Oct 2012 minutes |

Victoria Insight Meditation Society (VIMS)

Minutes of the Victoria IMS Council

October 1, 2012

A meeting of the VIMS council was held at the home of Rod House,Victoria, B.C. on October 1, 2012. The meeting commenced at 1:00 p.m. with a brief meditation.

Present: Brock Brown chair

Joyce Elliott retreat operations

June Fukushima treasurer

John Hilditch secretary

Rod House technology and communications

Theresa Aspol

Bruce MacRae

1. Approval of the agenda: Three items were added to the agenda. It was moved by Rod House that the agenda be approved as modified. The motion received unanimous endorsement. Brock declared the motion Implemented.

2. Approval of the minutes of the September 3, 2012 meeting. It was moved by John Hilditch that the minutes be approved as circulated. The motion received unanimous endorsement. Brock declared the motion Implemented.

3. Business arising from the minutes and updates:

Joyce, John and Theresa reported on the Eve Decker Retreat, September 29 – 30. It was agreed that the retreat was very well received. Many participants asked that Eve be invited back for another retreat. Forty-two attended on Saturday, 34 on Sunday; although attendance was smaller than usual no shows were also less. It was suggested that attendance may have been better had Eve written a short piece for the newsletter before the retreat. Dana received was $1.205.18 – an average of $29 per person. The council thanked Joyce Elliott and Lawrie Thicke for serving as registrars and thanked John Hilditch for serving as manager.
A sangha celebration on Sunday evening, September 30, honoured Margo McLoughlin and Brock Brown who have completed a two-year program to become Community Dharma Leaders. Eve Decker, who attended the celebration, has also graduated from the C.D.L. program. Beth Trotter, a Community Dharma Leader and one of the founding members of our sangha attended. The council thanks all who helped make this event so enjoyable and a great success.
VIMS did not request donations to cover rental costs for the Sunday evening celebration. At Margo and Brock’s request a basket was put out for those who wished to donate to the Sati Saraniya meditation hall building fund. The Council thanks Theresa Aspol for arranging for a bank draft of $247 on behalf of the sangha.
The Buddhist Introductory Course, to have been given by Brock has been cancelled because of insufficient enrolment.
Update on communications: Rod reported that two sangha members have volunteered to help the communications team. Carol McDonald is returning to Victoria and has expressed interest in taking an active role in the sangha. Our current email list has about 450 names; Rod will cull the list by emailing those who have not opened the last 5 issues of the newsletter (about 100) if they wish to remain on the list. They will be removed from the list if they indicate no or do not reply. Bruce and Rod will explore an alternative to Constant Contact for events management. Bruce is working on a new brochure; examples will be available at the sangha meeting on October 14.
Theresa and Bruce are now signing officers.
The fee for adding directors to VIMS has been paid to the Registrar’s Office.
The Sunday evening sit on October 14 will be lead by the two visiting Thai Monks, hosted by the Vancouver Thai Association, residing in Victoria for the Rains Retreat.
The November Study Group has been moved to November 4 to avoid conflict with James Baraz’s retreat.
Reconsidering the maximum suggested for registration for the James Baraz’s retreat, Brock moved that we set the maximum number of registrants to 90 for the James Baraz retreat and that a wait list be established to be managed by Brock Brown. . The motion received unanimous endorsement. Brock declared the motion Implemented.

4. Treasurer’s Report: The balance in our bank accounts as of September 30 is $5,754.67, $1,200.12 in the chequing account and $4,554.55 in the savings account. Prepayments of $2,793.77 gives us total assets of $8,548.44.

June Fukushima moved that, within the Discretionary Fund $.95 be moved from Undesignated to Community Dharma Leaders Program. Six members voted in favour of the motion, none were opposed. Brock Brown abstained from voting. Brock declared the motion Implemented.

June Fukushima moved that Grant Smith be authorized to do Victoria IMS bookkeeping and that the Victoria IMS laptop computer be housed with Grant. Six members voted in favour of the motion, none were opposed. Theresa Aspol abstained from voting. Brock declared the motion Implemented. The council thanks Grant for serving as bookkeeper for the sangha.

The council received the Treasurer’s Report and thanked June.

5. A scholarship of $36 has been approved for a participant in Margo’s course on the eightfold path.

6. A Sangha Meeting will be held on October 14, from 1:30 to 3:00 in the yoga studio. This is an information sharing meeting; no decisions will be made. June suggests that we meet in a circle to foster communications. The meeting will focus on the question “What does Victoria IMS do that supports your practice?” John and Theresa will act as recorders and Rod will serve as guardian.

7. Venerable Pannavati, a Theravadan nun, now practicing in the eastern United States is visiting centres in California and the north-west, fund-raising for her social action activities in India and the U.S. Rod House moved that we allocate $200 from the Special Events budget to contribute towards airfare should she be able to include a visit to Victoria to lead the Sunday evening sit on Sunday, November 4. The motion received unanimous endorsement. Brock declared the motion Implemented. VIMS will cover costs for her stay inVictoria and the venue rental.

8. Ajahn Geoff (Thanissaro Bhikkhu) may pay a visit toVictoria in September 2013 following his week-end workshop inVancouver. The council is in favour of supporting this visit.

9. The next council meeting will be held on November 5, 2012 at the home of John Hilditch.

The meeting terminated at 3:45

Brock Brown, Chair John Hilditch, Secretary