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At our final March service (3/27) three new sangha members were officially welcomed to SLOBC: Dave Crampton, Jon Rooney and Jennifer Hooper (although not present, Avery Kintner is also a new member). Whenever you see them at our temple please extend them a warm welcome.
The April 9th all-you-can-eat crab feed was a success. The temple is grateful to many of you who pitched in to help out. Our new members came out and pitched in too – Arigato. As in the many years past, we are indebted to the Hayashi family, especially John and Alan, who not only provided manpower and lots of equipment, but also sold many tickets and brought in many helping hands. We are forever grateful.
April was busy but May will turn out to be even more busier for our temple. In May we will have our annual SLOBC Golf Tournament at Cypress Ridge GC in Arroyo Grande. This is a major fund raiser for our temple. Please invite all of your golfing friends to a wonderful day of golf, fun and fellowship with the Hayashi Ranch BBQ topping off the day. Last year was a first for me as I seem to have a conflicting BCA Endowment Fund meeting on the same day (I just skipped it in 2015). I'll skip the BCA meeting again this year to support this important temple fund raiser.
In May we will also have our first (annual?) Bon Odori (only) in our temple parking lot. This odori was set up as a dance only event with no work by our members. Please come and enjoy yourself – dance with just a happi coat (kimonos are not required nor encouraged). Our dance leaders will lead us in many old odori favorites so no practice is necessary. They will guide us all through the steps.
On May 29th, Rev. Nakano will hold Memorial Day services at local cemeteries [Los Osos, SLO, Arroyo Grande, Santa Maria and Lompoc (by request)]. Please avail yourself to attend a short service at your local cemetery.
Last month I mentioned the “Dharmathon” at the BCA NC meeting. These wonderful dharma mes-sages by new BCA ministers can easily be found on the internet. On your smart phone or computer, using Google, type in “BCA Dharmathon” and bingo, it will send you directly to the Dharmathon messages given at the BCA NCM. The messages are inspiring, entertaining and well worth the time listening to. Namo Amida Butsu.
As mentioned last month, the Membership Workshop at the BCA NCM was one of most valuable I've at-tended. In the coming months our temple will initiate some of the ideas that were discussed at that work-shop. From our brain storming session, our temple may even have some of it's own ideas that we may undertake as well. As we look forward to our future, I ask all of our sangha to participate and help make our temple inclusive, robust and a welcoming place for all who seek the Buddha-dharma.
The Coast District Council met on Wednesday, April 20th at the Watsonville BT for the Q2 quarterly meet-ing. The temple's three delegates were Janis Eto, Gary Hongo and your President. SLOBC and Guadalupe BC will host the quarterly meeting scheduled for January 2017. Our two re-spective Buddhist Women’s Associations will be in charge of providing the otoki for that meeting. The meeting will be held at the BC of Salinas. Members of our sangha are invited to attend so one may see how the District Councils function. Representatives and ministers from Mt. View BT, San Jose BTB, Monterey BT, Watsonville BT, and BC of Salinas will be in attendance.
A reminder again that the 2017 NC is sponsored by the Coast District and will be held in San Jose. As a CD temple we will be helping run this convention. We will be asking for your help in the coming months to staff the convention which will be held at the San Jose Marriott February 28th to March 5th.As mentioned previously, one of the most successful efforts of the BCA is the Jodo Shinshu Center (JSC) in Berkeley, CA. This $22 million facility is where the IBS (Institute of Buddhist Studies) and the CBE (Center for Buddhist Educa-tion) resides. The IBS, our Shin Buddhist seminary, is mak-ing significant inroads in the training of new Shin Buddhist ministers for the temples and churches in the BCA. The CBE, on the other hand, is directed toward lay members of the BCA. The CBE sponsors seminars, retreats, speakers and other events at the JSC as well as temples throughout the BCA. Please reserve the date: October 22nd, 2016 for a visit to the JSC and the 10th year celebration of this facility. For those that wish to stay at one of the rooms at the JSC, I've reserved and have on hold four rooms (for 8 people) at a modest cost. You can see first hand, this marvelous facility and all that it has done to foster Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Please call me (408) 761-0708 to hold a room for you.

Namo Amida Butsu.
In gassho, Tom Nishikawa

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

by Tom Nishikawa