Kia ora e te whānau, springtime greetings to you all! Sending out acknowledgements to you near and far at this changeable time – time of wind, frost, heat and early growth – as the first shoots of sleeping plants begin to show themselves through the crust of winter! We trust you are keeping well and enjoying the longer daylight hours as we cruise towards spring equinox.
The Board met on Monday 5 of September and will meet again at the beginning of October in person (!) at the Wangapeka Centre for two days over the weekend 1st – 2nd. Please let us know if there’s anything in particular you’d like us to discuss!
What we’re reckoning with:
The changeable times have been reflected in our caretaker-ship at the Wangapeka. As you know, we have had wonderful people offering service throughout this year, including Amber Baldock, Chris Petzold, Dan Burgess-Milne, the whole maintenance committee, Louise Petzold and most recently Simon Jones. Throughout these lean months we have been lucky enough to work alongside Jacinta, who has stepped into the unusual role of caretaking on her own. For this we deeply acknowledge you, Jacinta. Not only has Jacinta moved from overseas to take on this work, she has done so at a time when the WeT is experiencing financial hardship and therefore not able to pay our usual two caretakers. We have had a shortage of volunteers and many retreats have been cancelled at short notice for Covid related reasons, so Jacinta has spent much of her time at the Wangapeka taking care of matters – materially and spiritually – on her own. We regret this situation and are grateful to those who have stepped in to provide company and support where possible. Uncertainty continues in the world and in our community, as we adapt to new, ever-shifting conditions – thank you Jacinta, for accepting these conditions so gracefully and with tremendous courage, taking on land-based and housekeeping tasks without complaint.
Jacinta’s time at the Centre is nearing an end, so we are in the process of hiring a new caretaker – someone who will work alongside the other people (volunteers) working there throughout the coming months. This includes Amber, Dan, Brandon and his partner Lucy. We are looking forward to welcoming a new caretaker to join the team at the Centre in the near future. Watch this space for introductions!
As mentioned, we are facing significant cancellations of retreats for various reasons, but the next few months are looking promising and the 2023 calendar is now confirmed.
We need help with:
The Board is following the lead of the Comms Committee and beginning to use the Wangapeka Community Forum as our new platform for online communication. We are still emailing each other but will be posting in the forum more regularly with Kumanu reports and meeting minutes, and will be checking comments from members too. Our intention is to reply to any questions / queries / complaints on the forum, but to do so we need our members to use it. The Comms Committee have done a fantastic job of getting the forum up and running and the whole purpose is to improve lines of communication between Board / Sub-Committees and Membership. So please, check your inboxes for an email from Shea Dawson, inviting you to join the Wangapeka Community Forum, or try following this link to sign up and learn how it all works.
There is a Namgyal Rinpoche memorial day being planned for the weekend, including a working bee. More info to come on this, but if you’re interested in helping please let us know!
We have established a Year of Service (no longer specified as belonging to the year 2023) sub-committee, at this stage consisting of: Elli Yates, Jacinta Nowland, Amber Baldock and Dan Burgess-Milne. These people will be holding the kaupapa and reporting back to the Board when appropriate. Please let Elli know if you are keen to jump on the sub-committee and offer your energy (being on the sub-committee doesn’t mean you want to live at the Centre for the YoS, but that you’re keen to contribute ideas and support to move the new model forward).
People to contact:
Here is a list of the current Board members and our emails. The best person to get in touch with for general inquiries or to respond to a call out from Kumanu is Tim, our fabulous secretary.
Cashy Yates – coordinator.wangapeka@gmail.com
Tim Leyland – secretary.wangapeka@gmail.com
Simon Jones – treasurer.wangapeka@gmail.com
Dan Burgess-Milne – danburgessmilne@gmail.com
Elli Yates – elliyates@gmail.com
Dave Pooch – dpooch@me.com
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou, thanks for reading and sharing with us in the blessing of the Dharma.