Buddhist Council of Wales working for Buddhists in Wales

The following events were attended by a Buddhist Council of Wales representative:

8th March – ‘Inspirational Women’ an interfaith event for International Women’s Day, organised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Nor’dzin Pamo (BCW Chair) was one of the speakers.
15th March – Interfaith Council for Wales event at the Cardiff Reform Synagogue
16th March – Interfaith Council for Wales meeting. Lin Ashby spoke about the Charities Commission (see below for more details of this meeting).
28th March – ‘Has Wales Become a Godless Society?’ – Gorwel Debate (please see Nor’dzin’s personal blog for more details of this event) 
30th March – BCW bi-annual meeting (see separate post for details) 
3rd April – Faith Communities Forum meeting, with the First Minister and other AMs (see below for more details of this meeting).

Events to which a representative of the Buddhist Council of Wales were invited, but no representative was available to attend:

7th March – The Muslim Council of Wales conference with partners in Wales exploring a community based response to violent extremism.
Race Equality First – Youth Against Violent Extremism Project  – 4 visits to churches and mosques

Forthcoming events for which the Buddhist Council of Wales does not have an available representative:
July 20th 2017 – Peace Mala Inter-faith Liturgy for World Peace at Llandaf Cathedral, Cardiff.
July 31st 2017 – The Welsh National Service of Remembrance to mark the Centenary of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in Langemark, Belgium at 16:00 (local time)
Could someone from one of our Member Organisations attend this? Please contact the Buddhist Council of Wales at buddhistcouncilwales(at)gmail.com if you can help.

Interfaith Council for Wales meeting 16th March
Lin Ashby is the lead on faith-based charities for the Charities Commission. Many of Lin Ashby’s comments may be relevant to Buddhist groups and organisations:

• if you have a constitution you are probably acting like a charity
• even if you are not a charity, but work in that way, you need to observe the principles laid down by the Charities Commission
• Trustees should reflect the organisation’s remit and be diverse (gender, age, able/disabled, etcetera)
• buck stops with the Trustees – they are in charge
• the Governing Document of an organisation should include how to deal with a conflict of interest, and with disagreement, and include length of time in post for officers
• a Code of Conduct is good to have

She will be offering free workshops for organisations. The BCW will let you know when these are arranged.

The TSPC (Third Sector Partnership Council) has proved its value and been successful in a couple of its faith-based campaigns:

• Local Government wished to end Communities First. The TSPC succeeded in convincing government of the importance of Communities First and the problems that would arise if it was ceased to exist for those benefiting from its work. The government has changed its policy with regard to Communities First.
• Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim communities have religious requirements with regard to burial arrangements. Health and Social Care are now addressing these issues.

Faith Commuities Forum meeting 3rd April

• Syrian refugees
• Community Cohesion
• Valleys Task Force
• Budget Engagement