Every Wednesday is a center meeting day at the Europe Center. By now, probably more than 100 Buddhists live in the Immenstadt area, including the EC residents. There is always lots of everyday business, projects and events going on that need to be organized by our ”bunch of idealists and volunteers” and our open center meeting is an important tool for that. 

All what we do at the EC is based on team work. The teams and working groups are organized around different areas of work and most of them are open to all sangha members – e.g. event management, communication, site development, gastrotainment (all concerning food, cafeteria and catering for events) or finance. People who have skills in relevant areas or are simply interested in helping are always welcome to join the respective team.

At the center meetings, everyone is welcome to come up with a topic, and each team gives an overview on what is going on in their area at the moment, especially anything that affects other teams or people. We try to apply the principles of meritocracy – the friends who know and do most in a certain area have the trust to do decisions and a consensus is sought where more areas are affected.  We believe this makes the EC develop further quickly and avoids long discussions with too many involved. At the same time, all sangha members interested can stay in the loop, give input and questions to understand why things are done in a certain way.

Even though usually quite jolly and focused, our meetings with their usual attendance of 15 to 50 people can be also long and tiring. Which is why we always finish the meetings by telling at least one joke before we leave, to remember to keep our efforts joyful.