Membership Working Group

Meeting 1 - minutes

It was fascinating to discover how many different versions of membership were represented in our rather small group. We began our process by sharing the membership policies in our individual Centers. A variety of cities and centers in the U.S., several in Europe, the UK and Canada were represented. The policies ranged from no membership policy at all, to people having to ÒapplyÓ for membership and fulfill a variety of requirements, to completely open policies that allowed anyone to become a member of a Center. The dues amounts varied, as well.

It became clear to our group that a uniform, sangha-wide, membership policy is unrealistic. Shambhala is diverse and our needs vary depending on the local situation. For instance, the membership policy of a large, established urban center will be different from a small group just establishing itself. Understanding this, we felt our goal should be to establish a simple list of guidelines from which the larger community could draw.

The Membership Group discussed both the view and the mechanics of membership in our mandala. Inconsistency in the marketing of membership emerged. Therefore, in addition to identifying the key issues of membership and making recommendations about direction, we decided to include a short list of membership marketing ideas, as well. We discovered that many of us are still hesitant to talk about money and hesitant to proclaim membership as a way individuals can support their Center.

Key Issues:

Regarding the issue of financial support we discovered that dues amounts vary quite a bit and in most cases people join at the suggested level.

Membership is one way of building community in our Centers and generally serves to make people feel included.

We can be more and more fearless in our efforts to establish and build membership in our Centers and encourage people in our communities to become more involved in Shambhala vision.

Giving time and money increases generosity and is of great benefit to everyone.

Recommendations:

  1. Open Model
    • Broad-range, inclusive, self-determined
    • Not tied to practice commitment
    • Pre-supposes clear, well-defined centre governance
    • Individual centres are free to establish levels and form of membership dependent on their situation
  2. Local membership includes membership in the wider mandala.
  3. Membership includes benefits such as access to Meditation Instructors, discounts, newsletter, etc.
  4. New members receive a mission statement, information on Shambhala International, and personal orientation/contact.
  5. Ongoing attention to membership is needed at Shambhala International (perhaps it could be a Board or paid administrative position).
  6. Meditation Instructors and Shambhala Guides are free to, but not required to, discuss membership with prospective members.
  7. There should be the opportunity to be a member of Shambhala International directly perhaps with SI website as contact point.
  8. Membership should require some level of financial commitment and might include some taking of responsibility.
  9. Membership policies need structure but should be flexible.

We recommend an ÒopenÓ membership policy for our mandala, in general. That is, membership is not restricted to any level of practitioner, practice requirements, time spent at the Center, etc. If someone has a connection and wants to contribute, they can become a member of Shambhala. What is meant by ÒconnectionÓ can be determined by individual Centers.

We discussed the ramifications of allocating a portion of local membership funds to Shambhala International. The Membership Committee felt unanimously that Centers should contribute to SI but not necessarily through a percentage of dues. This is because, in some Centers, membership income might be low while program income might be high. SI would not reap the greatest benefit from such an across-the-board policy.

Membership Marketing Suggestions:

Information about the opportunity to become a member could be readily accessible in the following places/ways:

Possible benefits of Membership:

The recommendations listed above were the things that seemed most important to share with the larger community. However, many other aspects of membership were covered by our group. We spent quite a bit of time discussing what membership is altogether. A couple of the key ideas that came out of that discussion are:

Submitted by Sue Gilman, Facilitator, Membership Committee