Board Meeting Highlights – September 29, 2024

Sept 29, 2024 | Board Meeting Notes

Guiding Teacher Report

Jukai: Beautiful collective effort to support this ceremony and our vows to benefit all beings.
Great appreciation to our temple officers: Dylan (temple director), Gerrie (Ino), Eishin and Douglas (Tantos), Mike (Tenzo) and David Wray (Techno) and volunteers – (Reuben served as Tenzo for Jukai).
September 2024 program additions:

o Wednesday evening zazen: JUST SITTING: 7:30p – beg. 9/25

o Precepts Seminar: 6 Thursdays evening 7:15- 8:30 pm online 10/10- 11/14

o Intro to Zen Meditation will be deferred to a later date.

Temple affairs: new scrolls for zendo, dragon swag for sale, and housekeeping. • Zazen Instruction temple orientation and program attendance (9 new people) and a couple showing up on Thursday.
Development, fundraising, donor connections with Dylan.
working on scheduling for 2025 with Tantos
Pastoral work/training – meeting with people, request for a wedding, memorial and well being
Networking and consulting – Tova Green will be visiting this weekend. • Faith in Place (FIP). Gerrie is interested in developing a green team • SFZC- Jiryu book talk, upcoming book of Suzuki Roshi’s talks, Douglas working with him on visiting to ADZG
Reirin and Tova – Branching Streams Conference, September 2025. Touring of site in Woodstock
Upcoming Dharma events that need support: Tova’s visit, Segaki, One-day sit, Sangha Meeting with potluck in November. Rohatsu in December. Support needed for Year End Letter – Annual Appeal and mailing party

Treasurer’s Report

Checking account balances (Byline plus Citibank) as of 09/28/2024: $88,212.07 (down $7,501.39 from 08/03/2024 balance of $95,713.46)
BUILDING FUNDCitibank Money Market balance as of 09/28/2024: $223,908.24 (up $729.92 from 08/03/2024 balance of $223,178.32 • MONTHLY SUPPORTERS 65 active supporters in August, representing $2,977.16 in pledged donations.
Dylan thanks David for getting the Citi Bank account up and going. Lots of work has been done.

Director Fundraising and Projects Update

68 donations in August with an income of $4,086. Two new monthly donors
Summer new donor drive goal was 12 (4 per month), had 5 new donors, with a monthly increase of $380/month, annual increase of $4560, equivalent to a new major donor.
Saleforce data base is up and running with very useful tools.
Plan to have another summer donor drive in Summer, 2025.

YEL Fundraising

Goal this year is $40K, $35K raised last year.
More multimedia approach to YEL, not just the YEL letter and online asks. • Leading with a card that will be both a thank you and an invitation to support ADZG to the top YEL donors over the past 4 years, personal cards that Hogetsu is working on currently. Card to be printed by 10/15, with October being the prep month.
Halloween will be the initial online invitation for giving through the Open Gate newsletter.
November major efforts for written and online invitations for giving. YEL letter will be sent out with cards to all donors from the past year. Email from Dylan to current and former board members to donate to YEL campaign.
Organizing YEL letter stuffing party, ask for volunteers from the Sangha. • Early November will begin the in person asks, as well as an email appeal to all Sangha members.
Dylan and Mark Splitt will be coordinating weekly Facebook posts with progress reports on the campaign, encouraging people to donate.
Hogetsu and Taigen have a plan for her to be introduced and to communicate with previous major donors (approximately 10 donors)
The YEL campaign will end December 31 rather than end of January. • Dylan is hoping to broaden the donor base as much as possible so that monthly expenses are covered by monthly donations with less reliance of major donors. • Beau thanks Dylan and Hogetsu for all their time and efforts for the YEL campaign.

Webmaster / Mailchimp search

No candidates to report on at this time.
Kevin, Mike and Hogetsu will get together to discuss this further. • Kevin will help Hogetsu to filter out the Mailchimp replies.

Coming board elections

Planning to form a list of supporting members and create a ballot via Google Forms, send ballots out in early to mid-December. One week for voter response. • Begin to consider supporting members who might be interested in serving on the board.
Hogetsu has had discussions with Sangha members who may be interested in serving.
Hogetsu appreciates Ko and Beau for all that they have done while serving on the board.
Dylan gives a big thank you to Beau and Ko for their service in the transitioning of Hogetsu to Guiding Teacher.
The Guiding Teacher is Ex Officio. Temple Director is Ex Officio, term decided by the Guiding Teacher. The Treasure is Ex Officio, invited by the board of directors to serve. President of the board is not Ex Officio and vacates when their term expires.

Technology Report

Analytics were shared by Kevin. No significant changes in last 90 days report • 3,800 have come to the website in the past 90 days.
Approximately 1,500 people have visited the website in the past month. • Website is being used and is useful for ADZG.
Kevin can share details of the information for those interested.

Promotions Committee

50 people are visiting the webpage daily.
Mark and Hogetsu met earlier this month to discuss Promotions. • Mark would like to see a chronological list of offerings, programs, where donation funds are going, what ADZG is doing, our selling points, value of donations to ADZG.
2,335 followers in the past 90 days on Facebook.
Hogetsu would like to have an impact summary for the YEL letter. • Dylan will set up a meeting with Mark to coordinate Promotions, Social, and fundraising efforts, social media roadmap.

Hospitality and Sangha Care Committee