I receive and forward... It must be known !

Dear All Bonsai Friends,

First of all I would like to express my sincere apology to put you on the recipient list in regards to bad incident we, Lithuanian Bonsai Association had with BCI recently. But as big world bonsai family, I think you all need to be informed from the first hand to avoid misinformation from irresponsible rumors which in fact have been starting to circle around, and may do serious harm to my reputation.

The board of BCI has cancelled the BCI Convention 2016 that was scheduled to take place in Lithuania the 2-4 September 2016 hosted by Lithuanian Bonsai Association.

The board of the BCI, led by Budi Sulistyo, has initiated a voting to cancel the event in October. We have not received official information that the voting is taking place and what are the reasons behind it. BCI members including the president Mr Tom Elias remained in secret until the results were announced.

The official documents indicate that the BCI is canceling the event because Lithuania was late to pay the $5,000 fee. It is a half of a $10,000 event organization fee that we committed to pay to the BCI according the agreement signed in 2012. The agreement says that half of the sum must be paid one year before the event. In addition to the fee that had to be payed, Lithuanian Bonsai Association committed to take the full financial and organizational responsibility for the event.

We would like to indicate that according to the agreement reached by email with Mr Sulistyo in August, we have set the deadline for the payment the 1st of October 2015. When I met Mr Sulistyo in Guangzhou (17-21 October 2015) I have asked to postpone the payment deadline for additional two weeks, because there were concerns that Vilnius municipality will cancel the financial support of the event. Mr Budi Sulistyo agreed in the presence of Sae Won Kim who also participated in the meeting.

During the meeting in Guangzhou we already had confirmed the list of headliners. The invitations were sent at the end of the August and the confirmations were received. The list of headliners was presented to the BCI board members during this meeting. There were four BCI members in our list. Nevertheless Mr Budi Sulistyo started to push me to invite him, Glen Bebb and some others BCI members as the headliners of the event. I said I had to think.

I got back from China the 28th of September and it was confirmed that Vilnius municipality is canceling the sponsorship because of budget reductions for the next year. In just a couple of days I had to find a solution. Therefore I contacted the municipality of Alytus and after the meetings and discussions they agreed to become a partner and participate in the sponsorship.

On the 7th of October I wrote a letter to Mr Tom Elias and Mr Budi Sulistyo confirming that the we have to change the city and explaining the reasons of it. As I was reassured that I have a sponsorship from the new city, I added that I was ready to make the first payment of $5,000 and asked to send me the bank account. Even after a couple of reminders that I sent later, I have never received it.

Instead, the reaction I received was Mr Budi Sulistyo's quickly expressed concern about the list of headliners asking if we had made the decision to invite more BCI members. I explained that because I had already invited well known and respected headliners to the event and I had a limited budget, I was not able to invite or substitute the headliners with additional members of the BCI. I have also mentioned that I was not committed by the agreement to invite and to pay for the BCI members participation. Besides, four members of the BCI were already on our list. I believe that as an organizer who has taken the financial risk of the event and a commitment to pay a $10.000 fee to the BCI, I had the right to reject their additional request that were not included in our legal agreement. In the end, why the BCI did not offer to cover the expenses of additional participants which they thought were so important for the event?

There is one more important thing to be mentioned. According to the agreement that was reached by email I had to present the BCI Convention 2016 during the Gala Dinner in Guangzhou. For some reason Mr Budi Sulistyo was not willing to allow me to go on stage. Only thanks to my friend Sae Won Kim I was cleared to go and to present it. This makes me think the decision to ignore Lithuania and probably to cancel the event was made by the BCI already back then. And the real reason is not the payment that had to be done in a couple of weeks, but the list of headliners which did not include particular names.

I have given a lot of energy organizing this event. I used my personal finances to go to China to meet with the BCI Board Members. Not even mentioning daily expenses that my team and I were spending everyday or the EBA&ESA Convention that we successfully hosted also in September 2015. A lot was already done for the event to happen, but our efforts were disrespected by the BCI Board which, in addition to canceling the event, was generally not collaborative and supportive throughout the whole period.

To avoid any manipulative actions and attempts to discredit myself and my team by the BCI, I stand for transparency. Therefore I am sharing the email exchanges between us and the BCI. It proves we were inviting the BCI to collaborate until the very last minute. Instead of support we received disrespectful behavior that is absolutely inadmissible for an international organization that claims to be promoting international friendship through Bonsai.

Documents attached: ( can be sent if asked )
1. An email that we sent to all the BCI members to stand for our position. It was sent when we heard about the voting from the rumors as no official communication from the BCI was available. The document also includes three attachments with previous email exchanges. The references will be found in the text.
Attachment No.1 - Change of location.
Attachment No.2 - Informing about the payment delay
Attachment No.3 - Letter to Tom Elias

2. BCI letter informing about the voting results.
3. Our answer to the BCI regarding the voting results.


Best regards,
Kestutis Ptakauskas

i am curious about something...

what does the BCI provide for that $10,000 ?

Good question Kevin.

Despite the closeness in initials, BCI and IBC are two completely separate organisations and as such we have absolutely no influence over what BCI does. The issue highlighted in this thread is, in our opinion, entirely an internal matter between the poster's organisation and BCI.

The moderators don't think that it is in anyone's interests to discuss the issue in a public forum. I for my part have drawn attention to the two posts on IBC to a representative of BCI. If we get a general statement in response from them, we will post it. And of course any member of the bonsai community is perfectly entitled to ask their questions direct to the committee members of BCI whose names are on the BCI website.

The BCI president Mr Tom Elias resigned yesterday from BCI.
Few weeks ago also the BCI Treasurer from Pennsylvania resigned. The consequences of the irresponsible and incorrect action taken against the Organizers of Lithuanian BCI Convention 2016.
BCI originally and basically is an American association. Now only 2 ... 3 USA members are in the board. Most of them are from China. Indonesia. Australia, India, Taiwan, Philippines Malaysia .... Take note and adapt the consequences
No confusion between BCI and BCI of course !