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Boston Shambhala Center Expansion News
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The Activity of a Shambhala Center By Acharya Adam Lobel An article from the Shambhala Times May 30, 2009 From the article: On an Outer level, the activity of a Shambhala Center is dedicated to the benefit of all beings and reaches to our world. On an Inner level, the activity of a Shambhala Center nurtures the warriors of the kingdom and deepens our practice. On a Secret level, the activities of a Shambhala Center are the rays of the Great Eastern Sun in the midst of the Dark Age. When we plan programs, organize our schedules, consider the various logistical and personal issues that arise in the center, it might help to consider these three levels. All three need to interact in order to fulfill the potential of every Shambhala Center. We can stop and ask: Are we skillfully relating to all three levels? If there is any disharmony, it might come from missing one of these levels. When all three work together, the Dharma will flourish and it will be obvious to all people who enter the space of Shambhala Click here to read the full article -- Offering Shambhala to Greater Boston In Room(s): Main Shrine Room The Board of Trustees and the center leadership will host a half-day planning retreat facilitated by Julie Soquet. This will be an opportunity to share ideas and have community discussions regarding our aspiration to expand and move the center. We are in the process of writing a Strategic Plan for the center’s future and need input from the community. We will continue the discussion afterward over lunch at the center (donation requested). Have you been wondering: What's next? Where will our center be in 2 years? in 5 years? We are expanding and starting to burst at the seams... We need everyone’s ideas, energy and talents. Make sure your voice is heard and your views included! -- -- February 2010 Sharing our Expansion Process with the Community For the last few years, the Board of Trustees and several other community members have been investigating what it would take for the center to expand as the Sakyong has requested us to do. In December of ’08, the Board gathered for a ½ day retreat and made the decision to begin the process of moving the center. Since that retreat, almost all of the Board’s energy has been devoted to this issue. First, we created a move-related vision and mission statement that can be found on our website on the director’s blog. Next, we began calling many community members to gather people’s views, answer questions and see what people were interested in doing. Through these calls, we were able to find a group of people who were inspired to work on the move and they formed the Move Committee in June 2009. This committee began to analyze our present financial situation in the context of the current economy and what our needs are in a new building. They created various types of models looking at different options and how we could implement them.
Early on, they realized that this process was about much more than moving to a new building. This will be an expansion on many levels, perhaps unlike anything we have experienced before. To illustrate this expansion process, the Move Committee developed this mandala to map the areas that we need to address. The Move Committee also researched the current real estate market and created scenarios based on purchase price, cost per member and the amount of funds needed to be raised through new membership, programs or fundraising. It was determined that we have equity of around $700,000 and would need another $1,000,000 or more. In January, the Board, the Move Committee and The Shambhala Council attended an all-day workshop facilitated by Julie Soquet. During the workshop, we worked together to delineate a specific, down to earth plan to develop these 4 areas that together will form the foundation for our expansion. We have elaborated on this and now have a project management timeline in each of the 4 areas. We are now beginning to form the committees who will take this process to the next level. In addition, the Board has committed to developing a Shambhala Center vision & mission statement, list of objectives, and strategic plan (including a business plan for the next 5 years). We are very aware that it has taken some time for these plans to emerge. Our thinking has evolved slowly but is now building momentum. We would like to share some of this evolution and progression with the whole community. We know that we will definitely need everyone on board to take the leap that we are planning to take. We hope to communicate our ideas as well as listen to new ones at the April 17 workshop with Julie Soquet, “Bringing Shambhala to Greater Boston” to which the whole community is invited.
Slides from Shambhala Day 2010 On Shambhala Day Center Director Jill Blagsvedt, and Board of Trustee's Co-Chairs John Bailes and Anne McLellan remarked on the expansion of our center, and shared the following five slides with the community.
Boston Shambhala Day 2010
View more presentations from Jill.
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September 2009 Timeline of the process and decision to move the Boston Shambhala Center Sakyong makes the suggestion to Lodro Rinzler, Director of the center at the time Richard Reoch brings this up to the Board during a visit to Boston Fall 07-Spring 08 A year of envisioning exercises led by Charlie Byron, then Chair of the Board, of meeting with many segments of the community and exploring the possibilities relating to moving Spring 08 Explored the idea of a satellite center in Somerville Formation of first real estate task force to test the waters. Collected information about pricing in various areas of the city Fall 08 Priorities of building and strengthening the community are begun to support the move process, such as: increasing membership, empowering a new generation of teachers, and reaching out to new groups of people.
Click here to read the full outline of major events leading to the decision to move the Center. -- The Board of Trustees announces the Move Committee Dear Shambhala Sangha, The Board of Trustees is happy to announce the Boston Shambhala Center's Move Committee. Please come to our Harvest of Peace community celebration, and the follow-up community meeting about the move on October 12th, 7pm at the Shambhala Center, to hear directly from them and the Board of Trustees about the move. Below is the Move Committee's directive, followed by descriptions of each member. We are very excited to have them on board. The Move Committee has been given the directive, by the Board of Trustees, to research, develop, and locate the new location for the center. Our goal is to work with the entire Boston sangha in gathering lungta and wisdom to find a fresh and exciting new location for the center. A center that naturally provides new opportunities for us to both enrich our practice and more fully engage the greater community. The committee sees this move as both a practice in and of itself, and also a chance for our community to manifest what a group of open hearted Shambhala Warriors can accomplish. Click here to read the full announcement.
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January 2009 Vision and Mission for the upcoming move Our Vision: why we’re moving: In order to attract more of the wakeful energies - the dralas - of Boston and to meet the needs of our growing community we are planning to move the center in the next two years. Our goal is to expand out to a greater audience and become a seed for enlightened society in Boston. Locating our Center and the Shambhala dharma in a drala location will positively affect our local community and the entire Northeastern Mandala. Our aspiration is that Boston will be the seat of the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo in the Northeast. Our current building has many wonderful qualities and is the only meditation center that many of us have known. But it is not in an ideal location, and we will soon outgrow it. In recent years, we have also become more and more aware of the building’s other limitations: it is not handicap accessible nor family-friendly, and there is no soundproofing between the shrine rooms. Click here to read full two-page statement and plan outline.
-- May 2007 News from Eva Wong's Visit Boston drive around with Eva Wong and Gina Stick Carolyn Krusinski- driver John Bailes- navigator David Williams- recording Given the large number of people entering the Boston Shambhala Center's doors every day Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche has encouraged the community to work with feng shui master Eva Wong on finding a space in Boston that would allow us to continue to grow for many years to come. We are very much in the exploratory phase of a potential move but would like to share the transcript of Eva Wong's most recent visit in the vein of transparency. Click here to read script from this visit.
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