Monthly Archives: August 2020

Treasurer’s Report for June/July

Subud Greater Seattle Treasurer Summary Report for June & July

Income and expenses

Building Rentals

We had a 3 AirBnB and 1 hall rental in June and July resulting in income of $1880.

In our June and July meetings your committee met to discuss options for future income. We are still reviewing those options. We have met with 3 different leasing agents to get their view of income potential. We have also asked the helpers for some guidance through testing. 

We do not believe that our current rental business is sustainable.

Donations

Donations have been lower during the summer.  I am hoping that with the end of summer more people will be able to donate. We are averaging about $1658 per month which is below what is needed to maintain our building.  The rental income in the last two months helped to cushion that shortfall. 

June and July Expenses

Our expenses are being kept to the minimum required to keep the building healthy and looking great for a potential renter. In order to maintain this appearance, we need to continue to pay for cleaning, gas, electricity, water and garbage. There are certain fixed costs from PSE and Seattle utilities for electricity, water and garbage which, though reduced, continue. Seattle utilities water and garbage costs in particular remain pretty much the same as before. We are also continuing our $300 a month contribution to the region.

Future Expenses

In looking at the average costs needed to keep the building running since March against the average amount of donations coming from members, we have a shortfall of a little over $500 a month.  This shortfall is currently being covered through the current positive balance in our checking account.

Fixed costs on top of that for insurance and taxes amounting to an estimated $2800 will also have to be paid out of the available balance.

Your Donations As Important As Ever

Your committee appreciates everyone’s financial support of our center during this time of great transition for all of us.  Your continued donations are vital if we are to cover our costs through the end of the year.  Thank you for your continued support.

Important! New name for donation checks to Subud Greater Seattle

Use only “Subud PNW – Seattle Center” on any future donations to our center.  Bank rules, recently changed, are delaying deposits.  Please be sure to change the “Pay To The Order Of” section of your handwritten or automatic withdrawn check from your account and use this name.

If you intend to make your donation to the Region, please earmark your check Subud PNW.

Pledges still being accepted

Please fill out a pledge form online if you haven’t already.

Thanks for those who have setup monthly donations

Thanks to all our monthly donators who have a recurring donation sent from their bank.  You save on envelopes and stamps.  And, you don’t have to remind yourselves to write a check. These regular checks really help us meet our monthly commitments to the region and pay for our use of our facilities. 

If you’d like to know how to setup a recurring donation to our group through your bank, please contact me.

Letter from Asa Lake

 

Asa was the wife of Oswald Lake and early members of Subud.  They both passed on years ago but this letter was recently posted in the SICA news.

“1959 was the year of our opening. The room was filled with hundreds of people screaming, crying and moaning after a “begin” was said by a little foreign woman I could barely see in the front of a huge room in Alhambra, California. We had driven all the way from Santa Monica after a three-month probation in this mysterious group called SUBUD. After this experience, we stood on the sidewalk outside the building and compared notes. What did you feel? None of us knew much about what had happened in the latihan, but we knew we felt wonderful! SO with that began our years in Subud. Our little world was expandable to include all manner of interesting and odd brothers and sisters who suddenly became important to us. Oswald was almost immediately on the committee, and I naturally came along. We never had marvelous “spiritual experiences” or “crisis” — but we always felt fresh and new and wonderful after latihan.

We read everything we could find and did our latihan and work in the world — and knew almost nothing until 1963. That was the year of the World Congress in New York. There we came to know Bapak and Ibu, Tuti, Ismana, Usman & Aminah, and that’s where Bapak did “testing” in the group in front of every one. The testing gave us a deeper experience of the latihan and meeting with the brothers and sisters from around the world gave us a happier feeling about “the brotherhood” of Subud than we could have from just knowing the group in California. That was the first time we drove Bapak and party in our car. Little did we know it was a preview of having Bapak come to our home!

I think of these as rich, fulfilling years… our children grew, we grew… We started SNA (Subud North America), the precursor to Subud USA, and our lives and hearts expanded to hold more and more.

There were always a thousand levels of everything. Heaven and Hell were always combining and intertwining and the fruits of the latihan seemed to always be there to save us from falling into the Magnetism of any one of these levels to the detriment of embracing the present. God is Good! It was a grand beginning and a gift from heaven. Time hardly seems to have passed, yet here it is, 1999, and here we still are — Oswald and Asa, married 50 years this past June, have five grandchildren, still doing the latihan…and doing nothing wonderful in our lives. I had expected at least WINGS by this time — or to have experienced the Cosmos personally! But, I was one destined to be ordinary.

Ordinary? Of late, I remember Bapak saying that’s what we SHOULD be, and as the world gets more and more crazy with each passing day, I have learned to treasure my ordinariness as the “pearl of great price”. I believe that it is important to do latihan for reasons far beyond ourselves and beyond our understanding. It’s as if we form a bridge for the latihan energy to penetrate this level, and this is important for the Earth itself — and our duty to Almighty God in response to the constant blessings with which he fills our lives. When all other reasons fail, we keep on doing latihan because it is the only choice we have.

Love, Asa