The Process Team Steering Committee

Dear Shambhala Community,

Just over six months ago, on Shambhala Day, the Process Team took its seat. Those of us on the Steering Committee now find ourselves reflecting on the journey we have taken thus far. We would like to take this moment to share some of our thoughts, and reiterate our invitation for you to join us as we move forward.

When our community was thrown into crisis a little over a year ago, we were faced with a sudden leadership vacuum. The Transition Task Force acted to fill this void, first by selecting and appointing an Interim Board to manage the legal and fiduciary needs of Shambhala, and second by assembling a Process Team and Steering Committee to help the community discover what was needed at this confusing time. The Process Team attracted volunteers with an aspiration to help, and we have since worked together to explore ways of supporting the community.

It has been difficult to know how to be helpful. However, in recent months, we have discovered an approach that we believe can fully engage us as a global community in working together toward positive change. As difficult as this past year has been, we also feel the process of falling apart has created an opportunity for us to learn to manifest in a healthier way.

Viewed from this perspective, we are in the middle of a hopeful process of learning to collaborate, a practice of co-creation and empowerment. The results are still unknown; but what is most important at this time is how we proceed. Here, the path is very much the goal. It is in this spirit that our last community letter included an invitation for the community to join us in an exploration of the future of Shambhala, grounded in a process of awareness-based social change using the methodology of Theory U.

We would like to reiterate the invitation for members of the community to join the upcoming “u.lab,” a free online course that begins September 12. [Even if you cannot make all sessions, they will be recorded for later viewing. Please note: the introductory 90-minute course is no longer a prerequisite.]

Beyond introducing us to the Theory U framework, u.lab provides “hubs” for those with common interests, regions, and/or languages to share experiences and practice together. We have created a Shambhala “Maha Hub,” hosted by Process Team members Dian Marie Hosking, Nancy KapLon, David Marshall, and Fred van Welsem. This Maha Hub is intended for the sangha as a whole to gather online and communicate during and after the course. Anyone who signs up for hub access can also create their own topical hub, and several smaller Shambhala-related hubs are already forming.

If you missed the “Question and Answer” sessions on Theory U, you may view them in their entirety here. Our PT website contains other useful information on Theory U, as well. A note on language for our non-English speaking sangha: though the course materials for u.lab are in English, according to the u.lab course site, video transcripts are available in Español, Français, עברית, Indonesian, Italiano, 日本語, Português, and Türkçe. In addition, sharing circles and hubs can be in any language, as decided by participants.

We know many of you are already learning, teaching, and facilitating kinder, more inclusive ways of being and working together, and manifesting as community from a space of warmth and collective wisdom. Please keep doing what you are doing. If you already have experience with Theory U, you are also warmly welcomed to join the Shambhala hub to share your stories, images, or methods of engagement with u.lab participants. We are very pleased to be working with PT member Nancy Kaplon who has generously and skillfully taken on the role of Theory U Coordinator. Please contact her for questions about the u.lab or hubs, or if you need assistance enrolling in either (NancyKapLonPT@gmail.com).

Finally, please check our website to see the latest updates from the PT Working Groups.

With love,

The Shambhala Process Team Steering Committee

Jim Fladmark
LaDawn Haglund
Dian Marie Hosking
Paul Kelway
David Marshall
Deborah Marshall
Fred Meyer
Lisa Piemont
Martin Ramstedt
Susan Skjei

Dear Shambhala Community,

The Process Team (PT) continues to work toward establishing the foundations and mechanisms to help the community navigate these difficult times. We are writing today with an update on what we have been doing. We recognize that until now, the PT may have seemed quiet from the outside; please know that inside, there has been a flurry of activity.

First, we have developed a website so that we may share our vision, our inspiration, our work, and our progress in an easily accessible format: https://shambhala-process-team.org/. We have included a translate button for those whose native language is not English, and though this is not a perfect solution, we hope it will make the site mostly accessible to all. The website alone, of course, will not be enough to fully address the needs of the community, nor will it be the only way by which the PT will communicate; nonetheless, we hope that it will be a helpful and accessible resource for the sangha.

Second, the members of the PT have formed several working groups (WGs) and are proceeding to develop processes and proposals to help our community face the challenges of our current situation. All WGs have met, a few of them more than once. Many have around 10-15 members, while one has more than 50. Many PT members serve on more than one WG. We meet mostly via Zoom, and members log in from time zones around the world.

Our goal is to share regular updates from each WG on the website (https://shambhala-process-team.org/category/wg-updates/); we are sending the first updates to you here:

The Process Team Steering Committee (SC)

The Steering Committee is the coordinating body of the Process Team (PT), with 11 members. We have met weekly as a group since the end of January, as well as in small topical break-out groups (communications, PT engagement, technology, and process design). Our work has included:

• Exploring our role and establishing and developing systems and structures to support the PT as a whole
• Steering a process of this scale (in terms of both the size of the PT and the tasks before us), which can be chaotic and messy; we have worked to iterate systems and structures as quickly as possible to help the PT get organized and moving forward
• Creating the basic structure for the main PT WGs; these WGs have now been launched with at least one SC member providing a link back to the SC
• Organizing an online meeting of the full PT
• Continuing to support the PT and its WGs in their establishment and development

The Healing and Protection Working Group

We had our first meeting on March 11 (prior to the release of the report from An Olive Branch), with 12 members present. Through discussion, we identified several initiatives for beginning our work:

• Developing Trauma-Informed Care education and training programs for office holders and leaders
• Examining the Care and Conduct Policy as well as the Code of Ethics recommended by An Olive Branch
• Hearing from the Community
• Creating a European Healing and Protection discussion group

We will convene subgroups for these areas and have worked on a modified meeting schedule so as to prevent meeting fatigue. In that light, we are collecting self-care resources and guided meditations to assist our community in navigating this challenging time of recovery.

We will continue to explore the needs of the Shambhala community, and to this end, have opened an email that goes directly to the Healing and Protection WG so that Shambhalians may reach us to share experiences and shape our activities and understanding of how to create caring and protective communities. The email is: HealingandProtection@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Processes Working Group (“PWG”)

We had our first meeting on March 9, with 14 members present.

• We are developing suggestions for engaging and working together – deep listening, dialogue, and co-generation of ideas and actions – that might serve as a model for all Process Team working groups and potentially the wider Shambhala community.
• We are also responsible for overall process design: how to gather information from the sangha in ways that can be synthesized into specific recommendations for change.
• We have identified some basic elements of and obstacles to authentic, inclusive engagement with each other and the sangha and prioritized next steps for establishing processes and methods for open listening and genuine engagement.

The Communications and Technology Working Group

We have been working on several projects since the beginning of our time together. These include:

• Recommending a view and path for communications within the Process Team and its working groups
• Facilitating dialogue and information sharing between the Steering Committee and the PT, and with the Interim Board and others in Shambhala
• Responding to communications to the SC and the PT
• Putting into place the technology infrastructure necessary to facilitate communication among ourselves and with the sangha
• Designing, troubleshooting, and gathering content for our PT website (https://shambhala-process-team.org), and
• Collecting and disseminating best practices for online communication.

Our aspiration is that the technological tools and communication practices we are assembling will be of collective benefit in our shared process of engagement.

The Culture Change Working Group

We had our first meeting on March 13, with 14 members present. The range of topics and interests that arose included:

• Becoming familiar with our own cultural values and manifestations
• Being inquisitive
• Establishing a broader view
• Not relying on assumptions, and
• Being open to other’s experience.

We acknowledged that sangha members from various non-dominant cultures are not engaged in this WG and the larger PT. Additionally, we recognized variations in local, regional and geographical cultural needs. As next steps, we will contemplate and explore the many facets of cultural change.

The Governance Working Group

We had our first meeting on March 14, with 26 members attending. We have 57 members total. Among what we learned is that:

• We are a large group which represents a wide range of perspectives
• Our effective work will require dividing into subgroups to address different areas of interest, and
• Establishing some common foundation of understanding the scope of the work and how to engage with each other and the sangha is also necessary.
• Because of this:
• Some of our members with more specifically-defined interests are proceeding with their inquiries, while others are focusing on establishing a foundational understanding
• Some of this work is currently underway in the Processes Working Group, and that work will be shared soon with us, and
• Another general meeting of our working group and widespread establishment of our subgroups will not be scheduled until the way forward becomes clearer.

The Community Building Working Groups

We have two working groups within the Community Building area: Centre & Group Support, and Offerings.

The Centre & Group Support working group had our first meeting on March 2 with 10 members present.

• Our initial conversation was around a survey to Shambhala Centres and Groups to understand their local situation.
• Our ongoing discussion is about the relationship of that initiative to other surveys that may be in the process of being created by the PT.
• Two “conveners” also volunteered to help organize and administer our WG.

The Offerings working group had its first meeting on March 10 with 11 members present.

• Our initial conversation was around identifying the primary questions and interested parties in a discussion of Shambhala’s practice offerings.
• Two “conveners” also volunteered to help organize and administer our WG.

Third, we now have a general PT email address for those who would like to reach out to the full PT directly: ProcessTeam@shambhala.info. We do read all messages and will forward them to the relevant working group(s) where appropriate, though we may not be able to respond personally to all messages received.

Fourth, we would like to acknowledge the release of the final report from An Olive Branch. Though we have not yet had a chance to process its contents as a group, we will be reading, digesting, and incorporating this into our work moving forward.

Finally, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your patience and generosity as we work with the uncertainty and complexity of the tasks before us.

 

In the vision of enlightened society,

The Shambhala Process Team

Dear Shambhala Community,

We are writing to introduce ourselves and to say a little about what we have been doing since Shambhala Day when we first convened as the Process Team Steering Committee.

In that short time, so much has happened in our community. In the midst of our own heartbreak, disappointment, and personal processing, we have been working steadily to establish solid foundations for our work: as a Steering Committee (SC), with the full Process Team (PT) and with the community as a whole. Many different and conflicting viewpoints are being expressed about what now needs to happen to transform our social relations, cultural practices, and structures to be in line with our Shambhala-Buddhist values. We don’t have the answers, nor is it our role to have them. Rather, we are here to help develop sane and supportive processes for collectively exploring needed changes.

To this end, we have created a number of working groups reflecting input from the Shambhala Community (collected and passed on by the Transition Task Force) and in discussions with the wider PT. We are committed to making our work as transparent as possible and to being in regular contact with the Shambhala community. We will soon send out a link for a website where we will post notes from Steering Committee meetings, important links and documents, and answers to frequently asked questions. We are also exploring better ways of opening lines of communication – by email and other means – and will be back in touch with details within the coming weeks.

We very much look forward to working with the PT and our community as a whole. We remain inspired and deeply committed to our journey together.

In the vision of enlightened society,
The Process Team Steering Committee

Jim Fladmark
LaDawn Haglund
Dian Marie Hosking
Paul Kelway
David Marshall
Deborah Marshall
Frederick Meyer
Lisa Piemont
Martin Ramstedt
Jose Tomas Ruano
Susan Skjei