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Dalai Lama's visit to Chicago

Oct 05, 2011 10:07 PM
by MKR


It has just been announced that the TSA sponsored visit of Dalai Lama to
Chicago was a great success and resulted in collecting $400,000+ which was
handed over to the Tibet Fund and the Dalai Lama Trust. Those who organized
and executed the program need to be congratulated and this demonstrates what
they are capable of.

The next important question that should pique the interest of theosophists
is whether this above project is going to help theosophy and TS in the USA
or seen just as a local event which will be forgotten in a couple of years.

While the above project was successfully completed, we are yet to hear what
the leadership are planning to address the needs of theosophy and TS in the
USA. As many readers here are aware, TS in America had nearly 8,000 members
during the Presidency of Dora Kunz and currently it is less than half. This
is in spite of having committed, dedicated, scholarly and able leaders in
charge of the Section. The membership has been on a downward slide and
obviously whatever the leaders were trying did not work. Not only they were
not working, the issue of shrinking membership is such a hot potato that
none of the leaders ever talked about it.

For most lodges, the current officers are strangers and never seen any of
them. For example, in my city, San Antonio, Texas which is the seventh
largest city, I have never seen any of the current elected officials in the
last several decades.  Let us keep tuned and see what the current officers
are planning to do to rejuvenate the members and increase the membership.

MKR

PS: Those who have been following the membership trend know that Indian
Section has shown a very steady growth in membership and today it is the
largest Section. May be there are lessons that can be learnt from the Indian
Section which can be useful to tackle the declining membership issue in the
USA.


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