July 29, 2002

July 29, 2002

In attendance: Jane Grace Bowman, Cassie and Corty Cammann, Ann Barden, Dottie Coyne. Guests: Delyth Balmer, Su Hansen

Delyth’s sharing: She is board chair at Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth and new to Deep Spring but sees parallels. She comes to observe and see what Deep Spring is about and how she can serve. She invites us to their open board meetings. There is talk about sharing space. David Bell is their minister.

Aiji Pipho drops by to announce that she is taking a leave of absence for health reasons.

May and June minutes were approved.

Board Meetings:

Board Minutes: A Report

  1. George San Facon has agreed to return to the meetings for September and October and take the minutes.
  2. Dottie proposes a pattern for the minutes:
    1. Draft copy emailed to Board and Su right after the meeting along with a brief summary.
    2. The summary can be posted on the Web Site to allow sangha members to become aware of the board activities quickly.
    3. Corrections to the minutes or a simple approval are emailed back to Dottie quickly by each board member.
    4. Su receives a final corrected minutes when Dottie’s heard from everyone.
    5. Minutes are "draft" until approved at the next month’s meeting.
    6. Only approved minutes are posted on the Web Site.

ACTION ITEM: Dottie will send Su the meeting summary when she emails the minutes and summary to the Board members. Su will send the summary to Alice Britt who will post this meeting summary as quickly as she can but certainly by the Wednesday before the next meeting. Ann Barden will draft a rough agenda a week before the board meeting and send it to Su and Alice. Alice will post the draft agenda the Wednesday before the Board meeting.

ACTION ITEM: Dottie will get the April minutes to Su who will forward them to Alice as they are not yet on the Web Site.

Communication is a critical point raised in yesterday’s sangha meeting and prompt postings of our meeting summaries may help in keeping the sangha knowledgeable of the work of the board.

ACTION ITEM: Jane Grace Bowman will contact every committee head-- herself (Newsletter), Kalindi (Volunteers), Kris (Teachers) and Ann Barden will contact Jackie (Retreat). They need to know when the Board is meeting and give the Board a ten day lead on their points for agenda. All agenda items should be given to Ann Barden ten days ahead of the board meeting.

Financial: Next month we will reshape the budget so that the financial report reflects our actual income and spending. The apparent deficit in June is not a real deficit. ACTION ITEM: Pat is absent tonight and will be here next month to explain these reports further.

Nominating Committee: Jane Grace, Kalindi, Barbara, Kris form this committee. This committee is to nominate a new board member and will diffuse when the new member is chosen. This committee will meet episodically as need for new Board members arises. At present the Board needs a person with financial expertise with Pat departing in January. ACTION ITEM: After the nominating committee meets they can decide to post a request for talent through Su’s "Not Just Sitting Around"--the office manager’s bulletin board from the sangha to the sangha.

Volunteer Committee: Kalindi is remaining as volunteer coordinator and has met with Barbara and Jackie. ACTION ITEM: Jane Grace will ask Kalindi if the Volunteer Committee can create their charter and report it to the Board for approval (by October) so that everyone knows what this committee hopes to accomplish.

Teacher Group: A curriculum subgroup is advising the teacher training. The teachers with Barbara will decided many issues about the training: how long it should last, required readings, basic certification, number of evenings a month to meet, extra sutra study, etc.

Fundraising: In future we need to spend time on this topic. It will appear on the agenda again next month. The Board needs to give guidance as to the why and how of raising funds. The volunteer coordinator might keep fundraising as a priority.

Retreat Committee--Significant issues:

  • This committee is not big enough and decisions are trying to be made without full information. To date the committee has dealt with logistics not the finances of retreats. The most significant sangha activity, it could be argued, is retreats. The committee needs a different leadership style. Jackie is willing to do that. She has two years experience.
  • The Retreat committee members should look at restructuring the committee. It’s a perfect time to take on this task as the retreats of Deep spring are in a state of expansion and growth. The committee could consult former retreat committee members. Perhaps the assistant treasurer could take over the finances around retreats. The finances of retreat should be managed by the retreat committee with oversight with the treasurer and the assistant treasurer. The Board must make it clear with the committee that they manageto be self-supporting. Yet there is always room for scholarship retreatants. Making a profit on retreats is not a goal of Deep Spring, but sometimes does happen. The committee should also decide what they will call their leader: Chairman or Coordinator or Convener or some other name. This leader should be willing to take on more responsibility. Larissa, Hal, Julie, Jackie, Leslie are committee members at the present time. Lisa Zucker is a new member.
  • ACTION ITEM: Ann Barden will ask the retreat committee to decide what they are able to manage--create a charter and the organization to support it and report it to the Board for approval (by the end of October).

Directory: Su wants to put committees and leaders in the beginning pages. This will be an incomplete list for this very first directory.

Site Search:

  • Susan Weir is still willing to serve. Jack Koefgen is also serving and Leslie lending expert real estate advice. This group absolutely needs a very clear charter. The Board has to set the parameters within which they can work. Susan suggests a moratorium on this subject for a while. The Board is too new. There’s a step missing--We have to know what our actual cash flow can sustain.
  • Corty is willing to work up an action plan with two people who might know more about this subject. We need Board Approval, Sangha Support and People willing to work. In the moratorium we could stop viewing properties but continue the fund raising project.
  • ACTION ITEM: Corty will approach Susan and Jack and David Coupland and see if they are willing to help create an action plan.
  • ACTION ITEM: A moratorium on looking at sites until we have an action plan for funding and confidence that we can meet the financial demands of a rental.

Office Manager Report: There is a Board@deepspring.org email account. We’ll try it for a while and see if it works well. It is another way to reach out to the sangha and connect the members to the board. ACTION ITEM: Ann Barden will talk to Alice about the Web vs. personal responses. ACTION ITEM: We’ll let Su receive it and forward it to Ann. We’ll announce it on the Web Site and in the Newsletter. Jane Grace will call Nicholas tomorrow.

OMA Report: The Board agrees with the OMA that Deep Spring needs to find a new computer support person for the office computer. ACTION ITEM: The OMA (4) needs to meet with Barbara about the financial responsibility of Deep spring re computers and bring it back to the board, which computers are whose and who pays to maintain them.

Sangha Development Group Report--Recommendations from the last sangha meeting:

  • Communication--we addressed this subject with the idea of board meeting summaries posted on the Web and a board email address.
  • Organization chart--a request from sangha members that will be answered with the directory. A Finance Committee--formed to work alongside the Treasurer--great idea. A Concern voiced by sangha members that they are not clear on governance or how consensus should work. Board could work with the Sangha Development Group and make this issue the topic of the next sangha meeting. That group meets tomorrow. Corty and Cassie already serve on this group. This group will set the date for the fall meeting. The Board approves governance as a good topic for the October meeting. Board members should be in attendance in force.

Web Manager: Alice Britt wants a board liaison as an ongoing relationship. ACTION ITEM: Ann Barden makes sense to serve as this connection with Cassie as backup.

Meeting adjourned at 10:05.

5 handouts.