These summaries are provided to inform interested supporters and friends of the Peaceful Land of Joy Meditation Centre about recent issues discussed at TBS directors’ meetings.

Melbourne directors meet four to six times a year. After each meeting a summary will be posted on the Community Information page on the Society’s website with a link from regular newsletters and communications. You may wish to bookmark this link on your browser

11 December 2021

This meeting was a short meeting for essential matters.

The full directors’ meeting was on 15 Jan 2022 1:30 pm 

 TBS website  

 Michael has finished building the new website, and the next step is for all content to be added. There are some costs and some savings associated with the move to the new website. Overall, the new website is a very cost-effective solution, especially with it having been built in-house. Michael was thanked for his many hours of hard work on building the website.

 The facility for ordering Tushita books online could be used to add other products for sale (e.g. from the Enjoyment shop) for online ordering. Stripe will be used as the payment processor rather than PayPal to save on processing costs. For those who don’t use Stripe, they could use credit card.

 Michael to organise online training sessions for those who will be adding content, and a separate Administrator session. About 20 webpages will need to be populated with content. 

 January retreat        

 The January retreat will be held from 22-28 January 2022 (6.5 days). The retreat team proposed a theme of The Six Perfections, which was agreed.

 There will be a slight increase in fees compared to last year’s retreat, and a concession rate will be advertised. Feedback has been that some people aren’t comfortable asking for a concession rate, even though it is made known that people can ask for this rate. 

 The plan is for onsite plus online retreat, unless the COVID situation changes. There is some elevated COVID risk to the retreat group for people coming and going. COVID team had suggested no day retreat option. Retreat team suggest that for day retreaters (not staying) and those who head out of the retreat for any reason and return, a Rapid Antigen Test before re-joining the group may be a suitable option.

 A save the date email will go out soon from retreat team, with general info only at this stage. 

 Minutes from Community meeting    

 Minutes were taken at the Community meeting, and the CST propose that these minutes are added to the Community information webpage. Agreed. 

 Publicity ‘How to’ manual                                    

The Publicity team have drafted an instruction manual which will enable the posting of publicity material by a publicity volunteer from each team. This will involve upload of content to FB, Instagram, TBS website, and the TBS email list.  Sending of TBS emails will be scheduled via a SharePoint document, so emails are spaced appropriately. It will be recommended that short emails work better, with 1-2 topics. 

 The instruction manual outlines that the publicity volunteer from each team needs to commit to meeting agreed deadlines whenever possible, and to notify publicity team if can’t achieve this. Just one person from each team will be trained and given password access. 

 Anna suggested trialling the process with the retreat team for the January retreat publicity. Agreed by retreat team facilitators.

 Part B of the document was written by Angela regarding recruitment of new volunteers to the Publicity team. 

 Anna was thanked for her work in developing and documenting the process, with the potential benefits of getting more people involved in publicity, and freeing up time for the publicity team to explore new initiatives.  

2022 Calendar       

 The 2022 calendar has previously been reviewed by a number of people and teams. It represents the slightly reduced program proposed by the Events and Classes team that was approved by directors. Christine has done a lot of the work on the calendar. It needs finalising within the week. Any questions or comments on the calendar to go to the Events and Classes team within the next few days so it can be finalised on 18/12/21. 

 Michael advised that when events are created on the new website, they will automatically be included in the calendar. 

 Director ID 

 There is a new ATO requirement for company directors to have a director ID number within 12 months. Directors will need to apply individually. All national directors will be advised.

 It is relatively straightforward to apply for a Director ID for those with myGovID, or it can be done by phone or by paper application with certified copies of ID documents. 

 TBS will record the Director IDs. All directors must individually apply for a Director ID within the next 12 months, and advise Jean when they have received it.  

Summary of TBS Melbourne Directors’ meeting – 15 January 2022

 TBS Website

 We have a new Website which has been created and launched. A number of people have been trained to do posts.

Michael is continuing to work on the updated website. Next step improving SEO (search engine optimisation)

 Communications Charter

 The Community Support Team has drafted a complaints process as we didn’t have one. Recommendation is to draft a brief code of conduct document that will go hand in hand with the complaints process. 

Vajrayana teachings 

Agreed the teachers will do a two year program so they can cover the practice in detail. If a teacher needs to do a shorter duration, eg, a year, they can nominate this.

Teachers at the beginning of their program to survey students’ interests about the series and to share with the Directors the results of the survey. 

New Year Meditation Festival 

Recommendation for a “mini-festival” on-site. Only through invitation, email list, regular invited guests. Keep attendance to 50 people. Picnic and official event. All would register. Format includes prayers, speakers TBS and invited speaker, meditation.  Refreshments limited. Attendees bring their own picnics. Festival to operate in two places. To be recorded and put on YouTube. Request to open the shop or have a table outside.

 Temple repairs & maintenance 

Two needs –

1) repair problems identified in Tim’s recent report and

2) the issues indicate a need for preventative maintenance. Issues – corrosion, windows rotting, paint, membrane. A bigger team is needed, ideally via the creation of a community of people. 

Maintenance committee to develop:

1. i) prioritised list of repairs;
2. ii) maintenance schedule for preventative maintenance;

iii) identify requirement for funding, which could lead to fund-raising; and

iv) document results and do briefing to Directors

 Publicity committee to recommend renaming and communications for the maintenance committee. 

Community Engagement Committee to discuss creating support for maintenance program, eg. people could work on an area or doing a specific job, eg. – painting window frames. 

 Acoustics fundraiser

 Fund raising ended and target achieved of $5,200.

Email of thanks to be sent out, advising target achieved and sharing of receipts and offer to send physical receipts

Timing of work to be discussed with maintenance committee.

 Request for support from Denma Khangtsen

 TBS has been asked for a donation for roof repairs.

Email to all directors to be sent advising them of the request. TBS funds are limited at the moment. TBS to offer $500 and individual Directors offered to top this up to $1,000.

 Next Meeting 

Saturday 19 March 2022