GOVERNANCE

The Minneapolis Shambhala Center is part of Shambhala International, a worldwide association of urban meditation and rural retreat centers. Our local center directors represent the Minneapolis Center by serving with other center directors from around the world on the Mandala Council. This council has a broad role, particularly in the area of identifying the services needed by our growing and diverse international community.

The Minneapolis Shambhala sangha has experimented with various governance models over our years together. In the summer of 2004, a task force met to come up with the current model. It was launched at the start of 2005 and we are still enjoying what feels like the early stages of implementation and evolution based on practicality and human resources.

The task force report presented to the community in the fall of 2004 follows:    

Model

CO-DIRECTORS - JOB DESCRIPTIONS

LEAD TEACHER works closely with the practice and study, shambhala training and children’s working groups. This person would teach at the Minneapolis Center, as well as work with and mentor other teachers who teach at the Center. He or she is responsible for keeping abreast of all things practice and study that come down from the Sakyong and the International Practice and Study Office.

This person facilitates visioning council meetings, and is the one who holds the vision created by the council. This person attends operating council meetings to ensure decisions by the operating council mesh with the vision.

RUSUNG works with the Kasung of our Center and serves in a protector role. He or she should take charge of the bigger responsibilities having to do with the Center and grounds. He or she could act as a bridge between church and state.

This leader works with the finance, buildings and grounds and sacred environment working groups.

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATION/COMMUNITY would hopefully become well known to Center members and would be highly visible, particularly at public sittings. There may be periodic e-mails from this person to the community on the state of the community. This person could ensure that meeting minutes from council meetings (visioning and operating) are taken and posted for all to see.

This leader would work with the community care, communications, hospitality and membership/diversity working groups. This person would monitor and respond to International communications.

This person facilitates operating council meetings.

COUNCIL FUNCTIONS

All BIG decisions should involve community participation. Anything developed and reviewed/decided upon by the visioning council is open to the community. All operating council decisions should have community input in mind, whether that came in through the visioning council or the working group heads, etc.

Most of the work around medium and small decisions would hopefully happen at the level of the working groups and be coordinated and overseen by the operating council.

OPERATING COUNCIL meets primarily to ensure coordination between all working groups and the co-leaders. Two of the main functions of this council will be the Center’s schedule and budget. For the sake of effectiveness and efficiency, the meetings of this council will be attended by the co-leaders and the working group heads, and facilitated by the face of the center person. Perhaps after an initial time of ramping things up, meeting quarterly would be enough to accomplish the tasks of this council.

SHARED VISIONING COUNCIL is where the fringe and the center meet. This council meets to gain understanding of a higher vision as has been taught by our teachers ® leading to a continual development of local vision as it relates to Center activity. The policy making for the Minneapolis Shambhala Center will be done by this visioning council. This council is issue driven and open to all who are interested in the issue at hand. Co-leaders may invite individuals to work on any particular issue, perhaps because the individuals have a certain skill set, or because they have an interest in or passion for certain topics or issues. These invited individuals, along with the co-leaders, and anyone else who wants to partake, will meet. The meetings are open. So there will have to be some communication mechanism for letting the community know about meeting times and topics/issues. It could be the aspiration that this council meets on an ongoing basis, perhaps once a month at first.  The agenda is set by the co-leaders and the meetings are facilitated by the Lead Teacher, who is responsible for holding the vision to make sure it meshes with operating council decisions.

WORKING GROUP RESPONSIBILITIES

OVERALL:

• Staffing these working groups would be managed creatively taking into account people’s interests and skill sets. Some working groups need more volunteer hours than others. Community participation will hopefully be inspried, vs. required. 
• How the working groups accomplish their given tasks is up to them. They should have ample authority and creative control over what they need to do.
• These working groups need lead people who would take ultimate responsibility for what the group needs to accomplish for the Center. Working group leaders would attend quarterly operating council meetings.
• The working groups will hopefully have a deleg flavor to them. People could get to know each other through their work together. Meetings could have a social element to them.      

PRACTICE and STUDY

PRACTICE working group is responsible for:

• all community practice
• Sunday rota
• MI coordination
• ikebana
• Ashe Society
• Buddhist and Werma feast practice
• shrine keeping  

STUDY working group is responsibe for:

• Sunday talk schedule
• develop and maintain plan for the study of Shambhala Buddhism including the delivery of the Buddhist curriculu
• manage the relationship with archarya/manage plans for archarya visits
• plan for and manage the delivery of Shambhala Arts/Nalanda program

SHAMBHALA TRAINING

plans for and manage the delivery of all ST programs

CHILDERN’S PROGRAMS

plans for and manage the delivery of all children's programs

BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS

responsible for:

• making the Center and grounds inviting and welcoming
• ongoing cleaning and maintenance chores
• lawn mowing
• snow shoveling

SACRED ENVIRONMENT

• The charge of this working group is to create an uplifted environment in
  which members feel inspired to practice. To the best of our ability, we
  apply the principles of Shambhala Buddhism to decisions related to building,
  buying, or arranging the elements within the Shambhala Center to help
  members to feel welcome, create community, practice meditation and study,
  and experience the three jewels of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We
  primarily work on the interior of the building.
• Many projects are planned and are either in progress or waiting for the
  resources necessary to carry them out, including money, time, and labor on
  the part of the working group. Annual fund-raising and a contribution from
  the profits of Wang Tang fund most of the projects. Observations and
  suggestions about anything related to improving the environment of the
  center can be shared and will be considered.
  

FINANCE

The finance working group is responsible responsible for:

• dues
• scholarships
• fundraising
• Wang Tang (store)
• budgeting
• reporting

COMMUNICATIONS

The communications working group is responsible for:

• maintain database
• website administration
• marketing including publicity, mailings
• information requests
• incoming mail

COMMUNITY CARE

This working group considers how to:

• increase our awareness of each others' needs, stay connected to each other, and be more proactive in helping one another
• explore ways that our community and traditional communities might relate to the acute needs of community members and maintain the long-term, ongoing sense of connection which allows us to share both joy and suffering 
• offer community processes to respond to the needs of community members. These processes could include both those we've had success with and those that are yet to be tried.
• connect care models with the Shambhala Buddhist teachings

DIVERSITY

The diversity working group seeks to recognize and remove any barriers
that inhibit our appreciation of basic goodness and our intention to
create enlightened society. To accomplish this, we will engage in an
ongoing process of assessment, reflection and discussion, and action.
This process will always have the dharma, and the open heart of
Shambhala, as its reason, guide, and vision. The diversity working group
will develop and implement initiatives that will ensure that all of the
members and guests of the Minneapolis Shambhala Center will feel
welcomed, valued, and supported in all aspects of their involvement with
the center.

MEMBERSHIP

Responsible for cultivating membership at the center, which means checking in with people and answering their questions about membership, helping members understand the resources of the center, and checking in with folks who have left the center.

HOSPITALITY

The hospitality working group coordinates hospitality for Center events. Everyone is encourated to help out as food is a part of so many Center events and enjoyed by all. There is a "how to" booklet available, complete with recipies, to assist anyone willing to take on the cooking or baking or food prep. Encouraged are the following:

• simplicity in food, presentation and clean-up
• homemade food, often cheaper, better quality and healthier
• pot lucks because they encourage generosity and build community
• cost effectiveness to ensure we are good stewards of communal resources
• remembering there are both vegetarians and omnivores in our comminity
• consideration of food preferences (low sugar, whole foods)
• awareness of paper products and packaging issues
• avoidance of waste; making sure food that isn't eaten does not go to waste

Staffing

The co-director candidate pool could be developed through a process of nomination and self-nomination. A meeting could be held to discuss the nominations and actually filling the three available positions could be done by spontaneous insight.

Working group leaders could either spontaneously volunteer, get nominated by working group members, or be recruited by the co-directors. Who is interested in serving on the council, what can offered in terms of commitment, as well as skill sets can be taken into consideration.

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Shambhala Center of Minneapolis
2931 Grand Street NE, Minneapolis,  MN 55418
Tel. (612) 331 7737    Email: bjor6n@gmail.com