FWBO Development Team seeks Assistant

The FWBO Development Team

is looking for an Assistant… 

Might you be interested in working for the FWBO Development Team?

 * The Development Team (currently Lokabandhu, Siddhisambhava, and Vajragupta) is making a significant contribution to the FWBO, helping the European FWBO Chairs Assembly maintain the FWBO’s unity and vibrancy.

* Projects that we’ve undertaken, or commissioned and funded, include the new Dharma Training Course for Mitras, a new FWBO website, a forthcoming book on the history of the FWBO, fundraising for Bhante and other projects, the International Urban Retreat, events to help make the FWBO more attractive to young people, and much, much more…

* We’re looking for an Order member to be a part-time assistant working closely with Vajragupta, Director of the Development Team.

* Your main areas of work would be…

a) Helping to run events such as the FWBO International Retreat, International Urban Retreat, or “inspiring young people with the Dharma” weekends. You’d be involved in “visioning” the events to maximise their potential, and then overseeing their organisation, publicity, and so on.

b) Helping with the administration of the charity, keeping the books and preparing charity accounts, banking, paying bills and wages, and overseeing the FWBO Chairs Assembly Fund.

c) Helping to communicate the work of the FWBO Chairs Assembly: preparing and distributing “briefings” of our work, helping to consult chairs and centres on new proposals, collating feedback, keeping a database of chairs, mitra convenors, and centre managers.

* You’d need to be… an Order member who loves the FWBO and wants to help it to thrive! We’re looking for someone who is self-motivated, efficient, with a good eye for detail.  You’ll need to be able to organise big events that require co-ordination between people in different locations. You’ll also need to communicate written information clearly and attractively. Skills such as basic publicity design (web and printed) and book-keeping would be an advantage… but don’t worry, we can also provide training…

* It would be a big advantage, though not essential, if you lived as near as possible to Worcester, UK where Vajragupta lives.

* The job is for 2 ½ days per week, with 6 weeks retreat time, and there is a support package of £6K per year.

* For a full job description and application form, or if you’d like more information, or if you are interested but the details above don’t quite work for you, then please contact vajragupta@fwbo.org (or phone 01905-729683) and we can talk about it! The closing date for applications is Wednesday 21st October and we hope to interview on Thursday 5th November in London.

Volunteers needed to help with FWBO News

If you’re reading this you probably know and love FWBO News. It is the main world-wide channel for communicating news of opportunities and developments within the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) and TBMSG (as the FWBO is known in India).

We aim to publish 4-5 stories every week plus occasional features and reviews, also to maintain current jobs or volunteering opportunities on our sister site FWBO Jobs.

The site is managed by Lokabandhu who lives in Glastonbury, UK. He is seeking one or more assistants to help with the editorial work of converting a raw report into a piece ready for publication. This will involve research, sub-editing, picture selection, and formatting the finished story ready for posting. There are plenty of other ways to contribute too, once a working relationship has been established. Readership is steadily growing and so are the number of stories being contributed.

You could live anywhere in the world, but would need good English, good internet access, a reasonable working knowledge of the FWBO/TBMSG – and a passion for communicating news of Dharma developments around the world to others in the Sangha.

Please contact Lokabandhu if you are interested.