MEMBERSHIP POLICY WORKING GROUP

Meeting #7, June 29, 2004

Present: Jane Ward, Corey Simpson, Mary Whetsell

Not Present: Susan Wagner, Wendy Layton, Francesca Nilo, Chris Tamdjidi, Candia Ludy, Fernando Allyon

Next Meeting:  Tuesday, August 10 

at 9 am Mountain, 10 am Central, 11 am Eastern, noon Atlantic, 4 pm BST, 5 pm CEST. 
Call-in information to be announced closer to the meeting date.

A Findings Report Approved

Those at today’s meeting approved the second draft of our “findings” report, with the addition of minor editorial changes. Wendy, Chris and Susan have all emailed their approval of draft #2.  If anyone has any editorial or minor change suggestions, they must be emailed to Mary before Friday July 2. On Friday, Mary will send the finalized edition of this document to Connie Brock.

Where Do We Go From Here?

In August we begin to look at policy formulation and recommendations for a unified membership policy for our mandala. We hope we will get input regarding membership view at the July Governing Council meeting which will help us in this process. One idea is to begin with the policy created by Shambhala Europe (since they have one), and use it as a point by point framework for discussion, looking for areas of agreement and really try to bridge areas of disagreement.

Review Group Process

Mary shared that at the last scheduled review group meeting no one called in. She then emailed all on the review group asking them to give feedback on the review group process. She heard back from quite a few review group members: the general feedback was that our review group is definitely tracking what we’re doing and that they feel good about and trust the working group’s efforts. Given the realities of busy lives, and given that they are OK with the work we’re doing, they have not been calling in too much.