The meeting was held online due to a planned power outage at TBS.

  Item 1:  An Update on Loden Rinpoche (Michael)

Michael shared sections of a number of videos and photos of Loden Rinpoche all of which showed a very happy and healthy young monk, The videos were of:

• Receiving Losar offerings
• Ordination photos from March. Loden Rinpoche was ordained by His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama.
• Loden Rinpoche’s 9^th birthday party – presents and cake and playing soccer with a new ball!
• A holiday rafting snap at Mysore water world
• A photo with Geshe Lhundrup (former translator for Geshe Loden when working on the Path to Enlightenment text) and a photo of Loden Rinpoche in the garden.
• A brief video of Rinpoche memorising texts

Michael recapped that Loden Rinpoche is enrolled at Sera-Je monastery school. The school has official Indian Government accreditation.  Rinpoche may transition to the Geshe program after completing Yr10

 Item 2: TBS visit to India – December 2025 (Michael)

• A group of 12 from the TBS community will head to Sera-Je for 7 nights on an informal visit
• Michael and others who had been part of the previous visit commented that it had been an inspirational experience, as too was meeting the other monks of Loden Labrang and seeing Sera-je monastery.
• The group this year will arrive in time for the anniversary celebrations of Sera-je’s founding on 13 December and Lama Tsong Khapa’s anniversary on 14 December.  The monastery will be covered in celebratory lights and the monks and visitors will recite Tsong Khapa’s Migtsema mantra.
• There will also be time to meet informally with Rinpoche and offer khatas.
• The travellers will also sponsor a puja at Sera Je which will include offerings to each of the 2,500 monks and sponsor a meal for the monks of Loden Labrang and Denma college.
• We expect that there will be similar opportunities in future for members of our TBS community who wish to, to visit Sera Monastery and meet Rinpoche. These are not official TBS visits and so generally people find out about them by word of mouth around the centre.  Anybody who might be interested can speak to Michael, Anna, Martin or other regulars at the centre.

There was a question about offerings to Rinpoche.  It was suggested that the best way to make donations towards his support is to do them via the TBS website.  On the donations page there is a drop-down menu that includes support for Rinpoche and his household as an option

Item 3:  Temple repairs (Chris)

• The temple roof is in need of urgent repairs to remedy leaking, and a large section will be replaced by gold-finished colour-bond in February-March 2026
• Repairs are scheduled to take 8 weeks and will commence after the January Lam Rim retreat.
• The temple will not be available for any events during that time as materials will be being delivered and taken away, with sections fenced off.
• The estimated cost of these repairs is $270,000.
• Fund raising planning will be undertaken as the upper level temple decking also requires repair
• Thanks were offered to Chris and others who have put a lot of time into organising these essential repairs

Item 4:  Events during the temple repairs (Anna)

• From March 2026, classes will move into the old Gompa
• The New Year festival and the Vietnamese pilgrimage visits will be cancelled – with the exception of a 15-20 person group from Quang Minh Temple and another second small group.
• The enjoyment shop will be closed for the duration of the repairs, and the snack bars will likely be bolstered during that time.

Item 5: Feedback from the visit of His Eminence Ling Rinpoche (Anna)

• The organising group were warmly thanked by the meeting for organising a wonderful event – especially, as Anna noted, TBS had never previously managed something quite on that scale and length of visit. A very large group of volunteers worked together on all aspects – including advance planning, supporting His Eminence and party throughout their visit and supporting the public events.
• All the planning and feedback documents will be filed on the centre computer for future reference
• His Eminence and party were very happy with their stay at TBS and extended their visit at the centre after returning from Bendigo.
• A number of issues for improvement were also noted including the number of toilets available, the need to share responsibilities broadly, better and earlier communication with volunteers, logistical problems with kitchen availability and ability to serve food hot to differing locations to the visitors, managing catering quantities, volunteer reserved chairs being lost to ordained visitors who had not identified as ordained when registering,
• Special thanks were also offered for the efforts made to offer the experience online to those unable to attend in person.

Item 5:  A new defibrillator (Rosie)

• A new, top-of-the-range defibrillator has been purchased for TBS, an important purchase particularly given the aging population of residents, students and visitors. It is very easy to use and offers real time CPR guidance.
• Thanks were offered to Rosie for her efforts in researching and procuring the machine, which was purchased on special.
• The machine has easy to follow instructions, paddles suitable for both children and adults, and an excellent battery life. It will likely be mounted somewhere in the back area of the temple, in an alarmed cabinet, on the wall
• TBS will offer first aid training (which includes CPR and defibrillator training) to several interested residents and Events team members, though it is noted that training is not required in order to use the defibrillator.

Item 6: A special forum proposal

 There was discussion about an idea raised by Tara and Deb to consider an open forum event around mental health and the balance between meditation and medication.  There was a positive discussion about the idea in principle.  The events team could help to work out a spot on the calendar.

  Forum

• Rosie made the meeting aware that new volunteer forms with clipboard containing storage for completed forms, are now available on both of the publicity tables at the back and front of the temple.
• Anna noted that TBS had negotiated an absolutely massive year of events, a considerable achievement – a comment that was warmly endorsed by the meeting.
• Anna also noted that there was still one event to come – the Spring Open Day, which this year will combine the garden open day with the Spring festival. She noted that it promises to be a lovely day and encouraged attendance
• Parama raised an issue re difficulty accessing the library given that the central house is often locked and that residents may not be available to open the central house door.
• Part of the difficulty is that there is a primary need to ensure the security of the property and safety of residents. It was noted that there have been a number of significant temple robberies around Melbourne in the last year.
• While moving the library to the back of the temple was mooted, it was noted that Geshe-la specifically requested that it not be placed there. It was also noted that the current location provided both a beautiful and quiet place to sit and read.

After general discussion, it was suggested that any member wishing to access the library should email events@tushita.org well in advance and advise the details of their desired visit.  With sufficient notice, it should then be possible to arrange access to the library.

It was also suggested that this manner of accessing the library should be made known to all TBS members and it was suggested that it could be included in communications from the membership team at the time of joining or renewing memberships

Rosie thanked all participants and closed the meeting.