Planning Meeting Minutes 11/10/02

Present:  Cate Pearson, Jody Held, Bob Woodridge, Tony Glore, Mark Stein, Dan Wolverton.  Held at Tony’s house.  He made us lunch!  Yum.  Gratitude to Tony!

1)      Jody and Cate offered themselves as facilitator aspirants. 

2)      Jackie has offered to help out with facilitations and may be interested in returning to the rotation.

3)      We had $48.06 in the bank and several of us ponied up on the spot, adding to the total.  All outstanding bills had been paid.  Facilitators were again requested to make an announcement offering an opportunity for voluntary donations and pointing out our basket.  We continued to opt not to “pass the hat.”  When it has been pointed out that our expenses have approached our expenditures, people have seemed willing to contribute.  All checks for days of mindfulness should be made out to the Louisville Community of Mindful Living and not to the facility.

4)      It has been requested that we offer a printed list of sangha members, phone numbers and email addresses for those who need to contact others for personal business.  It was agreed that Jody will create one or two sign-up sheets for new folks and returnees to ask for their email addresses for the email newsletter and for their other contact information if they are willing to be on the roster.  We are also going to send out a request to anyone on the email list in the next Sangha News to signal their wishes for placement on the roster.  We want to balance privacy concerns with accessibility of members.  It will also be the policy of the sangha to allow use of the sangha list for personal or sangha business only – not for mass mailings or professional solicitations.  

5)      It was decided that we would just schedule a regular sit for December 29^th instead of a DOM, due to the holidays.  Jody has a new year’s exercise that she will discuss with the facilitator for that day. 

6)      Instead, we will have a Day of Mindfulness on January 26^th.  We need volunteers to serve as coordinators of that event.  Please contact Mark at steinm@bellsouth.net or 897-3020 if you are interested in assisting with planning the next DOM.

7)      We scheduled the next Quarterly Dinner Gathering for Friday, February 3^rd, choosing not to have one in the fourth quarter of 2002 for reasons of the busy holiday season.  We had approximately 50 in attendance at the last Gathering with Holly Clark of EarthSave presenting.  Historically, these dinner gatherings have had a speaker on a topic relating to the 14 Mindfulness Trainings that seems to call out for further information and discussion.  Past topics have included: herbs for health and mindful investing.  If you have ideas for a topic for the next gathering, please contact Langan at langansmith@yahoo.com or 893-2806.

8)      Mark is still working on getting a group together to create the sangha website.  Thus far, Cate, Theresa, Christine and Jon have volunteered.  We would like to have a brainstorming session in early-to-mid December to plan what to include in the first version of the website and would like to have broader participation from the sangha for that session.  Anyone willing to participate in this brainstorming session with the promise that he or she will not be recruited to create the actual website are invited to contact Mark at steinm@bellsouth.net.

9)      Jody will go through the book check-out list and call folks who have had books out for quite awhile to try to get some books back in the library.

10)  We have two copies of the Chant Book in the library.  One is for circulation and the other is to remain at Orbis for use by facilitators.  The non-circulating reference one is marked as such.  It was requested that if someone NEEDS to take the non-circulating copy for any reason, that they be sure to return it early to sangha that next Sunday for use by the facilitator for that day.

11)   Several changes were agreed upon to the facilitator/aspirant selection policy based on our last experience. 

a)      Those seeking to become or resign from being a facilitator aspirant (there are those who still do not like the term.  Any suggestions?) will make their wishes known in person at a planning meeting or will give one of the facilitators a written statement of their intentions, which will be taken to the next planning meeting.

b)      It was agreed that the ideal period of time that an aspirant serve as such prior to being considered to become a facilitator be at least six months.  This is not to be considered a solid rule, but merely a guideline, as circumstances may lead the sangha to select someone to become a facilitator who has not served as an aspirant for six months. 

c)      It was agreed that we would shorten the facilitator selection process to one planning meeting, which would be announced with plenty of lead-time.  Those who would not be able to attend would be urged to share their views in writing or through another in attendance.

d)      It was agreed that we would select future facilitators by applying the previously created list of criteria loosely to generate the best choice for the facilitator opening.

e)      It was agreed that we would list some suggested or possible duties for aspirants to aid them in their preparation to become facilitators.  These include, but are not limited to: assisting with setup and breakdown at weekly sits, assisting in planning the days of mindfulness, subbing for facilitators for the 10-10:30 slot or for an entire sit, develop a regular mediation practice, study Thay’s works, study Buddhism in general, regularly attend sangha, planning meetings, dom’s, and other sangha activities, assist generally to support the sangha.

12)  It has been noticed by several that oftentimes the only facilitator in attendance on Sunday is the one who is actually facilitating.  We concluded that a general expectation for facilitators is that they support the sangha on a regular basis and aspire (there’s that word again) to be present on Sunday as often as possible. 

13)  The next planning meeting will be Sunday, January 12, 2002 immediately after sangha.