Project Paper

2nd Draft 15 Oct 2006 Proposal Paper for a Promotional Program

Distribution of Buddhist Books to the General Public Introduction “The Dhamma is a Wealth of Wisdom but we are poor in marketing” This has made some of us look at ways to spread the teaching of Lord Buddha to the general public. One of the marketing strategies is to have a booth to distribute FREE Dhamma books and CDs. We shall call this BUBS Book stall. Objective Our objective is to introduce Buddhism to the general public, especially to the English educated. There are plenty of people out there who are seeking for answers in life but do not know where to get them. We hope to introduce them to the various Buddhist books and CDs free of charge. We also hope to promote the various Buddhist centres within the vicinity to them. In general, we hope to convince them that Buddhism today is very different from the way it was practiced by our fore- fathers. How do we go about? We are pleased that one of our Buddhist friends, Bro Danny Lim, who is an active member of BUBS as well as the owner of the popular food court, Ming Tien, has offered us a place to set up stall without charge. Sadhu to Bro Lim, this program has now found a very suitable place to kick-off. Who is involved? This shall be a BUBS project. BUBS shall be the main organizer, promoting and reaching out to people who wish to receive and to practice the Dhamma. We shall also invite Suki Hotu to come in as our co- organizer. The reason is that we want to give our support to Suki Hotu who has a lot more material related to Buddhism to offer to the market. 1

How does the mechanism work? BUBS members will display Dhamma Books and CDs and leaflets. These will be given out free of charge to whoever comes to our stall. We shall have a few BUBS members to man the stall. They shall also promote the programs organized by BUBS. A donation box shall be displayed for the general public to make donations if they wish. Whilst Suki Hotu will be allowed to display other materials like Buddhist songs, posters, T-shirts, comic books and etc, they will not display Dhamma books and Dhamma CDs. However, Suki Hotu will be allowed to sell their stuffs. Who are the core people? From BUBS we already have the following people who will make up the core group:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Bro Lee Yu Ban & Family Bro Bugs Tan & Family Bro Danny Lim & Family Bro Lim Chin Kah & Family Bro Lim Cheng Jeen & famil Bro Fong Mun Keong & Family

More families will be recruited later as and when necessary. We hope to involve the youth, preferably 2 youths to be at the stall during business hours. Members who are on duty at the BUBS book stall shall wear BUBS T-shirts at all times. When do we start this program? We are all ready as soon as the EXCO of BUBS gives us the green light. We shall draw up a duty roster and get cracking. What are the days and time the stall opens for business? The opening hours will be when there is a crowd at the food court. Lunch and dinner hours and weekends are good times. A duty roaster shall be drawn up once we are given approval to start.

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What are the book titles we wish to distribute? The books shall come from our BUBS centre and other Buddhist centres. We shall distribute good Dhamma books for beginners. We are proposing to give away about 10 to 20 titles by various authors. We shall also distribute about 10 different titles of CDs, mostly Dhamma talks by popular Buddhist monks. We may even consider distributing meditation CDs too. What do we need? We shall make some nice posters, with catchy words and phrases that will attract people to come to our stall. We may play CDs of some nice Buddhist songs to portray the new Buddhist look. Does anyone get paid? This is voluntary work and we do not expect to be paid. It is our way of contributing to the society. We shall be happy to see the sasana grow in strength. However, if the EXCO can give each person a free BUBS T-shirt, it will be highly appreciated. How many books do you expect to give out? While we wish to give out as many books as possible, the real effect is to touch the hearts and minds of the people, who are seeking wisdom but do not know it exists. We shall be happy if we can distribute 200 books over one week, but it will be more important for us to have “quality interaction” with at least 10 people. This is where we shall find out whether we have planted the Buddhist seed into them. What approach do we apply at the stall? We shall draw the attention of the people with nice posters and nice music. When they approach us at the stall, then we promote the books and CDs. NO HARD SELLING here, but we shall try to encourage them to take one. If we have happy parents and happy youths to man the stall, it will project to the people the real Buddhism, HAPPINESS AND NOT SUFFERRING.

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How can BUBS help in this program? The EXCO of BUBS can help look for other popular shopping centres such as One Utama, Bandar Utama Centre Point, Atria and Ikea for us to expand our program. Any other factors? The EXCO can also look for donors to sponsor the printing of more books and CDs. It will be nice if we can have a larger variety of books and CDs to give away. Muslim factor Yes we have to take precaution not to distribute Buddhist books and CDs to our Muslim friends. We shall make a statement at our stall that our materials are not for Muslims.

Prepared by, Bugs Tan Sub- Committeee Welfare Bandar Utama Buddhist Society (BUBS)

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