Shambhala Seattle Governing Council Minutes 9/6/17 Governing - - PDF document

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Shambhala Seattle Governing Council Minutes 9/6/17 Governing Council Members Position Present Michael Busby Center Director Yes John Gilvar Center Rusung Yes (Skype) Sydney Munger Director – Practice & Education Yes Cynthia Bradshaw Chagdzö (Finance) Yes Greg Wolk Director – Culture and Decorum Yes Terry Jaworski Director – Societal Health & Well-Being Yes Robin Willet Center Desung Yes JoAnn Schindler Council Secretary Yes Meeting Guests:

• Annica Crouse and Richard Eng: Membership Committee representatives
• Keith Hitchcock, Sangha member
• Shastri Emeritus, Ben Hines

Special Agenda: This meeting was dedicated to hearing a presentation from representative of the recently formed Membership Committee. It covered the background leading up to the formation of the committee, purpose and goals, progress to date, and an invitation for Council members to serve as Ambassadors for the membership drive. Special emphasis was placed on helping hosts prepare for their Harvest of Peace dinner gatherings on September 23rd. Notes below were taken by Annica Crouse during the meeting. MIchael:

• Tonight is multipurpose; a few groups of intersecting people: The governing council,

hosts of Harvest of Peace dinners, interested people.

• Membership drive has been the focus for the past two and a half months: Annica has

been contracted to oversee, Richard has put a lot of exertion into the drive, Sam Taylor is the Membership Coordinator, Jill Avey with marketing, Meli-Tashi with finance advising ○ In response to concerns about not meeting operating costs with membership; having to make that up in programs was a concern. The sakyong has been saying more like life, less like school. Household, family and children. Our community’s

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interest in Radical Dharma. There is energy around inclusion, looking at our biases ○ Two aspects: A and She ■ Creating enlightened society based on basic goodness ■ Cutting through our habitual patterns ○ Generosity was the main value that people highlighted on vision & values ○ Many centers are looking at this right now also ○ More towards patronage & unified giving vs. programming

• Introductions (Richard Eng, Greg Wolk, Annica Crouse, Ben Hines, Cynthia Bradshaw,

John Gilvar, Robin Willett, JoAnn Schindler, Sydney Munger, Terry Jaworski, Keith Hitchcock, Michael Busby)

• We’ve done this presentation twice (Town Hall, Satellite Leaders Gathering), so for you

all we will divulge more

• At Town Hall we focused most on Radical Inclusivity
• Here we can focus on Manifesting as Leaders, Ambassadors
• In January we talked a lot about wouldn’t it be nice if we had an ops team, etc. We

announced this at Town Hall. Everyone we’ve talked to about this has said it would be good to have someone in this Job that Annica is doing (right now, overseeing / managing the membership drive) ○ Marketing, Getting Sundays and Thursdays Going, Outreach, Communications, Helping with Satellite meetings, expanding the view of seeing the satellites as a place to work with as a synchronized unit ○ Having help allows us to work on all of these things

• Town hall has also evolved organically. 1st town hall we talked about finances, that lead

to a membership drive, people gave us ideas. We sent out a survey about membership and got a lot of responses about diversity, so we mixed in these things together. ○ So now we’re doing this drive, and also diversity / radical dharma ○ Bringing in more people from the natural energy

• Next town Hall we might recap some of what the sakyong said to us a year ago, which

also ventures into 4 pillars, household, shambhala meditation.

• An invitation to be an Ambassadors

○ This is the notion of minister, we know what’s happening and can embody it and include others in it. We encourage you to be apart of what we’re doing and even venturing into uncomfortable areas (anti-oppression, fundraising) ○ Threefold ■ Openness (listening, curiosity) ■ Windhorse (getting inspired and involved) ■ Authentic Presence (inspiring others)

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○ Harvest of Peace Dinners ■ Appreciation, Culture, Good food, good music, splendidness ■ Harvest of peace has always been about richness, so it all goes together; we’re manifesting this ■ In terms of the membership drive:

• There’s clarity in the Tree Model and it takes away a lot of the
• awkwardness. We’ve had people increase at every level with this

information, join at different levels. It answers the question, should it be low or high? It can be any of those. It’s an invitation to engage in membership/community

• Appreciating people who give already and who are already giving

the right amount for them. It’s not necessarily true that we’re all being asked to give more at this time. Lifelong journey “aspiration to give more”.

• Come as you are, you don’t have to do something or change right

now.

• Genuine and realistic for everyone to take a look at all levels
• Sometimes when you see someone from an indigenous culture we can see the whole

culture, and it can be sad to see someone in not their whole culture Richard:

• 2 things I had in mind when getting involved were

○ Providing financial stability for the center to support Michael in doing what he’s wanting to do ○ Raise funds so that we can enhance our outreach for Seattle and the greater communities ■ Being able to have the resources/personnel to go out to different places and provide meditation, etc. → this takes dedication and staff

• We created an email list to connect in those who aren’t already receiving our emails

(Sundays, Thursdays, Satellites)

• Structure of the Fundraising

○ 127 paying members (74% are the two lower levels) ■ 49 Bud level ■ 45 Leaf level ■ 24 branch level ■ 4 trunk level ■ 2 root level ○ Goals for the campaign

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■ $2500 -- to fund general operating expenses through membership and not rely on program income ■ $5500 -- hire additional staff or staff hours ○ Can we do it? ■ If ½ the people in every level increased their membership donation to the next level we could raise $3665 ■ If we gained 50 new members at $40 donation per member we’d gain $2000

• We put out a survey before the campaign started; the top two reasons were to provide

financial stability to the center and because the center is an important part of my life

• We’re a committee of 4 plus Michael, it’s an important drive but we can’t do it on our
• wn; please give us guidance & help, any advice. I don’t have a lot of institutional

memory so

• We can provide everyone with the view, flyers, etc.

Robin: Talking points that would be helpful for me -- What is the value of hiring a particular position, value of not being dependent on program revenue Greg: To the extent that there has been progress up to date would be helpful. Also thank you for this! JoAnn: To be clear about what the ask is Cynthia: at work we do a big thing getting ready to put things on the ballot and get talking points (details) that are helpful to presenting something like this. It really helps! Michael: We will make a coherent cheat sheet. We have a good balance on our Membership Drive team. At the town hall the ask was to contemplate if you can go from where you are to the next level. We can think about if that’s the ask on harvest of peace or if it’s more nuanced Cynthia: We used to think we had a lot more members, but then it turned out we didn’t, but with 50 more we might get back up to that number again. Annica: What we’ve accomplished so far ○ Surveyed community about membership -- results indicated our values ○ Defined our giving levels ○ Created communications plan ○ Website Updated ○ Announcements at Open Houses & Programs as appropriate

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○ 13 new members, $1455 from new members and current member increases ○ Average donation by new members is $50, Average increase is $55 ○ We have a team of people focused on Membership right now! It’s great! Ben Hines: I feel like I can do this now! I’ve done it before. Keith: I’m wonder what happens at the dinner. Do people have ideas about moving from a one pointed presentation to a collaborative conversation. Is this a dyad or a group conversation? Michael: 1. If there is a conversation, what would we do in terms of outreach, practices, community express, if we weren’t having to make money. What would we do with the benefit. That could be attractive to people. 2. If we can present this in a way that shows this has been a back and forth collaborative effort, all that’s gone into it, the Sakyong’s message of “being” the community of shambhala instead of running the business. Tying in those to conversation, so what would that mean to “be it”? What would we want to do? JoAnn: I appreciate your question. This is also a time when we’re watching the video of the Sakyong Wangmo speech. How can we make it more collaborative. While we’re here together, how do we see the flow of the evening. Robin: As hosts can we listenen to the message before? (yes) Also, as groups together people often encourage each other to give Greg: in terms of hosting or being a participant, the ability to be open to where people are coming from when they enter the door and providing a safe space for people to share that, I think that will set the whole tone. Certainly we will have goals, sense of what we would like to share, but to make it a two way street where we’re open to what other people want to share

• together. I would open up if that was the atmosphere I was in.

Richard: I can’t emphasize the importance of knowing the people who are coming and respecting who they are. It’s important that things happen organically and not a presentation. What does shambhala mean to you? Ben: I’m feeling how more finely focused I will need to be as a host as understanding that there is a time boundary. The memory of those dialog dinners is that they go by in a flash. Dinner first, with dessert then conversation. I’m feeling the need for further visualizing. It could be an hour and a half or 2 hours. Robin: also remaining relaxed and embodying Sydney: I would want to have a plan and be relaxed with it so if something else comes in the door to be able to accommodate that but to have some sort of plan for what we’re supposed to be including. What’s our primary focus to having these meetings. How many people will attend the dinners?

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Annica: I am your support for this. Tomorrow I will send an email that asks some questions about details of the invitations, so that we can make sure that we’re all on the same page and that anything you feel is necessary is included in the process ○ I am splitting the member list into segments based on location generally ○ I will send out invitations via Evite separately for each host with their information, then once the RSVPs have closed, I will send the guest list (hopefuls) to the hosts ○ We will give access to the Sakyong Wangmo’s talk for your dinner ○ What I hope to learn from you: ■ How many people are you able to host at your home? What’s the cap? ■ Is there anything that people need to bring? (Potluck?) ■ Starting time, 6 or 7pm ? ■ Address & any directions if necessary ■ Do you have equipment to broadcast the talk from your computer to a TV

• r projector once we get you the access?

■ What else do you need? What am I missing? What questions are there about this? Michael:

• So we’ll send another email to members with information, schedule, what to expect,

that we’ll be hearing the Sakyong Wangmo’s address, talking about membership drive

• I heard that wanting clarity on what is the priority: being a host, the art of hosting and

creating a space that’s open to what people are bringing. We have had a good response from just presenting and not pressuring people; they will connect to that later

• The dinner itself and having a really good evening is better than having a good 10

minutes for fundraising. John: I have to leave, but it’s very inspiring what you’ve increased, etc. Maybe for the future communication with the council, I like to hear the details of how it's’ working, including the help of temporary paid staff. Perhaps we can do this at a future meeting or via email. Host Asks: Dan Peterson, Ross Farr, Tom Gaylord, Mary Bolton, Stace Near