About WYBL

For more information: Visit the WYBL Website

The Western Young Buddhist League (WYBL) or “WY” is an organization whose name has stood for 58 years, but its roots reach back to the 1920s when groups such as the Young Men’s Buddhist Association and Young Women’s Buddhist Association began. These two groups eventually came together to form the California Young Buddhist League in 1937, but ten years later in 1947, the name changed to the Western Young Buddhist League to include Arizona.

More on WYBL History

 

WY is presently composed of three California districts: Northern Cal District YBL, Coast District YBL, and Southern District Senior YBL. These three Districts, though different
in size and experience, have put on excellent WYBL events amongst themselves for at least the past five or six years.

These WYBL events – WY Leadership Workshop (normally held in January) and WY Conference (normally held Easter weekend) – have had delegates from not just all over California attend, but from the Pacific Northwest, Mountain States region, as well as Hawai’i.

 

There is no specific age-range for members within WYBL set in place, but the typical age of delegates that can be found at WY events range from high school freshman to recent college graduates (14-25 years of age). However, currently WY is experiencing a decline in participation from the college-level YBA groups and is looking for ways to try and bring up their participation level to the high level it was once at. With that said, WYBL is currently being dominated by the high school-aged Young Buddhists, and in effect, are being encouraged to push their involvement in YBA/WYBL to a higher level.

 

 

WYBL boasts a great tradition of excellence from its Executive Cabinet, as they have proven themselves to be part of the core group of people to help push WYBL, their District YBL, and their local YBA chapters, in a prosperous and exciting direction.

 

 

 

The cabinet is normally nominated at both the WY Leadership Workshop and WY Conference and then elected at the WY Conference, where they are also sworn in as officers. Vice-Presidents to the President are the District Presidents in WYBL (Coast, Northern, and Southern Seniors).

 

Recent WYBL Cabinets:

2003-2004
President	Stuart Jones	Coast / Southern
Secretary	Yuki Hagihara	Coast
Treasurer	Alan Hatakeyama	Southern
Activities	Kevin Nii	Coast / Northern
Relgious	Kelly Kato	Coast
Historian	Jamie Nakashima	Northern
Advisor	Michael Jones	Coast
Ex-Officio	Scott Tsukamoto	Coast

2004-2005
President	Stuart Jones	Southern
Secretary	Lisa Horikawa	Northern
Treasurer	Eric Nakagawa	Coast
Activities	Michael Fujinaka	Southern
Relgious	Matt Nakao	Northern
Historian	Chelsea Sugimoto	Coast
Advisor	Michael Jones	Coast

 

2005-2006
President	Lizzie Jones	Coast
Secretary	Lisa Horikawa	Northern
Treasurer	Eric Nakagawa	Coast
Activities	Hilari Kawakami-Wong	Southern
Relgious	Jerry Knaack	Coast
Historian	Chelsea Sugimoto	Coast
Advisor
Ex-Officio	Stuart Jones	Southern

 

To join WYBL, a District YBL would need to submit dues and a roster of their members, and be able to put on a WYBL event.