It appears that there are rare books and articles at Alexandria West.
I would suggest that original be preserved and only photocopies be
kept for public access. This will enable replacement as copies when
handled by people get lost or torn.
Another thing of importance is Adpets allowed to give Truth as it is
after 1890. I think from 1890 to 1940 they gave much secrete
knowledge through Adyar TS. So Theosophist and Herald of the Star and
other articles and books in this period are important for students of
Theosophy.
Anand Gholap
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl@s...> wrote:
Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:
> I remember this was done in the 60s, when there was a real
resource of
> Lodges and speakers. In the greater Los Angeles area there was
once a
> dozen or more Lodges and some very fine and knowledgeable
speakers. The
> So.California Federation tried to set up a speaker's list, but I
> remember opposing it because I saw it (I think correctly) as a
> transparent attempt to have an official list of "approved"
speakers, so
> that Lodges would know who to invite and who to shun. California
Lodges,
> in those days, were very competitive, run by ego driven managers,
and
> resisted any attempts by members to have them work together.
Today, we
> have gone way beyond the problem of having to make lists of
speakers.
> As the number of Lodges have dwindled over the years, there are
few
> Lodges which still have neighboring Lodges from which to draw
speakers.
I was thinking of something more on the order of letting
anybody who
wished to list themselves do so, and also let individual members
write
reviews.
> I have visited the Lodge in New York which you belong. The real
estate
> must be worth millions of dollars, though that old building
should have
> been raised and rebuilt many years ago. That alone scares people
away,
> in spite of the fact that you are sitting on some of the most
expensive
> real estate in the country.
There have been a number of opportunities missed in the past.
My guess
is that the real estate is worth between 1 and 2 million dollars;
part
of the problem is that it is not on a great block (there's a
halfway
house on the block, a number of closed businesses, and a couple of
nearly abandoned buildings). There has been rebuilding, and, for
the
last several years, the Board of Directors worked on a principle of
making sure that everything was done legally and properly.
> Alexandria West has had to think about these things. We need a
minimum
> of 4,000 square feet of floor space to do what we need to do--
10,000
> would be more realistic. Even in our Small California community,
that
> would be a million dollar investment for starts. Such an
investment
> requires a very solid foundation of meaningful activity to
sustain
> itself and to be able to change with the times. By meaningful
activity,
> I mean services which goes far beyond the traditional fare of
weekly
> lectures and book sales.
And the Kern Foundation will NOT donate money towards physical
buildings. By the way, for those not familiar with Alexandria West,
here
is a link (Jerry, are there any others?):
http://blavatskyarchives.com/alexandriawest.htm
Bart
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