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Summary of Sangha Organising Meeting discussion - 18th January 2025

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White Clouds Sangha Bristol

Notes from Organising Group Meeting, Saturday 18 th January 2025


Present:- Declan (chair), Richard (notes), Hilary, Lidia and Gideon

Apologies:- Jonathan


1 Bristol wake up and White Clouds Spring social. 02/03/2025

Gideon and Declan met on line with Mary, Peter, Nora and Candice from wake up. and they have

other meetings planned


Schedule is Start at 11.00 am with short practice and walk 11.15/30 for approx 1 ½ hours. 1.00pm

lunch (noble silence). Afternoon to include deep relaxation and sharing in pairs with finish at 4pm

families to do something separate. Limit set for 30 at the moment with 29 already booked hoping for

40 subject to venue capacity. Hilary felt that 30/35 was the maximum in that room

For the Shared lunch need to get the food ready earlier. Needs to be clearer on how lunch happens.


The split between families and non families on two long tables did not work well. Better in the round

with food set up on tables on the side.


Hopefully booking will allow entry before 11. Hilary and Lidia said they could get there earlier. The

wet weather plan is to go ahead as above


The event will help the making of new connections and relationships between Wake up and White

clouds Sangha.


2 DOM. with Teri

Discussed pre planning the event and agreed the following tasks.


Gideon is to set up the website for bookings and prepare emails for our Sangha members and

separately for other individuals and local Sanghas. These would then be sent out at the end of

January at the latest.


Richard to email Teri (sent out by Gideon)to agree topic for the DOM and agree what support she

maight need (incl acc) and also expenses


Agreed it would be helpful if everyone on the organising group would be able use the Sangha email

account. Jonathan will need to be present and could maybe do this at the next Sangha meeting or

next organising group meeting. This would improve communication


Agreed that it would be helpful to have a prepared programme that we could use as a Contingency

plan for DOMs should for any reason the facilitator be unable to attend.


3 Next day of mindfulness

Our next self facilitated day of mindfulness will be 27th September and Declan to contact Judy Bush

to arrange booking


4 Finance

Lidia to contact Coventry BS (taken over from Co op) to see whether she can get some basic things

sorted like her change of address.


£1034 Current balance. Hilary suggested that we should wait until later in the year when deciding to

make a donation to Being Peace centre. 10 people have made a donation at the moment to Wake Up/

Bristol White clouds social day


5 Facilitation

Hilary to put together a form of words to invite Sangha members to consider whether they would

like to be more involved in the running of the Sangha. This could then be used at on line and in

person meetings.


Richard to explore how small groups could be used for in person Dharma sharing (when we have

large numbers of participants) and put forward suggestions for prompts to be used.


Lidia to send facilitators a whatsapp message reminding them that the meetings should finish at

8.55. Important for Sangha building to have 20m for sharing from the heart


6 AOB

6.1 Zoom renewal

Need to email Liz when new Zoom account is set up and ask Liz to confirm receipt. It may need to be

someone’s personal account. Gideon to action


6.2 Lamp for Redland meeting room

Needs to be similar to what we already have in the room. Lidia to order


6.3 Website

Hilary explained that it is possible to set up events in preview form and share it. Good for other

people to know how you set up an attendance list and other functions. This is something that when

we go out to our wider group they may be interested in supporting. Need to be someone who we

can trust. Ian maybe a good person for this

Hilary was concerned that we are vulnerable if only one person can do key tasks. It will be good to

have second body for these things. Maybe as part of this work we could hold a tech session when we

move over to new zoom acc.


6.4 Gideon has volunteered to co-coordinate Dharma retreats with Amanda (she remains in post for

the next year.) Richard to write reference


6.5 Hilary updated us on the exciting news that tremendous progress is being made to bring about

the Being Peace Practice Centre (BPPC). Currently the Abenhall site in the Forest of Dean is actively

being appraised and negotiations with the vendors are on-going. Although a contract has not yet

been signed, indications suggest that it is very likely that Plum Village UK will be in a position to

acquire this site later in 2025. Abenhall is an hour’s drive from Bristol. As part of the appraisal

process, Plum Village UK has hired part of the site to run some targeted retreats. Recently we were

asked to provide some support for one of these retreats, which we were able to do (many thanks to

those who went). We may well be contacted again in future.




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