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Director Reports to the Board of Trustees, 2007
November/December 2007 Practice and Education Updates Brian Sutton, under the guidance of Acharya Lobel and me, has been hard at work designing both a logic around how we lay out our program offerings and placing them on the 2008/2009 calendar. This calendar will go to the Practice and Education Council for amendments at our meeting next week. In December eleven sangha members gathered to take the bodhisattva vow with Acharya Bower. Locals included Anne Carter, Barbara Hopcroft, Andrea Sparks, Brian and Patty Sutton, Kathy Vieweg, and Bo Williams while out-of-towners included Heidi Kosh, Adam Pattantyus, Read Predmore, and Cynthia Schroer. Also of note is Larry Teitelbaum has accepted the role of chair of the Advanced Committee and will represent that committee on the main Practice and Education Council. Last but certainly not least we are beginning to hear back from the visiting teachers we have sent invitations to and now have set dates for full weekend visits by Kilung Jigme Rinpoche (February) Changling Rinpoche (May), and Khandro Rinpoche (July). More responses and dates are forthcoming. Shambhala Council meeting The Shambhala Council met last month to discuss a variety of issues, such as: Fundraising: A recommendation was made that future membership campaigns start before Harvest of Peace, possibly in August, and lead up to that date since it has proven difficult to contact people this campaign due to the various holidays and people leaving town. Housekeeping: Since there is still a struggle to find people who are regularly devoted to housekeeping the following plan was laid out: 1. Lodro and Jon will make an e-mail appeal in January to let members know there is a crucial need for membership to be involved in housekeeping. 2. We will begin having a sign up list at registration for programs beginning in January such that people who want to do "pay what you can" are given the option of contributing hours of service to make up any difference. Other ideas to bring in more volunteers should these not work included making in-person requests for help at our weekly offerings, program credit for housekeeping, and rota as part of programs. Ikebana: Sustaining ikebana for every weekend program has been a challenge. Brian and Sarah are going to set up a meeting with those who have recently taken ikebana classes, and long time contributors, to get a rotation/schedule for the spring. To get more people involved, we will also pitch the upcoming classes to Path of Awakened Life participants. Dorje Kasung: Sometime in January we will have an oath ceremony to swear in our official desung, who helps protect the health and well being of the sangha. This person would be available for specific programs and help the Care and Conduct Council. Fundraising At this point $2808 was raised on Harvest of Peace through one-time gifts, $200 of which was earmarked for the GES Fund. Between that day and our dues campaign $415 more a month has been raised, which is $4980 a year. This puts us on excellent footing for making the GES Fund sustainable and being able to begin funding projects to uplift the physical environment of the Shambhala Center. In addition Anne Carter and Sarah Lipton wrote a letter to the membership asking for financial assistance to attend sutrayana seminary at Karme Choling this month. The response was almost overwhelming, sparking donations totaling $1195 to date. This may mean that there will be money left over for future sangha members who are interested in attending long retreats but are fiscally unable to do so.
Shambhala Day
Given that Shambhala Day falls on February 7th, which is a Thursday, I would like to propose that we hold the traditional Shambhala Day events as outlined below on that day and have a rousing celebration the Saturday that follows. 8:30 AM Opening chants and Elixir of Life practice 7:00 PM Replay of the Sakyong’s talk 7:45 PM Kyudo demonstration 8:00 PM Throwing of the I Ching October 2007 Halifax Meeting with the Sakyong
Over the course of a week in Halifax the leadership of the major centers and projects in Shambhala met to discuss the 32 capital campaigns going on throughout the mandala. It appears that we are not the only center by any means that the Sakyong has encouraged to move to a new building and that at this point he is ready to articulate which projects will be the first to move forward. This meeting was a chance for all of the major projects in the mandala to look at fundraising from a unified as opposed to a competitive approach and the general consensus seems to be that all projects will get funded over a matter of years in a cooperative fashion. P&E Council Meeting The Practice and Education Council met this month and decided that it is necessary at this point to strengthen our Intermediate Offerings Committee to provide more support for the post-Path of Awakened Life classes we will be scheduling as well as the miscellaneous one-off programs we offer such as Acharya Simmer-Brown’s Dakini Wisdom or Andy Karr’s Contemplating Reality. In addition Michael Mclellan is stepping down as the chair of the Advanced Committee and the P&E Council discussed who we will ask to replace him. Under Thirty Night
After a meeting with the Under Thirty leadership this month we came up with a plan to strengthen their infrastructure. One aspect of this is building up and training their volunteer support. Another is providing a set six-month curriculum that can be run twice a year and explores the three-yanas of Shambhala Buddhism. Acharya Lobel has already written up the structure for this curriculum and it has been approved by the Under Thirty leadership. It will include one talk a month from a senior teacher in Shambhala and there will be guidelines offered to the under thirty discussion group leaders for the remainder of the month, along with suggested reading resources. This is a big step up from anyone being invited to do a reading on something they find interesting or having to invent a curriculum on a month-to-month basis depending on what a visiting teacher is interested in presenting. The Shambhala Guides who were previously giving group instruction at open house have been invited to give group instruction at Under Thirty Night. So far three have accepted, which is a significant improvement over the current structure where it often falls to Nick Kranz. Other Practice and Education Matters In other program news we are running a successful Tiger class on Thursday night with a handful of other people attending a make-up class on Monday evenings. Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown’s program was a success as well, although as usual with these visiting acharya programs we barely broke even financially and there were only 15-20 people present throughout the weekend. Based on the variety of acharya visits we have had and the variety of publicity efforts we have supported it is my personal opinion that this will continue to be a trend unless the program is part of our curriculum or a Vajrayana intensive (such as a Level I or Werma program). We also had a strong Shambhala Training Level V with 15 graduates and 45 people in attendance for the Sakyong’s live talk broadcast over the internet. Member Dues Campaign At this point a little more than half of our callers have contacted our membership and we have raised our cumulative dues by $390 a month, $4680 a year. This is a sign that all of our hard work is paying off, although it does seem to be an exhausting process for many of the callers. Maintenance
Barbara Hopcroft, Jon Wyman, and I met with a structural engineer who examined the windows in the stairway and concluded that if we fix the gaskets themselves we will be able to avoid having to do extensive rebuilding work. The estimate presented is that this work will cost less than $2000.
September 2007 Programs Open house audiences continue to be quite large, prompting a re-examination of how initial instruction is being given on Wednesday evenings. Currently the Shambhala Guides and Meditation Instructors give instruction to groups as large as 20 people. Given the size of the group and how impersonal that can feel the Practice and Education Council along with the teachers at open house have offered a new proposal for instruction: 1) the open house teachers who are present but not giving the talk that night give the initial instruction These ideas are still in a proposal stage and I am meeting with the SG/MIs later this month to invite a dialogue around these changes. In other big program news we had 45 people attend our Shambhala Training Level I with Acharya Richard John, which was spectacular. The following Tuesday 30 people showed up, most of them under thirty years old, to attend Ethan Nichtern’s book reading and signing. Over Columbus Day we hosted 34 partipants, half of them from out of town, for a teacher training program. Some of our local teachers were asked to teach either on an assistant teacher, co-teacher or full teacher level when they had previously been teaching at a different level or not at all. Everyone received valuable feedback on their style and how they could grow as a teacher. In addition we had 16 participants, most of which were local, graduate from Outrageous & Inscrutable this weekend. We are offering Golden Key in February for the first time in several years. Update on Membership In the last month our invitation to potential new members has yielded 9 new members while our letter to our existent membership has resulted in 20 members upping their dues. The next step is calling the remaining membership (approximately 120 households) to offer them the opportunity to raise their monthly amount. Members of the Shambhala Council have volunteered to make these phone calls and I recommend that the Board of Trustees consider joining this campaign as well. This would result in approximately 8 phone calls per person, very doable. Harvest of Peace This year’s Harvest of Peace celebration felt very nice. The day started with the Sadhana of Mahamudra, with both nyinthun participants and sangha members beginning the Harvest of Peace activities practicing together. We then took a break for a satisfying brunch at Matt Murphy’s before Alison Cimino welcomed our new members and we heard both the Sakyong and President Reoch’s address. To hear the address you can visit http://www.shambhala.org/community/events.php. We then welcomed incoming officers and thanked those stepping down from their posts, had brief remarks from myself and Jon Wyman, an uplifted fundraising event and then a lovely reception. We knew we were shooting the moon by asking for $9000 in one-time donations, three times what was raised last year, particularly since there were only 30 people left at that point. We were able to raise $2600 which begs the question as to how much the Center would like to take out of its savings to fund the environment projects or how else we would like to raise additional funds. Proposal for Increased Center Coordinator Hours Sarah Lipton has been generously handling her workload at a paid 15 hours a week although it is clear that she is offering extra hours pro-bono. Considering that in addition we hope to have her involved in approximately two hours a week of financial data entry I would like to propose we bring this position up to 20 hours of paid work. The financial consideration is: 5 hours x $15 a week x 52 weeks = $3900 in annual increased expenditure August 2007 Programs Since the last Board meeting the Shambhala Center has hosted a ngondro practice weekend with thirteen of our tantra students in attendance, a large Turning the Mind into an Ally day-long program (20 people), and a sold out event with Venerable Khandro Rinpoche. In addition we had 35 people attend Tulku Thondup Rinpoche’s public program, 30 his tantra audience this last weekend, and he was very warmly received. We also had an ikebana workshop that 11 participants took part in, which is wonderful since we are always in need of more practitioners trained in that art. It is also worth noting that our open house has been quite large this last month, with as many as 50 people attending. Hazel Bercholz and Charlie Byron are joining the open house teaching staff. The only worrisome aspect of our programming is that 15 people attended Shambhala Training Level IV. This is four people less than the Level III and Lion class and, as far as I have heard, is caused due to people’s schedule conflicts. Hopefully the same 15 participants can continue on throughout the program with no further attrition. The two efforts the Office of Practice and Education in Halifax and the local Practice and Education Council have taken to curb attrition like this in the future is to A) run the program all in a school year (September through May) and B) shorten it to just consist of the Shambhala Training weekends and five-week classes. We are currently looking forward to two very large programs in the near future. There are 44 people signed up for our Shambhala Training Level I this weekend and 37 people signed up for the teacher training program we are hosting over Columbus Day weekend. Membership Alison Cimino, our new membership coordinator, has undertaken three separate initiatives related to membership in the last month.
Lodro and Alison will take stock of the responses post-Harvest of Peace and judge best how to proceed from there in terms of follow up call campaigns and so on. Kathy Vieweg has been and continues to be a valuable resource on these campaigns. Service Training This Thursday Frank Ryan and I will be presiding over a leadership and service training. A number of active volunteers were invited and we expect 15 participants which is wonderful. This is the first of these experimental trainings which focuses primarily on the view of leadership as a path of practice but also trains people in practical roles. The evening consists of a talk, contemplations of the Six Ways of Ruling, discussion, Brian Sutton introducing the contents of a new coordinators manual, and a celebration. P&E Council Meeting The Practice and Education Council had their every-other month meeting. In addition to reports from the various committees there was significant discussion on staff appreciation events and the role of the Shambhala Guide at the Shambhala Center. Maintenance Updates At this point the front entry stairwell has been repaired. The last step is having it painted, which the construction company said they will get to this week. I am waiting to hear back from Barbara Hopcroft about the second estimate for the glass work that needs to be done in the other stairway. July 2007 With Traleg Rinpoche’s visit and the Shambhala Training Level I program last weekend we are beginning to enter into a very busy autumn. Over seventy people attended Traleg Rinpoche’s Friday evening talk with 40-50 participants staying on for the rest of the weekend. Rinpoche taught the entirety of his new book, The Practice of Lojong, much to the delight of the participants. Last weekend 25 people attended the first of two Shambhala Training Level Is. In addition to this sizable group our regular Wednesday night open houses have become very large of late with 40-50 people coming each week. I myself have been working intimately with Brian Sutton and Sarah Lipton to prepare for the incredible staff needs and publicity for the autumn calendar. In addition I have been continuing to meet with the community members on a one-on-one basis to explore how they would like to see the Shambhala Center continue to expand and manifest in the coming years. June 2007 Personnel Both a part-time administrative position (Center Coordinator) and a full-time Practice and Programs Coordinator were advertised to the local and international Shambhala sangha. Out of the various applicants it was decided by me and Board chair Jon Wyman that while it would have been ideal to have one full-time role of combined administrator and practice and education person given the pool of applicants the best decision was to hire a part-time Center Coordinator. Sarah Lipton, graduate of Naropa University, frequent coordinator, and full participant in the Path of Awakened Life, has been hired in that role. Meanwhile Brian Sutton has officially been instated as our part-time Practice and Education Coordinator, which he was hired for in May. Brian is a long-time sangha member who has a vast amount of experience as a coordinator and as a member of the Shambhala Training Executive Committee. The Shambhala Council has grown with Barbara Hopcroft coming on as our Facilities Manager and Judy Vreeland as our Housekeeping Coordinator. Alison Cimino is stepping in as well as our new Membership Coordinator. We are currently in discussion about launching a new member and dues-upping campaign in August. Practice and Education Much effort has been spent over this past month lining up the calendar for August 2007 – February 2009. The Practice and Education Council is meeting on Sunday evening to discuss what the Path of Awakened Life may look like during that time period, which will affect the other programming aspects of the calendar. Meanwhile the Teacher Invitation Committee has completed their list of invitees for 2008 and my office has begun issuing invitations. More on that as it develops. Transitions Last but not least we had a very nice Midsummers Day celebration organized by Michael Mclellan and hosted by Mary Lang and Charlie Trageser. There were approximately fifty sangha members there enjoying barbequed food, beer, classic hits, and volleyball. At that time I was asked to say a few words and announced my retirement. A follow up letter went out to the membership that was not there sharing with them the news that I will be leaving the post of Center Director on Shambhala Day and inviting them to meet one-on-one with me in the coming months. Many sangha members have taken me up on this offer and I have been enjoying many coffee dates over the last week wherein we have been discussing the future of the Shambhala Center and how people would like to be involved.
May 2007 Programs In my absence things at the Shambhala Center for the most part went swimmingly. As predicted Mingyur Rinpoche’s talk was a sold out event and many people got the chance to meet him at the book signing. A Shambhala Guide follow up day fully authorized Kathy Vieweg and Dan Glenn as new Shambhala Guides. A small but enthusiastic Trungpa Rinpoche video class has begun. Eva Wong connected with somewhere around 80 sangha members during her visit to Boston the other week which was considered both provocative and fun for those people. A transcript of her drive-around with John Bailes and other sangha members is forthcoming. Due to the combination of our being offered a set up for poor attendance (Memorial Day weekend) and my father’s sudden illness we were not as well prepared for Khenpo Gawang’s visit. Sangha members rallied to the task though and Khenpo felt well hosted and taught a weekend that was enjoyed by the dozen or so participants that were able to come. Facilities Also in my absence the ceiling in the stairway gradually became more and more water loaded and, on last Saturday, it gave way. Both Jeremy and I have in the last week attempted to have our facilities manager take action since she had lined up a roofer but our attempts were not responded to. I ended up finding someone who was willing to do the repair on Tuesday morning so ideally by the time that this meeting takes place the roof will be fixed. Personnel Along those lines Jeremy has announced his retirement for June 8th. This came as something of a surprise but over the weeks I was away Jeremy became involved in a career in real estate, leaving his Berklee job. While he was previously able to balance that job and this part-time position he no longer feels that is possible in his new line of work. This puts us in an interesting position in which we should evaluate whether we still want two part-time employees, one for administration and publicity, the other for practice and study, or one full time employee that does both. Meanwhile Jeremy is happy to help with the transition and any miscellaneous things that come up at the center while we find his replacement. While Jeremy may be retiring from his post he certainly will continue to practice and study in the community. He wrote, “Please understand that I think very highly of you and will always think very fondly of my time spent at the center. I am grateful for the support, guidance, and encouragement you have provided me while working at the Shambhala Center and I thank you for the opportunity to learn and grow as I have as a member of the center's community.” April, 2007 Contribution of Service A record-breaking 45 people returned our annual contribution of service form this year. I have spent a good amount of time in the last month working with others to best utilize the results of that survey. Overall the support from the community expressed through the survey and through general volunteer activity has been very strong of late. Programs The visit of the Dorje Loppon went incredibly well, with many senior students coming out to connect to Werma practice and the energy of the Vidyadhara. When supplicated the Dorje Loppon agreed to return to Boston for programs in the future. We also had a very successful Chogyam Trungpa Festival and Parinirvana Day as well this month, with many people connecting to video or stories of Trungpa Rinpoche for the first time. Sixty members of the community came on April 4th and a very heartfelt and potent night was enjoyed by all. New Positions I am pleased to announce that Jill Hurley has agreed to serve as Co-Resident Director of Shambhala Training with Jim Katz. They have already met and begun to work together and are scheduling a time to meet with the Deans as well. Judy Vreeland has agreed to take on the role of Housekeeping Coordinator. She is currently organizing into a rota the list of people who noted on their contribution of service form that they would be willing to help maintain the space. Miscellaneous Matters It is worth noting that our visiting teacher schedule has shifted from our original assumptions. Namkhai Drimed Rinpoche will be spending less time in the United States this year so he will be unable to visit Boston in 2007. Similarly Kilung Rinpoche will be unable to visit us until early 2008 as a result of a longer period of time spent in Tibet. Last but not least it is worth noting that a good amount of energy has been spent lining things up for my period of absence while in Europe, with coordinators and point people organized for events between now and late May. I have no doubt that the center will operate just fine in my absence. March, 2007 Shambhala Day As many of you know we had a very potent Shambhala Day in February. We warmly celebrated community and incoming and outgoing officers, practiced, and feasted together. Many people felt that the fundraising pitch was an actual highlight this year, as opposed to being a drag, and as a result we more than doubled the number of local sangha members giving to Shambhala. We reached our goal of an average of $10 a month from 100% of our membership. The only downside of Shambhala Day was that due to the length of the day there were only a dozen or so people that turned up for the party in the evening. Follow Up on Environment After having the contract approved by Jim Wilton we have officially switched from NStar to Constellation New Energy (wind energy) for the Shambhala Center. The next step is to switch some of our light bulbs to more energy conserving bulbs. New Positions After a tumultuous don season Kristel Ferry decided not to take on the role of Shambhala Training Resident Director and instead Jim Katz has stepped into that role. He and I are meeting on a weekly basis at this point to ease the transition into his new role and search for a co-Resident Director together. Paul Adams took his oath to replace Jane Milliken as our book keeper on Shambhala Day and has enthusiastically thrown himself into the task. John Bailes, John Barnard, Jane, and I met with Paul last week to transition from Peachtree to Quickbooks. Both Paul and I are learning Quickbooks at this point and once we feel well versed in it Jane will officially hand over the checkbook and Paul will be our sole book keeper. Maureen O’Driscoll has stepped down as Nyinthun coordinator due to mounting pressure from both her personal and professional life and has trained Barbara Gard as her replacement. Barbara and I have met in the last month and continue to be in touch by e-mail and phone as she finds her way in taking on this role. Anne Richmond has stepped into the role of Diversity Contact Person on the international Shambhala Diversity working group. She and I are meeting and discussing who to invite on to an informal committee that would brainstorm ideas for increasing diversity at the Shambhala Center. We also are exchanging e-mails with Gaylon Ferguson about programs we could run along these lines. One thing worth noting is that the search for a paid Practice and Education Coordinator is still on, with only four applicants thus far. Two of which are not appropriate candidates for the job. Chris Pleim and Acharya Lobel have agreed to sit on the search committee with me and interview the remaining two applicants. It would be lovely to hire someone in the next month or so since the practice and study side of things has really been taking up an unusually high percentage of my time as director lately. Publicity Recently two major publicity efforts have occurred. Jeremy McDowell designed a lovely packet for outreach which could be used in a variety of situations but currently has been sent out to Buddhist contacts at several colleges. Also, the Metro interviewed me for a piece they were doing on meditation. In return for the interview they were so generous as to list us as the sole place for “Where to go” to learn more about meditation. I will bring both items to the Board meeting for people to see. Refuge Vows Last but not least it is exciting to note that 16 people took refuge vows this weekend with Acharya Adam Lobel. The incredible devotion felt amongst the participants was quite striking and the ceremony itself was very beautiful. A full list of who took refuge will be coming out as an e-mail to the membership in the coming week.
January, 2007 2007 Calendar and Financials As we discussed in depth last night the bulk of my time this last month was spent working on the 2007 calendar and budget. The full range of our offerings is found on our website and the financials will be posted under the director’s blog section as well. Shambhala Day Plans for Shambhala Day are underway and the most recent version of the schedule can be found at shambhalaboston.org. The last remaining “big” piece that needs to be figured out is whether we should rent a space for a party that evening. Susan Piver approached me to see if we could commit to a stronger push to support Shambhala International’s fundraising efforts this year and is working with me on that currently. Environment Ben Brown and David Delcourt of makemesustainable.com have been brought in three times in the last month to consult on how to make the Shambhala Center more environmentally friendly while also saving us money on our utilities. The full presentation was given at last night’s meeting and will be summarized on our website for others to see shortly. New Positions I am pleased to announce that on Shambhala Day Kristel Ferry will be taking over for Catherine Pilfrey as our next Shambhala Training Resident Director. I am currently waiting to hear back from a potential co-Resident Director. Jane Milliken will also be retiring on Shambhala Day as our bookkeeper and there is a strong candidate we are in discussions with to replace her. |
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