Membership Policy Working Group

May 18th, 2004 - minutes

Present: Wendy Layton, Fernando Allyon, Jane Ward, Corey Simpson, Mary Whetsell (chairperson)

Not Present: Susan Wagner, Francesca Nilo, Chris Tamdjidi, Candia Ludy

Next Meetings: Tuesdays: June 1, June 15, June 29; 9am Mountain, 10am Central, 11am Eastern, noon Atlantic, 4pm BST, 5pm CEST

“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life, and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”   ~  Georgia O’Keefe

1. Communication issues follow-up:  Wendy reports a line item is included in the 2005 Shambhala Congress budget for an I.T. person to work on the Congress website full-time.  This person should be hired in the near future. This effects our group, because we should soon be able to post various documents such as membership policies, position papers, etc for all interested to read.

2. Review Group report: The first membership review group meeting was held Saturday May 8^th, and subsequent review group phone conferences will be held every other Saturday through July 3^rd.  The main issues in the review group regarded (1) inclusivity/exclusivity issues related to membership, (2) a perceived lack of core identity in some (most?) Centers regarding what it means to be a Shambhala Buddhist, and (3) the role of Shambhala International in helping to develop membership policy. Complete minutes are available from the review group meeting if anyone would like more detail. Contact Mary at mwhetsell@mindspring.com. 

3. The working group discussed the following topics:

• The integration of Shambhala and Buddhist teachings. Everyone agreed anyone should feel free and supported to focus on either path, or both, according to personal inclination. Furthermore, no one should be marginalized for their chosen practice focus. At the same time, we agreed that historically there has been rancor and mistrust between some “Shambhalians” and some “Buddhists”. Our mandala’s core identity is still a work in progress, and this profoundly effects our efforts to define membership. There remains the need for healing of factionalism of all sorts. Community problems continue to be acted out as a result of these unhealed wounds, including confusion and discord about “who is a member”.
• It was noted that smaller groups and Centers often can’t offer both complete Shambhala and Buddhist curricula, so how to integrate these curricula is both a practice & education question as well as a identity/membership question.
• Those present today seem to lean towards a more open, inclusive approach to membership in Shambhala Society. We felt that the boundaries of our mandala are created by our many Buddhist and Shambhala forms and practices, which should be presented precisely and without dilution or compromise. We can model and encourage in our students an inner commitment to these forms and practices, but we question whether this can be legislated via membership policy. Because of our deep faith in these forms, we can trust that it’s OK to be as open and inviting as possible to all comers.
• There is a natural & trustworthy development of commitment across time among our students as practice and prajna deepen. We may want to articulate this process more clearly, and perhaps communicate it to students. Membership policies and views should be congruent with what actually occurs in this developmental process, as opposed to imposing a conceptual overlay on what happens naturally.
• The relationship of S.I. to the Centers/groups continues to be discussed. Our working group tends towards making general recommendations with much room for local variations. There were two caveats mentioned: (1) there should be a unified approach to financial support of the Center of the Mandala from local Centers/groups, (2) our mandala should adopt a unified view of membership, which is to say a unified core identity.

4. Reports on Work Projects: Everyone is at least thinking about their work projects, which are due as written reports on May 28. Some have actually gotten a bit further than others to date, but everyone is progressing. Mary noted she hasn’t heard from a couple members of the working group about their projects, and she will contact them. Mary also described a brief questionnaire she has sent out to Center Directors to try to look at the Shambhala/Buddhist integration question. She will put together a summary of her findings for their review.