July 23, 2001 Board Minutes

Attending: Jane Grace Bowman, Barbara Brodsky, Kris Kurnit, Aiji Pipho, Pat Shalis, Kalindi Trietley.

Next Board Meeting is the Board Retreat at Barb's cabin on Monday, August 27 from 3:00 until 9:00 PM.

Minutes for June 25, 2001: Read and slight rewording approved. Kalindi will contact Dottie to see whether she has already made a wording change.

Action Items Update:

1. Barbara reports that the mail situation has been addressed. When Barb is away, Hal puts DSC mail in Dana's box so that checks are handled in a timely fashion.
2. Aiji has not contacted Dana; she will do so tomorrow. Aiji has called a catalog retailer about FileMaker Pro, but they were out of stock. Suggestion was made to contact a local retailer.
3. Kris has not yet convened the office manager subcommittee, but the group (Kris, Kalindi, Pat, Barbara) agreed to meet at Kris' house on Aug 14 @ 7:00. There will be email communication before that time.
4. Jane Grace will add an apology to the upcoming newsletter regarding the omission of some names from the donors' list in the last newsletter.
5. Kalindi will write a brief personal article by tomorrow on generosity and sangha. She will submit to Roann and Bob.
6. Kris talked to Bob Dohrenwend about DSC stock gifts. Bob will check to see if latest gift has been sent. The stock has split and we have 13 more shares of Microsoft now. Kris asked whether to sell or keep. Bob advised that many organizations sell to cover operating expenses, but Board decided to keep for now, until we either decide to either buy or rent and renovate.

Committee Reports:

Financial: A report was distributed by Kris and Pat. Pat is in the process of taking over finances. Pat and Dana will meet in August to go over procedures for future.

Retreat Committee: Committee minutes have not been received. Kris will check. Discussion of scholarships is postponed until Board retreat in August.

Fundraising: The follow-up letter from phase I went out. Kalindi wrote, Kris designed, Kris and Diane hand-wrote cards. Phase II letter was supposed to go out at the end of July, but is being delayed so that the Board can further discuss membership specifics at the Board retreat.

Newsletter: Bob has requested clarification about purpose and asked for more specific directions about transcripts and whether or not there should be themes. Barb gave brief history of newsletter. it was a way to distribute transcripts (Barb's dharma talks and Aaron's discourses), as well as letters from Barb. In recent times, it has expanded to include sangha news and business, as well as occasional inspiration from others in the sangha. Board decided that Barb and Aaron would continue picking transcripts for now. Jane Grace will begin reading transcripts to familiarize herself with what exists so she can make recommendation to Barb. Will discuss a formal statement of purpose at the Board retreat. It was also decided for now that things not directly related to the sangha, like book reviews, would not be included. It was noted that each page costs money to print and to mail.

IT Committee: Not much happening. Aiji's friend Joshua (who may help us with computer training and/or problems) is getting married and is out of commission temporarily. Aiji will pursue FileMaker Pro this week.

Site Search: There is an ongoing search; folks are especially focusing on rentals at this time.

Archives: Ken Starz has completed an impressive cataloguing project. He has subsequently stepped down from the archiving committee. Kalindi will buy a card and bring to the retreat.

Website: Ian has resigned as web administrator. Kalindi will post the position as soon as a description of duties can be put together. Barb will write description.