Minutes of the Board of Director's Meeting Tucson Community Meditation Center

June 3, 2008

Board members present:  Blake Ashley, Blake Barton, Chuong Tran, Linda Bacon, Frank Tomizuka, Debra Raeber

Audience members: Wanda Poindexter, George Dobbs, Lhasha Tizer

The minutes from the last meeting, May 6, 2008 were approved.

There was no financial report.

Blake Ashley expressed his personal thanks to Lhasha for her many years of service on the board of TCMC.  The board presented Lhasha with a gift of thanks.

Committee Reports:  Linda Bacon gave a report on the Community garden and water harvesting committee.  Linda and Alexis have attended two talks on water harvesting.  The will be meeting to come up with a plot plan for a garden in the back of the property at the center. 

Linda also gave a report on the progress the Environmental Arts Committee.  They have a tentative plan for painting the large meditation room, the kitchen and the front entrance area.  They would also like to put a door between the main meditation room and the hallway to the bathroom.  They need guidance from the board about budget and how much they can do.  Linda thinks the cost of the paint would be around $200.  The committee would also like to put up some new window coverings and then paint the bathrooms at a later date. 

The committee has had some thoughts about reorienting the main meditation room to face toward the fireplace with the sit leader sitting in front of the fireplace.   Blake A. will ask for Willoughby's permission to paint.  Blake B. asked where our lease stands before we spend too much money on painting.  The board approved a budget of up to $200 for paint.  The committee will make a display of possible colors to get feedback from members.  Blake A. will get approval from Willoughby before any painting begins.  The board approved a motion that if no member objects to the color suggestions within two weeks then the committee can go forward with the painting.

Call to the Audience:  Wanda Poindexter volunteered to teach a class on sprouting, on Sunday July 13^th after the last sit, beginning around 10:00 am.  It would be about a 2 hour class and all the donations for the class would go to TCMC as a fundraiser.

Nominating Committee:  Wanda would like to send out an announcement in the next enewsletter asking people to volunteer for committees. 

Website Proposal: Blake A. presented the board with a Non-Exclusive License Agreement that he put together between TCMC and Joseph Madala.  (see attached)

Linda suggested that on items 12 and 13 there be some sort of time limit.  It was discussed that we should add a phrase to those items making it 14 days from the date of termination.  Blake A. will change to document to reflect that change.

Debra expressed concern that someone on the board keep up to date on what is happening on the website.  Frank offered to check in and make sure everything is conducted as stated in the agreement.

A motion was approved that TCMC present this Non-exclusive license agreement to Joseph.

P A System:  Linda Bacon donated a P A system to TCMC.  It isn't a large one but it seems to work fine at the center.  It was used for the last Sanjay retreat and worked fine.  For now the board decided to wait and see how we get by with this P A system before buying a larger one.

Phone Jacks:  We decided it is necessary to add some more phone jacks to the center, in the back bedroom and in the front bedroom.  Blake A. will call the phone company to see about installing more jacks. 

Cooler Service:  Chuong let us know that the cooler in the back room makes a lot of noise.  The board tested the cooler and it is noisy.  Blake A will talk to Doushin about what can be done. 

Conference phone:  Blake A. will ask Doushin about possibly purchasing the conference phone she has.  It would make it much easier for Steve V. to attend meetings by teleconference.  A motion was approved that the Bylaws be amended to allow board members to attend meetings by teleconference.

A motion was passed that we allocated $150 for the purchase of a conference phone.

Gregory Kramer:  The board decided to wait to discuss our inviting Gregory Kramer to come teach at the center until we have someone present to explain the details.

Day for Board Meeting:  A motion was passed that the board meeting will fall on the 1^st Tuesday of each month.

Facilitator Training:  TCMC would like to develop a formal way to train people to become meditation sit leaders.  Terry has indicated that she would be interested in helping with this.  We would need a commitment from Terry to go forward and then we could establish pre-requisites for entering the training.  A motion was approved that we formally ask Terry to propose a facilitator training program. 

The next meeting will be held Tuesday, July 1^st.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm.