VIMS Council Meeting Minutes (approved)

Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

Sandra’s home

Present:

Brock, June, Sandra, Bruce

Absent with Regrets:

Rhonda, Brian

Agenda Items:

1. Review and Approve Council Meeting Agenda:

Motion from June to approve the agenda.  Carried.

1. Approve Minutes of Previous Meeting (August 18th, 2016):

There were no changes to the distributed draft minutes from the August council meeting.  Motion from Brock to approve the minutes.  Carried.

Note: There was no council meeting in September.

1. Business arising from the Minutes and Updates:

• The Victoria IMS social on September 8^th was enjoyed by all who attended. Thanks very much to Rod and Isy for organizing the event and the evening’s entertainment. Council agreed to hold something similar next year. We will see if Rod and Isy could coordinate/organize again.
• Visiting teachers for the Sunday night sittings:
  • Heather Martin – September – a good response to Heather’s visit
  • Tuere Sala (Seattle IMS) – October – Tuere was well received. Travel expenses were higher than anticipated due to modified ferry schedules.
• Steve Armstrong retreat summary: Maximum registration was reached.  101 attended on the first day and 83 on day two.  Steve’s teachings were much appreciated by those who attended.  There were no extra travel expenses for Steve and as a result the funds budgeted for these were not needed.  Thanks to the retreat support team of Sheila Whincup (registration), Lawrie Thicke (coordinator), Sandra Joy and Marlene Lovell (managers), Laurie and Helane (hosting), Rod House (sound) and to all those who offered help with setup and close.
• Christina Feldman retreat summary: Maximum registration was reached quickly for this retreat. 97 attended on the first day and 89 on day two. There was a very positive response to this retreat and we received a number of appreciation emails. Thanks to the retreat support team of Margo McLoughlin (registration), Joyce Elliott (coordinator), Rhonda Duncan and Kathy Jago (managers), Sandra Joy (hosting), Rod House (sound) and to all those who volunteered their help with setup and close.
• Audio recordings from both Steve and Christina’s retreats are now available on our website in addition to the flip chart diagrams from Christina.

1. Finances:

• June presented highlights of Wei’s financial reports for August and September 2016 which had been distributed to Council via email prior to the meeting (there was no council meeting in September):

Account Balances as of September 1^st, 2016:

Chequing:         $3,214.35

Savings:           $3,761.39

TOTAL:            $6,975.74

Account Balances as of October 1^st, 2016:

Chequing:         $4,332.19

Savings:           $3,762.29

TOTAL:            $8,094.48

• Motion from June to accept the financial reports for August and September 2016. Carried.

1. Communications:  

• Newsletter:
  • There has been positive feedback about the new one column style newsletter. It seems much easier to read and is also easier to assemble and publish.
  • The end-of-month timing for distribution seems logical and appropriate and will be adopted going forward
  • Bruce will continue putting the newsletter together with support from June. We will continue looking for volunteers to contribute to newsletter production.
• Website:
  • Everything seems to be running smoothly with the website.
  • Bruce will get a write-up from Heather for her January retreat that can be used for the website and the next issue of the newsletter.
• Constant Contact mailing list – status of implied consent issue:
  • At this time we have no more people in our contact list who have implied consent status. As of August 21^st we now have a mailing list that is in compliance with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
  • As a result of the work undertaken to resolve the status of those in the implied consent group, specifically our request to subscribers to confirm their interest in Victoria IMS communications, one hundred email addresses were removed from our contact list. This action was taken because people either asked to be removed (no longer interested) or we received no reply to our multiple requests.

Many thanks to June for the sterling work she did on this project.

• Gmail security questions:
  • Rod will provide Bruce with the appropriate information and Bruce will act as backup for Rod when Rod is away.

6. Sunday Sit
   • The 2016 schedule of facilitators and operations volunteers is complete. There will be no sitting on December 25^th.
   • There was a recent request for Arinna Weisman to facilitate a Sunday night sit in December. Unfortunately we were not able to accommodate the request this year.
   • Sandra will welcome Heather on November 13^th when she comes to facilitate.
   • June and Sandra have started the scheduling for 2017 and planning is well underway.
   • On January 1^st we plan to have a longer “sit-in” period when people will be able to come and go through the afternoon/evening. We will post this event on the website and in the newsletter in late November. Council approved renting the yoga studio from 4:00-9:00pm. June will let Helga know that we will not rent on Dec 25^th and will request the 5 hour rental on Jan 1^st.
   • Council decided that in 2017 we will allocate a budget for visiting teachers for the Sunday night facilitation.
7. 2016 Programs:

Upcoming retreats:

• Oct 29 – Ajahn Tiradhammo.
• Nov 13 – Brock Brown.

Completed retreats:

• Jan 16/17 – Heather Martin.
• Feb 20 – Margo McLoughlin.
• March 25/26 – Pascal Auclair.
• May 20 – public talk with Ajahn Sona and Margo McLoughlin.
• May 21/22 – Ajahn Sona.
• June 26 – Ajahn Sudanto – Practice Day.
• Aug 1 – Solwazi Johnson.
• Sept 17/18 – Steve Armstrong.
• Oct 15/16 – Christina Feldman.

 2017 Programs:

All dates, teachers and venues are confirmed.  All programs listed below will be held at Goward House with the exception of Ajaan Geoff’s retreat in August which will be held at Uvic:

• Jan 21/22 – Heather Martin – registration opens Dec 19, 2016.
• February 19 – Margo McLoughlin – registration opens Jan 23, 2017.
• March 18/19 – Howard Cohn – registration opens Feb 20, 2017
• April 30 – Tuere Sala – registration opens April 3, 2017
• May 27/28 – Ayya Medhanandi – registration opens May 1, 2017
• Aug 19/20 – Ajaan Geoff – registration opens July 24, 2017
• Sep 16/17 – Adrianne Ross – registration opens Aug 21, 2017
• Oct 14/15 – Steve Armstrong – registration opens Sep 18, 2017
• Nov 26 – Brock Brown – registration opens Oct 30, 2017

1. Retreat Operations:

Council discussed a number of general organizational and operational retreat items:

• Retreat teams: Isy and Joyce are assembling the teams for the 2017 retreats. The link to Isy’s draft document was emailed to council members for review prior to the meeting.
• Council discussed hospitality logistics for 2017 visiting teachers. Further planning will be done in the November council meeting.
• When a retreat coordinator is not on council, the coordinator will be asked to check in with the Council Chair to ensure that details of the retreat are in place (e.g. travel, hosting, special requests, etc.).
• Council members would like to review retreat teams prior to the teams being finalized.

1. Donations:

• Council discussed the possibility of paying Carbon Offsets for visiting teacher flights to Victoria as a donation. Brock will look into the logistics involved in doing this and report back to Council.

1. 2018 Programs:

• March 31/April 1 – Pascal Auclair – Goward House confirmed
• October (date to be decided) – Christina Feldman
• Nov 10/11 – Carol Wilson – Goward House confirmed

Victoria IMS has invited Christina Feldman to return to Victoria in 2018.  She has provisionally accepted with exact details to be confirmed.

Discussion is ongoing re other possible candidates for the 2018 retreat calendar.

1. Meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

Next Meeting

November 17^th, 2016
7:00-9:30p.m.        June and Brock’s home