Bhumi into 2024: Community Meeting Summary

For anyone who missed the July 13 Bhumi community meeting about transitions for the community by 2024, we wanted to be sure to get an update out! At the meeting, we had a chance to hear from the lamas, our Community Groundskeeper Eric Busse, and the Mission Circle members, about what will be shifting by 2024, and what opportunities there are for community ownership and discernment about what will be possible. After that, Chaplain Raf (support Raf here!) held space for open comments and questions from the community, which made for a rich conversation.

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The lamas, Eric, and the Mission Circle members shared something about their own energy going forward to support the community, with an assumption that most of the community administration may need to be done by volunteers by 2024. The lamas agreed they have little to no capacity to support administration, but will continue to teach. Whether they will teach through the Bhumisparsha or their individual platforms will be determined by the amount of capacity that the community decides it has.

Eric shared that January 15 will be the last day for him as Community Groundskeeper, and that Sesalli, as Community Pollinator, will also be wrapping up. But until then, the two of them are committed to helping support the nuts and bolts of the community and passing along the knowledge that will be needed around operations, tech, etc., with love and respect to support what comes next. He shared some volunteer needs.

Leigh and anita, who have been in the Mission Circle, shared that they will also step down at that time. Both will offer institutional knowledge any time it’s needed, and support and participation through 2023, but won’t be a part of decision-making per se around next steps. Shoken (Alex Nelson), who is newer to the Mission Circle, will continue to support the community transition into 2024 and participate in decision-making (much gratitude, Shoken!).

Mission circle members shared information about what they imagine would be needed to support activities after this transition. These include determining:

  • Which activities Bhumi will support, move elsewhere, or end

  • A leadership structure that will not depend on lamas; and can rotate, ideally

  • A structure that can get day to day work done through volunteers (unless we decide to pay someone)

  • Ways to cover bills

  • Anything around equity, which has always been a cornerstone, we as a community wish to include

This leaves a lot quite open to bottom-up participation of the community, and great flexibility around tools, technology, etc.

They also shared a summary of current expenditures, the vast majority of which currently goes to staffing. A small portion goes for technology and admin tools. Anita made the point that without staffing (which has been financially hard to sustain), the other expenses are relatively minimal.  Anita and Shoken are the contact people for finances and the Open Collective Foundation, our fiscal sponsor. OCF offers us the benefit of 501c3 status, without us having to manage details, in exchange for 5% of our contributions. OCF makes all our finances transparent, and people can check out how much we bring in (such as about $1800 in monthly donations as of last October).

More than half of the meeting involved questions and comments by community members, facilitated by our beloved community chaplain, Raf, who also graced us with danceable tunes at the end! But not before many people shared their eager willingness and excitement about holding a peer-held space together, and interest in getting creative, and doing some visioning. Some comments encouraged us to get clear on scope. Some people expressed conflicting emotions about the coming change, and appreciation for this amazing community. Some folks felt ready to offer specific skills or attend to certain tasks. There was interest expressed in organizing a retreat annually. Lama Justin emphasized the need to be truly sustainable overall, and starting planning early if we were to do annual retreats. Lama Rod expressed how little he can really show up for admin, but how much it makes possible when others hold those pieces.

The date of the next community meeting and format will be determined by new planning volunteers (which anyone can volunteer for), in collaboration with the mission circle. 

We shared a link for people to sign up with an interest in supporting the community going forward, as well as planning for the next community meeting. You can see existing offers, as well as add your own name at this link. 

Deep gratitude to Raf for their fantastic facilitation, to tech hosts Elizabeth and mahamitra, to Eric, Sesalli, Lama Rod, Lama Justin, and especially to everyone who participated and put heart into thinking about the future.

With appreciation, 

Active Mission Circle members: anita, Shoken (Alex Nelson), and Leigh Rosenberg