2016/11/17VIMS Council Minutes

VIMS Council Meeting Minutes (approved)

Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

June and Brock’s home

Present:

Brock, June, Sandra, Bruce

Absent with Regrets:

Rhonda, Brian

Agenda Items:

  1. Review and Approve Council Meeting Agenda:

Request to add an item regarding gender inclusive washrooms at the yoga studio (for Sunday night sits).

Motion from Sandra to approve the agenda with the above added item.  Carried.

  1. Approve Minutes of Previous Meeting (October 20th, 2016):

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

  1. Business arising from the Minutes and Updates:
  • Ajahn Tiradhammo October 29, 2016 retreat and October 30th Sunday Night Sit facilitation:

Retreat Summary:

76 participants
Coordinators: Brock Brown, Rhonda Duncan; Registrar: Joan Glover; Co-managers: June Fukushima, Ken Sohm; Sound Technician: Bruce MacRae; Flower Arrangement: Nicola Bishop; Hospitality: June and Brock.

Meal Dana offerings from Piriya and David Nowak; Mitra and Apurna Barua, VictoriaIMS volunteers and Salt Spring Island Upasikas.
Dental work offering: Rhonda Duncan and Dr. Stephen King.

Thank you to Brian Chapel, Isy House, Bruce MacRae for retreat operations: setting up registration in Constant Contact, securing volunteers, preparing and posting the talks from the retreat and from the Sunday Night Sit.

Generous financial dana to support Ajahn Tiradhammo’s requisites paid for the first step of a root canal, new sandals, and a rechargeable headlamp. The remaining dana was sent to his sister Elaine Nustad, who manages his expenses.

  • Brock Brown November 13, 2016 retreat summary:

30 participants

Coordinator: June Fukushima; Registrar: Kiko Brown; Co-managers: David Axon and Lisa Bernard; Sound: Bruce MacRae.

  • Heather Martin was unable to facilitate the pre-arranged November 13th Sunday Night Sit as she was on a personal retreat over that time. As the schedule for the balance of the 2016 year was already full we have scheduled some Sunday Night Sit dates for Heather to facilitate in 2017.  These are: January 22nd, July 16th and October 29th.
  • Plans are underway for the January 1st, 2017 extended practice day – 4-9pm. Sandra, June, Brock and Brian are organizing.
  • The 2017 Victoria IMS Social: Rod and Isy House have agreed to coordinate this event again in 2017.
  • It was determined that at this time, we didn’t really need the microphone stand and headset which had been newly purchased so Brock volunteered to return these items to the Long and McQuade store.
  1. Finances:
  • June presented highlights of Wei’s financial report for October 2016 which had been distributed to Council via email prior to the meeting:

Account Balances as of November 1st, 2016:

Chequing:         $7,236.28

Savings:           $3,763.09

TOTAL:            $10,999.37

  • Motion from June to accept the financial reports for October 2016. Carried.
  • Draft 2017 Victoria IMS budget:

June prepared a draft budget for 2017 based on the retreats we have planned, our intentions to invite visiting facilitators for the Sunday Night Sit program, the scholarship fund and special events either planned or unexpected based on past experience. Council reviewed the draft budget and discussed details.

Motion from Brock to accept the draft 2017 Victoria IMS budget as a working budget.  Carried.

  • Surplus funds from 2016:

Prior to the meeting June developed and circulated a discussion paper on the use of surplus funds. Council discussed the basis for determining “surplus funds” and agreed that we needed to establish a baseline for Victoria IMS.   A prudent reserve was considered $10,000.00 cash including pre-payments.  Anything over and above that would be considered surplus. Bruce motioned to establish this reserve baseline. Carried.

Brock motioned to review the applicability/suitability of the reserve annually and to adjust if needed at the time. Carried.

The 2016 surplus funds are estimated to be $1,600. Council discussed setting aside $500 for scholarships for 2017.  Council reviewed a list of possible recipients for monetary donations and consensus was reached that other donations would be split between Dharmaseed, Aruna  Publications, Forest Sangha (Sanghapala Foundation Publishing Fund), and Wat Metta.  (CA$200 each except Wat Metta which would receive US $200 – approximately CA$250 – in recognition of their mailing costs when sending us books).  All these organizations are registered charities and Victoria IMS and its participants use or are the recipients of study resources from them.

Brock motioned to accept the above proposed distribution of surplus funds. Carried.

  1. Communications:  
  • Newsletter:
    • The next issues are due for distribution December 2nd and 30th. Thanks to Bruce for producing the newsletter and to June and Sandra for providing review and edit input.
  • 2017 Communications Plan:
    • June prepared a Communications Plan for 2017 detailing the schedule for the preparation and distribution of the newsletter as well as the reminders for retreats.
    • Brian checked the schedule for the distribution of reminder letters in conjunction with the retreat schedule and dates for registration
  • Website:
    • Updating of the website in 2017 is under consideration. June and Rod are exploring potential options.  Discussion will be ongoing.
  • Year-end Reports:

In early 2017 Victoria IMS will develop reports on the various Victoria IMS activities that took place in 2016.  These reports will be provided as input to the Victoria IMS AGM in May.  Reporting responsibility is assigned as follows:

  • Report from the Chair – Brock
  • Finance – June
  • Retreat Statistics and Volunteers – Rhonda
  • Communications – Bruce, Rod and June (Constant Contact)
  • Sunday Night Sit – Margo, Sandra and June
  • Special Events – Brock
  1. Sunday Sit:
    • The schedule of facilitators and operations volunteers is in place for the first six months of 2017 (January through June).

Thanks to June and Sandra for ongoing coordination of the Sunday Night Sit program.

  • Metta suggested that we post a sign on the front door of the building to indicate that the sit is held there and provide access information. The idea was approved by council via email and Metta has taken responsibility for making the sign and getting the device for affixing to the door.  Thank you Metta.
  • A request has been made to Council to explore the possibility of having gender inclusive signage on the washrooms at the yoga studio for the Sunday Night sittings (changing the current male or female specific signage for the washrooms to signage that includes all genders). Council spent some time discussing this matter and were agreed that further information was required prior to taking any action.  June undertook to explore the matter in greater depth and will report back to Council.
  1. 2016 Programs and Retreat Operations:
    • Task description instructions for setting up Goward House for retreats have been developed, reviewed and approved. They have been printed and laminated and placed in one of the retreat bins. Thanks to June, Isy and Joyce for all the work related to the completion of these instructions.
    • Completed Retreats:

10 Retreats and one Public Talk were completed in 2016:

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

 2017 Programs:

All dates, teachers and venues are confirmed.  Most of the 2017 retreat teams are in place.  Thanks to Isy House for coordinating volunteers and scheduling. 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. 2018 Programs:
  • March 31/April 1 – Pascal Auclair – Goward House confirmed
  • October 11/12 – Christina Feldman – Goward House confirmed
  • Nov 10/11 – Carol Wilson – Goward House confirmed

Discussion is ongoing re other possible candidates for the 2018 retreat calendar.  These include Ajahn Viradhammo, Heather Martin, Margo McLoughlin and Brock Brown.

  1. Meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

Next Meeting

January 19th, 2017
7:00-9:30p.m.

Sandra’s home