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The Building and In-Person Activities
Advisory Council Activities
Greetings and heartfelt wishes for peaceful and joyous holidays. In the spirit of reawakening and revisioning the Halifax Shambhala Centre, we have reached out to about 1500 by email. To reach yet wider, more public contacts, we are utilizing the HSC webpage and Facebook, both works in progress.
The HSC Advisory Council and staff are laying a foundation for a future that we hope will interest and engage you. The intention is to have an inclusive, vibrant, and welcoming environment at the HSC where all who wish can practise in community, regardless of current teacher. The responses, warmth, appreciation and connection at the September 10th gathering (90+ in person and 34 online), was deeply moving and is inspiring the Advisory Council and staff to move forward. We are dedicated people working together to open the doors of the Centre wider to mahasangha and public.
The Building and In Person Activities
The Centre staff consists of 1.3 FTE (full time equivalents): ¼ time interim director; ½ time finance and administration; ½ time practice and education, and a building caretaker on contract. Hours and salaries are low, and need to increase to match increasing activities. Donations support 90% of staffing and building costs. The other 10% is supplied by programs/rentals. (This is on par with the non-profit/church sector.) 209 contributing members give an average of $32 monthly, some give over $100 a month. All donations are so appreciated. What will it take to staff the HSC consistently, appropriate to increased activities? Each member could increase their giving by $15-20 per month, and a robust team of volunteers to support ongoing efforts. THANK YOU!
Fall events in the building included a successful Tsoknyi Rinpoche 5 day retreat in the main shrine room (35 people), Introduction to Meditation (monthly and ongoing), Sunday Morning Meditation, Werma Feasts, Werma Wednesdays, weekly Kalapa Cha (tea practice), a Mahamudra Study Group, and the Climate Cafe. Coming up…Children’s Day and a 5 day Mahamudra Retreat led by Scott Wellenbach.
A big, but quiet move on December 8 precipitated several moves within the building:
Shambhala Global Services (SGS), CFO, David McLellan has moved into one office on the second floor, and Kalapa Publications into the basement.
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The second floor, rear half of the building houses 2 meditation rooms, a meeting room, a sitting area, the director’s office/shared meeting space, and a room which contains HSC ritual objects and photos, mainly used for vajrayana practices. Each of these two shrine rooms will be dedicated to the higher or advanced meditation practices (Vajrayana, Shambhala) but also used by other groups, in which case the shrines will be screened off or simplified. Come visit! |
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These moves enabled the Ladrang, the collection of Chögyam Trungpa’s personal items and library, to the front second floor, formerly known as “A-Suite”. This new space contains a display room, a conservation room, and VCTR’s library. The changing displays will be made available to members (including youth) and the public, so that the meaning imbued in these precious objects can be shared. The display room will double as a reception room for visiting Rinpoches. Stay tuned for updates from the Archives! |
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| Advisory Council Activities
The 9 volunteer advisory council members are Joanne Fordham, Gordon Kidd, Deborah Luscomb, Mindy Moore, Ricky Pannell, Ron Renz, Julia Sable, and Ron Stubbert, representing diverse practice streams. They meet every two weeks with staff of the HSC – Aimee Silver, Liza Matthews and myself. We work well together. Subcommittees of the council also meet per two weeks:
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Community Engagement
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Visiting Teachers
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Practice and Education, formed by staff, Liza Matthews, reports to the advisory council
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Governance, leadership, and Affiliation Agreement
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Centre building
Community engagement and Communications Committee
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Thank you to those who shared thoughts and feelings in big and small gatherings.
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Planning is underway for a community engagement gathering in January to hear from you to consider models of governance, staffing, and membership.
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Iryna Vorobiova is collating information received from gatherings, emails, and the suggestion box thanks to a grant from SGS.
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So that there are multiple avenues for input, in person and virtual, a community survey will be sent out in January.
Visiting Teachers Committee
Initial conversations with a number of Buddhist teachers have taken place and invitations have been generated in cooperation within the Halifax Mahasangha. Unfortunately, Changling Rinpoche’s summer program and Ringu Tulku Rinpoche’s visit in October had to be postponed. We feel hopeful that we will be successful in arranging teacher visits in 2023.
Practice and Study
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| Leadership and Governance
The advisory council wants to move forward in an open and transparent way and are seeking your contributions into our governance and leadership model. We are committed to working under the Shambhala Global umbrella. After Shambhala Day 2023, the state of day-to-day leadership at the Halifax Centre is unknown. That is where you come in.
This is a fresh and tender time, with new possibilities. We prefer to move away from a top-down direction and into something with more community involvement. This could be a local Board with rotating community members on a 1,2, or 3 year term to keep ideas fresh. This could be an elected or appointed sole Executive Director, working full or part time. Or a co-director situation. Or something different such as a sociocracy, or shared society. We have been talking to other Centres to see what model has worked – or not worked – for them.
You can share your thoughts and ideas anytime at [email protected], or in person at the next community engagement gathering in January. Expansive ideas will need expansive financial support.
The Affiliation Agreement is being explored with SGS, we’re awaiting a revised draft. Thankfully, lawyer, Jud Levinson (now living in Halifax), is helping us understand what the issues we need to work through before signing an agreement.
The council is having periodic discussions with the SGS board and SGS Executive committee members.
Building Committee
Personally, I’ve been thinking about how we might work together constructively on our collective sense of loss regarding the big changes in Shambhala. And how Shambhala Training could happen.
You are most welcome to contact the Advisory Council at [email protected] to share your thoughts and ideas. If you have an initiative that you would like to see happen, let us know and we will support your efforts.
Yours,
Shari Vogler
Interim Director, on behalf of the Halifax Shambhala Centre Advisory Council and Staff
[email protected]
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