Minutes of the Board of Director’s Meeting Tucson Community Meditation Center
October 2, 2007 5:30 p.m.
Present: Lhasha Tizer, Terry Magee, Blake Ashley, Blake Barton, Frank Tomizuka, Chuong Tran, Debra Raeber, Della Estrada
The minutes from the last meeting, September 4, 2007 were approved.
Financial Report: See attached
It was mentioned by Blake Ashley that Steve V. will write to Willoughby about our new lease.
Checking answering machine at the center: Linda Bacon will be checking the messages for the next 10 days regarding messages about the Sharon Salzberg retreat. Debra will begin checking all other messages.
Call to the audience: Linda Bacon and Pam Ballingham have asked Hayward Fox to lead a Day long sit. They were told by the board that they should hold off on this until the board came up with a policy about how to approve which teachers coming to the center to teach. Since the board has not come up with a policy, Linda asked if the board could go ahead and approve Hayward Fox to come to a Daylong sit at the center next spring.
The Board approved a motion that we allow the retreat committee to bring Hayward Fox to come do a Daylong Retreat in the Spring at the center.
Advertising: Blake Barton has run three ads in the Inquiring Mind for a total of $75. The board passed a motion to pay the Inquiring Mind $75 for these ads.
Board Retreat: Saturday, November 10th has been the date set for the Board to meet to discuss the future of TCMC and each board member’s vision of TCMC’s future and any issues that are going on in the community with regards to TCMC. Lhasha recommends that we have a facilitator to keep us on track, keep it safe, and to keep a certain protocol. Lhasha thinks that we may need a full day rather that just 3 or 4 hours in the morning as was originally discussed.
Board members will need to check their calendars and the time for the retreat will be decided by email.
Tibetan Group: We offered them the use of the center on either Friday or Saturday afternoon/evening. They would like to rent the center on Sundays from 10:30 am – noon. The board discussed possible conflicts with ongoing TCMC activities at the center. Shinzen’s phone retreats sometimes occur on Sunday mornings and usually last until noon. TCMC has also scheduled some Daylong retreats at the center which would also conflict with renting to the Tibetans. Parking could also be an issue. Terry will get back to the group and let them know that we can only offer Friday or Saturday evenings at this time and possibly after January we could look into the matter again.
Teacher Compensation: Lhasha would like to see TCMC change the current split of dana, which is 50% to the center and 50% to the teacher, to 40% of dana to the center and 60% to the teacher. Lhasha says that every center she is familiar with does this 40/60 split. We should have one suggested donation, which is then split, but not have an additional dana bowl. The board approved a motion that we change our current split of the dana from 50/50 to 60/40, with 60% going to the teacher and 40% to the center.
Newspaper advertising: R. C. Leonard has stopped handling the advertising. We need a volunteer to take over doing advertising. Linda Bacon has volunteered to be the Print Advertising Coordinator. The board approved.
Use of email list for Non-TCMC events: This came up as a result of Anna Douglas’ students asking TCMC to email all of our members about a dharma class that she was beginning with Sanjay. The board discussed whether or not we want to adopt a policy of not sending out non-TCMC related events. At this time the board decided not to adopt a policy but to discuss it on a case by case basis.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:25 pm.
