The Shambhala Interim Board

To the Shambhala Community –

On Friday, former Shambhala member Michael Smith was arrested pending allegations of child sexual abuse, making him the second former member arrested this year. We are writing to provide you with further information about this incident, and encourage any current or former members with information about criminal activity to report it to local authorities.

Neither the Shambhala Interim Board nor the International Care and Conduct Panel were aware of any incidents involving Michael Smith prior to his arrest on June 28, 2019.

Immediately after learning about the arrest, the Interim Board began a process of information discovery related to these allegations. During this process, questions arose related to the handling of this case internally by Shambhala leaders in the 1990s. The Interim Board has decided to formally investigate this case by hiring a third-party investigator. We will provide the Shambhala community with further details about this process once an investigator is hired and a scope of work is confirmed. As of yesterday, June 30, we have suspended a leader from all teaching and leadership authorizations who was involved in handling this incident pending the third-party investigation.

As we announced in our June update, the Interim Board has prioritized hiring a full-time Care and Conduct Officer in Shambhala. As this case further reveals, building on what we have learned from the number of reports that have been released, Shambhala officials, teachers, and office holders, as well as general members, need significantly more training on proper reporting of misconduct. As well, Shambhala should never attempt to handle crimes such as sexual assult and child abuse internally. These incidents should be reported appropriately to the police. Specifically, the organization commits to seeking out specialized training in mandated reporting procedures.

We remain committed to creating safe environments for families and children and stand firmly against child abuse. Shambhala leadership has and will continue to cooperate and assist authorities in investigating reports of sexual assault of any kind.

We encourage anyone with information about criminal activity to report it to local authorities in the jurisdiction where it occurred.  For cases in Boulder, please contact Detective Ross Richert of the Boulder Police Department at 303-441-1833.

Sincerely,

The Interim Board
Veronika Bauer
Mark Blumenfeld
Martin Bouey
John Cobb
Jen Crow
Sara Lewis
Susan Ryan
Paulina Varas

Dear Shambhala Community,

Bfore we begin our update, we would like to honor and acknowledge the passing of Lady Konchok, the mother of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.  In this sad time, we are reminded of the preciousness of human life and are finding inspiration in her as someone who lived courageously both as a strong practitioner and enduring family member.  The members of the Interim Board were fortunate to meet with her on our visit to Boulder this May and were moved by her genuineness and authenticity. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to the Sakyong, the Sakyong Wangmo, Lama Pegyal, Lama Gyurme Dorje and Lady Konchok’s extended family.

June Update to the Community
From the many messages the Interim Board has received, we can see that we are a community of diverse views united by a personal connection to the Shambhala teachings, our commitment to the practice of meditation, and an aspiration to help others. As a board, we feel the responsibility to create time and space for further community reflection and dialogue. We also are working on how to sustain and nurture Shambhala now and in the future. Thanks to your support, both as individuals and as practice centers, we feel better able to go forward with important efforts in the areas of care and conduct, finances and administration.

Board Decisions

• Place Marpa House on the market in order to meet our substantial debt obligations.
• Cooperatively create a project plan for Care and Conduct initiatives.
• Begin the effort to fund and recruit a full-time Care and Conduct Officer.
• Begin pilot training of a Revenue Generation Course for Shambhala Centers.
• Continue funding of the Shambhala Times.

Interim Board Meeting in Boulder
We met for the second time in person May 16-19 in Boulder.  We held a community meeting at the Boulder Shambhala Center, and an audio recording of that event is available to Shambhala members at this link.  We also met with board members of Shambhala Mountain Center, toured and met with the residents of Marpa House, and met with members of the Process Team, local donors and the Dorje Kasung.

Marpa House
Much of our time in Boulder involved discussions around the sale of Marpa House. In the days leading up to the meeting, we received an attractive unsolicited cash offer at our estimated market price from a qualified buyer. We also met with the local group that is working on a community-based purchase and reviewed their proposal for buying Marpa House at a below market price to be obtained by raising funds through a community-based loan campaign.  We decided, based upon the price, timing, and terms, to accept the significantly higher outside offer. If we are forced to sell a sangha asset like Marpa House, it is important that the proceeds benefit the entire sangha. For this reason, we feel we cannot let go of Marpa House for less than it is worth at a time of such financial hardship. Since there is no certainty that this contract will close, we will continue to work with and encourage the community-based group to explore ways they could improve their proposal in case the cash offer falls through.

This decision to sell Marpa House, and then to an outside party has been very difficult. We outlined the decision process in the beginning of the year at this link. If this sale goes through, we will work closely with the residents of Marpa House on a move out plan, including Lama Pegyal and family.

Care and Conduct Full-Time Position
Through reflecting on the findings of An Olive Branch, comments from the community and our own analysis of the issues with Care and Conduct procedures in the past, we have come to the conclusion that Shambhala needs a full-time, paid position filled by a qualified individual to lead and manage Care and Conduct initiatives and ongoing activities. This individual will not be responsible alone, but will lead a team devoted to care and conduct. We are in discussion with the Care and Conduct Panel, Dorje Kasung, Process Team, as well as current staff in the Practice and Education and Government Pillars to seek input on the job description. This new position will also be tasked with developing new policy for background checks and vetting of teachers and office holders. We feel strongly that Shambhala needs paid and sufficiently qualified staff to train our community in safer practices. A successful fundraising campaign this summer will help fund this position. In addition to issues of care, this position will also lead initiatives in promoting greater diversity and inclusion within Shambhala.

We continue to work with the Process Team and plan to announce a series of training initiatives in this area this summer.

Building a Culture of Listening and Community Involvement
As part of the Interim Board’s effort to hear from as many of you  as possible and use that input in our decision-making processes, we sent our first survey to Shambhala members on the 29th of May. The intent behind this first survey was to “test the pipe” with a simple survey to make sure everything was working before we progressed into more sensitive topics.
This initial survey was a collaboration effort between the Interim Board and the Process Team Survey Working Group. It received a 35% complete rate, with more than 3,000 submissions. This is a large number of completes, which affirms that the Shambhala membership is interested in engaging in this way.  The Process Team Survey Working Group is working on a final report, which we will share with the community when it is ready. In the interim, you can find a summary of the preliminary findings here.

The Interim Board would like to express sincere gratitude to the Process Team Surveys Working Group for their support and collaboration throughout this process. In particular, we would like to thank Brian McCorkle, for his grace, stewardship and steadfast leadership of the PT Surveys Working Group. We would also like to thank the translation team for their continued hard work and diligence to support the global community, Bernard Spiegeleer, John David Smith and Pawel Molenda for their persistent technical magic, and Faradee Rudy for keeping us all on track.

Next up will be a survey on the topic of Care and Conduct. Remember to look for emails from ShambhalaSurveys@gmail.com. You may want to add that email address to your contact list now, to make sure it is not delivered to your junk mail folder in the future.

Financial Reporting
We continue to monitor Shambhala’s financial situation very closely. While we still require borrowing through our line of credit, the projections have been better than expected at the beginning of the year.  For the current month, we are within the projected budget reported last March, but still dependent on the sale of Marpa house to meet our overall debt obligations.

In part as a result of an initial review of the survey above, we plan to release a detailed financial report for the first six months of 2019 for Shambhala Global Services in the summer.  We are also working on consolidated financial reports for the entire mandala which are anticipated by the end of the summer.

We are pleased to announce that the Shambhala Trust has granted Shambhala Global Services approximately USD $13,000 toward completing the implementation of the Xero accounting system for North American Shambhala centers and groups. Full implementation of Xero will support more timely and complete consolidated financial reporting. We are planning to work with a Xero consultant with experience in Shambhala financial environments who will be reaching out to Shambhala Centers needing Xero assistance this summer.

We also acknowledge with gratitude that we have in recent weeks received significant donations as well as an increase in monthly recurring donations that have strengthened the budget picture and allowed us to contemplate the initiatives referred to above. This generosity, both new and ongoing, is a not only a financial boost but also greatly encouraging to the spirits and morale of the board and the dedicated employees of Shambhala Global Services.

Appointments, Departures, Open Positions
We would like to keep the community updated on office holders’ appointments, departures and positions currently open with our centers and groups. Please use this link to see appointments and departures. As we stated previously, we wish not to gloss over departures with a term like “retirements” when it comes to people who have left for a variety of reasons. We have invited those who have retired or resigned to offer a statement in the comments section of the Shambhala Times article.

For positions currently available, please go to the Shambhala website page, https://shambhala.org/community-positions-available/.  Please note that Halifax Shambhala Center and Karmê Chöling are both actively soliciting candidates for their Executive Director position.

Thank you for your many messages. Please continue to email us at board@shambhala.org.

Warm wishes,

The Interim Board
Veronika Bauer
Mark Blumenfeld
Martin Bouey
John Cobb
Jen Crow
Sara Lewis
Susan Ryan
Paulina Varas

Dear Shambhala Friend,

In a recent email it was announced that the Shambhala Day campaign raised a total of $456,585 USD and we met our $450,000 USD goal. This was possible through a very generous $90,000 USD donation made by Jack Bodner and Ann Cason from Portland Shambhala Center – which is also a challenge gift to inspire the rest of the community.

The challenge continues! If the rest of us in the global Shambhala community can collectively offer $90,000 USD over the next few weeks, we will be very close to a balanced budget for Shambhala Global Services in 2019. At this point, we have raised $36,573 USD – and we are well on our way!

Meeting this challenge as a community is so important. In order for the good work of the Interim Board, the Process Team, and other community initiatives to continue, it is so helpful if we are on healthy financial ground.

You may remember that throughout this year’s Shambhala New Year fundraising campaign, we strongly encouraged people to start or increase recurring monthly donations in any amount to support Shambhala. This type of support offers the most stability and possibility for good financial planning.

Many people were inspired by the following story to become monthly donors. We would like to again share this with you, so that you may also be inspired to commit to a monthly recurring gift.

Victoria’s Story:

I started a monthly donation to Shambhala International when I was about 21 years old. At the time, it was $10 or $15 / month and I wasn’t even a member of a local Centre yet. I was a young, transient person trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. But even then it felt good and doable to contribute monthly to Shambhala because I loved the teachings and the community.

In the last 18 years, I have increased my monthly donations every year at Shambhala Day – usually an increase of $5 / month each year, but occasionally by greater leaps. It’s grown from $15 / month to $145 / month, and it still feels like a small amount of money in comparison to my desire to support the community and the immeasurable benefit I have received from the Shambhala dharma.

I know that deep change is needed in the community and in the organization. It is not in spite of this, but because of this that I am inspired again to increase my monthly donation this year. I hope that many other people will also be inspired to contribute to the financial health of the organization so that we can continue to open out and move forward together.

— Victoria Hagens, Toronto

Please join Victoria and others who are either starting or increasing a recurring monthly gift. Monthly donations in the amount of 10, 25, or 50 will make a huge difference in our ability to work with finances and provide services in an even more responsive way.

The total annual amount in 2019 of any recurring monthly donation you start at this time will be included in the $90,000 USD goal!

If this is not possible for you, please consider a one-time gift, even if you have already made a donation in 2019. Whatever the amount, it makes such a difference in helping us meet our challenge goal of $90,000 USD.

Donate

We would also like to remind you about the previous group of committed donors and patrons who have come together to offer a $100,000 USD matching grant to encourage people in our community to become Jewel Patrons – someone who commits to a donation of 1,000 or more annually and in perpetuity to support Shambhala.

This means that if you become a Jewel Patron in 2019, an additional one time gift of $1,000 will be offered – up to $100,000. There has never been a more impactful time to become a Jewel Patron.

76 new Jewel Patrons have already made this commitment in 2019, so we are well on our way to meeting our goal of 100 new Jewel Patrons!

If it feels possible and resonates for you, please consider joining over 240 people in our community by becoming a Jewel Patron – someone who commits to a donation of 1,000 or more annually and in perpetuity to support Shambhala. This is approximately 85 per month and is a high impact way to support the community. To become a Jewel Patron or learn more, please contact Development Director Faradee Rudy directly at faradee.rudy@shambhala.org.

Thank you for continuing to support Shambhala and for all you do. We can only do this together.

Our warmest and heartfelt regards,

The Shambhala Interim Board

Veronika Bauer
Mark Blumenfeld
Martina Bouey
John Cobb
Jen Crow
Sara Lewis
Susan Ryan
Paulina Varas

 

If you have requested a preferred language other than English, you may receive this e-mail twice: Once in your preferred language and once in English. Thank you to our translation team!

How are Donations Used?

Donations support the Shambhala community and Center and Member Services, as coordinated by Shambhala Global Services, which provides all the critical infrastructure, support, and resources on which centers, groups, and members worldwide rely.

You can click here to view a comprehensive overview of Shambhala Global Services.

In Europe, Shambhala Europe (SE) is the first contact point that provides this support and is the focus of fundraising efforts. SE works together with Shambhala Global Services in North America and shares the responsibility of providing these services.

Financial Reports

For information about the finances of Shambhala, please click here to view Shambhala financial reports from previous years. (You may need to sign in to the members page and then click on the Members tab, then Finance and then Financial Reports.)

To view the recent Finance Update from the Interim Board of Shambhala, please click here.

The Process Team

The Process Team is a global group that has stepped forward with longing to help us discover how Shambhala can continue forward movement and become stronger. They will lead the global Shambhala community in an exploration of what is necessary to reveal fresh relevance and needed changes.

You can click here to view the recent announcement about The Process Team.

Dear Shambhala Community,

We would like you to know that we have made some important decisions about Marpa House.  At our board meeting on May 6, we decided to put Marpa House on the market for sale later this month.  As we explained in our Marpa House Potential Sale Discussion Memo on February 1, we are dealing with a cash flow crisis with too much debt coming due and our needing to gain time to work with all of the issues within our community and organizations.  You can access that memo by clicking here: https://shambhala.org/members/finance-updates/.  (You will need your Shambhala membership login credentials)

We want the sangha to understand that although we will be going to market, we are also willing to work with community-based proposals and would like to keep Marpa House within the Shambhala family.  We have recently received one such proposal and look forward to reviewing it.  However, as a Board with fiduciary responsibility to Shambhala we must weigh all factors to make sure that any sale or agreement we enter into is in the best interests of our organization.

We want you to know that we have appreciated the many emails from the community and share the heartfelt feelings expressed about the uniqueness and importance of Marpa House.  We genuinely understand how it is part of our heritage and is a living dharmic community with active members including Lady Konchok and her family.  We are also trying to find an appropriate way to settle the debts that Shambhala has incurred, partly due to the crisis and partly due to overly optimistic financial expectations over many years.  We cannot undo what has already occurred, but we can try to strengthen our organizations, looking to try to work with the health of Shambhala for our future.  For this, we are working to restore and build our financial viability.

We do not expect that this will be a quick transaction, given the zoning restrictions attached to the property as well as time needed to make the best sale.   We will continue to update you on all of the issues that we will encounter as well as any outcomes.

Sincerely,

The Interim Board
Veronika Bauer
Mark Blumenfeld
Martina Bouey
John Cobb
Jen Crow
Sara Lewis
Susan Ryan
Paulina Varas

Dear Community –

We are writing to correct an error in the our April Update which was sent on April 26 to the Shambhala community.

In this message, we incorrectly listed Shambhala Publications as one of the departments of the Sakyong Potrang that is moving to Shambhala Global Services. This was a typographical error. The statement should have said Kalapa Publications. Shambhala Publications is an independent publishing company and is not affiliated with the Shambhala organization nor with the Sakyong Potrang. We apologize for the confusion.

Sincerely,

The Shambhala Interim Board

Dear Friends,

Our recent communication that was sent this morning contained a misstatement about the ownership of the Boulder Court, within the section about Marpa House. The Boulder Court property is owned and controlled by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, who has decided to put it on the market to be sold. The Sakyong Potrang owns the Halifax Court.

Our original text from our Community Update sent on April 26 stated:

“Selling either the Boulder or Halifax court is not a viable option for Shambhala in that the Sakyong Potrang, not Shambhala, owns and controls these properties. As of this writing, the Potrang has put the Boulder Court on the market for sale. We will continue to update the community as we make our next steps on this important topic.”

Our corrected text:

“Selling either the Boulder or Halifax court is not a viable option for Shambhala in that Shambhala does not own or control these properties. The Sakyong Potrang owns and controls the Halifax Court. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche owns and controls the Boulder Court. As of this writing, the Sakyong has put the Boulder Court on the market for sale. We will continue to update the community as we make our next steps on the important topic of Marpa House.”

Thank you for your understanding and patience! Please see below for the corrected update in its entirety.

The Interim Board of Shambhala

 

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Dear Shambhala Community,

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through our 12-month term. Since our term began last October, we have endeavored to get out monthly updates, as well as other critical information as it was available. We feel strongly about operating transparently and finding ways to connect with you. This goal of open communication is reflected in our release of the Kalapa Council commissioned Wickwire Holm and An Olive Branch reports, which we delivered to the community as promised. At the same time, we are trying to balance the need for transparency without overloading the community with information. We are now transitioning into a time of building more stability and health for the Shambhala community. Going forward, we may shift to Board updates every two months, but send other important messages as they become available.

Decisions

• The IB will put out a community-wide survey and is now working on topics and approach with help from the Process Team.
• Create a communication link with the Process Team. A subset of the Interim Board is meeting with members of the Process Team steering committee on a bi-weekly basis to share updates and coordinate efforts, particularly around the recommendations of An Olive Branch.
• Create an advisory group on Practice and Education matters. We have begun a monthly meeting between members of the Interim Board (IB), and representatives from the greater mandala, including Charlie Goetzl, International Director of Practice and Education; a representative Acharya (recently John Rockwell); Janet Solyntjes, Chair of the Shastri Council; and David Brown, Executive Secretary to Shambhala.
• Move Shambhala Online, Kalapa Publications and the Shambhala IT group from Kalapa Media in the Sakyong Potrang to Shambhala Global Services.

Link to IB Webinar

On March 30 the IB held a webinar with Shambhala leaders. About 120 people attended. Topics included the relationship between the Potrang and Shambhala, the ownership relationships between local centers/groups and Shambhala, an update on the Sakyong as well as other updates. Please access the link to the 90-minute video here.

Interim Board Meeting in Boulder

The IB will be traveling to Boulder for our second face-to-face working meeting from May 16-19. In addition to extensive board meetings, we will also be meeting with various representatives of our community there. There is a public community event at the Boulder Shambhala Center on Thursday from 7-9:00 p.m., where we will hold a Q&A session followed by a reception with community members. If you are in the area during this time, please join us. We look forward to connecting with the Front Range community and leaders while we are there.

Marpa House

We appreciate receiving the many thoughtful and heartfelt communications concerning the proposed sale of Marpa House. We remain committed to finding the best possible solution to address our financial challenges. As we described in our recent Financial Report, many centers and groups are examining their willingness and/or ability to make financial contributions to SGS, and the resulting loss of revenues requires us to pursue the sale of an asset. Along these lines, IB members have met with a potential community-based buyer group for Marpa House in the last month.

Selling either the Boulder or Halifax court is not a viable option for Shambhala in that Shambhala does not own or control these properties. The Sakyong Potrang owns and controls the Halifax Court. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche owns and controls the Boulder Court. As of this writing, the Sakyong has put the Boulder Court on the market for sale. We will continue to update the community as we make our next steps on the important topic of Marpa House.

Care and Conduct

After releasing An Olive Branch’s (AOB) reports and recommendations, the IB is now working on how to best go forward with making Shambhala safer, more accountable, and more aware of inequity and wrong use of power. The term “harm” has been overused (by us, and by the community at large); and we need to begin the deep work required to look at the specificity of harmful behaviors–sexual misconduct, power abuse, racism, discrimination–to change our community. The Process Team has recently announced that they will examine AOB’s recommendations for our community, and we ask that each local community familiarize themselves with both our existing Care and Conduct Policy, and the Code of Ethics developed by AOB. The IB is grateful that the Process Team will soon begin engaging local communities. As well, it is the fiduciary responsibility of the IB to ensure that the organization grows healthier, safer, and more equitable. The IB is comprised of 8 ordinary community members–it goes without saying that we need the entire community to join us in dismantling the structures that have enabled abuse and misconduct in Shambhala.

As we described in our cover letter to both the AOB and Wickwire Holm reports, both organizations were bound by their professional standards of confidentiality; therefore, the IB did not receive the names of individuals who were accused. We ask that any such report be submitted to the International Care and Conduct Panel. We are currently working to expand and improve our existing Care and Conduct Policy and Procedure, which at this time is limited to reporting harm by an office holder. We are also exploring how to train MIs, guides, teachers, and office holders in creating safer communities. As previously reported, we are also examining our current policies around vetting and background checks to explore the processes by which people are granted leadership positions in the mandala.

We are actively discussing how to facilitate community dialogue around misconduct, abuse, and healing for our community. We are looking to work with the structures within Shambhala, our policies and what we can do to better educate and sensitize ourselves to preventing and working with harm. We want to respect all individuals who report harm and, in addition, those who do not want to report. We want to strengthen our community practices for adjudicating harm and find a way to instill trust in what we intend and what we actually do. We also encourage the Sakyong to also work on these important topics which are critical to the well-being of our community.

Building a Culture of Listening and Community Involvement

The IB has been contemplating ways to gather wide-scale feedback across our community and membership base. We have some large decisions before us, and would love to know what the community feels about them. To that end, we will be initiating regular surveys to the sangha to listen and hear from the community on a broad basis in a structured way. These surveys will be short in nature, and directly address questions we are contemplating as a Board and leadership team. Your voice will be considered in our decision-making process. Once we have made a decision, we will report back to the community on the decisions we made as a result of it. You will start to receive those surveys in the next couple of weeks. We look forward to getting wide-scale feedback from the community on these surveys as a way for us to be connected to the voice of the whole community.

Staffing Changes

As we described in our March update, Shambhala is no longer providing any funding to the Sakyong Potrang with the exception of paying our share of the Kalapa Centre office space in Halifax. Because there were various staff roles that were shared between Shambhala and the Potrang, the IB has worked hard to more clearly delineate those who are working for the centers and groups. To better align staff positions within the organization and to meet budgetary issues, Potrang departments including Shambhala Publications, Shambhala Online, and IT will now move to Shambhala and report to the IB. In addition, David Brown will become the Executive Secretary to Shambhala and take on additional responsibilities relating to centers and groups. The individuals in these areas will join the existing staff in Practice and Education, Finance, Communications and Marketing, Kasung, Government, and Economy as part of Shambhala Global Services (SGS). We are very excited about their joining SGS and look forward to working more directly with all of the individuals in these areas and their continuing to offer their services and leadership to the community.

Shambhala Appointments and Retirements

We would like to share with you the following retirements and appointments across the Mandala. To those people who have left, we thank you for your endless effort serving the community. Many of these individuals have publicly shared their reasons for stepping down; each person’s account is nuanced and distinct so we wish not to gloss over their reasons –including a feeling that they were appointed by the Sakyong and can no longer serve as his representative–with a neutral term like “retirement.” We wish to acknowledge the personal struggle faced by many leaders at this time. We would also like to welcome those individuals who are stepping up to accept leadership roles. Please click here to read the full list of retirements and appointments.

We continue to read all of your emails and appreciate that we are continuing to share and explore our connection and relationship to Shambhala. You may continue to email us at board@shambhala.org.

Sincerely,

The Interim Board

Veronika Bauer
Mark Blumenfeld
Martin Bouey
John Cobb
Jen Crow
Sara Lewis
Susan Ryan
Paulina Varas