A modern ISKCON Constitution

Public discussion of ISKCON Constitution has dropped recently. The ISKCON GBC Constitutional Committee disbanded without producing any public output, which was a little disappointing.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about the topic recently.

David Jorm and I discussed this topic in a recent podcast [1].

One thing that came out was the idea that ISKCON membership needs to be at the local level.

Here is what I currently consider to be a healthy basis for a local ISKCON constitution/membership:

• A legally incorporated not-for-profit ISKCON association in the local state or county
• Definition of membership levels, including one for initiated and uninitiated members, and one for the local GBCs
• Election of executive board
• Provision for automatic appointment of the GBC to the board
• Some structure for power of veto for the GBC
• Appointment of the Temple President by the board
• Review of staff strategic objectives performance, and contracts by the board

What you will have in this scenario is a fully volunteer, unpaid community board, with a mandate from the membership, who can employ executive staff for the local ISKCON projects.

I envison the board acting like a corporate board, meeting with the executive to jointly form the broad strategic direction, while the executive (Temple President) is on the ground making the tactical decisions, including hiring and managing paid and unpaid staff (such as monks, etc).

The Temple President's remuneration would be set by the board, and the Temple President's contract would be of a fixed term, for example two years, and reviewed with an option to renew at the end of that period.

The Temple President would be paid superannuation and so forth, and if it didn't work out, for whatever reason, then they can just get on with their life, and the board can find someone else for the service. If it did work out, and continued to work out for a long time, then when it eventually became time for the Temple President to retire, there would be no issues about them having to stay in the job to stay alive. Superannuation exists for a reason - protection of the elderly.

Local ISKCON entities could be affiliated with a national umbrella ISKCON organisation, and this would be their "authorisation".

So there you have - the rough outlines of a modern local ISKCON constitution.