Our Annual Meeting was held Sunday, December 29, 2024. This is the meeting during which we hear from the Board and Teacher Council with their annual reports, provide input and make recommendations for future policies and programs, nominate members for the Board, and elect directors.
Minutes
1. President of the Board of Directors summary Report – Yair Rivlin
1. On our first board meeting we committed to do our best to help our beautiful sangha to grow spiritually and socially and to enable the process of deepening the teaching and learning within the sangha – The Sunday gathering for sitting and sharing, the other weekly gatherings for sitting and sharing, the classes, the daylong retreats and the weekend retreats, – with the technical support for hybrid access (in person and at home); We worked toward financial stability to ensure smooth operation for the sangha activities; we hope we succeeded.
2. We tried not to fix what’s not broken; we hope we succeeded with that too.
3. We worked shoulder to shoulder with the Teacher Council, the Sangha Committee, and the Community Meeting committee, three wonderful bodies of people that did the work and carried our community for the entire year.
4. The board met every month (except in August, due to summer travels) here in Turner.
5. The board and the Teacher Council met together twice this year to strengthen mutual responsibility for the goals of the sangha. We tend to resume those meetings also in 2025.
6. The board met once with the Sangha Committee (previously the social committee) to discuss and promote social activities to strengthen our sangha.
7. The board reported to the Community Meeting three times this year – In April, June, and September. This is the fourth time I’m standing here, and I’ll try to summarize now the main bullet points on the board agenda during the year.
Tech Support:
- Kenneth Gourlay became our main tech support with pay.
- We reviewed and decreased the number of the mail accounts and mailing distribution lists.
- We put in place a process to reduce the number of emails and routine weekly/monthly Still Announce email posting.
- The board took a measure to guarantee that our website is complying with privacy protection legal protocols.
- The board approved the purchase of the two owls for the sake of better experience of the hybrid Sunday’s gatherings.
- We added Venmo as a means for donation on the website.
Dhana and Giving:
- The board had several discussions to compile the Still Mountain approach toward the dhana value. Along with the help of the Teacher Council, the sangha had the chance to get deeper into the learning of the Dhana and Giving and at the end of the process, Still Mountain started to donate $200 a month to Buddhist Global relief.
Welcome & Care:
- The board with the Sangha Committee and the Teacher Council put together a process to welcome newcomers, as well as a guideline for helping sangha members in need.
The agreement with UM about the usage of Turner was extended until July 2025.
2. Treasurer Report Dennis Greggio
The End of Year report will be provided electronically at a later date.
3. Teacher Council Report Ken Morley
Summary of Teacher Council sponsored activities:
- bell ringing with preface for sittings
- monthly dharma talks
- facilitate dharma talk discussion
- Zoom host Monday night meditation and sharing
- Zoom host Tuesday morning meditation and sharing
- Zoom host Saturday morning meditation
- Bilha has conducted various meditation classes at the Ann Arbor Senior Center -A meditation support group was offered of Sunday mornings before the sitting for several months, but has been discontinued.
- Two daylong retreats were offered on the topic of Wise Speech and Wise Intention -Two Zoom events on the topic of Navigating Difficult Times around national election time.
The teachers also spent much time in reflection and discussion and a training session this year with the intention of making the group more dynamic, engaged and functional.
The teachers also drew up a charter of our commitment to further the vision and the mission of Still Mountain.
In 2025 Hugh Danville and Jackie Miller resigned from the Teacher’s Council and Jim Whiteside stepped down from teaching and giving dharma talks, but will stay on the council. The remaining teachers include Bilha Rivlin, Karen Mori, Elizabeth Cheslak, Curt Fish and Ken Morley.
Gratitude was offered to Carol Blotter for her work in supporting the Teacher Council’s self examination which included attending the monthly or bimonthly meetings, interviewing individual teachers and reporting results back to the group to facilitate discussion to improve our focus and group cohesion and her creating a training day with George Sanfacon. She put in a great deal of time in research to support her consultation.
4. Sangha Committee Report Arlene Leland
The Social Committee experienced a large transition in 2024. Four sangha members joined the Social Committee to help increase the socialization among Still Mountain members. I would like to thank Jane Leu, Erica Dutton, Phyllis Ford, and Bryan Wagner for joining Dorothy Ann Coyne and myself who were already on the Social Committee.
Also significant, the social committee made a decision to have one Social Sunday a month. It was decided that the Social Sundays would be held on the last Sunday of the month. Having one Social Sunday per month was very successful. A lot of members came and enjoyed themselves. Delicious and healthy snacks; a fun atmosphere was conducive to socializing .
The Social Committee worked on identifying activities that could increase socialization among members with a handout early on in winter. Two activities that were identified were a walking group and a book club. However, neither activity seemed to hold much interest to the members; and therefore did not occur. Social Sundays continued to occur throughout 2024. In the fall, less members seemed to attend the Social Sundays. The Social Committee discussed the reasons for this change: change in weather, holidays,?. But the Social Committee did not come up with any definitive answers.
In the fall, two Sangha Committee members due to life transitions left the Sangha Committee and Judi Greene joined the Sangha Committee when she was not practicing for the Chorale. We appreciated Judi joining us.
Also, the Social Committee asked the Board if we could change our name to the Sangha Committee, which reflected the nature of our community and what we learned and practiced, that is, the Buddhist Teachings.
Yahir had asked us to identify the purpose of the Sangha Committee. The purposes were as follows: 1) To welcome new members into the community; 2) To provide outreach to Sangha members who were ill or who were experiencing distress; and 3) To identify and facilitate group and community wide activities that would support more socialization among Still Mountain members. Action plans to welcome new members were discussed further, such as behaviorally welcoming new members when you saw them at the meetings and to have to care not to be intrusive. Another important part of welcoming new members was in the use of a Welcome Letter that would need to be eventually approved by the board and processed further around how it would be used.
Kenneth Gourlay developed an email group for the Sangha Committee’s use (sanghacommittee@stillmountainmeditation.org). One of the purposes of the email group was to allow members, old and new, to contact us from the Still Mountain Meditation website and ask us questions about social and community issues.
In the past three months, the Sangha Committee worked hard to facilitate an Orphan Thanksgiving Dinner for people who didn’t in particular have family close by to share a meal with them. We were corrected in calling it an Orphan Thanksgiving Dinner. I shared how we did not mean to be disrespectful and the Sangha Committee Members discussed why they called it an Orphan Thanksgiving Dinner from their own experiences. Judi Greene was thanked for the use of her house. It was discussed that there was a lot of food at the Thanksgiving Dinner and everybody enjoyed themselves. Thank you Sangha Committee for facilitating the Thanksgiving Dinner.
Although the Christmas Potluck was not an official event of the Still Mountain Meditation Community, I discussed it to thank members who played a role in facilitating it due to unexpected location changes. I expressed my appreciation and gratitude for Jane Leu contacting members the Tuesday before the Potluck to facilitate the changes. Thank you very much Jane for all the work you did. Thanked Yahir for giving the members the go ahead to hold the potluck at the Turner Resource Center. Thanked the Technological Team for facilitating the Zoom. Thanked Moriko, Phyllis, and Judi Greene for setting up the potluck and thanked everybody else who helped. Shared that the members had a good time and celebrated Moriko’s birthday. My Annual Sangha Committee Report ended with thanking the three members who are on the Committee, besides myself. This includes Erica, Dorothy Ann, and Judi Greene.
5. Other business
Community Meeting Committee Report
Since Judi Pawloski will be on the Board of Directors, Elizabeth Cheslak will be taking over her responsibilities on the Community Meetings Committee.
6. Newly Elected Board of Directors
- Phyllis Ford
- Lisa Zucker
- Judi Pawloski
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