Tim Langdell

FMZO Office
Tue, Feb 14, 8:15 PM (17 hours ago)
Hi Scott,

As often happens in situations like this, there are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation floating around. For instance, are you aware that I am an expert in Moodle and used to teach it at the University of Southern California School of Engineering and Computer Science for many years? Are you aware that early last year after Ven. Wonji passed the running of FMZO/BDU to me, I was in the middle of fixing Moodle and upgrading it when Anthony changed the passwords on me and locked me out? And that I had just given him a copy of the passwords on condition he promise not to change them? I am guessing you are unaware of all this.

Last year I had a team of colleagues in FMZO and elsewhere that were also well versed in Moodle and we were on schedule to get BDU reopened by last May/June, offering classes for the summer. So while I hear that you and Jeonchan did a lot of work, it was all entirely unnecessary since we had everything in hand before Anthony locked me out of the accounts. Our only concern was for the sake of the BDU students who benefit from the Dharma teachings, and it is a pity we were stopped for doing what was in the student’s best interests during Spring of 2022. But we are prepared to put that all behind us and move on rather than dwell on the past.

By the way, I have all the historic records of BDU here that Wonji was careful to transfer to me, which is another reason we should resolve this swiftly in the interests of the students who may wish to access their transcripts, etc.

For us, the Governing Board of FMZO, this isn’t about control in the sense you appear to mean it, it is about legal ownership of the two BDU websites. That for us is the key issue here that we are trying to get resolved at this time. The GoDaddy account is FMZO’s account, and I know that since when the password was changed to lock me out the account was in FMZO’s name with me as the contact instead of Wonji — as Wonji had asked me to do. It is unclear to us who believes they currently controls the GoDaddy account, but the simple fact is, legally it is FMZO’s account and we want access to it passed back to us as is entirely right and proper given the two domain names belong to FMZO.

As to BDU, we see no reason why it shouldn’t continue to run just as it is. Maybe you didn’t understand this was what I was suggesting?

Proposal for Settlement

As I say, the central concern for FMZO is that it be given back access to its GoDaddy account. We just need the password handed back to us, which is the right thing to do in the Dharma.

As to BDU, the moment we have access to our GoDaddy account again we propose that we send out a new BDU announcement saying everything has been resolved amicably and will continue just as it has been going, with FMZO assuring students and faculty alike that we are now in a position to confirm the current winter quarter classes are proper BDU classes that FMZO recognizes.

If you are agreeable — and I gather from Myodo you are? — we would like the BDU websites to continue on your servers with you running them and running Moodle as you have been doing. Essentially, nothing would change, There would be no ‘transition’ since there is nothing we are looking to transfer. This was never about ‘controlling’ BDU in the sense you seem to mean, so much as clarifying who owns it, which FMZO does.

We would also very much welcome Jeonchan continuing in some role, perhaps continuing to what she was doing in working with you. They only change in the near future that we can envisage is that since Myodo is the actual Chancellor of BDU, we shall have to work out a new title for Jeonchan. Hopefully, she would find that acceptable since as you say she has put all this work into it.

And to be clear, the legal demand that the attorneys had to make that no one use the domain names, access Moodle, etc., goes away the moment the GoDaddy account with the two domains in it is once again accessible by us.
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So the only requests we have in order to resolve this issue are simply:

1) please give us the password to the GoDaddy account with the two domains in it,
2) please give us the login details for the BDU account on your server (and again this is not because we wish to change anything, just that as the legal owner of the websites and the Moodle database, we should have the login details),
3) we discuss what title Jeonchan will have going forward so we can mention it in the announcement,
4) you all agree to work with Myodo on the vision for the future of BDU (she has a lot of great ideas for its future)

How does that sound? It’s a reasonable proposal isn’t it? Let me know, since we really would like to get this resolved this week so that we can send out a new BDU announcement quickly to resolve any puzzlement that may have arisen due to the one we felt we had to send out today.

Last, we are deeply sorry to hear Jeonchan is unwell and that one of her dogs is sick too. We sincerely wish her a swift recovery and are holding a good thought for her dog.

If you’d like to discuss this, don’t hesitate to call me during the day tomorrow on my private line: 626 824 0097

Thank you for all you have done, and for all you do.

In the Dharma,
Ven Jinhye (Tim)
President, Five Mountain Zen Order
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