Written by Louise Petzold
Kia ora e te whānau,
Beautiful spring has come to the Wangapeka valley with lighter days, heaps of rain and lots of sunshine. Growth is happening!
In the spirit of mahi tahi and working together towards a shared outcome, the BoT have decided to all have a turn writing Kumanu after our meetings, so you can really see how much we all hear something different!
It’s been three months now since the new Trustees were elected. Through this time we have been focusing on how we work together, building relationships and understanding, as well as gaining clarity on the range of aspects we need to consider to support a flourishing Centre. There have been many phone calls, emails, video calls and conversations.
It is important to all of us to feel connected to a community, and to those of you who are reading this, to feel connected to this hub of decision making called the Board of Trustees. Kumanu is one attempt to weave communication, and the Trustees would love your input by email, kōrero and of course showing up at the Centre.
Recent Minutes and reports
BoT meetings, and the most recent Centre Caretaker, Office, Maintenance Sub-Committee and Treasurer’s reports are all available to be read and
Can all be found in this folder
What’s been happening
On the hunt for new Caretakers:
With possible changes ahead as far as Service as the Path 2025 and time needed for the BoT to gain financial clarity we made the decision to recruit an interim land caretaker and a 6 month centre caretaker.
Interim Land Caretaker
Welcome Craig Russell as our new interim Land Caretaker!
Craig is a local Tadmor resident who over the last four weeks has begun his role as interim land caretaker. Craig is living off-site but coming in three days a week to help us look after the land, scrub cut tracks and upgrade the pig fence. We are really happy to have someone local with Craig’s skills, care and attention to detail keeping things well maintained over this spring/summer growth period.
With Tracy signalling new pastures await her, we have been advertising for a centre caretaker and will short list this week. Tracy has offered to stay on at the centre as a volunteer until the new caretaker starts to support a smooth handover.
Service as the Path
The Board have made a request of Mark Schrader and Kath Mitchell to return to the Centre in 2025 for an evolution of Service as the Path. They have agreed! This is in its very early stages of consideration, with a focus group including Georgia McCrory Bowick and Dan Burgess Milne supporting the process. Watch this space.
Health and Safety and Tree felling
Mike Mackinnon stepped down as trustee last AGM but we are happy to say in true ex-Wangapeka Trustee style, he hasn’t gone, he has simply changed his form! Hurray! Mike will continue to support the BoT as the Health and Safety Rep for the Trustees. His role will provide oversight to this important role both with the caretakers on the ground and to the BoT.
For safety reasons, an arborist has been contracted to fell a number of big pine trees above the Hayshed. This has been a big job that is not quite completed. For now the trees are down over the lower path to the Whare Wānanga until they can be removed and cut for firewood.
Maintenance and Land care
A big decision for us recently was to give the go ahead to upgrade the roof on Namgyal hut. The rats have been chewing through the roof. A patch up job can only last for so long, so on the advice of the maintenance sub committee, this work will begin asap to remove the roof and do a thorough job to keep the hut in good shape. We are pleased to be able to contract Glenn Harley and Harley Builders to do this work. He could do with a hand from a few strong and willing people to lug some gear up the hill… could this be you??? Please contact Glenn if you would like to support him with this project
Track to Omahu
After months of consideration by this Board and the previous Board, we have agreed in principle to go ahead with the work to make a track to Omahu. The payment of most of this cost has been generously offered by a sangha member.
It’s been a difficult decision to make- to balance the care of the land, Tiwaiwaka principles, understanding an offer of Dana, and the need to maintain Omahu for retreats. Omahu needs some maintenance asap and without a track it makes it very difficult to do that easefully. So balancing this need and ongoing caretaker’s needs, with the damage that will be done to the land and the beings on the land, we have agreed to go ahead as long as a few aspects are satisfied in relation to the donation and to the preparation and healing of the land. If these aspects can’t be satisfied, the track will not proceed at this time.
Piggies!
Craig is busy upgrading the pig fence and we have plans once that has been done to have a local person come to support a pig drive to get the pigs out to the other side of the fence. It is likely this will need to happen a number of times before we can assess how successful that has been.
Land care sub-committee.
We are looking for volunteers to form a landcare sub-committee, to support decisions needing to be made as kaitiaki of the land. Please contact Louise Petzold if you are interested.
Behind the scenes
Brooke is working hard to streamline Xero and our systems. We are spending a lot of time with bank signatory handovers to new Trustees and getting clear alongside accountants advice where our accounts current stand and what our budget is for making decisions going forwards. Policies need developing and we are making preparations to begin the change of our legal document which needs to clearly be a Trust Deed, not a Constitution.
The Wangapeka moves by the tremendous generosity of so many beings. If you are keen to support this oasis of sanity to be available for beings both now and into the future, by offering to support the Board, or join a sub-committee, please contact us at board@wangapeka.org There is always much needing attention.
We are tremendously grateful to all the people, in front of and behind the scenes, who continue to offer their love, time and skills for the Wangapeka. We are grateful to all our Elders and teachers, embodiments of Buddha. We are grateful for the river of Dharma that flows like the Wangapeka awa. We are grateful for the precious community of companions on the path, Sangha near and far. And we are grateful that you place your trust in us as the Board of Trustees.
Our next BoT meetings are scheduled for:
Thursday November 7th (Zoom)
December date TBC
Sarva Mangalam!
New Contact Details
Board Of Trustees
| Name | Role | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Maree Murray | Treasurer | treasurer@wangapeka.org |
| Louise Petzold | Coordinator | coordinator@wangapeka.org |
| Graham Price | Secretary | secretary@wangapeka.org |
| Georgia McCrory-Bowick | georgia@wangapeka.org | |
| Chani Grieve | assistantcoordinator@wangapeka.com |
Caretaking team
| Name | Role | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Tracy Abbot | Centre Caretaker | centrecaretaker@wangapeka.org |
| Brooke Walker | Office Caretaker | info@wangapeka.org |