Neil,
some thoughts,
1a) it might be an idea to have a forum section where people can see in one location what skills or assistance is needed at the center, so that visitors/members can see how they can contribute from time to time for a specific project when they have the time/skills available, or help deal with one aspect of recurrent projects because they have some expertise in the area.
one current example would be the need for somebody with some desktop publishing experience, so that leaflets and brochures for various courses can be made more efficiently and have a professional presentation.
whomever is then coordinating a small project or course/lecture which might require a brochure, pamphlet or poster will then still deal with that event and the information to be included in these handouts/posters (like what, when, where etc..), and how it is best presented (A5, A4, fold out brochure, small poster, etc..), but the desktop publishing part is a section where an experienced person might do in minutes what would otherwise take hrs (and each new person dealing with a small new project in the future meets the same inefficiency again)
it might be that the committee members already have solutions for all this and deal with it amongst themselves (and then approach outsiders when needed), but there might well be members or center participants who might want to contribute from time to time, or have a skill they didnt think of as being needed, and a section on the forum for "what is needed" could be helpful for this
the same forum section can then also serve for something as simple as assistance with monthly lawn mowing for rinpoche's residence. a committee member might already be tasked to manage building maintenance, but it doesnt mean they actually need to forever do the physical mowing themselves. somebody else in future might live locally and have a mower and be happy to do just that element, and as the center gets larger and more people get involved it spreads the load, while still having one management person coordinating that area, but the "indians" might change over time.
1b) that same new forum section could also be labeled with a title that includes "small project sponsors", which relates to the same concept (contributing to the same common purpose so that "many hands make light work"). for example if ever rinpoche would like a small tibetan text translated, which a professional tibetan-english translator might need to be paid a few for (200 or 300$ for ex), then it could be flagged there. in official professional translations like that it is convention that the sponsor would always be mentioned by name in any subsequent publications which include the translated text (in the same way it mentions author, publisher, it will also mention the sponsor who funded the publication or translation). some dharma supporters might like to contribute financially in that way for individual small projects, and it is nice for them to then get formal recognition for it (as well as making good karma
). some people also prefer, or are more able, to contribute financially for small projects rather then put in the time and physical effort on other elements.
2) it might also be helpful to have a forum section for "communication with the management committee", so that members and non-members can leave general msg's for the "center managers" in one location. contacting them personally by phone or email is more cumbersome, and their contact information might not be openly available. when members are traveling overseas or out of state, it is also easy to use the web and access the forum for communication if ever needed. maybe that same area can also initially be used for inquiries from the general public to the center as there is no specific area for that now, and since the jamchen phone msg's are not always checked as frequently as when ani kuntsang was doing it.
3) the coffee lounge forum section could also be used as a "notice board" area (and labeled as such), so people can post little msg's to the general jamchen dharma community for minor things, like if they are trying to find out where to buy kata's or meditation pillows in melbourne, looking for some obscure dharma text that is out of print, etc.. currently none of the forum area's deal with that category, and might as well put it in one central place
oops, this got a bit long
feel free to use or ignore bits of my suggestions, and maybe delete my post afterward
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