Our Flickr Group
“To provide, for all levels of practitioners, a respectful and open community for the study, practice, and activities of Buddhism of the Karma Kagyu tradition under the direction of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra and His Holiness the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.”
Next, we compiled a list of all of the activities and projects we hoped to accomplish this year and then, guided by our mission statement, we prioritized the list. After that, we used an established methodology developed by a successful leadership and consulting firm, Franklin Covey, to identify the following three “wildly important goals” or WIGS:
- Execute events
Besides our weekly schedule o f programs such as meditation and sadhana practice and Sunday dharma talks, our center will be blessed with several lama visits this year. Additionally, plans are underway for a spring Mani retreat, a summer Nyungne, a fall retreat with Lama Kathy. In fact, we are looking at a major event each month for the remainder of the calendar year. We need to confirm a few more dates, but when we do, stay tuned for a “Hold the Date” email with a list of upcoming events. With so much going on, the board will need help carrying out the tasks necessary to bring all these events to successful fruition. We’ll be posting ways to get involved in the near future.
- Improve communications
This year we hope to improve communications inside and outside our Sangha. There’s a lot of exciting things going on at our center and we want everyone to know about them. Our primary vehicles of communication include our new and improved website, our recently launched e-Newsletter, the yahoo e-list, and Sunday morning announcements. The board is also working on some new ideas and could use a few helping hands. Please let us know If you enjoy writing, promoting or designing. We could use your assistance!
- Increase membership
Our center depends entirely on donations from our Sangha to pay the day-to-day expenses such as electricity, insurance, parking lot security and so on. Most of these funds come in the form of membership dues. Over the past couple of years, our membership numbers have declined and we need to find ways to increase membership levels in order to stabilize our finances. We plan to communicate more about membership related activities in early summer.
Once the board accomplishes one of the goals described above, we’ll go back and review our list and select a new one. By following this process, we hope to stay focused and, this in turn will enable us to successfully carry out these goals.
Many of the suggestions and ideas on the list we considered earlier this year came from Sangha members and friends. We welcome you to share your ideas with us anytime. The best way to do this is to contact our member-at-large, Adam Berner at memberatlarge@columbusktc.org. If you choose to do so, the board will carefully review your suggestion and determine if it supports one of current goals. If it does, then we’ll start to work on it right away. If not, we’ll put it on our list and consider it each time we are ready to select a new goal. The Columbus KTC Board’s sincere aspiration is to support the mission of our center to the best of our ability. We appreciate your support and are always happy to hear from you!
Yours in the Dharma,
Kim, Marilyn, Steve, Bob and Adam