The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives


Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast 237 for Sunday 11 August 2002
on Hillside Radio 88.0 FM


Glossary:

benevolent: desirous of the good of others, of a kindly disposition, charitable

gratitude: the quality or condition of being grateful or thankful,; the appreciation of and inclination to return kindness; gratefulness


Today’s program is titled:
The President’s Annual Report 2001 – 2002


Our Centre, the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. has been incorporated as an Australian company since 21 July 1980.

We plan by the year 2008 to be the fifth most popular global e-resource for Buddha Dhamma.

On the occasion of our 23rd Annual General Meeting, held at our Centre yesterday Saturday 10 August 2002, our President Mr. Julian Bamford B.A. App.Rec reported to our Resident Practitioners, Directors, our heavenly advisors and Members, on the many meritorious successes our Centre achieved over the past twelve months and setting our policies for the future.

Today, we would like to share our President’s Annual Report 2001 – 2002 with you.

The President’s Annual Report 2001 - 2002

This report assumes the reader is familiar with the objects for which our Centre is established. They are:

To introduce a philosophy of life based on the teachings of Buddha Dharma.

To encourage the study, practice and realisation of Buddha Dharma.

To promote activities associated with Buddhism and Buddhist Culture in Australia and overseas.

To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.

To promote and maintain direct or auxiliary activities for educational, social, charitable, philanthropic, benevolent and humanitarian work.

To build, construct, maintain and alter any buildings or works in accordance with the requirements of the Centre.

Pali: somanassa-sahagatam nana-sampayuttam sasankharikam ekam

English: one consciousness, prompted, accompanied by joy, associated with knowledge


1.0 Our New Committee and Staff 2002 - 2003


We welcome our new Executive Members and our new staff. (See Appendix 1)

We completed 3 years and 3 moons of Prajna Paramitta Teachings at our Centre this year.

We began Abhidhamma teaching in 2001 – 2002 and it will be taught for the next nine years.

Our Abhidhamma teaching program is directed toward team teaching. The year before last we had two foci Teachers. This last year more adaptive foci occurred at our Centre.

They are now four foci. The four members of our Teaching Team, are three females and one male, who have worked together for some years at our Centre.

Our President supports all our team teaching endeavours.

Members have remembered to increase regular offerings to the various Devas and Devatas who help our organisation. We dedicate this President’s Annual Report 2001 – 2002 to them with a series of requests that they continue their advice and assistance in future.


2.0 Trading Report


Those professing to follow Buddha Dhamma continue to
grow according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics
official census figures.

There has been a 290% increase since the last census.

Further growth is expected.

We have fulfilled our statutory obligations as a company.

We believe that we can continue to remain solvent over the next twelve months.

Our Return on Investment (ROI) for the year 2001- 2002 was 22%

We calculated our Return on Investment (ROI) by adding profit (increase of assets after depreciation) and cash, goods and labour inputs (provided by Frank Carter, B.Ec.) and divided by last year’s total net assets.

$3966 + $67,301 + $26,570 divided by $436,404 = 22%
This year’s assets are valued at $440,501.

As Australian bank interest is around 4.2% and over the last three months shares have dropped (All Ordinaries Index –9%, Dow Jones –22%, NASDAQ –27%) we can determine against this background that our performance was very good.


3.0 New Life Members Appointed


Anita Hughes R.N.Div.1. was presented with Life Membership for her superior example as Resident Practitioner. Anita is on the Standing Committee on Women of the World Fellowship of Buddhists

Dr. Ananda W.P. Guruge B.A. PhD. B.Litt, was presented with a Life Membership for his decades of helping the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. adjust to International affairs.

Dr. Ananda W.P. Guruge is a renowned Buddhist Scholar, author of 44 books, past Diplomat, Dean of the Faculty of Buddhist studies at Hsi Lai University, USA and Vice-President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and its former UNESCO Ambassador.


4.0 New Cultural Changes Achieved


A major cultural change has been to our Sangha advisors. Two Theravadin Monks from Thailand are now our advisors, the Most Venerable Phra Ajarn Plien Panyapatipo and the Most Venerable Phra Sithichoke Sithiyakara.

Another two major cultural changes occurred in the past year.

the gaining of a second Resident Practitioner, and;

how much more we use Information Technology to globalise our activities.


5.0 Our Web Site Publications Development


Our web sites are part of our “library-without-walls” project.

Our teachers and web masters have developed much savoir-faire regarding our web sites publications this year.

Our major web masters are Evelin Halls, Pennie White and Julian Bamford. We have another three webmasters in full training of our style of operations: Leanne Eames, Helen Appleyard and Kamfatt Lin.

In the case of our flagship publication the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, we have found how to increase the depth of knowledge fields online we present to our readers in our publications.

New translations of Suttas from Pali to English by Sister M. Uppalawanna have been added to our Internet sites. The Suttas Majjhima Nikaaja 1 – 101, Majjhima III, Anguttara Nikaaya I – Ruupaadii Ekaka Vagga I are on our websites:

http://www.bddronline.net.au/bddr12no3
http://www.companyontheweb.com/buddhatext

In the case of the Brooking Street Bugle, we have found how to increase the very human approach online of our publication.

Now we understand we can illustrate an article with 200 colour photographs or more on our web site, whereas if we were to print it we would have to limit the range of illustrations because of physical space and economic considerations.

During the year we published 18 print issues of the Brooking Street Bugle, averaging 30 to 40 A4 pages, and publishing online at www.bsbonline.com.au with over 580 colour photographs to give a pictorial account of the many meritorious activities our Centre’s Members have generated.

We have around 2800 colour photographs online on our seven websites.

When selection is made from arrays of photographs, the potential depths of knowledge fields are diminished.
Our webmasters put their time, effort and expertise into running our seven web sites and the extent of our success can be seen by:

Total visits for all sites since counters have been put on are: 10,147.

Average number of visitors per day for all sites: 20

Aggregate visitor traffic predicted in the next month for all sites: 478


6.0 Our Five Year e-Resource Target


We want to distribute and store more branded information in various modern media.

To help us become more widely known we have instituted a new policy for branding digital data as the Chan Academy Australia.

We aim to be the fifth most popular Buddha Dhamma e-resource in the world by 2008. By that year, a new fast Internet service ought to be operating .......? in this country.

It helps that we are a Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and an Associated Institute of the World Buddhist University, both head quartered in Bangkok Thailand.

To keep in touch, this year we sent out New Year and Versak blessing cards to other Regional Centres and friends.

We receive many international publications and messages electronically from around the world. More and more we use email to deliver our key papers in Australia and globally, as well as communications with our Members. Our total external emails, sent and received, for 2001 – 2002 was 3460.

We have an internal e-mail on LAN2 for select Members.

We are learning to systematise the handling and preservation of captured data in digital form. We have hundreds of colour photographs from three digital cameras that we have backed up to CD’s for storage and use by our webmasters.


7.0 Property Rating Report


It is with great pleasure that I can report that during the past year we have achieved planning normalisation of our Centre’s position as a small Hall of Assembly with the local Council.

More and more of our Buddha Dhamma work is being processed offsite (refer to Section 11.0).

8.0 International Dhamma Activities (IDA) Report


For a full report of this year's International Dhamma Activities (IDA) refer to the International Dhamma Activities (IDA) Task Unit Report for the Period 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002. Written, researched and edited by: Evelin Halls, Dip.For.Lang.Corres. and Pennie White B.A. Dip.Ed.

We had good attendance at four International Meetings this year.

Our Resident Practitioners travelled to Taiwan for an International Conference on Religious Co-operation, and to Bangkok, Thailand for the World Buddhist University Council Meeting and Conference.

Members supported the Australasian Buddhist Convention Week International Conference held in Camberwell Melbourne Australia.

In June 2002, a meeting of four International Buddha Dhamma leaders took place at our Temple.

The four leaders, Dr. Ananda W.P. Guruge, Vice-President World Fellowship of Buddhists from the USA, Ms.Piyaporn Erbprasartsook, World Fellowship of Buddhists from Thailand, John D. Hughes, Vice-President World Fellowship of Buddhists from Australia, and Anita Hughes, Advisor to the Standing Committee on Women, World Fellowship of Buddhists, met to discuss further building of relationships between Thailand and Australia.

The next World Fellowship of Buddhists General Conference will be held in Selangor, Malaysia this year.


9.0 Corporate Governance and Reporting (CGR) New Software

We have upgraded to a standard financial computing software Quicken Version 6.5.


The development of the new Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. database has enabled the consolidation of three contact databases onto one PC. The basic database was designed by our Members Evelin Halls and Lainie Smallwood, and is being developed by Mr. Arthur Lipscombe, our IT Software Developer.


10.0 Depreciated Value of Our Centre’s Assets


Our Centre’s Assets increased from $436,505 at 1 July 2001 to $440,501 at 30 June 2002.

The value of depreciation was $8805 and write-offs were $522.

This is a net increase after depreciation of $2623 for the year. (0.6%) This compares with 5% increase in net assets for the previous twelve-month period.
Last financial year 2000 – 2001, depreciation of assets was 2.6% of our assets.

There has been an increase in assets of 1% this year. There has been a depreciation of assets this year of 2.1%

The net decrease is 1.4%.

Based on this data, if no actions were taken, it would take 71 years to deplete our assets.


11.0 Cost of Computing Onsite and Offsite


The depreciated value of computer assets used onsite at our Centre this year was $37,000. The cost of consumables and peripherals was $11,000.

The offsite value of Member’s computer hardware is $38,000 and the cost of consumables and peripherals is $18,000.

This year the value of offsite computing capital used exceeded the value of onsite computing capital used.

The total depreciated value of our computing hardware, software consumables and peripherals at the end of this financial year 2001- 2002 was $48,000.

The ratio of offsite computer assets in use to onsite computer assets in use is 1.3. We find this a satisfactory outcome of our planning.

This year we plan to increase this ratio to 3.0.


12.0 Our Next Developmental Step


We estimate we need to spend $30,000 onsite this financial year on computers to upgrade our systems (estimated retail value). It is unlikely the cost of our consumables and peripherals will diminish.
Over 2002 – 2003, we plan to increase our CD production by 700%. We intend to sell CD’s.

In the last twelve months we have added Local Area Network 2 (LAN2) and Internal Email System 2.

We are planning to introduce the PhotoLAN in the next 12 months.

Our lead-time to convert digital photographs to edited CD’s is now 10 hours. We intend to reduce this to 5 hours.

We store our digital photographs for our websites and CD’s.

We will make multiple copies of these backup materials.


13.0 Valuing Our Writing Time


We encourage scholarship.

Our Members are diligent in delivering prompt written output suitable for our purposes.

We incline to the view that Buddha Dhamma Teaching, English language coaching and writing time not be costed on the grounds that it is Dhamma Dana or related to Dhamma Dana.

Our year’s total of writing time onsite and offsite for 2001 – 2002 was 4821 hours.

Estimates of onsite keyboarding time in hours 2001 – 2002 were:

Correspondence: 540 hours
Emails internal: 520 hours
Email external: 163 hours
Abhidhamma teaching papers: 30 hours
Buddhist Hour broadcast scripts: 1820 hours
Data entry: 127 hours
Reports: 463 hours

Year’s total of hours-worked onsite: 3663 hours

Estimates of offsite keyboarding time in hours 2001 – 2002 was 1158 hours (including web site loading).

In addition, we delivered an average of 61 hours each week in coaching use of English language (annualised hours equal 3172 hours coaching).


14.0 Local Area Planning and Maintenance (LAPAM) Report


Last year, Frank Carter was responsible for LAPAM operations.

Cash Generation for Local Area Planning and Asset Maintenance projects totalled $9198 for this financial year.

Members helped raise funds toward key projects including the upgrade to three-phase power.

A comparison of funds produced by our Members cash generating efforts from the wider community through events such as the rose bush sales, Red Hill Show and Mother’s Day Flower Stall, show that for the 2000 - 2001 financial year the total was $2690 whereas for the 2001 - 2002 financial year the total was $5403.

This is an increase of 101%.

LAPAM intend to increase its cash generation performance this year to meet our increased costs of running the Centre and our program of maintenance of building works.

Over the 12 months, Members work on LAPAM projects averaged 5.2 hours work per day (37 hours per week).

This compares with the previous year’s figures for LAPAM averaging 7.7 hours work per day (54 hours per week).

LAPAM Projects included:

Construction of a fire wall next to Suite 1
Construction of a protective brick fire wall in Suite 10

Development of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Fire Prevention Manual

Seven Fire Fighting drills were held this year

Service contract with the Country Fire Authority (CFA) to do fire extinguisher inspection and testing every six months

Our insurance repayment method changed from lump sum to installment. Ten monthly payments of $542 each.

Implementation of the Essential Services Inspection System Standardised Quarterly Landlord Reporting

14.1 Essential Services Inspection System Software

An improvement has been gained through the use of the software Essential Services Inspection System (ESIS), computerisation of our Essential Services Reports and annualised scheduling of our maintenance.

Stephen Moon, Managing Director of Confirm Systems Pty Ltd. in Doncaster, donated the ESIS training manuals and software to our Centre. The system has been provided with lifetime licences for 10 buildings.

Under our Essential Services Inspection System we have scheduled a replacement program to upgrade our fleet of fire extinguishers a small number of units at a time. This will spread the financial impact over three years.

There are three levels of testing required under the Australian Standards which is done by the Upwey CFA acting as agents for the Country Fire Authority.

The CFA fitted Fire Extinguisher location signs to the walls above each extinguisher to identify the extinguisher type and make the extinguishers easier to locate in an emergency.

The Buddha Rupa Glass Surround ($2700), the installation of new wiring for Suite 10, 10A and 11 ($1460) and the construction of the firewall ($1,500) were the major components of this year’s activities.

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

This year Members and friends of the Centre contributed new resources to the Centre for our Resident Practitioners John D. Hughes and Anita Hughes and Members’ use.

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

Total material costs $6530 (20%)
Total labour $26570 (80%)
Total materials & labour $33100

This is $636 per week or $91 per day.

Total of materials cost and labour costs donated to the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. $25,155

14.3 Supply Chain Management

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

Use second hand materials. There are many options to obtain donated goods if we use second hand materials rather than new.

Second hand timber must be stress graded before use in approved projects

Ask persons for donations of goods we can use.

Ask businesses to donate the goods we want. Businesses often have samples, seconds, items incorrectly ordered, or last year’s range that they will give away if approached in a suitable way.

As a charitable organisation we have a suitable profile for them to make donations.

If we do have to buy new goods we can often get a better deal by:

Buying in bulk. An example of this is our purchase of A4 photocopy paper at a discount rate.

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

Asking for seconds, or samples, etc.


15.0 Occupational Health & Safety Report


For the period 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002 there were 21 reported Occupational Health and Safety incidents. This compares with 19 reported incidents for the same period last year.


16.0 John D. Hughes Collection


We aim to be a third rate library by the end of this year.

Due to staff absence the rate of cataloguing books slowed. During the year 316 books were added to our catalogue.

We have appointed a new Chief Information Officer so we expect better performance this year.

Our library catalogue appears on our web site at www.bdcu.org.au

Our “library-without-walls” (the information on our various web sites) has increased by over 570% this year.


17.0 Overview


Our premises and surrounds continue to be well maintained.

Our Executive Members and new staff understand our organisation’s goal to become the fifth most popular global e-resource for Buddha Dhamma.

Making skilful use of information technology to lever our hidden assets and an array of under-utilised resources is our current concern.

We will continue our weekly Sunday Buddhist Hour Broadcasts and continue to place the broadcast text on our web site at www.bdcublessings.net.au.

We have been broadcasting for four years. Our future plan is to have a web site for Internet radio for this service.

We commenced Abhidhamma Teaching on Tuesday evenings on 25 June this year and will continue for nine years.

May you develop kusala kamma: somanassa-sahagatam nana-sampayuttam sasankharikam ekam, meaning one consciousness, prompted, accompanied by joy, associated with knowledge.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.


Today’s script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Julian Bamford, Evelin Halls and Rilla Pargeter.



References

The Australian Newspaper. “Cyclical storm front blows in”, Monday 22 July 2002, page 31.

Buddhist Hour Broadcast. Hillside Radio 88.0 FM. Bayswater Village, Bayswater 3153, Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Our Web Sites:
www.bdcu.org.au
www.bdcublessings.net.au
www.companyontheweb.com/buddhatext
www.companyontheweb.com/buddhamap
www.bddronline.net.au
www.bsbonline.com.au
www.buyresolved.com.au


Document Statistics

Counts:
Words: 3,149
Sentences: 183
Paragraphs: 190
Syllables: 4335

Averages:
Words per sentence: 27.2
Sentences per paragraph: 1.0

Percentages:
Passive Sentences: 21

Readability Statistics
Flesch Grade Level: 10.8
Coleman-Liau Grade Level: 16.6
Bormuth Grade Level: 11.1
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 57.4
Flesch Kincaid Score: 8.9


Readability Statistics

Displays statistics about the document's readability, such as the Flesch Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease Score. These statistics help you determine if you are writing at a level your audience can understand.

Flesch Grade Level: Flesch Grade Level indicates the Flesch Reading Ease score as a grade level. See the Flesch Scoring Table.

Coleman-Liau Grade level : Indicates the grade level of the document based on the average number of letters per word and number of sentence per 100 words.

Bormuth Grade Level: Indicates the grade level of document based on the average number of letters per word and per sentence. These scores indicate grade levels ranging from 6.3 to 11.6.

Flesch Reading Ease Score: Indicates how easy the document is to read based on the number of syllables per word and number of words per sentence. These scores indicate a number between 0 and 100. The higher the score, the easier the document is to read. See the Flesch Scoring Table.

Flesch-Kincaid Score : Indicates the grade level of the document based on the number of syllables per word and number of words per sentence. This score predicts the difficulty of reading technical documents, and is based on Navy training manuals that score in difficulty from 5.5 to 16.3. It meets military readability specifications MIL-M-38784 and DOD-STD-1685.

Flesch Scoring Table

Flesch Reading Ease Score Flesch Grade Level Reading Difficulty
90-100 5th Grade Very easy
80-89 6th Grade Easy
70-79 7th Grade Fairly easy
60-69 8th-9th Grade Standard
50-59 High School Fairly difficult
30-49 College Difficult
0-29 College Graduate Very difficult

(Reference: Lotus Word Pro Help Files)

Disclaimer:

As we, 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 Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.


Copyright:

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.


May You Be Well And Happy


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

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