Meeting Notes

Hey everyone!

This is Repa Trinlay, writing to you as the clerk for the General Circle. (# sociocraticfunctions)


In an effort to bring greater transparency and accountability to the decision making processes unfolding here within Bhumisparsha, members of the General Circle --Jessie Rothkuo and myself-- have been working to transform our meeting notes into a short digest available for you to read here on the Bhumisparsha Blog. The aim is to keep sangha members informed about the ongoing deliberations, projects and decisions being carried out in response to the diverse needs and activities of our growing community. As this is the first installment of our General CIrcle Digest, it has taken us some time to figure our formatting and get approval on the process from everyone involved. So now that we have the ball rolling it will just take a bit for us to get up to speed and get our most resent meeting notes posted here on the blog. Stay tuned!


Have questions or input? 

Feel free to leave a comment or chat us up at info@bhumisparhsa.org

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GENERAL CIRCLE 02/14/21

  1. Report back from Mission Circle

    1. Budget

      1. The Circle discussed how Bhumisparsha is generating revenue and how it is getting distributed to continue sustaining the growth of the organization. 

      2. Currently, we are spending more than we are collecting through sustained donations. The majority of our current budget supports the General Organizers position (Alex Rodriguez) and the Community Ethics Projects ( Sadada + co organizers). Additional expenses include use of Loomio/ Slack/Squarespace ( Bhumisparsha website).

      3. We currently have two sources of funds: Staff salaries are covered by donations during the Sun and Moon cycle, and the monies going to the Community Ethics Project come from the grant from the Hemera foundation. 

    2. Mission circle is also looking for a bookkeeper and is moving forward with formatting an employee handbook.

  1. Debrief the community meetings on February 12/13

    1. The meetings were a great success in terms of making a public presentation on the Sociocratic model. The circle wishes there was more time to sit and work with people through questions. 

    2. The short turnaround for the event in terms of planning exposed obvious rough edges. We planned for structure but not for content. Liber and Kim made the day with the quality of their presence.

      1. There were frictions arising due to a sense of “compression” around time needed to gather volunteers and execute. There had not been a formal planning meeting, and some volunteer roles were filled at the last minute. Opportunities for communication and clarification across various groups got muddled in the process of moving quickly.

      2. How do we intentionally move slower? How can we be more creative in controlling the pace at which we would like to work, live, and practice together in this community?

  2. In particular, tensions within members of the General Circle arose around the implementation of versions of Community Guidelines: the Community Guidelines generated initially by DL and #Guidelines Slack channel, the former Core group’s edited version of that, and the revised Mindful Space Holding Guidelines crafted by and for BIPOC spaces.

    1. Moving forward: What are the “official” community guidelines for use in Bhumi spaces?

    2. Where are the Guidelines explicitly presented within the community?

      1. Ex- affinity spaces (with BIPOC revisions reserved for BIPOC spaces), Daily sits, Larger public presentations via Crowdcast, and spaces used for community discussion and collective inquiry.

    3. Post meeting update-- Leigh informed the circle that Community Guidelines had never been finalized. They were up for a final round of revision at the time of the split of the Core Organizers circle into Mission and General Circles. 

    1. In progress: Revisit the Guidelines for community approval before posting the finalized version to the Bhumisparsha home page via Blog post. 

      1. Question: does this fall to the General Circle as our responsibility or can this be delegated to the newly created Safety Protocol Circle ( which is still being assembled)


  3. Check in on new practice leader letter

    1. A letter has gone out from the Mission Circle (and the Lamas) inviting several community members to step into the role of practice leaders. They are being invited to offer new material arising from their own inspiration and explorations in addition to establishing supportive programs for new practitioners and leading current Deity meditations.

    2. Sadada Anjana,Ayesha,Brenda,Jos,Karen N, Karen Z, Marina have accepted the invitation.

    3. Kimberly, Payne,Rachael,Rashid,Trinlay are still getting back to us.

    4. Where we are in the process:

      1. We are waiting to hear back from lamas about how they want to proceed.

      2. We are deciding how we as the General Circle want to be involved in helping to organize and meet these needs.

    5. Some Circle members feel frustrated. That it feels like we are putting the cart before the horse… again. 

    6. Our community survey has shown us that there is a desire for some sort of foundational programs or a more guided sense of curriculum (specifically around the Buddha dharma). We also have the creation of the Practice and Action Circle on our agenda. The circle is considering having these practice leaders involved in that conversation. 

    7. We have shared the desire to be more intentional about the calendar. Not just in terms of overwhelming tech with new things, but also how we were choosing to plan our calendar and what we as Bhumisparsha are going to focus on offering.

    8. There is also a little fear about the arbitrariness of practice leader selection, the intentions and process seem unclear. One member would like to know that there is a process for nominating or recommending people to step forward as practice leaders in the future.

    9. The circle should consider turning this into a proposal in order to make things more actionable and grounded.


  4. Action Items Before Next Meeting

    1. Process for the clerk and Space Traffic COntroller to publish notes and give updates via Bhumisparsha Blog posts to support transparency and accountability.

    2. Gather update on the safety protocol circle.


  5. Agenda Items for Next Meeting

    1. Explore the creation of other circles: Practice & Action Circle, Resources Circle, other?

      1. Draft a proposal around organization of Bumisparsha’s educational/foundational programs and new practices.

    2. Discuss a possible upcoming REST course w/ Rashid Hughes.