CTC Minutes April 2023
Honey Locust Sangha Care Taking Council (CTC) gathered on Zoom April 16. We were all present except OI Aspirant Tina Ray who was at a Mindfulness Retreat with Plum Blossom Sangha in Texas, with Dharma Teacher Terry Cortes Vega. And we also welcomed Gina Matkin back after some months hiatus. Welco1: med greatly and warmly.
(Patrice Watson, Jim Cox, Dave Watts, Juanita Rice, Mike McGann, Mike McMahon, Mark Watson and Gina Matkin.) Beginning with a brief check-In, a few minutes of sitting meditation, and the Plum Village meeting prayer, vowing to listen deeply, speak clearly, and not to allow any tension to arise as we discuss differing viewpoints and feelings. A Buddhist meeting, not a committee.
Agenda Item 1: Reports from the Committee on Retreats.
A. May Retreat, May 11-14, 2023. The first items was a change: Dharma Teacher BK cancelled his attendance for personal reasons. The committee decided we could happily proceed without needing to add someone new; the sangha is well-schooled in retreats and trusts that we can protect Terry Cortes Vega from any overload. Adding someone new at this point seemed more trouble than necessary. We will ask new Aspirant Anh Le (Lincoln) to be Terry's assistant. Mike McMahon will be music coordinator, Juanita Rice will be "Flower Child," arranging for flowers from our gardens and yards. There will be a Transmission Ceremony for the 5 Mindfulness Trainings, and since Plum Village no longer provides certificates of transmission, Jim will print some at his home press. (Beautifully). (Terry will be invited to spend Sunday night at Mark Watson's Omaha home before an early morning flight back to Austin.)
Paid registrants at this point are 31, with 3 more possible in the works, so we decided to ask Mike McMahon to post the retreat on Facebook and to "vet" the applicants before sending registration packets out. There is a distinct financial advantage to registering at least 40, so that's a mild reason, but most of us agreed the real reason to encourage more people to come to a retreat is that it is an inimitable spiritual "immersion" experience. We discussed other logistics for transferring cushions, blankets, lamps, etc. for the setup; it seems well organized and the CTC complimented the committee.
B. Spring Retreat 2024. We have confirmed Michael Ciborski as a teacher and are offering a deposit to Creighton Retreat Center for the last weekend in April next year.
Agenda Item 2: Treasurer's report was $3988. We expressed no concern for any shortage for scholarships or other expenses as we know that any notification to the sangha of a need for any more income would be quickly and generously met. In general there will be regular informal mailings on how to contribute to HLS, following previous templates.
Agenda Item 3: The CTC's request for a Zoom host training by Gina, who is the person we turn to when there is any questions, and others of us want to practice being host regularly so that we are all proficient. Gina had previously done a tutorial for Mark, Jim, and Juanita and we encouraged her to just repeat with a few other technicalities which give us anxiety about hosting. We asked her to set a convenient time. Another important question some people asked about it screen-sharing tutoring, and questions about how to set up "Original Sound" so that bells are audible over zoom.
Agenda Item 4: Regular Evaluation of our weekly Monday meetings, especially with regard to our handling of the "Hybrid" Zoom technology. All agreed that time spent asking each person to say their name was time well spent, lending the meetings a welcome "one-sangha" tone. Juanita Rice asked for any input for her facilitation of the next evening's gathering and Gina made a suggestion, which everyone supported, that just this once we should make the "Dharma sharing" an intimate check-in. We may find that it is important enough to do with some regularity, since our goal is harmony between the two "audiences," Zoom and In-Studio. Also a clarification that for the Studio sangha to see the full face of each Zoom person the in-studio Zoom settings have to be changed from Gallery View to Speaker View.
Agenda Item 5: There will be no CTC meeting in May, 2023.
Honey Locust Sangha Care Taking Council (CTC) gathered on Zoom April 16. We were all present except OI Aspirant Tina Ray who was at a Mindfulness Retreat with Plum Blossom Sangha in Texas, with Dharma Teacher Terry Cortes Vega. And we also welcomed Gina Matkin back after some months hiatus. Welco1: med greatly and warmly.
(Patrice Watson, Jim Cox, Dave Watts, Juanita Rice, Mike McGann, Mike McMahon, Mark Watson and Gina Matkin.) Beginning with a brief check-In, a few minutes of sitting meditation, and the Plum Village meeting prayer, vowing to listen deeply, speak clearly, and not to allow any tension to arise as we discuss differing viewpoints and feelings. A Buddhist meeting, not a committee.
Agenda Item 1: Reports from the Committee on Retreats.
A. May Retreat, May 11-14, 2023. The first items was a change: Dharma Teacher BK cancelled his attendance for personal reasons. The committee decided we could happily proceed without needing to add someone new; the sangha is well-schooled in retreats and trusts that we can protect Terry Cortes Vega from any overload. Adding someone new at this point seemed more trouble than necessary. We will ask new Aspirant Anh Le (Lincoln) to be Terry's assistant. Mike McMahon will be music coordinator, Juanita Rice will be "Flower Child," arranging for flowers from our gardens and yards. There will be a Transmission Ceremony for the 5 Mindfulness Trainings, and since Plum Village no longer provides certificates of transmission, Jim will print some at his home press. (Beautifully). (Terry will be invited to spend Sunday night at Mark Watson's Omaha home before an early morning flight back to Austin.)
Paid registrants at this point are 31, with 3 more possible in the works, so we decided to ask Mike McMahon to post the retreat on Facebook and to "vet" the applicants before sending registration packets out. There is a distinct financial advantage to registering at least 40, so that's a mild reason, but most of us agreed the real reason to encourage more people to come to a retreat is that it is an inimitable spiritual "immersion" experience. We discussed other logistics for transferring cushions, blankets, lamps, etc. for the setup; it seems well organized and the CTC complimented the committee.
B. Spring Retreat 2024. We have confirmed Michael Ciborski as a teacher and are offering a deposit to Creighton Retreat Center for the last weekend in April next year.
Agenda Item 2: Treasurer's report was $3988. We expressed no concern for any shortage for scholarships or other expenses as we know that any notification to the sangha of a need for any more income would be quickly and generously met. In general there will be regular informal mailings on how to contribute to HLS, following previous templates.
Agenda Item 3: The CTC's request for a Zoom host training by Gina, who is the person we turn to when there is any questions, and others of us want to practice being host regularly so that we are all proficient. Gina had previously done a tutorial for Mark, Jim, and Juanita and we encouraged her to just repeat with a few other technicalities which give us anxiety about hosting. We asked her to set a convenient time. Another important question some people asked about it screen-sharing tutoring, and questions about how to set up "Original Sound" so that bells are audible over zoom.
Agenda Item 4: Regular Evaluation of our weekly Monday meetings, especially with regard to our handling of the "Hybrid" Zoom technology. All agreed that time spent asking each person to say their name was time well spent, lending the meetings a welcome "one-sangha" tone. Juanita Rice asked for any input for her facilitation of the next evening's gathering and Gina made a suggestion, which everyone supported, that just this once we should make the "Dharma sharing" an intimate check-in. We may find that it is important enough to do with some regularity, since our goal is harmony between the two "audiences," Zoom and In-Studio. Also a clarification that for the Studio sangha to see the full face of each Zoom person the in-studio Zoom settings have to be changed from Gallery View to Speaker View.
Agenda Item 5: There will be no CTC meeting in May, 2023.