Diary of a Chapter Leader

VOV update

Last night we finally made some headway at our Victory Over Violence (VOV) meeting. We had way too many events happening and no one to do it all. Here is where we started.

1. VOV - This is a program involving activities or exercises in a small group setting. This is a youth to youth program. It will take place in schools. After our friend, an SGI member, was murdered, our district wanted to do something for our community. There have been nine murders in Salinas this year. All but one (our friend) are gang related. We want to help the young people of this city find a way out of the cycle of violence. One of the members of our district is a 5th grade teacher and she sees and hears about violence from her students. She was involved with VOV in the SF bay area a few years ago. She will help us through the process.
2. "Transforming the Human Spirit” exhibit – This is a freestanding exhibit sponsored by SGI. It involves more logistics, but less member support. It needs a large venue, transportation from and back to SF, docents prepared to answer questions about the exhibit and SGI, security and a lot of promotion. This will give the men and women something to do toward this project and will reach a greater portion of the population.
3. Gandhi, King Ikeda + Book Donation – Our area recently started using the Marina Library Community Room as our meeting place of choice. The room is brand new, has a beautiful view and costs $10.00 per use. It is perfect for us. Some region leaders came to a meeting at the library, told someone up the leader ladder and then someone decided to put the GKI exhibit in the library lobby the same time as the Monterey Jazz Festival and donate 1,000 books to the library. Danny Nagashima (SGI-USA general director) will attend and Herbie Hancock was invited because he will be at the Jazz Festival. The entire western zone will support this movement.

Time to Make Time

That's what I need to do. Make time. I have several entries in mind, but haven't made time to write. So tonight, I just stayed at work to work on some personal stuff. I am in charge of the Area calendar. I try to get it complete before World Peace Prayer the first Sunday of the month. This usually involves sending a few nice yet harassing emails to get dates. This month I haven’t even started the harassing and some districts have sent in their dates. So I put the calendar together and sent it out for review. It takes a bit of time because I make it color-coded by chapter. That way I can just look at the green dates and ignore the blue and purple. Also, May is contribution month so there are additional meetings for that. That is done for now.

It hit the fan

Last night we had our regular Monday night chanting meeting. This time it was also a planning meeting. There were four of us - my WD group leader, our chapter study liaison, our MD district/chapter leader, and me. We planned for next month and our district meeting next week and we talked about the new district that the chapter and area are trying to form. This always leads to the discussion of the Japanese Pioneer Women's Division (JPWD) members who seem to be opposed to everything we do. A year ago, our district had two women who were already taking care of other members. We wanted to promote both to group leader. Our Japanese WD chapter leader came to my house and told me what the JPWD said about my appointments. Neither was ready for promotion for various reasons (one was still learning gongyo and I think they just didn’t like the other one). I explained that these women were already doing the job and, coincidentally, districts can appoint their own group leaders.

Guilt by Association

I have just read blogs by Ryuei, Byrd and Joe. All three seem to point to Guilt by Something.

First I read Ryuei's blog. He alludes to Guilt by Reading. I giggled when I read this. Not at Ryuei, but at the idea that reading FWP can be cause for excommunication for SGI. Taken out of context, it sounds absurd, but in this context, it seems plausible, but still silly. Is this in response to Byrd's blog or did you hear something else?

Then I read Byrd's blog about the SGI leader who thought she should apologize for having opinions about the SGI-USA organization. Cool, SGI headquarters outs itself. I agree with Bryd's response - 100%. Again, it sounds absurd, but strangely plausible. So that's Guilt by Stating Your Opinion.

Then Patrick tried to take responsibility for tattling on FWP. Not so fast, Patty, the SGI-USA has been checking this sight for awhile. So you just turned this one guy/gal onto us and he/she knew Byrd. Guilt by Lack of Understanding or Guilt by Tattling.

Then I read Joe's blog about the Leadership Manual and the Code of Conduct signature form. Very enlightening. I knew about the form, but hadn't read it or even thought much about it. Now I'll check it out and decide for myself. That's Guilt by Non-Compliance.

Our first VOV meeting

We had our first Victory Over Violence meeting last night. About 30 of us attended including the daughter and mother of our member who was a victim of violence. We set a tentative date in mid-September. I don't think anyone in that room really understands what we are about to do. The MD area leader thinks he's going to run this project. That's not a good idea. We need a project manager for this. Someone who can delegate and communicate and get the job done. The project manage can't be a faith leader. Those two jobs conflict. He wanted to meet once a month for 5 months. That won't get the job done.

It was a great meeting. Several people really stepped up and got involved. I am looking forward to working with other members and other community groups to make this a success.