Kia ora e te whānau,
Greetings from your Board of Trustees! Kumanu is our way of keeping you up to date with what has been happening, what we’re working on, and what we’re grappling with. It is by no means exhaustive, but we hope it gives you a sense of “What’s Up” in Wangapeka land, and what’s on the seemingly never-ending Agenda!
Recent Minutes and reports
including July and August BoT meetings, and the most recent Centre Caretaker, Office, Maintenance Sub-Committee and Treasurer’s reports.
Can all be found in this folder
What’s been happening:
On the hunt for new Caretakers : The wonderful Tracy, who has been our dedicated Centre Caretaker for the last 2 years, has decided she is moving on. We are tremendously grateful for all that Tracy has brought to her role, and wish her so very well in the next chapter of life. We are currently beginning the hunt for a new Centre Caretaker. Watch this space…..
We have also just employed an interim landcare contractor, a local resident Craig, in a 3 day per week contract position. Craig is currently being inducted and will be a huge help with upgrading the pig fence (see below), keeping up with the Spring growth, and other essential landcare tasks.
Service as the path : Coming to a close, and continuing on….
SAP 2024 is about to end, we wish to thank Mark and Kath, and Tracy, and all those who have been involved, in this successful community of practice exploration/experiment! There is a review process currently underway, and some indication that a version of SAP will continue in 2025. Georgia will be convening a working group to explore this over the next month. In the meantime,
There is a celebration being held on September 28th – all welcome! Please RSVP here.
Volunteer Units: The ablution block has been installed and now has a roof! A new name has been suggested and will be unveiled soon…..
Our Office Caretaker Brooke : continues to do amazing work. She is in the process of upskilling to use Xero accounting software. This is part of an ongoing approach to streamlining and improving all of our registration, booking, invoicing, accounting, and financial recording processes. We are hugely grateful for Brooke’s skills and commitment to this role. Thank you Brooke!
Introducing our new wangapeka.org team workspace : Shea Dawson has been providing wonderful technical support and assistance to set up all the Board members, Caretakers, and Sub-Committee members with an integrated Google Workspace that is connected to Wangapeka, with uniform “wangapeka.org” email addresses.
There will be a bit of a lag while everyone updates their records, but rest assured if you send an email to an “old” address, it will be forwarded to the new “wangapeka.org” address of whoever you are trying to reach.
You can find an updated contact list at the bottom of this Kumanu.
Starlink : The only copper phone line based system has been increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain, impacting internet speeds and reliability considerably. Fortunately/unfortunately, depending on your view, the Starlink system was the only option for a reasonably priced and reliable source of both internet and phone. We are now up and running with Starlink for internet, and the phone access has been moved to a VoIP system. Overall we will save around $150 to $160.00 a month so will pay off the investment within 8 or 9 months.
What we are reckoning with :
Pigs at Wangapeka :
As many of you know, there have been an increasing number of pigs making themselves very much at home inside the pig fence at Wangapeka, and completely unperturbed by the existing electric fence. There is now a level of inter-generational resistance to the pig fence! This has caused much damage to the land inside the pig fence, and created a lot of work for those on the land to keep up with their digging activity. With the busy summer months coming and people wanting to camp on retreats, we need to act in a way that will strongly discourage the pigs from continuing in this way, for the safety and wellbeing of the pigs and all the other visitors and inhanitants of the land.
There has been a lot of work done on the electric fence in recent months, particularly by Mattthew Eades, and also the Maintenance SC, to get it up to a consistent charge. There will be further upgrades to the fence in coming months, to add an additional wire and reinforce the fence in some key locations.
In addition, there will be an effort to move the pigs back outside the pig fence. We are exploring 2 options for this – the use of trained, muzzled dogs to chase the pigs out, and a thermal imaging drone that is used at nighttime also to move the pigs out. We are committed to moving the pigs out in a way that protects their lives, as well as preserving the forest and other life forms inside the pig fence, and protecting the safety of our visitors and guests at the Wangapeka. We are clear that we will not be pursuing any course of action that would kill, or have killed, or be party to the killing of, pigs on or off the Wangapeka property. This is in keeping with the values and principles by which Wangapeka operates.
If you have any questions or concerns about any of this, please feel free to contact Chani assistantcoordinator@wangapeka.org
Changes to our Legal and Financial Requirements :
Maree Murray has been engaged in an awesome untangling of knots as our new Treasurer. We now know that we are a Charitable Trust, and we have a Trust Deed, not a Constitution, (as it has previously been referred to). We are free to update and amend our Trust Deed anytime, and we as a BoT will be working on this key document over the coming year, along with updating our Policy Manual which is now quite out of date and has some big gaps in it!
We no longer have a legal requirement to audit our accounts. This is actually great news, since it is a costly exercise and is becoming almost impossible to find auditors who will work with our unique ways of doing things! We will be amending our Trust Deed to reflect the change, and leave the decision to audit or not to the discretion of the Board of Trustees at any given time.
At this year’s AGM the Draft budget was approved by the members present, subject to being audited. However, since we no longer legally need to audit our accounts, our Treasurer Maree has done a Revised Budget. Please contact Maree if you would like to see a copy of this, or have any questions about these changes.
Our long time auditor Barry Signal stepped down recently. The BoT offered him a gift on behalf of the wider community to say thank you for all his years of service and support for the Wangapeka. Barry has continued to offer valuable informal guidance for Maree in her new role.
The seemingly never-ending “Agenda”! Balancing Immediate Needs and Long-term Vision
The challenge of steering the mothership Wangapeka through many daily and seasonal changes is great. There are always so many immediate and seemingly pressing needs, and many interlocking parts to consider. There is also the need to keep expanding the view, to think strategically, with vision and clarity, about how Wangapeka can adapt in a rapidly changing world, to keep meeting the needs of beings in increasingly difficult circumstances.
We are still finding our way as a new BoT, and figuring out our processes in close consultation with sub-committees, but we are committed to clear and open communication with the community about our process, and drawing on as much support, talent, experience, expertise, willingness and generosity as there is in the community. That means you, too! Wangapeka has always been an ongoing experiment of Awakening Community in Action, and it is certainly no different now. If you feel moved to get involved in any way, please get in touch with someone in the contact list below to offer your time and energy.
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 in-person BoT meetings are scheduled for :
October 19th
December 7th
Sarva Mangalam!
Chani, on behalf of the Board of Trustees
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 |