August 25, 2003

August 25, 2003

Monday, August 25, 2003
Meeting of the Board of Directors of Deep Spring Center

In Attendance: Ann Barden, Jane Grace Bowman, Dottie Coyne, David Coupland, Jackie Deron, and Martha Zingo

7:00 pm--ten minutes of silent sitting.

Sangha Sharing--each board member checked in with a personal report.

ACTION ITEMS FROM LAST MONTH:

• Sangha Picnic--a successful event for about 30 sangha members at Leslie Desmond's home.
• October 5th meeting about Barbara’s role in Deep Spring will be from 4 to 6 at the Center.
• The Sangha Development group are all available to go over the Process of Decision Making white paper on September 14 during the first two hours of the Board Intensive at the Cammanns.
• Corty did let the Peace Initiative know that we said “no” to their renting our space.
• We do not have a coordinator for our on-line auction as yet.

UPDATE ON THE ON-LINE AUCTION: David Coupland has met the principals of Ann Arbor Local Market, the on-line auction, and has signed up Deep Spring on a permanent basis. It’s not hard yet not easy. There are several steps. There is a transaction/listing fee and users have to give their bank account number or credit card number. Our coordinator needs to be savvy about EBay and computers. One main coordinator might work with helpers who could take the digital pictures that are needed, etc. There will need to be publicity etc. --maybe an email a month or maybe posters. www.aalm.com is the address of this auction service. ACTION ITEM: David and Dottie will work on a presentation to the in-house classes about this auction opportunity. Next meeting the Board can decide exactly when this message should be delivered into the classes.

FINANCIAL REPORT: Balance Sheet: Shows our transition from Bank One to the Bank of Ann Arbor. On the Balance Sheet, the building fund is all in one account. David explained the restricted net assets and the unrestricted. The Balance Sheet showing all assets plus the liabilities we owe. The Board approved David putting an additional retreat expense item of $4,000 into the budget for July ‘03 and Year to Date for ‘03, Jan. to July because we overlooked that these expenses came in July. We are actually only about $1,000 below from January 2003 balance. Yet we don't have that much of a cushion if our monthly costs are $5,000 and our balance is about $9,000. Last month our costs were about $9,000. So we need a better cushion. A cushion of three month's expenses would be $15,000, six month's would be $30,000. The Direct Deposit of donations to Deep Spring needs to be advertised more widely before we abandon this way of collecting donations.

THE OFFICE MANAGER ADVISORY BOARD: It is a very good thing that Lalita wrote a clear memo to the board about her concerns. Currently OMA is a five member group: David Coupland as treasurer, Pat Shalis, former treasurer, Kate LeShock, Lisa Zucker, and Martha Zingo--perhaps too large a group(?). The Board is our office manager's employer and OMA clarifies the requirements of her job and her relationship to the Board. There is a question about Lalita's hours and her offer to volunteer extra time. Lalita suggests in her emails that she be put on salary. Corty Cammann feels that this would not be legal or moral to ask her to work extra for Deep Spring. There are employment laws that we must pay attention to. Corty is the expert on employment and personnel and should be on OMA. Possible future OMA: David Coupland, Ann Barden, Corty Cammann if he will instead of Kate and Pat Shalis or Lisa Zucker for a while. Martha Zingo steps down.

ACTION ITEMS: Corty needs to instruct the Board about employment legalities and the Labor Law Poster. OMA needs to address the various jobs that the OM is being asked to do and can we get volunteers to do some of the tasks. Decisions about the internet server can be made by OMA. The Board recommends a little more time before any changes in our internet server be put in place. Perhaps in future there should be a technology advisory group. 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Archives-- will meet in September to form a charter.

Fundraising--the letter is ready to go out.

Newsletter--Jane Grace is letting it go out at Nicholas' pace. She is still serving as manager.

Nominating--Ann has asked Lou Weir to serve on the Board. He said he will think about it. We can see who is there in the fall classes to ask to serve on the Board.

Teachers--Kate LeShock is changing her class to only two nights on Non-duality.

Retreat--The February Breathwork retreat plans are moving ahead. 

BOARD INTENSIVE: Corty is preparing a document on decision making. The morning will be on decision making and the afternoon on governance along with creating a new administrative chart. We each will bring our own lunch. ACTION ITEM: Ann Barden will get out an email reminder about this meeting.

PUBLICITY/PUBLIC RELATIONS: We really need someone to head up this aspect of Deep Spring. Linda Kurtz will return in September. But it may take a full committee.

Meeting adjourns at 9:20 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Dorothy Ann Coyne