July 24, 2006 DSC Board Minutes

ATTENDING: Delyth Balmer, Ann Barden, Carol Blotter, David Coupland, Mary Grannan

Minutes of the June 26 Board meeting were read and approved.

Nominating Committee presented a slate that was approved by the Board. The next step is speaking with those folks to verify their commitment. We would like both outgoing and incoming Board members to attend the Board Retreat on Sept 10 where we would like to look at the culture of the Board and how we see the work of the Board as part of our spiritual practice.
ACTION ITEM: Ann will contact proposed members for verification of their willingness to serve.

We discussed the space wants and needs of DSC. The Board felt that, given the very soft rental market in Ann Arbor right now, that we should explore the possibility of finding more/better space at the same price, or the same amount of space at a better price. Our lease is up Dec 15, so that exploration should begin now.
The possibility was also discussed of the purchase of a Business Condo, an option we were not aware of during previous explorations of purchase options. This could be affordable for us, although there are not many available and they tend to sell very quickly. We would need to take this purchase option to the Sangha for approval before we moved ahead. This would require gathering information about what is involved logistically and financially, and how we could do it. It would be helpful to have examples of past business condo that have sold. If the Sangha approves, then we could move quickly if a condo came onto the market. We felt that, in both the case of a Business Condo and rental property, that we are clear about what are the space needs of DSC, and that we would want to be spending no more than 10%/mo more than we are spending now.
ACTION ITEM: Sangha Meeting scheduled for Sunday afternoon, Sept 24, 3-5 pm. Mary will talk with Sandy about plans for this meeting
ACTION ITEM: Ann will speak with Susan Weir. We would like her to consider leading this exploration of looking for Business Condo. At the same time, we know that she is not interested in doing it as part of a committee, so we will ask her how we can support her work and when we can move it from her own individual work into a committee.
ACTION ITEM: Forming a committee to oversee both the exploration of possible rental space and purchase options. (who will do?)

Treasurer's report was accepted.

OMA meeting (July 20):
* The committee ask the Board for support of the retreat needs of OM. Issues of coverage of office functions will require revision of the budget to reflect the need of extra coverage when OM is away on retreat. The Board supports this.
*OM will serve on the newly formed Technology Committee as OM, not as a volunteer. There may be need to increase her paid hours for another month ( 25 hr/wk) because of this. The Board approves this if it is needed.
*The end of the year fundraising mailing will need to be ready before OM leaves for retreat in mid-October in order to be mailed by Nov 15 as planned. Mary will review the schedule and see about getting a volunteer coordinator for the mailing.

The charter for the TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE was presented and accepted. David Coupland will be the chair of the committee, Carol Blotter will be the liaison to the Board. They plan to meet with the principal users to put together policies and procedures.

Report from Retreat Committee accepted.

Board Books were purged and updated.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm

Board Retreat, Sept 10, 10-4
Sangha Meeting, Sept 24, 3-5
Next Board Meeting Sept 25, 7-9:30