BCA Strategic Plan Takes Off, Sets Goals at National Board

Participants Establish First Series of Priorities

Efforts to move BCA’s vision and strategic plan forward took a quantum leap at June’s National Board Meeting with participants coming up with several new goals.

BCA Vice President John Arima, Chair of the Vision and Strategic Planning (VSP) Committee, led the drive to jump-start the committee’s work at the June 8 meeting. 

Arima oversaw breakout sessions tackling longstanding BCA issues and topics, including its membership problems, Sangha and community development, financial structure, and ministerial issues.

And he tasked the participants to come up with a set of goals, resources and deadlines within an hour. 

“How do we actually make this a document that we can regularly use and not just stick inside the guidebook and wait 20 years from now to look at again,” Arima said, adding that the goal is to make the strategic plan a “multi-year document.”

Before the participants broke into groups, BCA President-elect Glenn Inanaga emphasized the importance and significance of the moment.

“Just one quick thought, which is one of the biggest complaints that I often hear about the vision and strategic plan is that it is very aspirational and does not get into the reality of what is happening today at the temple,” he said. “The work that translates into actual producible results is the work that begins today with all of us. So as we turn it into an everyday action or an everyday goal, this is where you see the vision and strategic plan coming into action.”

The breakout sessions focused on the following topics: 

• Propagation

• Sangha and Community Development

• Financial Capability

• Ministerial Development

• Organizational Development

These topics were established through a series of eight “Bodhi leaf” projects held at various BCA conferences beginning in 2024, kicking off with the National Council Meeting (NCM) in Sacramento. BCA members wrote down their comments, concerns, criticisms and suggestions on a paper Bodhi leaf and more than 250 leaves were gathered, read and categorized.

Some of the ideas hatched as a result of the breakout sessions included: 

• Creating a library of ideas collected from the BCA temples and churches on how to respond to newcomers and to encourage them to get involved, with the eventual goal of increasing membership.

• Listing the contacts in each temple’s directory such as the Dharma school contact, and developing materials to hand out to non-Buddhists who visit temples.

• Moving away from a flat tax membership assessment to a franchise model, where temples and churches give a percentage of revenue as an alternative to membership head count. 

• Establishing a ministerial affairs committee at each temple and church to increase and facilitate communication between the ministers and their Sangha members.

• Developing a standard member data collection tool to better understand the needs of the temple population. 

The groups all set a deadline of either the next National Board Meeting in December or the next National Council Meeting in February 2026.

Arima was pleased with the results from all the participants.

“I think this is really a great next step that we’ve taken as the national board and I want to thank all of you for participating so actively,” Arima said. “Being able to kind of float around and watch the interactions and discussions is really encouraging because now we’re talking about getting people that have different perspectives or parts of different committees or organizations really trying to come together and have goals that are going to move the BCA forward.”

Efforts to establish a long-range strategic plan for the BCA and update both a mission and vision statement began at the December 2023 NBM. There was no five- or 10-year plan for BCA facilities, and no longrange vision and mission and no guidelines beyond the short term, from one fiscal year to the next.

Meanwhile, the VSP Committee has updated its mission statement and vision. The new mission statement is on the wall inside the JSC, next to the key donors of the BCA.

The mission statement is:

The mission of the BCA is to share the Shin Buddhist teachings of wisdom and compassion to enable all to live a meaningful and fulfilled life of gratitude.

The vision statement is:

BCA envisions that Shin Buddhism is a flourishing tradition that shares the teachings through an engaging ministry where inclusive communities cultivate peace, understanding and compassion for everyone.