5th December 1998

Saturday......early......

Dear H.,

Sorry I haven't been able to respond until now - it is end of term in another week's time and every thing is hectic on all fronts as well as the work one.

So a snapshot/but becoming a rambling videotape/ from the Gold Coast.......

This year we have really enjoyed the opportunity to have a variety of instructors visiting. Each one has brought something special and of course each has his/her own "flavour". (from Derek "gorgeous/gorgeous/gorgeous......." and just living down the road to others from so far afield.).

Based on this year's experiences, I would have to say that we are most appreciative of each kind of event that has happened with an instructor involved. By this I mean that the introductory events at which Derek and Ira spoke were really well attended and most beneficial to propagation locally. The instructors each met with people interested in receiving Knowledge. Again, these events were great, constructive and substantial; with them speaking to specific aspects which provided some tangibility for these people (and all of the audience). Last year visiting instructors met specifically with the new premies. This was really good.. This year the two follow-ups that were specially arranged with Ira and the new premies were excellent. The new PWK's really loved the opportunity to have these special sessions. It was a great innovation.

Therefore I have to say that on reflection, all the types of events that involved the instructors, were excellent and most appropriate at the time, with the follow-ups for new PWK's being the cherries on the cakes.

So how might we best utilise an instructor visit in 1999? Because life with K is a flowing situation and the instructors' schedules become very elastic at times due to sudden influences, we would look to building in the specific types of events that we consider appropriate at the time due to that current situation. Because some instructors have indicated that they would prefer to do a 'such and such' type of program (e.g. Dyalanand did not want to do intro.) then we would schedule accordingly, if we were in a position of being informed by three weeks minimum before the pending visit. (The times when we had at least a month's notice were great for our planning.)

We consider that a one day visit is too rushed. Three days would be great. More would be lovely but our community would find this difficult to support. (The three days seemed to go well for a couple of the visits where there was space for say two events and enough time to provide some R and R as well.)

How many visits can we manage financially? We have now established a specific fund which we are going to build on as regularly as we can to support the possible instructor visits for 1999. In the last six months, the instructor visits cost approximately $1400. It took a lot of effort for us to cover these costs, but we just managed to do so. (Mahavir and Ira). Our two local financial wizards are presently trying to come up with a figure of what we might be able to manage next year. So far, they are still cavorting and rollicking with numbers!! So perhaps we could say $2000 per annum.

Hope this is of some help, H.,

With kind regards,

A.