September 17, 2001 Board Minutes

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

Board Minutes of Previous Board Meetings: Correction to the Retreat Committee Report, Section B, which was handed out at the June 2001 Board Meeting. "Retreat Master" means the retreat teachers, Barbara and John. Minutes for August 27, 2001 Board Meeting were submitted and approved.

Vision Statement: A vision statement was proposed at the August 28^th vision gathering of the Board. No minutes were taken at that meeting. Here is the statement for the record: Deep Spring is a spiritual center that supports a living Dharma grounded in wisdom and compassion.

Board Membership and Duties:  1) The secretary of the Board, at present Dottie Coyne, will see to it that everyone gets all minutes of meetings and copies of hand outs. 2) Kalindi suggests that at some time we find a way to cover all our business and still leave time for important reflections and hearing everyone's leadership thoughts. Agreed. Barbara suggests a bi-monthly gathering and chat. No business just ideas. George suggests we bring it up again as an action item. 3) Dottie suggests putting all computer business into committee and not cover details at Board Meetings. Agreed.

Office Assistance: 1) The temporary administrative assistant position: Ethel does indeed want to do 8 hours a month for retreat exchange. Kalindi verified. Ethel was also willing to do an extra 4 hours a month on occasion. Barbara will work out Ethel's time when she sees her next weekend. Action Item: Kalindi will write a confirming email that Ethel will work 8  hours a month for retreat credit and also an extra 4 hours a month if she is available. Kalindi will make hard copy of this agreement. 2) Action Item: Nicholas to also create lists of entire membership, board,  teachers. Pat will also email Nicholas the Excel file of the database, membership of the last three years. 3) Action Item: Pat also suggests that there be a listing of the tasks and who is responsible for what. Nicholas has such a list and he will email it to the entire Board.

Consultants/Contract Workers: Pat suggests that the Board documents more of the protocol of contract employees, office management, leaving more of a paper trail. Agreement. Action Item: Pat will contact Dana to find out what paperwork Nicholas has to fill out. George reiterates that these are contract employees.

Computers:  1) Barbara reported to the Board that she has really tried to use the Dell laptop. She has no help with problems with it. She's back on the Mac and getting work done again. 2) Pat Shalis will connect with Dana Woolsley, our accountant (dwoosley@wgdandco.com), about her computer expertise.

Web Manager: Kalindi was to email Ian regarding duties. But instead Nicholas is going to do this temporarily and Nicholas doesn't need to be contacted. Nicholas has a CD from Ian explaining things.

Buildings/Facilities: Sarah Grindley Camp discussion:  It's completely different, wouldn't be a downtown center, 25 acres, lodge, 3 dormitory buildings, 20 people in bunks, arts and crafts 25x40 feet which would be a meditation hall for $20,000, bathhouse building. Opening bid is $500,000. We could share it with other groups Barbara is talking to the Zen Center to look at it also. About 30 minutes out of Ann Arbor, north of Chelsea. The lodge is the only space winterized at this point. These are old buildings but seem sound. We couldn't run continuous retreats, but it might be an idea to share such a facility. There¹s also one house on the lake with two bedrooms—a caretaker's? We could sell shares like Friends Lake. $15,000 for one acre home sites. Barbara is not pushing this only sharing the news of it. George: likes the idea of Deep Spring having a retreat center on a lake. This would not be possible without some form of partnership with another spiritual community. $500,000--purchase; $100,000--sewer, $100-200—for repairs and roofing. A consortium of communities could create a new entity, a separate board and organization. Howell is selling this and could be asked if they would like to keep it in the community for spiritual work and not get into the hands of a developer. It could also be rented out to other groups seeking retreat space. The Detroit Theravadin community also is looking for a place for retreats. Also a Canadian group. September 28^th is the scheduled auction. Action Item: Barbara will contact each group. Action Item: George will talk to Kris about these final thoughts. Howell will be approached to ask Howell not to auction. Susan Weir, chair of our Search Committee, was contacted about it last weekend.

Meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.

Handouts: none