Minutes of the Board of Director’s Meeting Tucson Community Meditation Center

January 22, 2008  5:00 pm

Present: Chuong Tran, Blake Barton, Blake Ashley, Debra Raeber, Terry Magee, Lhasha Tizer, Frank Tomizuka

The minutes from the last meeting, December 4, 2007, were approved.

Financial Report:

HFCU Checking balance  $9,949.44

Includes registrations for Douglas retreat and Culadasa weekend retreat

Payments already recorded for $1000 deposit to COD Ranch for Shinzen retreat, $3000 Zendo rent Jan - April and $980.80 to Culadasa

Does not include expenses we will incur to Pocket Sanctuary for Douglas Retreat

HFCU Savings and High Yield Savings  $20,091.48  as of 12/31/07

Bank One CD  $5,900.73

Have not received January gas bill yet - December bill was $187.73

Call to Audience:  Wanda Poindexter was present.

Date for Annual Meeting:  A motion was made and approved to change the date for our annual meeting to Saturday, April 26^th at 1:00 pm at the TCMC center.

Nomination Committee email notice:  A motion was made and approved to send out an email to the membership announcing our new nomination committee and asking members to participate in it.

Date for board meeting regarding conflict of interest issue:  A motion was made and approved to set the date for the board to discuss conflict of interest issues arising regarding board members.  The date set is Sunday, February 24^th at 2:00 pm at the TCMC center.

Lhasha announced that she will not run for the board again in 2008.  She has been on the board since 1998.

Terry also announced that she will not run for the board again in 2008.  She has been on the board since 1996.

Protocol for teacher approval:

Blake Barton drafted a preliminary list of ideas to help facilitate our conversation on this matter.

Lhasha expressed her opinion that the board should first have a Spiritual Advisory Board, consisting of some of our teachers, in place to set the criteria for teachers.

The board decided to go ahead and come up with a set of criteria for teachers in order to begin this process.

1.     A new teacher must teach mindfulness meditation, or supporting practices like loving-kindness or concentration.

The board was in agreement with #1.

2.     There are four different levels of TCMC events that may require different levels of teacher skill, since students will be reaching progressively deeper levels of meditation.

One time or weekly class

          All Day class or retreat

          Non-residential weekend retreat

          Residential Retreat

The board was in agreement with #2.

3.     A new teacher must have a relationship with a recognized mindfulness meditation teacher that believes that they are qualified to teach meditation at the appropriate level.  For example, a teacher might feel that her student is ready to teach a one time class, but is not yet ready to lead a residential retreat.  A recognized teacher would be someone from Spirit Rock, IMS, Shinzen, or Theravadin monastic teachers like U. Pandita or Ajahn Summedho.

There was a lot of discussion about #3.  Would we only approve teachers from a Vipassana lineage?  What about Soto Zen, teachers like Jon Kabbot Zin, teachers from a Tibetan perspective? 

Lhasha expressed reservation about approving teachers who are not teaching a form of Vipassana.  She is worried about having Soto Zen taught at the center and fears that new students in particular may become confused about mindfulness meditation.

Blake A., Blake B. and Debra would like to include teachers from other traditions as long as there is a component of mindfulness to their teachings.

The board approved a motion to broaden #3 to include teachers other than Vipassana teachers as long as there is a component of mindfulness in their teachings.

Blake B. will rewrite #3 and the discussion will continue at our next meeting.

4.     No recognized teacher must have an objection to this person teaching.  If there is a disagreement between two teachers about the readiness of a student to teach, then we will encourage the teachers to discuss the situation and come to a resolution.

     The board agreed with #4.

5.     Mindful movement teachers who teach yoga or tai chi would be evaluated using similar criterion.

The board had some discussion about what the qualifications would be for a mindful movement teacher.  Blake will rewrite #5 to require some sort of certification for teachers.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm.