Dear Member and or friend of TI,  

 

Many shocked Members contacted me on the 24th of January. They had just had the broadcast email from the the Executive Committee (EC) saying “Peter Guiliano and Frank Brock will not be taking up the roles of Centre Director and Assistant Centre Director”.

 

What did that mean? The most common thing people asked was…

 

 

I don’t think so. Not sure if it is deliberate or clumsy, but at the very least, it is quite misleading to say “will not be taking up the roles” because at the time they wrote that, we had already been in those roles for 16 days. Frank and I had been endorsed by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche to take over from Judy Mayne who in December, had resigned as Centre Director (CD).

 

At 1pm Tuesday 8 January, Judy handed over to Frank Brock, Gil Richards and me in the Kwan Yin Gompa at TI. From that point on we were CD and AD and on the EC — with the former EC members continuing their roles in the new EC, as each of them (apart from the former Assistant, Gabe Wallace, who was in India) had assured me they were happy to do. 16 days later, they sent you that explosive email.

 

But before they sent that, on 12 January, the Treasurer gave Frank, Gil Richards and me a detailed briefing on the financial state of TI for about an hour. Clearly he knew we were Directors, or why do that? At the end of that briefing, he announced that the EC (whoever that was) had decided the leadership roles of Frank and me would no longer be accepted. It turned out that there were no minutes of an EC meeting and no formal vote to dismiss us.

 

Frank and I have not been notified of any EC meeting and we have not attended even our first one. So which EC sacked us and how did they do that following proper procedures? There is no authority to sack the CD provided in the Rules. No authorised EC meeting has been held with Frank and me so I see no formal record of justification for  their actions.

 

Since the “mutiny” (the only word I can think of) no alternative CD/AC has been appointed and the offshoot of the EC has failed to accept any of many offers to use mediation to try to sort out their problems. They even ignored FPMT CEO, Ven Roger’s email of 22 January calling for talks.

 

Shortly, I will be sending you a detailed view of claims made in the EC’s latest broadcast email and to which we have been offered no chance to respond.

 

Sincerely,

 

Peter (merely labelled Director)

Frank (merely labelled Assistant)

 

PS: we have been given no access to the mailing list so we have had to cobble together friends’ emails of friends. If you know of anyone we have missed, please pass this on.