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A Proposal to Redefine the Function of Our Wings
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3039
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Posted by
ManuelOliver
Monday, July 22, 2002
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this Article came to me as a representative of one the "Wings" and as a member of the World Subud Council. I think it raises some interesting points...
Thank You Rashad.
Manuel
A Proposal to Redefine The Function of our Wings
Rashad Pollard
In a previous article ìBuilding our Subud Communityî I tried to make the point that, as an association of people, we were not dong too badly at providing the basic needs of the latihan and its availability to our members (or prospective members). Yet, seen dispassionately, we appeared to belong to a structure of Subud Committees and ìWingsî that was largely dysfunctional. I suggested that the cause of this dysfunctionality was that we had failed to grasp the real aims and purposes behind Bapakís advice to us to establish enterprises and undertake social works and, as a result of this, the aims and purposes of our Wing organizations were unclear.
In essence the latihan has come into this world as, very much, an individual gift and, yet, Bapak advised us to practice it together in groups. It is this absolute requirement that forms the basis of our Association and its organizational structure. Essentially we can assume that without group latihans this gift we have all received would weaken, fragment and eventually disappear.
At the same time Bapak put a constant stress on the importance of ëputting the latihan into practiceí, and how it was essential that we should not just show up for latihan once or twice a week and then forget it but find the right ways to understand the nature of our receiving and to put it into practice. Many of us have, indeed, received incalculable evidence and proof of this in the miracle of our daily lives.
Bapak talked a great deal about the importance of enterprises and the need for us to undertake social works, to start schools, and the issue of inner culture. It was Bapak, himself, who motivated us to start a Subud bank, the mining enterprise and the township in Kalimantan and the S.Widjojo office building in Jakarta. Without Bapakís active engagement none of these things would ever have got started.
I had the good fortune to be living in Jakarta in those early days and to have been actively involved in these efforts. One thing I learned from this experience was that while it was essential for us to practice the latihan together it seemed equally essential for is to engage together, as well, in discovering the right ways to put our receiving into practice. In other words the latihan could not be sustained, in the world, unless we practiced it together, and the Subud Association (that supports it) could not be sustained unless we found a way to put the latihan into practice collectively as well.
The requirement to do this may well be the primary aim and purpose of the Wings.
In practice, however, this appears to be very far from what our Wings are actually doing right now and we need to explore, very thoroughly, why this should be so and to rethink the aims and purposes of them.
The question is: how can we as members of the Subud Association working with our Wings be helped to collectively put the latihan into practice? Of course we might do that by asking the Wings to support the development of the private enterprises and non-profit activities of our members. But if we think about it this is not what Bapak meant at all. It is obvious that Bapak did not mean that we should all give up the jobs or careers we had when we joined Subud and switch over to working for Subud enterprises or Subud charities. Not at all. Very few of us are natural entrepreneurs whether in business or in the non-profit sector. Many of us have perfectly good careers that we have every reason to want to continue. And if we think about it some more then why, in this case, would we, as an Association of people, set up Wings to support the private efforts of so few members? It makes no sense! But this is, in effect, what is happening right now. The result is that our Wings support only a very small percentage of our total membership. Few members are actively involved in them. If anything their only involvement is to respond, or not, to a request for funds!
This does not make any sense.
How can we, then, as Subud members in Groups interact together, gain the benefit of learning and sharing the task of putting our latihans into practice, and do something useful all at the same time, without quitting our existing occupations? And what are the Wings for in that case?
Well, it is not so difficult! If we look at the way Bapak set up plotting and planning the beginnings of our efforts in Kalimantan and the start of S.Widjojo there is a clear model here. If we assume that every Subud group (and every Subud Committee on the National and International levels as well) really wanted to, they could follow this same example. Essentially the members of the group are encouraged by the Committee to plot and plan the establishment of enterprises and non-profit activities. They would look at the skills, talents and interests available to them. They would decide on a suitable venture. They would then set about undertaking the necessary feasibility studies. They would raise the finances needed and hire a suitable management when the venture is ready to go. Once the venture was up and running the Working Group will have completed its task and, hopefully, would move on to establish further ventures. The members would do this in a time frame suitable to the amount of time and effort they can put in. They would do so voluntarily. In general one fairly long meeting a week with in-between work shared out among the members can go a long way towards getting an activity to a start-up point. It is natural, in this environment, that the members might choose a fairly simple form of business, at least to start. Some members have suggested to me that for the first effort it might be worth considering the purchase of an existing business before branching out into a wholly new one. In any case the members are not working to set up their own businesses or social activities nor are they in the business of helping any members to establish their own, personal ventures. They will, eventually, hire a management and the on-going oversight would come from an elected Board of Directors. In other words the form of the activity would be similar to a Limited Liability Company, or a similar structure suitable for a non-profit. And, in return for the freely donated time and energy that the groupís members have put in to get the venture up and running that groupís Committee would earn 25% of the profits distributed to the investors (in the case of an enterprise) and whatever more intangible benefits that accrue from establishing schools, hospitals, old peoples homes and social works in general.
So, where do the Wings fit into this? It is simple. They should provide the technical resources that any of our Committees and Groups might need to help them establish these ventures. There is, certainly, no harm in our Wings supporting the private enterprises or NGOs of our members and they should continue to do so. There is certainly no harm in SYA acting as a sort of Subud Youth Club. But, in actuality, their real functions are to help our Groups and Committees establish enterprises and non-profit activities. SES for enterprises, Susila Dharma for social works, SYA for schools and so on, SICA in the field of culture and the arts.
The Wings need to become the motors that actively encourage all Groups and all our National Committees, as well as ISC/WSA to establish these activities. They need to publish to all our Subud Committees the rationale, importance and urgent need for them, as a vital and necessary part of the life of our Subud Groups. Ideally every member should seek an involvement in a Working Group. Every candidate member should have it explained to them that these activities, while voluntary, are an important part of being a member of our Association. They should produce manuals that help Committees establish Working Groups, including lessons learned from experiences to date. They should suggest what kinds of activities are most suitable, how to identify them and how to undertake feasibility studies and seek financing. They should advise on legal structures and management issues, and so on. And when the enterprise or non-profit activity is up and running they can supply technical assistance to management. In addition SES should be tasked with establishing suitable forms of financial institutions to support the financing needs of enterprises. Susila Dharma should be tasked with establishing links with donors and provide fundraising support to social activities. SYA should provide skills in the funding of schools and educational institutions and lineages to funding sources. All these activities would require a complete rethink on how our Wings are functioning right now. To change that function would require their fullest support and the fullest support of our Subud Committees on both the International and National levels.
Finally, in response to my article on Building a Subud Community, that covers more of the background to this same issue, I have been asked to clarify whether these ideas are entirely my own or whether Bapak actually made any direct references to them. Frankly, I have tried to avoid falling into the trap of quoting Bapak, out of context, to prove a point that I believe in so strongly and that has sprung from my own experience. In addition I had never read a talk by Bapak that really made this clear ñ that is, when he talked about enterprises whether he meant that we should all try to start our own businesses or not. But it so happens that, completely by chance, I did stumble on two talks that Bapak gave in Washington D.C. in May 1972 about enterprises, so I am willing to take the risk and quote extracts from the May 5th talk. It is available from the Subud Boston library web site. In this talk Bapak said:
ìThe way to run enterprises is not for A, B, C, and D each to act in his or her own. Donít have individual enterprises. It is better to act collectively, in cooperation, because if each of you runs an enterprise on your own, you will then always be using the profits for your own purposes; you will each work for your own profit. Whereas if you act collectively, gotong royong, as it is called in Indonesia, helping one another in a cooperative way, it will make you closer in brotherliness. For the progress of one is the progress of all; together you go forward, together you loose ground, meaning that if there is profit, it will benefit everyone.
And please donít carry on a halfway or middling sort of enterprise, for if it is a middling one, the running costs will be higher. But if it is large, although the running costs will be high, the profits will also be high, so that you will be able to provide the brotherhood with everything it needsÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ.So we will be able to make latihan premises for every centerÖÖ..Subud Washington will really own a building for the latihan, bigger than this oneÖÖÖ .
Together with that, we shall be able to establish schools, we shall be able to establish hospitals, we shall be able to establish homes for old people who have no family.î
I trust that this brief article will trigger a serious level of consideration by our Wings and by our international, National and Zonal Dewans so that the suggestions made here might be implemented in appropriate ways.
July 2002.
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| A Proposal to Redefine the Function of Our Wings | Log-in or register a new user account | 2 Comments |
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Re: A Proposal to Redefine the Function of Our Wings
(Score: 1)
by harunkennedy (harunkennedy@hotmail.com)
on Jul 22, 2002 - 04:45 PM
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I read Rashad’s original article in Subud World News and thought it was both refreshing and inspiring in many ways more than one. I read this present article about the role of the Wings, and I am pleased that he has repeated his feelings and taken them further. It’s incredibly heartening that someone is viewing the wider picture. It would be great if people read this article and not nit pick at the finer detail that one might have issue with. Rather that they embrace the spirit, as well as that practical advice which one is able to take on.
A simple reality is that the present membership of Subud is small and it sometimes seems all too demoralising. There are of course numerous reasons for this. Yet the most important worth noting here, is that the Latihan as presented through Subud will only spread by example. The greatest outward manifestation of this is the members both in their personal integrity as well as their activity in the Wings in whatever way is right for them.
Harun Kennedy
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