VIPASSANA SPACE MEETING RESULTS May 3 and 10, 2005

Meeting 1: 21 people,17 Dharma Hall members. Meeting 2: 11 people, all members

1. How does the Vipassana group benefit from using the Dharma Hall space and support?

· We don’t have to bring our own cushions

· We don’t have to meet in someone’s private home

· This is a stable space

· We have a built in audience (of the other three groups) for teachers we bring in

· We get the benefit of all groups’ teachers that are brought in

· The option of sitting with more than one group – one-stop shopping

· The library

· We have a page on the Dharma Hall website and Ted serves as our webmaster

2. Are there ways that the Dharma Hall is problematic for our group?

· No instruction space for new meditators

· Our group doesn’t have enough space when we have a visiting teacher

· Our group has “melded” with the Samish group and when we have joint activities, there is not enough room here

· The room is really too small with the room dividers up, and they are hard to move

· Noise from the building while meditating

3. What as a group we are doing for the Hall?

· Give 10% of moneys from events

· Have a large number of members of the Dharma Hall

· Service in the form of two Board members, two people on the finance committee, one assistant to the library and the mailer of the newsletter

· Questions arise: is too much of the leadership/energy coming from the vipassana group?

· Consistent and thorough monthly cleaning of the Hall

4. Has our group been involved with current or past Mahasangha programs?

Most of the morning group sit with the vipassana group. No feedback on newsletter. No one participated in young people’s group; one member brought her great-niece to the Family Dharma Program and loved it.

a. Would we like to see these activities increased?

• Would like to have a representative of each group give an overview of their group, perhaps twice a year in an evening presentation, open to sangha members and the public.
• Buddhist Peace Fellowship
• “Green Sangha”

b. How do we imagine these programs could be organized and supported?

• To accomplish these things, it doesn’t need to come from the Board – use the Dharma Hall Announce to see if there are like-minded people

5. Does our group believe that the DH’s mission should include programs directed to the greater Bellingham community?

• Concern over proselytizing, commercializing the Dhamma
• BUT, would like general visibility to be raised, example, spending DH money on a once a week ad in the Herald, a small ad in the phone book, and the Food Coop. What would it take to get us listed under churches (concern that no one could find us in the white pages).
• If there were a 6-month “overview” of the four groups, place an ad in the Herald.
• The advantage of joining, for example, the BPF is that they have programs already in place that could be “plugged into”
• Create a 3-fold flyer and mass produce and distribute it.

In sum, a strong interest in increasing visibility, without recruiting or proselytizing

6. How do we feel about the responsibility we might have if the DH occupied a more expensive space?

· So clear from the “deer-in-headlights” look that the people who sit on Tuesday nights do not feel like they are a vip group; they feel like they sit at the Hall. We have NO group identity.

• Before we move, the DH should decide, are we members of our group or of the DH? If group, should the groups pay? This should be worked out before moving. It should be equitable. However, the freedom of joining the DH, and then being able to move from group to group is greatly appreciated.
• Nothing to draw the Vipassana group away from the Hall at this time

In sumt: We don’t want to penalize anyone and we don’t want anyone taken advantage of.

7. If the DH moved to a shared space with other types of activities, what are the best/worst case scenarios?

• Might be very hard, with all group(s) activities and other businesses.
• In the daytime, the Hall is little used
• Yoga or other movement-type classes would be ok, but only in daytime
• How about two large spaces, one for us, one for the other main business, and then we could share, like bathrooms, kitchen, spare rooms?

8. What does our group need the most that we don’t have here at this DH?

• Access for physical disabled
• Quieter, both sounds from the inside and the outside
• Another room that can be used at the same time for meditation instructions, etc.
• A library at least 200 square feet with chairs, light, that people could go in and out throughout the day.

Overall question: is the consideration to move coming primarily from the vipassana group?

Overall comment: we have most of what we need. If we keep our needs simple, we have plenty of money. We have a decent space for most of the events we do. We should focus on keeping things simple.