Recently, the ISKCON’s Steering Committee of the Succession, Organizational Development and GBC Appointments Committees has announcement:

“The Governing Body Commission (GBC) of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has recently increased its focus on succession; on the need to identify and develop new leaders. As a result the GBC has asked three of its committees  to focus on ways to speed up the selection and development process without compromising the quality of the training. These three committees are the GBC Succession Committee, the GBC Organizational Development Committee, and the GBC Appointments Committee.



Furthermore the GBC has also been working on configuring the zones of the world into more manageable units and has already identified 133 zones; each needing supervision. This creates many more leadership positions to be filled in the near future. To meet the growing need for qualified leaders we are setting up a GBC leadership college, where we can groom candidates for top leadership positions in ISKCON.

We are looking for devotees who could help in developing curriculum (for both classroom and distance learning) or help in teaching, or both.

The strategic significance of this project cannot be overestimated. Developing good leaders was central to Srila Prabhupada’s vision for a healthy and expanding ISKCON:


“Personally I wish all the existing GBC may be trained up so perfectly that in the future in my absence they can manage the whole Society very nicely and strongly. That is my desire.”

– Letter to: Hamsaduta, 29 September 1974


“And you have pointed out that you want to train others to be leaders, because you have observed there is at present not very many qualified leaders. That is good proposal.”

– Letter to Sudama, December 1972

The importance of this project is of historical proportions as we move from simply appointing devotees in positions of responsibility to requiring them to first graduate from a systematic training course. This approach will have a far-reaching impact on the way ISKCON expands and reaches out to the world in the coming years, decades and centuries.

We are currently developing a brick-and-mortar school, with residential facility, near Mumbai, India. The course will include two residencies of a couple of weeks each, which will be coupled with distance and online learning sessions interspersed throughout the rest of the year.

The curriculum we are working on consists of five broad modules:

1.       Spiritual Excellence (hearing, chanting, Vaisnava etiquette, devotee care, outreach, etc.)

2.      Personal Effectiveness (time management; balancing work, service and family life, etc.) 

3.      Relationship Effectiveness (supportive communication, team-building, conflict resolution, coaching and mentoring, etc.)

4.      Organizational Effectiveness (leadership, strategic planning, succession planning, performance measurement, project management, quality management, market research & promotion, social media, etc.)

5.      Functional Effectiveness (Deity worship standards, legal and compliance, temple administration, accounting, budgeting, financial management, risk management, facility management, ISKCON laws and GBC resolutions, ISKCON’s organization structure and systems, varnasrama and farm communities, child protection, etc.)

Would you be interested in getting involved with this project? If so, please share with us more information about your experience by filling out the online form at the following link: http://adobe.ly/1uydPV1

If you know others who could be interested, feel free to forward them this letter or write us about them. 

You can reach us by email at:  lalitamanjaridd@gmail.com  

Thank you very much.

Your servants,

Prahladananda Swami, Romapada Swami, Tamohara Das, Gopal Bhatta Das, Laxmimoni Dasi, Kaunteya Das, Gauranga Das, Rasa Krida Parayana Das, Rupanuga Das & Lalita Manjari Devi Dasi”