Transition Task Force (TTF) Meeting #3 Official Minutes

August 15, 2018

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 9, 2018, 5 - 7:00pm CET

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

Action Items:

• Confirm translation is happening for our letters.
• Clarify with the Potrang/Alex Halpern what mechanisms exist for firing members of the IB, if required.

Notes from the discussion:

Translation:

• Is translation happening - and to which languages?  Need to confirm that.

The second letter:

• Key points to include:
  • Bios
  • Ani Pema role
  • Request for substantial community input in the process of finding nominees for the IB and PT.
  • Clarify that the legal purpose of Shambhala USA and Canada is furthering the teachings of the lineage of Sakyongs (using language from the by-laws)
  • Clarify what the IB and PT will do, what An Olive Branch is doing. Use plain English as much as possible, rather than “legal and fiduciary”
    • The board will have executives in place for finance, P&E, etc. who can advise them and how will be running the org
  • Clarify what we are NOT doing
  • Clarify that even though this is for USA and Canada orgs, people from Europe can apply and are needed on the IB / PT.
  • Acknowledge feedback and conversations with people. Make it clear that we’re reading all of the emails, but not able to respond to them due to lack of time and human resources.
• One person reflected that “In general not to make decisions when there is so much activity, better to let things settle” - maybe acknowledging that, the not wanting to make big decisions and acknowledging that things haven’t really settled. TTF agreed.

Feedback from first letter:

• It is being collected daily, and summarized for the TTF by a subteam of TTF members. All members have access to all feedback.
• Nominations are already coming in, and we’re collecting those in a separate document.

Finding candidates

• How do we get enough candidates to have a good selection, but not so many that we’re overwhelmed.
• Nomination vs application. If its an application maybe nobody would apply. If its a nomination, how to make sure the nominee is actually interested.
• Some kind of hybrid - for example some of us took some negotiation and conversations before agreeing to be on the TTF.
• Ask for supporting letters / references, maybe three.
• Sense of wanting to have a first round of process that is not a lot of work and could get lots of candidates, and a second round of process that would look in more detail at more candidates.
• Like in non-profit world, we have “Request for proposal,” looking for interest, so could be someone to recommend. Then people could fill out a Google survey.  And then people could step forward themselves or recommend someone. Then we could dig deeper.
• First one could include a CV, and some names of references. Then we do more - talk to references, background checks, etc.

Actual steps:

• Two letters - first define criteria and ask for feedback, then second how to nominate / apply.
• Even though we have been learning about board etc for two weeks, might be good to ask for feedback about the criteria - we could learn more, and good to give the community a chance to be involved.
• Make it clear in the “meta” section of the letter that we’re offering this and open to feedback, and not have to say it at every step.

Choice of words:

• General discussion about KC saying “not combine board and pillar heads and executive officers.”  Maybe avoid “Governance.”

Accountability for the IB

• What can be done if the IB has problems? Can they be fired by anyone?
• Currently the Sakyong is the only one who can, and he has waived his rights for a year.
• Should we create another body who could do so?
• Given the current state, it is very important that we chose people who are trustworthy.
• Are we taking on the work of the PT in talking about this?
• Action Item: Clarify with the Potrang who can fire IB members.

Composition of the board, criteria for selecting board members:

• 3 / 5 / 7 / 9 people?
• Want to get people from Europe, someone from outside Shambhala, diversity in general.
• Since we’re not expecting this to be an active board setting new strategic directions, but a “keep things working” kind of board, maybe larger would allow for more representation.
• Also may not need to all have legal / financial backgrounds if it’s that big - not need to be experts but should be able to understand.
• And if there are lawsuits, they will need to have legal understanding.

Next steps:

• Subteams? Letter overview, IB description, PT description?
• Quickly run through some high-level questions about candidates:
  • Consider non-shambhalians: yes
  • Some level of loyalty to Shambhala Vision. yes.
  • Some level of loyalty to the Sakyong Lineage: yes.
  • Level of practice and study requirement: no
  • VCTR students who have not opposed the Sakyong, but not been involved: yes
  • Diversity in general: POC, gender, nationality, cultural: yes
  • Representation around the world? Yes
  • Mix of different ages / generations: yes
  • Any position full time: no
  • Any position paid: no (except expenses, and maybe allow people who do other work for Shambhala which does get paid)

Process Team:

• Are they just working on leadership, or also working on healing the community?
• If the community hasn’t healed, can we even begin to talk about governance?
• If the PT and IB do a good job, that will in itself be healing.
• An Olive Branch is including bullying, abuse of power, other harms in addition to sexual harms.
• This is a big question we don’t have time for in this meeting.
• Focus on IB and next letter this week.