June 27, 2005

June 27, 2005

Attending: Dianne Austin, Ann Barden, Carol Blotter, Cassie Cammann, Corty Cammann, David Coupland, Mary Grannan, Sandy Wiener

The minutes from the May meeting were approved.

OPEN ITEMS:

AT RISK STUDENT GUIDANCE: The Board acknowledged and thanked the Teacher Task Group of Kris Kurnit, Mary Grannan, Jim Whiteside and Susan Klimist for the content and tone of "Suggested Practices for Working with Acute Distress in a Deep Spring Setting.” As this is document is recommendation, not policy, there was no Board action.

The Board requests that the Teacher Group explore two related questions.

1. Who will ensure a record of documents that define the Teacher's Practice for future reference? Who will ensure that they are reviewed occasionally?
2. How can the Teacher's Group use this document to address the broad continuum of issues and situations which may occur in Deep Spring? This may include students no longer in acute distress, senior students leading sittings, disruptive students, etc.

VISIONING ALTERNATIVES PROCESS: The group of Delyth, Sandy, Cassie and Lou will have their first meeting this week. Barbara has asked to be informed of the scenarios but will not be a member of the group. They will attempt to have one page write-ups of the possible scenarios by the September Board meeting.

CHILDREN'S COMMITTEE: Five people responded to an email questionnaire. Susan Weir will meet with interested parents for a brainstorming session. Diane Austin offered to report back to the Board.

FINANCIAL REPORT:

• Another CD was purchased. Revenue is $4,000 below plan. Retreat expenses will probably be in July's numbers.
• All committees are asked to explore ways to address the shortfall in revenue.
• It was agreed to not prepare an interim budget this year due to the load of work left for the July meeting..

VISIONING DISCUSSION:
Visioning Focus Questions were presented to the Board. The core question revolves around whether the organization will grow with a specific vision, i.e. in five years, DSC will be housed in Y, located in Z and will need to grow by X%, or with an organic vision, i.e. DSC will make space for all who want to learn and will address issues as they arise in the moment. A corollary question is who will drive the vision. David and Corty will discuss these with Barbara. The Board will discuss in the next Board meeting.

DANA POLICY:

The teachers will choose when to address this potential policy change and bring a final recommendation to the Board. It was requested that, in reaching a consensus, the Teachers consider:

• the cost of DSC rental,
• the cost of marketing and other DSC incidentals in support of classes,
• the complexity of advertising classes with no suggested fees (how do the potential students know what costs to consider before signing up for a class?),
• the accounting issues of dividing fees if checks are written only to a teacher or to DSC (independent contractors, tax implications and employee liabilities).

COMMITTEES:

RETREAT: Thirty one people registered for the summer retreat which should cover expenses. Additional retreats scheduled are the Fall Retreat at Howell and the Winter Retreat. The scholarship fund received generous donations of $1,000. Guidelines for distributing scholarships will be formulated. The Board noted to watch if funds are being given to the scholarship fund that normally would be donated to DSC.

NOMINATING: Susan Klimist and Delyth Balmer have agreed to join the Board in the fall. Nominating is still searching for a third person who might agree to take over the Treasurer's position as well.

Next Board Meeting will be July 25th.

Meeting adjourned 10:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Carol Blotter