NWDA Reviews Priorities

The Board of Directors of the Northwest Dharma Association held a daylong strategic planning meeting in October.  The focus was on achieving sustainability for the organization by evaluating activities and prioritizing those most essential to the NWDA mission of fostering, promoting, and sponsoring communication, interaction, and teaching among Buddhists and other interested people in the Northwest.

To this end, the board has renewed its commitment to maintaining and expanding the NWDA website and the online Northwest Dharma News as the core activities of the association. In the coming year we plan to develop new interactive features and other services for connecting people in various segments of our community.  The website and the eNews are our most efficient tools for meeting such goals with our current resources.

NWDA will continue to collaborate with individuals and teams who initiate projects like the Rural and Alternative Sangha Handbook. (See article below.)  Our role will be to provide support and input during the development phase plus endorsement and distribution when the project is completed.

The primary public event to be organized by NWDA each year will be our Annual Meeting.  We plan to broaden interest and increase attendance by concentrating on specific themes, inviting keynote speakers, and offering educational workshops on occasion.  We recognize that we do not have the human resources to be the sole or lead organizer of other major events, but NWDA will continue to support events organized by our members with publicity and information.

In pursuit of financial stability, NWDA needs to develop its sources of revenue in both the immediate and long-term future.  To emphasize membership recruitment we’ve declared 2008 to be “A People Year.”  We welcome your help.