The 2010 Annual General Meeting of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON
commenced Saturday morning in Sri Mayapur Dham with Bhakti Caru Maharaja
offering the traditional guru-puja ceremony to ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya,
Srila Prabhupada, while Ekalavya Prabhu led an enthusiastic and
inspirational kirtan. This year’s GBC Chairman, Romapada Maharaja, welcomed
everyone in attendance and delivered a reading from the tenth canto of
Srimad Bhagavatam.

Badrinarayana Prabhu conducted the first presentation on behalf of the
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the official publisher of Srila Prabhupada’s
written works. It was reported that the BBT is now printing 284 titles in 35
languages and will soon be making Srila Prabhupada’s books and other
publications available in e-book format. Strong emphasis was placed in the
presentation on the critical responsibility temples have to settle any past
BBT debts. The importance of each temple reporting the details of book
distribution by their community was also emphasized. There was an increase
from 2008 to 2009 of 33% in book score reporting, however more participation
in temples is greatly needed and desired.

For the remainder of the afternoon, a presentation was given by GBC
deputies, a second tier GBC body that assists the GBC in managing proposals
submitted by devotees worldwide. For several weeks, GBC deputies from around
the globe met in Mayapur and worked long hours prior to the formal GBC
meetings to read, sort through, and organize these proposals submitted to
the GBC Body. Additionally, they utilized “Mind Map” software to visually
display the pluses, minuses, and interesting points of a proposal.

With this information, the GBC deputies presented various proposals to the
GBC Body for comments and an initial straw vote on whether or not to pursue
the specific proposals further. Proposals included ideas such as
reestablishing an ISKCON Interfaith Commission, pastoral duties of ISKCON
leaders, and standardizing ISKCON logos, mastheads, and other templates for
published material. Thanks to the efforts of the GBC deputies to carefully
clarify and concisely organize proposals, numerous proposals were able to be
reviewed and discussed by the GBC body in the afternoon.

Also today, Bhaktivaibhava Maharaja announced his latest film, “The Lost
Village.” This professional quality film uses the story of Lokanath
Maharaja’s childhood in the small Maharashtrian village of Aravade as a
platform to discuss current important global issues. Such issues include the
increase of agribusiness and genetic modification of plants and animals due
to the decline of agricultural village life in exchange for big-industry
based city life. All were encouraged to view and promote “The Lost Village”
both within and outside of their local devotee communities.

The first meeting ended with a collective sense of accomplishment as
numerous topics were covered and discussed over the course of the day.