Finding Agreement on Goals: Financial Resources

From March 22 to 26, members of KCC's leadership (Board, Program Council, and others) met to discuss the strategic plan. Our intention was to hone in on our key goals in four categories: Facilities, Programs, Organization and Staffing, and Financial Resources.  We weren't looking for agreement on the goals themselves--we'll need Sangha input for that--but rather agreement on what the big issues are.  Today we'll discuss some of the issues that came up around financial resources.

Current Situation

KCC is nearing the end of a longer-than-expected fundraising effort to find land and build facilities to house long retreats.  Remarkably, the center raised millions of dollars without going a penny in debt.  However, taking on a separate facility brings with it new costs, both in maintenance and increased program costs.  Meanwhile, the urban center has seen revenues drop in recent years.  This is in part due to a decline in regular pledging sangha (who were formerly called "dues-paying" sangha).  A few years ago, KCC had 90-95 members regularly supporting the center, but today it has fallen to 68--even though attendance hasn't changed at all.

KCC is currently offering a far deeper range of programs than it has in two decades.  This is made possible by a team of teachers, three of whom offer their considerable time to KCC without compensation.  This is not sustainable in the long-term (and possibly not in the medium-term).  Things will only get tighter as we begin one-year retreat.  Finally, part of the strategic discussions include possible plans to acquire a new urban center, which would have significant cost implications.  If we did move to a new urban center, it would likely cost more over and above what we spent on it.

Possible Goals
Below are a list of goals the Strategic Planning Committee and Leadership group identified.  While the groups have spent substantial time thinking and discussing them, they are only a starting place for further discussions.  The SPC hopes members of  the sangha think about KCC's situation, its needs, and its resources and offers feedback and suggestions.  Have a look:

• Create a business plan.  Discussion.  The moving parts that affect finances are many and complex.  It's difficult to conceptualize our needs and resources, and a business plan would clarify a number of issues.
• Develop a culture of giving.  Discussion.  This topic will actually be addressed in a separate post focused entirely on culture changes. The idea is to better integrate the idea of giving (among other things) within our practice of the dharma. 
• Support the unpaid teachers.  Discussion.  This was the least fleshed out in terms of strategy, but there was a broad sense that it's unsustainable to expect teachers to be able to devote the equivalent of a part- to full-time job to KCC without having some means of compensation. 
• Begin an urban center campaign, but only after the cloister at SCOL is fully funded.  Discussion.  This is less a goal than a matter of tactics, and one that the group was split on.  Does it make sense to have two campaigns going on simultaneously?  Or put in the reverse--would two campaigns focused on different goals really compete with one another?  

As you might imagine, there were extensive discussions behind each of these proposals--and one doesn't have to look too hard to foresee extensive discussions in the future.  We hope you'll join us.  Please feel invited to comment on this thread and consider coming to the Sangha meeting this Sunday following meditation (roughly 11:15 to noon). 

Finding Agreement on Goals: Facilities

From March 22 to 26, members of KCC's leadership (Board, Program Council, and others) met to discuss the strategic plan. Our intention was to hone in on our key goals in four categories: Facilities, Programs, Organization and Staffing, and Financial Resources.  We weren't looking for agreement on the goals themselves--we'll need Sangha input for that--but rather agreement on what the big issues are.  Today we'll discuss some of the issues that came up around facilities.

Current Situation

Dawn at SCOL.

KCC is nearing completion on a long-retreat cloister that will be used in a one-year retreat that starts around April 1, 2013.  The remaining elements are a fence and cooks and retreat cabins.  The fence is funded and in-design, the pre-fab cabins are on their way to being funded.  The board sees no barriers to completion before retreat. The wonderful facilities at Ser Cho Osel Ling have served short-term group retreats and individual personal retreatants for the past few years, but these won't be possible when the cloister is occupied by long-retreatants. 

The Urban Center is more problematic.  It has for nearly two decades been too small, both as a place for sangha-wide meditation and meetings, as well as having too few spaces for activities like multiple-year children's instruction.  The house wasn't designed to serve the needs of large groups, lacks basic features like large meeting space, a commercial kitchen, and parking.  It effectively caps sangha growth, and KCC has had a stable membership of around 100 people for 15 years.


Possible Goals
Below are a list of goals the Strategic Planning Committee and Leadership group identified.  While the groups have spent substantial time thinking and discussing them, they are only a starting place for further discussions.  The SPC hopes members of  the sangha think about KCC's situation, its needs, and its resources and offers feedback and suggestions.  Have a look:

• Find a larger urban center that has the space we need to conduct current programs as well as room to grow.  Discussion: there are multiple ways to accomplish this, including renting a facility, purchasing a facility, joining with another group/sangha to get a new facility.  Many people have noted the expense associated with such a move and this is a huge factor.  How much appetite is there among the sangha to raise funds for a new center?  Will it compete with the completion of the cloister--or, put another way, how do we phase it in while the cloister is being completed?  What kind of facility do we need to meet our programmatic needs?  This last point led some to consider the next goal.  Related Goals: Finish fundraising for the cloister before any fundraising on the urban center;
• Include a residential component in an urban center.  Discussion: One way to meet the needs of a sangha more deeply connected to retreat activities at SCOL is by having rooms available.  This would allow people transition time before and after retreats.  It would give KCC the option of offering a work/practice or lay training option to some members who wanted to live at the center.  (Some Zen communities have experience with this.)  
• Create a low-cost, seasonal option for group and individual retreats at SCOL.  Discussion: The idea here was to use tent platforms and tents or other seasonal facilities so KCC could continue to host short-term and individual retreats at SCOL.  One theme that has emerged in all our discussions is the need to integrate the facilities in Goldendale and Portland programatically.  This has been easier when KCC could host the winter retreats, the annual Mahamudra retreat, and other events at the cloister, but will be harder during long-retreats.  And yet, this may be the time when integration is most potent and valuable.

As you might imagine, there were extensive discussions behind each of these proposals--and one doesn't have to look too hard to foresee extensive discussions in the future.  We hope you'll join us.  Please feel invited to comment on this thread and consider coming to the Sangha meeting this Sunday following meditation (roughly 11:15 to noon).

Leadership Retreat Update

Hungry after a long day of meeting.

This past long weekend, members of KCC's leadership (the board, Program Council, and others) met at SCOL for their annual retreat.  The practice grew out of a retreat the board held annually and expanded to three full days--Friday through Sunday--with travel days on either end.  The goals change year by year, and for 2012 we devoted the whole thing to our strategic planning process.

I can't imagine anything more boring than describing a meeting, and in coming days I'll detail the emerging questions and decision points.  But in case you have the tiniest interest, we used a technique of taking an overarching topic like "finances and fundraising" and breaking up into small groups to discuss it.  Each small group stayed together the whole time, so members developed a rapport.  After a period of discussion, we came back together to report our thoughts.  Because each group inevitably took the discussion in a different direction, the reports provided an amazing overview of the topic. 

We by no means came to agreement on every issue--but that was in itself a good thing.  Those points of divergence will be the areas we'll focus on for discussion, particularly during our forthcoming focus groups with the sangha.  Look for more on that.  In the meantime, get your thinking cap ready--the issues will be coming soon.

Leadership Fun

Smiles, blue dots on the foreheads, and Spring sunshine--things must be going well at KCC's annual leadership retreat.

Onward to Issues!

On Monday, the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) met and voted on four "issues" that will form the basis of our strategic plan.  In our lexicon, the issue is the largest category of interest--call it a domain or focal area.  Identifying issues is the grossest step in a process we will fine tune over the coming weeks--with your help.  Our issues:

The long view.

• Programs.  While all the other issues support one another, programs really knit everything together with the mission and vision.  The programs KCC offers will create a fabric that includes those that happen at both the Portland and Goldendale sites.
• Facilities.  The physical space where the programs happen, these must be mutually supportive of one another.
• Financial resources.  This includes the financial plan and funding strategy.
• Organization and staffing (including volunteers). Particularly in the SWOT, we heard many issues related to the organization and staffing.  This includes communications, the way we tie volunteerism into our practice as a center, and making sure we are able to support all our programs.

While these four issues may appear to be the definition of obvious, the committee spent a huge amount of time discussing them, expanding them, contracting them, and  deciding which were not really parts of other issues.  Should we separate SCOL and the urban center when thinking about facilities?  Should communications--clearly a critical issue--be considered separately.  Finances and funding models also have a complex of related issues.  Sometimes you have to wander a long time around a neighborhood before you wind up at the place you expected to go.

Next Up
In the strategic planning model we've adopted, the next level of fine-tuning is coming up with "goals" and "strategies" under each of these issues.  This is where we'll turn for Sangha input.  A goal is "an outcome, an overall accomplishment, a projected state, or an end point."  A strategy is an "approach, plan, or way; how we accomplish the goal."  The SPC will collect together a menu of goals and strategies that Sangha members can discuss at the Leadership Retreat later this month and in Sangha meetings.  Many of these will be mutually exclusive--we'll look at our current situation, look at the options, and make choices.

Take the issue of fundraising as an example.  (These is a total hypotheticals that the committee hasn't yet discussed, and shouldn't be considered actual goals and strategies.) We might say that it is a goal for KCC to have a stable source of funds that come from outside the structure of dues and program-generated revenue.  One strategy is to hire an Executive Director who will work half-time as a fundraiser in order to achieve a more focused, robust major donor fundraising effort.  A different strategy is to create a revenue stream out of teachings and other publications. 

There's a Sangha meeting this Sunday (March 11), when we hope to spark some discussion about these items.  The SPC meets again on Monday the 12th, and then the Leadership Retreat begins Thursday, March 22nd.  We will definitely keep you posted as we make progress on goals and strategies.

SPC Notes for February 6th and 20th

Below are the minutes to our February 6th and 20th meetings.

Feb 6th:
Meeting Notes - Feb 6, 2012

Feb 20th:
Meeting Notes - Feb 20, 2012

Meeting Notes March 5, 2012

Meeting Notes - March 5