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His
Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s visit in October to WCSU
will mark the culmination of more than two years’ intensive
preparatory work in uncommon and productive cooperation
between the university and Do Ngak Kunphen Ling (Tibetan Buddhist
Center for Universal Peace) in Redding.
Long before Western and DNKL representatives signed the
formal agreement in January 2012 confirming arrangements for His
Holiness’s visit, they were working out the myriad details that
required attention to plan a historic event posing logistical
challenges on a par with those for hosting a U.S. President.
Coordinator of University Events Helen Bechard, who has served as
liaison between the WCSU-DNKL steering committee and the Office of
Tibet/New York in planning for the visit, observed that the joint
committee began meeting on a monthly basis in August 2010, with
subcommittees formed to discuss specific organizational tasks
including the event program, ticket sales, sponsorships, hospitality
and website publicity. Transportation for the 3,500 guests expected
to attend each of His Holiness’s two talks, staging arrangements in
the Feldman Arena at the O’Neill Center on the Westside campus, and
security provisions at the event site have posed especially
significant challenges in the planning process.
Bechard recalled the importance to the team’s preparations of an
October 2010 trip by university and DNKL representatives to observe
a five-day visit by the Dalai Lama to Emory University in Atlanta,
Ga., which has hosted periodic visits by His Holiness since the
1980s and maintains a center for Tibetan studies. “The people at
Emory planning that visit were very gracious and gave us access to
everything we could ask – questions on all levels from media
setups to volunteer organization, to logistical and security
issues the university had to contend with,” Bechard said.
“That visit provided invaluable preparation,” she added. “When we
received notification that we were granted the opportunity to host
His Holiness and went down to the Office of New York/Tibet to talk
with Lobsang Nyandak (representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
to the Americas), he listened to our questions and said, ‘You’ve
done your homework!’”
Dr. John Briggs, professor of writing, linguistics and creative
process and member of the steering committee, agreed that the
opportunity to witness and learn about the planning for the Emory
event made a crucial contribution to the WCSU-DNKL preparations for
the October visit to Danbury.
“We got to see what worked well and what worked less well in
connecting the Dalai Lama directly to his audience,” Briggs
observed. “It gave us a unique opportunity to develop an esprit
among key members of our own planning team. We talked late into the
night, sharing observations and insights about what we were seeing.
In the nearly two years since
that trip, this spirit has helped us to solve many problems that
have arisen in our work.”
DNKL Board President Susan Altabet, also a member of the steering
committee, observed that the cooperative work on preparations for
His Holiness’s visit has proven “a joy, privilege and valuable
learning experience. WCSU’s
expertise in event planning and student needs has been enhanced
by DNKL’s expertise in Tibetan Buddhism and access to His Holiness
and his associates. We have all come together into one steering
committee with a policy always to reach consensus, which has worked
beautifully. It is wonderful to see how people who share in this
work can give rise to new ideas about making the world a better
place and providing enriching opportunities for all people.”
Cover photo: Coordinator of University
Events Helen Bechard (far right) has been preparing for this event
since August 2010.
Above photo: Western, DNKL and the
Office of Tibet/New York representatives gather for the signing of
the agreement.
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