Editing Subud (section)

==Association==
Members who wish to take on organizational responsibility in Subud can volunteer as a committee member or as a helper. Each responsibility can be performed at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Members often move from one responsibility to another, as needed.

The broadest organizational responsibility rests with the [[World Subud Association]], which organizes a World Congress every four years and consists of the Subud World Council, Subud representatives from each country, and individual members who wish to participate, although only representatives can vote. The headquarters of the international organization moves to a different country every four years.

===Helpers===

Each level of the association has members called "helpers" whose role is to coordinate the timing of group latihan, witness the opening of new members, speak to those interested in the latihan, be available to discuss problems relating to the latihan, and sometimes attend to the latihan needs of isolated or indisposed Subud members. Helpers are usually selected from members who are willing to perform the duties, and selection generally occurs through testing. In no way does selection mean that a person is more spiritually advanced than a member who is not a helper.

Helpers exist at the local, regional (in some countries), national and international levels. Helpers' geographical status relates to the regional or national supportive duties they are expected to provide – otherwise, there are no geographical restrictions on where a helper is considered to be a helper. A local helper from London who travels to Jakarta, for example, will be seen as a helper there, and can do testing or participate in a new member's opening in the same way as any Indonesian helper.

There are normally 18 international helpers—nine men and nine women. Three men and three women are assigned to each of the three areas in Subud:

# Area I covers Zones 1 & 2 (Australasia and Asia)
# Area II covers Zones 3, 4, 5, and 6 (Europe and Africa)
# Area III covers Zones 7, 8 & 9 (the Americas)

The international helpers are members of the World Subud Council. They serve on a voluntary basis for a four-year term, which runs from World Congress to World Congress. There is no distinction in rank between local, national, or international helpers. Nor is there a difference in status between helpers, committee or members. Being a helper is seen not as a talent but as a service role.

===Ibu Rahayu===
Ibu Siti Rahayu Wiryohudoyo is Pak Subuh's eldest daughter. In a talk given on 5 March 2010 to a National Gathering in Semarang, Indonesia, Ibu Siti Rahayu explains how she came to be appointed "spiritual advisor" by the Subud International Congress.<ref>Subud Canada (2010) SCAN The Quarterly Newsletter of Subud Canada, p. 13 [http://www.subud.ca/sites/default/files/SCAN_Autumn_2010.pdf SCAN Autumn 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906085307/http://www.subud.ca/sites/default/files/SCAN_Autumn_2010.pdf |date=6 September 2014 }}</ref>

===Committees===
Most Subud groups have a committee, typically including a chairperson, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary. This committee is responsible for making sure there is a place to do group latihan, communications, budgets, and supporting the mutual efforts of members at the local group. A similar structure functions at the regional (in certain countries), national, zonal and international levels.

The international executive is the International Subud Committee (ISC). Apart from ensuring communication, publishing, budgeting, archives and support of affiliates, it organizes a World Congress every four years. The ISC chairperson sits on the World Subud Council.

For purposes of a practical organizational structure, the Subud association is divided into nine multinational zones, more or less as follows:

:*Zones 1 & 2 – Australasia and Asia
:*Zone 3 – includes 8 countries of western Europe
:*Zone 4 – central and eastern European countries
:*Zones 5 & 6 – Francophone and Anglophone African countries, respectively
:*Zone 7 – USA, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Surinam, and the Caribbean
:*Zone 8 – the upper part of South America
:*Zone 9 – the lower part of South America

Each Zone has its own four representatives that are the voting members on the World Subud Council. They also serve as volunteers a four-year term like helpers. They are selected at Zone Meetings.

The chairperson of the World Subud Association serves a four-year term from one World Congress to the next and is also the chairperson of the World Subud Council. The World Subud Council is responsible for ensuring that decisions made at World Congress are carried through.

===Affiliates===
Subud affiliates (sometimes called ‘wings’) are subsidiary organizations that focus on specific projects at a national or international level. They are technically independent organizations but have overlapping boards of trustees. They include:

:*Susila Dharma International Association (SDI or SDIA) – humanitarian projects
:*[[Subud International Cultural Association]] (SICA) – networking cultural activities
:*[[Subud Enterprise Services]] International (SES or SESI) – networks between entrepreneurial activities
:*[[Subud Youth Association]] (SYA) – networks among younger Subud members
:*Subud International Health Organisation (SIHA) – incorporates both scientific and alternative approaches

Some chairpersons of these affiliates also sit on the World Subud Council and serve a four-year term.

In addition to the above affiliates, a foundation – the Muhammad Subuh Foundation (MSF) – has been set up, whose main work is helping groups acquire their own latihan premises.

Informal networks and interest groups initiated by members include a Peace Network, a Spiritual Support Network (Yahoo group) and several Facebook groups.

===Enterprises===
When Subud first spread outside Indonesia, Pak Subuh talked mainly about the spiritual exercise. He started to encourage Subud members to engage in enterprises and donate a proportion of profits to welfare projects and to maintaining the Subud organisation. He explained that the fact of the latihan "bringing to life" the physical body indicates that worship need not be viewed as narrowly as prayer in places of worship; that people's ordinary lives, when following and guided by the Power of God, are ongoing worship, such that there is a dynamic interplay between "material" life and "spiritual" life. Therefore, his encouragement for Subud members to engage in enterprise is seen in the context of putting the latihan into practice.

===Membership===
Membership is open to any person over 17 years of age, irrespective of the person's religion or lack of religion. (As Pak Subuh saw it, the latihan is for "all of mankind.") The exception is that someone suffering from a serious mental illness may not be initiated as a member.

There is normally a waiting period of up to three months before a person may be opened. During this period, the enquirer is expected to meet a few times with the local helpers so that he or she can have questions answered and doubts clarified.

There is no membership fee, but most Subud members contribute, for example, to the rent or upkeep of premises where they meet.

===Update===
Some long established Subud groups and communities are dwindling or folding. Stalwart longstanding members are aging and dying while there are very few new enquiries and fewer new members.

Why is this? Subud has always avoided self-promotion. But in the 1950s - 1970s when Subud was growing and spreading there were a number of current books in print that reached library shelves and there was a community of all ages so that new people had a peer group to join.

The challenge now is that 'seekers' can easily discover many forms of spirituality while Subud remains almost hidden. The recommended three month introductory period, which in the 1950s - 1970s seemed a reasonable test of sincerity, in today's high-speed culture is a far greater deterrent than it was 70 years ago. As an organisation Subud tends to be change-averse, so the challenge these days is how to renew group membership, maintain properties and running costs, and fill committee positions.