Minutes of FZ Business meeting San Jose, 1/25/05, 8:15-9:15 pm Members present: Angie, Donnalynn, Carolyn, Dan, Wendy, Jane, Ritu 1. Meet & Greet People Who Keep the FZ Afloat’¡Ä Donnalynn will continue as Coordinator for at least 6 months and enjoys that she will overlap with the other officers’¡Ç terms; Wendy is Ino; Carolyn is Treasurer; Dan will continue as Website Manager; Ritu is Secretary. With new people in new roles, Donnalyn hopes we generate ideas about how to make FZ even better. 2. Topics & Volunteers for February Newsletter This issue will focus on Angie and dharma talks. Donnalynn will work with Angie on editing a dharma talk for the newsletter. Bobbi and Donnalyn will create a page of the newsletter devoted to announcing the inventory of tapes of Angie’¡Çs talks. The list will be annotated with a link to the complete list on the website. There may be space on the website for a sampling of a short talk. Bobbi has graciously agreed to be the contact person if people want to borrow or purchase tapes. Carolyn and Jane volunteered to copy edit the newsletter. Jane will draft an announcement requesting poetry from the sangha for the next newsletter so that more people will have time to participate. Instruction for joining the yahoo group will be included in the newsletter, along with the year's calendar. There was discussion about creating a masthead or logo or symbol for the FZ identity. Angie has an item from Kobun Roshi that she will xerox and get the calligraphy translated. 3. SF Zen Center Sangha-e online newsletter The SFZC has an online gathering where news is listed. We discussed how the FZ could have our news there too. The information listed could be our weekly sits and a link to our website. We also discussed the need for a consistent email address for FZ. Dan will confirm that email address and will check with SFZC to see if they have our contact information. Donnalynn will check with Monterey, Santa Cruz, and Arcata zen centers. 4. Financial Status We reviewed the finances from 2004 and projections for 2005. The special donations increased significantly in 2004 from previous years. The actual expenses for 2004 were $3,646.41 and income was $5,662.43. The year-end balance was $2,016.02. The projected expenditures for 2005 totals $4,721 with income of $5,871. Donnalynn also received pledges of support and several private donations around the beginning of the year. 5. 2005 Projected/Proposed Expenses Donnalynn made three proposals about expenditures for 2005: 1) make a donation to the San Jose Friend’¡Çs House (either one time of $250 or increase our rent $5-$10 per month), 2) pay 50-75% of the expenses for the August sesshin, 3) pay Angie for her copying expenses on a regular basis. We agreed to make a one-time donation to Friend’¡Çs House of $250. We also agreed to pay Angie for her copying expenses a couple of times of year based on an estimate. [Angie was paid $134 for copying expenses for 2004 and the financial summary will be revised to reflect that expenditure.] There was discussion about how we wanted the sesshin to be offered to everyone, regardless of his or her ability to pay. We will discuss how to make the August sesshin more accessible at a future meeting. 5. Open Forum The plans for February sesshin are going well. Wendy handed out an updated phone list. Next FZ Business Meeting is April 26.