November 26, 2001 Board Minutes

Attending: Jane Grace Bowman, Barbara Brodsky, Dottie Coyne, Kris Kurnit, George SanFacon, Pat Shalis, Kalindi Trietley.

Minutes for October 29, 2001: In the interest of time, we read the minutes from October silently. The minutes were approved with a couple of changes. New Action Item: Dottie will email the minutes as approved to Nicholas to put on the Web site.

ALL Action Items from the October meeting:

A. Barbara directed Ethel in the work to be done and she did it. Ethel's work will be about eight hours a month. Ethel works only on a Tuesday.

B. Aiji and Barbara have not communicated about attachments. There are some new computer issues regarding Barbara's ability to send out messages.

C. Kalindi has now received the job description for newsletter manager from Jane Grace. Barbara will post it to the whole local sangha with addresses showing. She sends to five separate email lists—her Tues. Thurs. class groups, the teachers, the Board and the whole sangha.

D. Kris wrote her article for the newsletter.

E.. Kris contacted the Nonprofit Enterprise at Work (NEW). We do not need a cosigner when buying or renting a new space. There is no requirement. It will depend on the seller or renter. The advice is that we can stand on our own. New Action Items: Kris will ask (NEW) about any standard paper work we need to have before buying or renting. Pat will ask them what type of financial statements should we have ready.

F. David Brown spent an evening with Barbara and the new ibook is wonderful. It's about 90% in. Barbara thanks the board profusely.

G. Dottie talked to Kenny King and he is willing to do our brochure for somewhere between $100 and $300 depending on how many hours it takes. Kalindi and Dottie are working on the design. The Board decided to go ahead with a small run with the present phone and address info and change in the future.

H. The search for the rental or purchase is back on.

A. Finance Committee:
Pat's reports tonight are in the same format we have seen all year, but she is now proposing some changes: a balance sheet that will show assets and debits; a report that will have a column for each month—reorganizing all categories of income and expense. Then, with the beginning of next year, we can draft a budget. Then we can report against a budget. We will have a summary balance sheet for each year as well as a monthly expense report. Along with our tax records, we will have an annual financial report. New Action Item: George and Pat will work as a subgroup to the Board on budget considerations and report to the Board. One change that will come in January is that Dana Woolsley (our accountant) will create an account for each person to keep track of income donations and facilitate a year-end statement to be mailed to each donor. The retreat income and expenses, and fundraiser income and expenses will be kept separate. Barbara wants to know how much support is local and how much is out of town.

B. Newsletter:
The recent newsletter process went a lot smoother. A job description for a new manager is now ready. There are questions of cost and size of the Deep Spring newsletter. New Action Items: Jane Grace will pass newsletter costs to Pat and George. Jane Grace and Barbara will confer regarding possible changes to the newsletter.

C. Retreat Committee:
The price for the March retreat is $175, $160 for early registration. The committee will meet on December 6^th to review the past retreat and plan the March retreats. They will be contacting Howell about meals, etc.

D. Site Search Committee:
Susan Weir will begin again looking in earnest after Christmas with a $2,000-a-month budget in mind.

E. No tech report, Aiji is absent.

F. Web Site:  No report from Nicholas, but he has all the information he needs. He can get it up and running.

G. Teachers Group:
Dottie agreed to report to the Board in future about the teacher activities. This is a new committee. Dottie will be the representative to the Board.

H. Fundraising:
Kalindi reported on two separate meetings. They are brainstorming ideas for a next gathering—a potluck of some sort, part social and part meeting. Kris met with Diane Austin yesterday . New Action Items: Kris will write a phase-two fundraising letter to the out-of-town sangha. Diane will be willing to put on a silent auction in the spring.

New Business:

Kris and George are stepping down from the Board in April. Both feel they will be available to the Board for consultation even after they leave. New Action Items: Kris and George will meet in January to identify issues that the Board may want to address. The entire Board will meet on February 2^nd, 9:00 to 3:00, for some deep time talking about the work that needs to be done. Kris and George invite suggestions from all members. There are issues around the transition of Kris and George leaving but also it is a good time to look at the Sangha and Board needs and direction.

Administration Assistants and a new Office Manager. Nicholas is our administrator relating to computer issues. Ethel is assisting Barbara with some of her tasks.

Suggestions from Susan Weir: For the new office manager position, the hiring process should be open and transparent, advertised widely, committee to interview and the most qualified person hired. The sangha is paying and they deserve a highly qualified person in the position. We are very ready to hire someone. There is a list of the jobs to be drawn up. Ideally this person would replace Ethel and Nicholas with Nicholas trouble shooting for the computer. It would be a job of at least 15 hours a week, the person would work in the Deep Spring office either four or five days a week. New Action Items: Kris and Pat will get on with the job description and skill requirements. Pat, Kris, Kalindi, Dottie, Barbara all offered to serve on a subgroup on this. The Board empowers the group to get this done and report to the Board at our next meeting.

Barbara's Publishing: The Board empowers Barbara to take her book to a professional publisher and take the income from its sale. Deep Spring will not underwrite the costs of the professional printing. There will be a cheaper first printing that Deep Spring will put out.

Handouts: 4 pages of financial reports.

The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.