KCC Sangha Meeting Notes from Sunday, August 9

August 9, 2020

Submitted by Linda Besant

Facilitator: Linda Grove; 21 people attended.

Board of Directors Report: (Doug Dunlap)
• The Board is experimenting with not having an Executive Committee (EC) for six months due to the current small size of the Board. The EC was four members. With only six Board members total, it will be easy enough to contact all for decisions.
• The Board will be recruiting new members soon.

Program Council Report: (Chimey, Lama Eric)
• The PC is working on the 2021 program schedule, with flexibility to go either via Zoom, in person, or both, depending upon the COVID situation.
• The Children’s Program has made a new charter, looking to ramp up the Children’s Program, working with parents as volunteers (see article in this Newsletter).
• The PC is also looking at a whole curriculum for KCC, discussing different kinds of themes and schedules.
• In response to a question, Lama Eric spoke of the possibility of holding a Vipassana retreat at some time in the future.

SCOL Team Report:
• The Board has approved the SCOL Team to try opening carefully, to a maximum of three retreatants at a time, for individual retreat. Each is to be private and independent – one in the south cloister, one in the north cloister, and one in a lama cabin. Each person is to bring their own personal gear and food. This opportunity is open at this time to those who were signed up for Spring Retreat but weren’t able to go. If this goes well, and depending on the COVID situation, the SCOL Team and the Board will consider opening the opportunity to others.
• We have hired Chehale Alexander to be the second SCOL staff person and to assist Linda Grove (see article in this Newsletter).
• Rather than having a single Rural Operation Manager at SCOL as occurred before Three Year Retreat, the SCOL Team functions as a group, in a horizontal model.

KCC Monthly Newsletter: (Doug Dunlap, Newsletter Editor)
• Doug said he loves the job, especially gathering articles together and laying them out. The challenge is gathering enough material every month, especially during COVID – he could really use some help with this.
• Kay Hartsock offered the idea of a “writer’s room,” where people could talk about ideas and read material to each other, like a focused tea time. Discussion of this idea was lively. People would still submit articles as before, but this group could also think of topics and search for writers. Kay and Carolyn Peck volunteered to work on making this group happen, with Doug and Willa’s support. The group will meet during a Wednesday tea time.
• Suggestions for possible newsletter articles included short biographies of sangha members and book reviews.

How new people can connect in a personal way with the sangha during COVID:
• As a person new to KCC since the COVID isolation period, Janet expressed appreciation for KCC, teachings, archives of teachings, and newsletter, but expressed how difficult it is to connect with people on a personal level under these circumstances.
• Ideas offered to get to know people were:

  1. Attend the tea times.
  2. Volunteer in some way.
  3. Attend the Zooming Lotus event on August 29th.
  4. Neighborhood walks with masks.
  5. Forming a hospitality team to reach out to new members. It could be a list of names of those willing to talk with new people and could be organized by neighborhoods.
  6. Holding small gatherings under the tent, with appropriate distancing – perhaps for meals, six people maximum, bringing their own food, with a mix of old and new members.

Volunteer Support Team: (Linda Grove)
• A new Volunteer Support Team has formed to provide support and resources for volunteer teams.They will contact existing teams to see what they need, and prepare a survey of sangha members about volunteering.
• The emphasis is on lending the teams a hand to enable them to become self sustaining.

Miscellaneous:
Joe Bertagnolli talked about the Buddhist Peace Fellowship gatherings to support Black Lives Matter on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 8 pm at Chapman Park, just east of City Hall. Information is on their Facebook page.