2011 BLIA SNZ Annual General Meeting & Election

July 30 marks the date of the Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island New Zealand Annual General Meeting and Election of Director Committee where the afternoon meeting were attended by BLIA South Island President, Almeric Cheng, Vice-President, MeiHwa Chen, Advisor, John Lai, other Committee Directors and around 60 members. Counselling the meeting were Venerable Abbess Manshin and Venerable Juexi who attended as non-voting delegates. President Almeric Cheng started the meeting in thanking everyone that attended and reported past year activities. It then followed by reports by the Treasurer and North-subchapter president Christine Wang, West-subchapter president, Susan Wu, English-subchapter president Glenda Hope and Young Adult Division (YAD) president Hao-Tin Lin.

The agenda of the meeting also included:
1. Joining in Christchurch Clean Up New Zealand Week on 2011, August 20.
2. Establishing the “BLIA South Island NZ Friendly Affection Volunteering Team” with Louisa Kuo as the Leader, Heidi Li and Luping as the Deputy Leader.
3. Encouraging members to participate the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Dharma Function happening on the 14th of August, 2011.
4. Participating in the Opening of Buddha Memorial Hall in Kaoshiung, Taiwan happening on the 25th and 26th of December 2011.
5. Discussion on the BLIA World Headquarters General Conference Directors Meeting.

13 members were elected in the 10th Election of BLIA South Island Directors Committee. With the assistance of BLIA South Island Advisor, John Lai, the next President and Vice-Presidents have been elected. The next BLIA South Island President will be See-Shen Lee and the Vice-Presidents will be Yenying Chen and Ding Lihson.

Hao-Tin Lin, the president of the YAD South Island has also led in the hand gesture performance alongside a song called “I sincerely” and BLIA members also performed the “Three Good Song” on stage. The meeting ended with Venerable Abbess Manshin sharing wisdoms of “Patience Overcomes Unusual Matters”, “To Give means Leading-out Outstanding People”, “Practice Makes Perfect”, and “Focus”. Venerable Abbess Manshin also gratified in witnessing better strength, energy and educated members this past year. The abbess together with BLIA and YAD members closed the meeting with “Maori’s Haka” dance bringing out fun and joy.