| Congratulations to Dr. Patricia Livingston who has recently been named an Officer of the Order of Canada for “her contributions to global health and anaesthesia safety, and for her commitment to improving medical education in underserved communities around the world.” Patty is an associate professor in the Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management & Perioperative Medicine at Dalhousie University, an Honourary Associate Professor at the University of Rwanda…and long time meditator.
Centre Activities
In addition to weekly and monthly ongoing meditation practices (see the Sunspot), 15 retreatants of the recent Vajrakilaya Retreat for quelling obstacles enjoyed the pleasant environment of the Vajrayana meditation room upstairs.
Kasung and Sun Camp leadership began talking together about protection of the precious teachings, how it might be shaped and taught.
The Main Shrine has been expertly repainted by Rob Munro. So far, a donor has pledged $600 towards the painting costs. The front steps are awaiting better weather to repair and an unsolicited donation of $200 is helping to restore safety and elegance to the front of the building. If either or both of these projects tug at your heartstrings, donations are gratefully accepted.
Advisory Council Activities
The Advisory Council helped with staff hiring last month and is now starting to work on a vision statement and a process of continued community participation in its development. The January 28 Community Gathering, hosted by Centre Advisory Council and staff, began with a presentation on finances and potential staffing models. Many ideas and some themes were offered both in the main room and in small group discussion.
There were some common themes:
View, Vision, Mission. It’s time to review, define, articulate, and communicate the current vision and mission of the Centre of shared norms, values, and beliefs which respect the diversity of individual viewpoints. No surprise, teaching and practising meditation is still considered to be the basic ground.
Increased revenue: Encourage donations to keep the building going and increase salaries and hours. Review programming fee structure. Some suggested strategies expressed: institute a pay what you can model, increase outside rentals, invite teachers who generate revenue, not become enslaved by programming, and/or a subscription model like Ecology Action does.
Human Resources: Generally, it was suggested to take a conservative approach similar to existing staffing, with some aspiration for expanded hours and to plan for a year at a time. The natural move of staffing towards a lateral structure based on responsibilities and roles was supported. To be clear, this is a departure from previous times when one person alone took the great visionary role. Volunteers were named as our main resource. It was suggested that we build on the network of personal relationships and interests by creating working groups, different from the volunteers already working together to host practices and study. Based on information from both community gatherings, small groups, emails and calls:
- Shrines and iconography for mahasangha and public.
- Working with mahasangha on past harm and towards a safer, kinder Centre (includes Care & Conduct)
- Social media and website communication
- Participatory leadership such as the deleg system, terms of reference for the advisory council, and the relationship to Shambhala Global Services, (Affiliation Agreement)
- Audio visual team for in person and online
“The critical strategic requirement is not to devise the most ingenious and well-coordinated plan but to build the most viable and flexible strategic process; the key organisational task is not to design the most elegant structure but to capture individual capabilities and motivate the entire organisation to respond cooperatively to a complicated and dynamic environment.” The Matrix Management: Not a Structure, a Frame of Mind by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, (July–August 1990)
Elephants in the room were also acknowledged at the community gathering.
- That we’ve not found a process to acknowledge and work with past hurt and harm.
- That we have yet to work together on feelings of brokenheartedness, abandonment, and exclusion.
- That the vision and spiritual leadership is not clear.
- That it’s been a difficult time.
I hope you will also find this advice from Thich Nhat Hanh helpful, “If a sangha is available in your area, please keep in touch and take refuge there. If the sangha doesn’t have the quality you expect, don’t abandon it. Do not look for a perfect sangha. Stick to the one you have and try, with your practice and your joy and peace, to improve its quality. This is very important.” From a 1993 mindfulness retreat, The Next Buddha May Be a Sangha.
Please consider forming a working group and staying in touch.
Advisory Council [email protected]
Community & Culture [email protected]
Practice & Education [email protected]
Finance & Admin [email protected]
Thank you mahasangha, volunteers, and donors. It’s been a pleasure to work for you these past 5 months.
Shari Vogler, Interim Director |
