Bringing ideas to life at The Tibetan Buddhist Society

Thanks for your interest in proposing a new idea or project for the Tibetan Buddhist Society.

In our experience, ideas and projects suggested by members of our community have the best chance of becoming a reality where the person making the suggestion takes an active part in developing and explaining the proposal, and is also committed on an ongoing basis, to seeing it through.

As we are all volunteers at the centre, and implementing changes takes time and effort, we welcome your energy in helping us properly consider, and give effect to, suggestions, where they are adopted.

Options for taking your idea forward:

• Talk with the team or committee who are responsible for the area.
• Fill out a suggestion form (available here / or from the Community Support Team at cst@tushita.org), then forward it to the relevant team or via the Community Support Team, who will direct the form to the appropriate team/committee.
• Present your idea directly to directors at a directors meeting. It’s a good idea to first talk to one or more directors so they can assist you with this. You can contact any of the directors personally or via contact@tushita.org. They will arrange for it to be added to the agenda.

How can I help make the idea happen?

The more detail you provide on your suggestion, such as how it could be achieved and resources required, the easier this makes it for teams and directors to consider. As explained above, where your idea is approved, your energy will also be needed to bring it to life.

What happens next?

• Your idea will be discussed by the relevant team or committee, who will assess how it could be achieved and whether the required resources are available. Ideally, you’d be available to be part of that discussion. The group may need to discuss your idea with other teams, committees, or the director group.
• The team, committee or director group may request further information from you.
• The team or committee may be able to make a decision on your idea or they may need to make a recommendation on your idea to the directors, for discussion at the directors meeting (especially if the idea entails significant costs or human resources).
• You will receive a response from the team or directors.
• If your idea isn’t considered feasible at the time for some reason, that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t a good idea or won’t be achievable in the future. You may be able to come up with a way to deal with any issues, and re-present the idea. And, of course, you can continue the conversation with other people in the Tibetan Buddhist Society community.

Director approval

• Decisions on operational initiatives within teams are unlikely to need director approval.
• Some decisions need director ratification, as determined by the internal constitution of the Tibetan Buddhist Society.
• Minor director decisions are those which go beyond the usual team decisions and have short term impact on the centre/students, don’t affect many people, and cost less than $5000. These decisions need three directors to decide/ratify. Three directors from the relevant team (or associated with the team) are probably best placed to make/ratify these decisions, in collaboration with the team and other relevant teams and committees.
• Decisions which have medium to long term impact on the centre/students, or cost more than $5000 need to be made/ratified by the director group.
• For further information, refer to the document, Decision-making at the Tibetan Buddhist Society, available via https://tibetanbuddhistsociety.org/community-information/

Thank you for your interest in helping to shape the future of the Tibetan Buddhist Society.