Library. The book will be entitled "The Library You Are Looking For"

4. Our 1998-99 annual reports for the Task Units;

5. The three-year Chan Academy Plan and

6. A high-grade moon chart "Four Seasons" calendar reproducing paintings by John D. Hughes.

Increased PR from Australian Libraries Gateway (ALG)

Because our library information on our website is now readable from the ALG site, we have a higher profile. There are 4,500 libraries in the ALG database.

Gusto 4000 project

We have launched Gusto 4000 to catalogue 4000 books and journals this year. Anita Svensson and Isabella Hobbs have indicated they will spend one day a week on this project, and Arrisha Burling will spend at least two hours per week cataloguing books.

Peter Jackson has agreed to rewrite our library brochure. The new form will be put on our website.

For more rapid service, we intend to run our Internet library site from our Centre within six months.

Next year we plan to raise funds to build a new bedroom in Suite 3 which means new library shelving can extend in a westerly direction into the space occupied by the old bedroom. The next library building will by "The Lyceum" where there will be a significant amount of extra library space.

Upgrades have been made to computers reading our LAN data warehouse while Windows 95 and other very useful software has been installed on 5 key computers.

The technology to scan items in our collection can now be done by Corel Draw software and included onto our LAN data warehouse.

I cannot finish this report without mentioning the successful participation of 10 Members from our Centre to the WFB Conference in Berkeley, NSW, late last year. A very strong team spirit was forged among our Members and the five styles, which underpin our organisation, were on display for everyone to see and appreciate.

As a final remark, I would like to add that this year we have observed an increase in net earnings per $ assets employed from 12% to 28%, which by any standards is an impressive performance.

Thank you for listening, and may the blessings of the triple Gem be always with you.

Thank you very much.

Vincent Cavuoto

Disclaimer:

As we, the Chan Academy Australia, Chan Academy being a registered business name of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., do not control the actions of our service providers from time to time, make no warranty as to the continuous operation of our website(s). Also, we make no assertion as to the veracity of any of the information included in any of the links with our websites, or another source accessed through our website(s).

Accordingly, we accept no liability to any user or subsequent third party, either expressed or implied, whether or not caused by error or omission on either our part, or a member, employee or other person associated with the Chan Academy Australia (Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.)

This Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for the purpose of research and study.

Permission is given to make printouts of this publication for FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. Please keep it in a clean place.

"The gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts".

For more information, contact the Centre or better still, come and visit us.

© 2002. Copyright. The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.