Saturday

New Steps for the Governance of Shambhala

Miksang photo courtesy of Maxine Sidran

Sakyong Clarifies Central Governance of Shambhala, Makes New Appointments

The Sakyong, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, has taken steps to consolidate and reorganize the central governance of the mandala. He finalized the changes at a meeting of the Kalapa Council that took place at Shambhala Mountain Center, 11-12 July 2010.

The Sakyong has asked the Kalapa Council to take full responsibility for the legal and financial governance of the mandala as a whole. He has also appointed an Executive Director to head a newly-created body of senior office holders that will be known as the Kalapa Executive, and expanded the Mandala Council to include all Shambhala groups. With this new allocation of responsibilities, he has decided it is not necessary to extend the mandate of the Sakyong’s Council which expired on Shambhala Day 2010.

The Sakyong’s decisions are set out in a letter to the mandala from Mr David Brown, the Head of the Office of the Kalapa Court and Executive Secretary to the Sakyong. A link to the full letter follows at the end of this message.

Highlights of the Sakyong’s decisions are:

The Kalapa Council, the lha governing body of the mandala, will assume the formal legal and financial responsibilities of the board of directors of the mandala. This will be the council with the full authority to disseminate the wishes and commands of the lineage and to govern the mandala in accordance with those.

Ms Carolyn Mandelker is appointed to the position of Executive Director, reporting to President Reoch. Ms Mandelker was the Director of Practice and Education for the past seven years.

Ms Andrea Doukas is to become the Co-Director of Practice and Education, sharing responsibilities with Ms Mandelker for a transitional period. She was the former Director of the Halifax Shambhala Centre.

The Directors of other major Shambhala Offices will be brought together to form the Kalapa Executive, a body of some 20 office-holders that will serve as the executive arm of the Kalapa Council, directing and integrating the core activities and services of the mandala.

The Kalapa Executive will include an Office of Societal Health and Well Being, comprising all the working groups that now concentrate on community issues such as accessibility, diversity, aging, families and children, and so on. The Sakyong has appointed Ms Mary Whetsell to be the Director of Societal Health and Well Being.

The Sakyong has appointed Acharya Mitchell Levy to be the Director of International Relations, serving on the Kalapa Executive as well as the Kalapa Council.

The Mandala Council, on which all Shambhala Centres have a seat, is to be expanded and strengthened by adding representatives of all groups — to create a broader consultative body for communication with the centre of the mandala.

With these changes, there will no longer be a need for a separate body known as the Sakyong’s Council. The Sakyong has therefore decided that it is not necessary to renew the mandate of that body, which expired on Shambhala Day 2010. He has written to the council expressing his appreciation for the years of work it has offered to the lineage and the mandala.

By appointing the Executive Director and establishing the Kalapa Executive, the Sakyong has strengthened the central services to the mandala as a whole and has freed up the President to work more closely with him on strategic international initiatives.

The full text of the Kalapa Court announcement is available here: http://shambhala.org/community/files/PDF/Central_Governance.pdf