JSBTC Annual General Meeting 2017 - Toronto Buddhist Church

This year, Toronto Buddhist Church was the host to all Women’s Federation and Temple Delegates from across the country, all of our Ministers, the Bishop, the National Board and special guests President Ken Tanimoto from the Buddhist Churches of America and his wife Alice.

Some of the highlights from the business of the JSBTC AGM:

Member Temple assessments remain at $80 per temple member.
The JSBTC provided a 5-year financial plan showing the need for an increase in assessments if the membership continues to decline. All temples were encouraged to make a 5 year plan to help with their own planning.
Bishop Tatsuya Aoki was re-elected to serve as Bishop of Canada for a two year term.
The National Board Directors for the 2017-2018 year will be:President: Dave Ohori (Vancouver) Vice-President: Larry Wakisaka (Toronto) Secretary: Debra Campbell Hayashi (Vernon) Treasurer: Greg Chor (Vancouver)
LDC Program Director: Amy Wakisaka (Toronto) Director: Harvey Kaita (Manitoba)
Director: Laura Sugimoto (Calgary)
Director: Trudy Gahlinger (Victoria/Vancouver) Director: Kent MacCarl (Kelowna)
The Ministers Retirement Fund (MRF) is a supplemental fund for retired JSBTC Ministers and their families which was established by the late Rev. Susumu Ikuta. It has recently been active in distributing funds to some of our retired ministers. With legal changes recently completed to the structure of the fund, it is now able to receive donations through local temples to the JSBTC. A generous donation of $120,000 was made to the MRF by the JSBTC Women’s Federation from the proceeds of their surplus from their 2015 World Convention. TBC also made a generous donation of $8,000 at the Saturday Banquet in support of the MRF
TBC presented a Resolution requesting that a Committee be formed to work on recognizing the Office of the Bishop and the Ministerial Association in the JSBTC By-Law for presentation at the JSBTC AGM in 2018. This was passed unanimously by all Member Temples present
Member Temples each presented a topic to share with other temples on “Temple Successes”. TBC’s presentation was made by Rev. Christina Yanko on how TBC Ministers are making efforts to explain more on the rituals and traditions of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism with respect to pillow services, funeral and memorial services and to enable attendees to feel more comfortable and to understand elements of these services.
All Temple Ministers participated in a fun question and answer session whereby questions from those in attendance at the AGM were answered by the Ministers in a game format. Wise, humorous and eloquent answers were the result!
The next JSBTC AGM in 2018 will kindly be hosted by Calgary Buddhist Temple
The JSBTC AGM in 2019 will kindly be hosted by Vancouver Buddhist TempleA lovely banquet at the Casa Imperial Fine Chinese Cuisine Restaurant capped a wonderful evening of food and celebration of the 35th Anniversary of the JSBTC Women’s Federation. JSBTC Commendation Awards were pre- sented to all nine Past Presidents of the WF including Terrie Komori, Jean Furukawa and Jessie Ebata from TBC.The weekend ended with the Tsuito Hoyo closing service and a delicious pot luck lunch which was prepared by many TBC volunteers.Thank you to the TBC JSBTC AGM 2017 Planning Committee and all the many volunteers who pitched in to plan, greet, feed, welcome, drive and help to provide visitors and guests from across the country a home away from home at TBC!