17 July 2022 – Board Meeting Highlights

August 4, 2022

Dear Sangha:

Here are the highlights from the 17-July-2022 KCC Board Meeting.
  1. August Board Meeting.  This meeting will be replaced with a joint meeting between the Service Group leads and the-KCC Board.  Linda Besant and John Jennings are the leads to for this meeting.  They are identifying an outside facilitator to support meeting conduct.
  2. Inclusivity Action Plan.  A draft of this plan was presented by Rosemarie Sweet.  The draft was developed by team members Rosemarie, Ryan Fitz, Linda Besant, and Lama Eric.  The board provided feedback and suggestions for clarification, focus and improvement.  It was agreed that the draft would be revised and sent to the board to review and vote.  A vote via email has taken place and the plan has been approved.  It was noted this plan will be reviewed, revised, and updated annually.
  3. Sexual Misconduct Policy.  Rosemarie Sweet, committee lead, reported the initial meetings had been conducted.  Other committee members include Lama Chimey, Doug Dunlap, and Jill Severson.  The intent is to quickly write a policy that can be revised and improved over time.
  4. Monthly Sangha Meeting.  The July sangha meeting focused on how the individual retreats at SCOL were conducted with less staff support and with the retreatants assuming more responsibilities.  Feedback on the arrangement was positive.
  5. SCOL.  Cynthia Irvine provided a report that focused on the personnel needs to operate SCOL and the challenges of staff support for retreatants.  The team is working on two job descriptions for future hires – warning that this may be a slow process.
  6. Financial Assistance Policy for Residential Retreats.  Pat Parker presented a draft policy on financial assistance for residential retreats at SCOL and support to attend international seminars.  The Board questions focused on understanding the FA fund and the proposed guidelines the programs team would use to manage the FA fund and provide financial assistance.  The FA policy will be revised
  7. KCC Finance Report.  Recurring giving has increased in response to the Sustaining Membership Drive.  Income from retreats is lower than projected and overall fundraising incoming is lower than projected.  The reserve amount was at 3.4 months.  Linda Besant noted that many nonprofit organizations are experiencing fundraising challenges and that KCC is in a good financial position at this time even in a challenging economic environment.
  8. Sustaining Membership Drive.  Linda Besant reported some new members and increased pledges – but a bit short of what was desired.  The Buddhist BINGO event is a fundraising event but the emphasis will be on FUN and fellowship with lowered expectations of income from this event.
  9. Sunday Attendance.  Jennifer Chang presented data and charts showing that Sunday attendance is trending lower since April 2020.  Data for attendance at other practices has not been processed or analyzed.  The Board discussed attendance in the context of donors.  The finance team’s information shows that donors have increased in numbers and amounts.  In terms of the long-term health of KCC – the board discussed increasing KCC’s visibility in the Portland area.  It was noted that  new people have attended to Sunday practices.
  10. Service Group Reports.  Linda Besant represented the services groups at the Board meeting.  Service Group leads provide a monthly report summarizing activities and goals.  Nothing significant was presented to the Board for discussion.
  11. Karmapa Committee Report.  The Committee is planning a follow-on meeting to the initial facilitated meeting.  Committee members and the board discussed how to define the purpose of the next meeting and the purpose of the overall process.

If you wish to see the full detail of our meetings, the full minutes of each KCC Board meeting are posted after they have been approved by the Board at the following Board meeting (30 days later).

All Board meetings are open to all sangha members. We meet by Zoom on the third Sunday of each month from 1:30-4:30pm. Please join us.

Jennifer Chang, KCC Board Member