Theos-Talk Archives (November 1996 Message tl00035)

Dear Bart,

I need to reply to a couple of things you said. On the whole, the picture
you present is much improved over what I found or rather didn't find when I
became President of the now defunct (a number of years after I left)
Paterson Lodge.

About the ES. If only their password is secret, they've changed a lot since
I was in it (for a short time).

Please subscribe me to the NYTS Newsletteer. I'll send you my address to
your personal e-mail address.

Re: the people from whom you received help .... some of them are in Wheaton,
and some of them belong to the NYTS. The ones in the NYTS I didn't know in
the beginning. Lateron, as I became familiar, some of them came to give us
programs now & then, which was a lot, because it was a long ride over from
Manhattan to Nutley NJ. As for the one's in Wheaton, I didn't know them
either. And the catlogue from the Library wasn't as yet in existence. When I
started out, the group was having an audio tape every week, and that was
all. The members who were there, weren't much help with figuring out program
either, until we got started on a different track, but that took some doing
on my part.

When things were rolling, we did something similar at some of our meetings
than you do at members' meetings. We'd select a topic, ask the Library for a
number of books each covering a different facet of our topic. on long term
loan (for the Branch), and then each one would report back on the book
they'd read. That worked out real well. We also went through a basic
theosophy text bit by bit, after a while, also did "The Flight of the Eagle"
with people taking turns facilitating a chapter. And then one of them talked
about something that interested them, or we had speakers come through. But
they were Theosophists I had met or learned about, I never got any kind of
list from Wheaton saying that so n so is available, except for Bing
Escudero. I had the most fun researching a talk on biofeedback. I think one
of our best meetings was a Krishnamurti film, followed by a pot luck dinner,
for which one woman brought her guitar & sang. But that was a long time
after I became President.

The members didn't want to expand the Lodge, so I guess finally they
contracted it out of existence. A couple of people were President after me.
It's a shame, because by now there are a number of study centers in North
Jersey, so there is a demand.

Liesel