Transition Task Force (TTF) Meeting #2 Official Minutes

Please note - we make edited notes of our conversations public in the interest of transparency. These notes reflect the conversations and concerns of the TTF, but are not our final positions or decisions. All decisions taken by the task force will be published in our letters to the community.

Aug 8, 2018, 6 - 7:45pm CET

Present (on Zoom): Sharon Owyang, Katrin Stelzel, Suzann Duquette, Arawana Hayashi, Charlene Leung, Andrew Sacamano, Basia Solarz (Facilitator)

Action Items:

• Read and categorize all feedback sent to the group.
• Find assistants to help manage communication (read feedback, coordinate posting letters, whatever is needed for translations).
• Create a subteam who will read all the feedback sent to the group and categorize it so that everything that comes in is actually read, and we understand all of the themes.
• Create a subteam that will look at whether to ask the Kalapa Council to leave more decisions for the IB.
• Create a subteam to manage communication processes (website, Kalapa Media for official announcements, receiving feedback, etc.)
• Create subteam for collecting / defining the criteria we’re looking for in candidates

Notes from the discussion:

Di scussing Feedback from the first letter to the community:

• Mostly good feedback, thankful feedback, sense that we seem to be a trustworthy group.
• Some suggestions for people to consider, or qualities to look for.
• Big theme is don’t sell the translators house, and don’t pay the Sakyong. Some people think maybe it is us that can make these decisions.
• We need to be careful to communicate what our role is and how we model this to the community.
• We need to formalize reading the feedback and reporting that to the whole group, so that we get it all and not miss anything.

Transparency:

• Need to distinguish between speaking personally and speaking for the TTF.
• Some confusion, around who appointed us, etc. Maybe this is also a regional question because of delayed translations.
• Discussion about adding another European member, but it seemed like this would be difficult and unclear why just Europe.

How to actually accomplish this:

• This is a short timeline, but some on the TTF have commitments after the TTF deadline.
• Discussion of adding more members, but that did not seem practical.
• Decision to find some assistants to handle things like receiving feedback, managing communications, etc..
• Need to be careful not to take on the work of the process team ourselves.

Ani Pema

• On a retreat. Will be participating through email only on one day each week.
• Discussion of whether we felt this was appropriate. Resolved that she brings a lot of wisdom and community trust, and willing to work in this way with her.

Timeline

• Weekly meetings are not enough, at least right now.  Won’t cover our responsibilities… Resolved meet again soon.

Update on Europe:

• Key point in Europe was saving Shambhala Europe, the German not-for-profit company that holds many assets.
• Some people who had previously been part of that took some steps to keep it from running out of money.
• But the sense in Europe is that people do not want to be “governed” by Shambhala Europe.
• There are good people working for Shambhala Europe, and they are willing to stay, but the leadership is not settled.
• This is relevant because of the legal relationships of the various Shambhala entities, but it’s also not something that we can solve in this meeting.

Update on answers from Kalapa Council and Legal

(Note: Meeting with Alex Halpern, Shambhala’s legal counsel, and some of the Kalapa Council members has helped us understand the function of a Board of Directors of Shambhala as a non-profit corporation. This has informed and helped clarify the roles of the Interim Board and Process Team, which we are responsible to appoint.)

Ultimately, the Sakyong has legal powers over the organizations and the boards, such as appointing and firing members of the board of directors.  He has waived these rights for a period on 1 year.

• Advice from the KC was that the IB would really be a traditional board - supervising the executive employees of Shambhala USA and Shambhala Canada, and taking legally required actions such as signing leases, approving real-estate transactions, setting compensation for employees, etc. Felt that the model of having the board also be pillar heads and executives was good at one time, but was not a good model now.
• There is money for salaries for employees of Shambhala USA and Shambhala Canada, and the current Kalapa Council has made sure that employees know their situation and have had a chance to decide to stay or not.
• Some of the feedback reflected concerns about the KC still making decisions, and wondering if the IB should make those decisions.  Until there is an IB, the KC needs to keep the ship afloat and are legally responsible.

How to organize this group

• As much as possible, break into subteams to propose to the whole group.
• Need to have a subteam working specifically on communication.
• Need to have a subteam for defining the criteria we’re looking for in candidates.

Next meeting

• Tomorrow, starting one hour earlier than today’s meeting