All posts by Troy DuFrene

Community Fundraising Events

Over the last several years, BZC has sponsored auction items that brought small groups from the community together for an event: to learn a skill (flower arranging), to spend time in nature (kayaking) or on a tour (the Oakland zoo), or to enjoy dinner and a movie. This year’s fundraising committee has decided to separate these items from the September FUNdraiser Party, and to offer select events throughout the year (more fun for all!). So be on the lookout for announcements of these in the newsletter, on the bulletin board, on the website, and through the Yahoo e-group.
Our first event will be held on Sunday, October 9, at 4:00 pm in the community room.  Sojun Roshi, with the assistance of others in the know, will lead a teach-in on BZC’s Buddhist art collection. A donation of $30 to the Building Fund will be collected at the door, and refreshments will be provided. Please register for this event, so that we know how many to plan for. You can register by contacting Mary Beth Lamb at mbethlamb@gmail.com, by signing up on the bulletin board closer to the event, or by signing up for it at the September 24 FUNdraiser Party.

Resident Rental Discussion

At their August 14 meeting, the BZC Board voted to form an ad hoc rent committee, to include renting residents, board members, and other sangha members. The board passed the resolution below detailing the task of this committee. The committee will be chaired by Ed Herzog, who welcomes comments, questions, and other input from the community. He can be reached by email at edherzog@comcast.net.

Task of the 2016 BZC Rent Committee:

To determine, given all the related factors (listed below), what would be an appropriate rent increase for the board to institute, within the lawful ceiling but greater than the annual allowable increase (which we typically use).

  1. How much to increase rent, and over what period of time?
  2. Propose other rent-related policies as deemed appropriate, including but not limited to handling of vacancies and creation of rental agreements.
  3. As deemed appropriate, further the process of giving the Berkeley Rent Board updated information on amounts and tenancies.

Factors (after consideration, the committee has the authority to deem a factor irrelevant):

  • current rent amounts
  • allowable rent ceiling
  • previous Board policy re rents
  • contributions of the residents, financial and otherwise
  • current rents in relation to each other
  • input from the wider sangha
  • BZC estimated income needs over the next 5-10 years
  • rent subsidies for residents as needed
  • ideas in Mark Copithorne’s proposal (see Board minutes)
  • other factors introduced by Board or committee members

Initial Clarifying Points for Everyone to Agree on Going into the Process:

  1. We’re all in this together.
  2. The rental income is considered as an income source in an analogous way to how sesshin fees are considered an income source. The Board is considering a rent increase in a similar way to how they considered a sesshin fee increase a few years ago. The Board last investigated the rent amounts about 15 years ago. It is appropriate for the Board to tackle this issue at regular intervals.
  3. There is no intention to raise rents to market rate.
  4. There is no intention to try to “get around” the allowable rent ceiling.
  5. There is no intention to use a rent increase to generate all of the $25,000 the property committee and Board have projected as needed for the next few years
  6. There is an intention to set rents low enough to support residents to practice at BZC fully and wholeheartedly.
  7. The rent committee will report its progress at the November Board meeting.

Sojun Roshi’s Two-Part Mini Koan Class

Sojun will teach a two-session koan class Monday, October 10, and Monday, October 17, 7:15-8:45 pm in the community room. Sojun’s travel plans, and our other classes close to this time, limit the number of evenings available. The titles of the two koans he chooses are yet to be announced. Fee for the class is $20. A sign-up sheet will be posted on the patio bulletin board closer to the date. All are welcome.

Noon Zazen Bag Lunch

We are continuing the practice of sharing a bag lunch (BYO) and informal discussion with vice abbot Hozan Alan Senauke once a month after noon zazen. Upcoming dates are Thursday,  September 22, and Tuesday, October 25.

20s and 30s Dharma Group

BZC invites young adults in their 20s and 30s to join us in a monthly open discussion group about Zen, Buddhism, meditation, and developing a practice. Our aim is to cultivate kalyana mitta (spiritual friendship), to provide members with an opportunity to meet others in their age group, and to support each other in bringing practice more fully into our daily lives. The group is collaborative in structure and we encourage members to suggest issues/topics/activities for the group to pursue.

We meet either in the zendo at 11:30 am after Saturday lecture or at a local café on specified dates and locations. Remaining 2016 meetings: Tuesday, September 27 at BZC at 6:30 pm (we’ll then walk to a nearby café for food and discussion); Saturday, October 15 at BZC at 11:30 am; Monday, November 21 at BZC at 6:30 pm for a potluck supper; and Saturday, December 17 at BZC at 11:30 am.

For further information, contact Gerry Oliva: gryoliva@gmail.com.

BZC Annual Board Elections

It’s once again time for members of Berkeley Zen Center to cast their votes for members-at-large of the BZC Board of Directors, the Board’s executive officers, and the three salaried positions at BZC: abbot, vice abbot, and office manager. Following a successful launch in 2015, the Board has decided to conduct the 2016 voting electronically.
BZC eVoting relies on a tokenized, anonymous web survey link emailed to each eligible member. “Tokenized” means that the link is unique and issued just to one member (by email address). Once the token is used by a member to submit a ballot, the token expires and is no longer usable. The token is encrypted, and the results are completely anonymous. We can verify whether a particular member has voted but not how he or she has voted.
The voting will be exclusively electronic this year. There will be no paper alternative to the electronic ballot. This means that eligible members will need an email address and access to the Internet to cast their ballots. This being the case, the month of September would be a very good time for you to check in with the office manager and update your email address if necessary.
Links to the poll will be emailed at 12:01 am PDT on October 1, 2016. If you haven’t received yours that morning, please contact the office manager to request a new ballot. Once you get your email ballot, click the link it contains, and then just follow the instructions on the screen.
Thanks for your support of this year’s electronic voting process. If you have specific technical questions about eVoting, please direct them to BZC’s webmaster, Troy DuFrene (troydufrene@gmail.com). General questions about voting eligibility or other aspects of the election should be directed to the office manager (bzcofficemanager@gmail.com).

Sangha Potluck & Board Nominations

Please join us for a potluck dinner on Tuesday, September 13, beginning at 6:30 in the community room. A sign-up sheet is posted on the patio bulletin board for bringing food and drinks and helping with cleanup. After dinner the Board will nominate three candidates for this fall’s election. In recruiting candidates, the Board Nomination and Election Committee has identified skills that support the sangha’s interests, including but not limited to: oral and written communication, organization, information technology, money management, fundraising, engineering, building maintenance, and nonprofit law. Board members are expected to attend monthly meetings and an all-day retreat on a Sunday in February and to serve on at least one working Board committee: finance, buildings, development, electronic communication, nominations/elections. As in the past, all BZC members are welcome to nominate fellow members for this position, but please contact them first concerning their willingness to be nominated. We hope to see you at the dinner and meeting.

Tours of 1929A

BZC and our contractor have recently completed the upgrade to the kitchen and bathroom of 1929A, where Ken and Katy live (and the sesshin servers often eat). It’s almost expected that construction projects will take longer than expected, and this was no exception — work started in August 2015, and though Ken and Katy were able to move back in in April 2016, final inspection was not completed until July. Improvements included removing an unused vent cavity from the kitchen below (gaining roughly 10 square feet to the room), new flooring, all new kitchen cabinets, a new energy-efficient fridge, and new lighting. We reused the range and the water heater, both of which were in good shape. The bathroom was remodeled to locate the more commonly used public functions (the sink and toilet) closer to the door, while putting in all new floor and wall tile and new fixtures.

constructionWasteOf course, no renovation is without its surprises, and ours included the discovery that the floor joists were spaced too far apart and had been notched out for plumbing, rendering their structural capacity seriously below code. A number of exterior wall studs had also been cut for utilities, similarly weakening their capacity. We reinforced both floor joists and wall studs to bring them up to strength and added insulation and waterproofing in the process. We also discovered dangerously unprotected wiring under the flooring in the attic, which constituted a significant fire hazard. That wiring was replaced. Some of the most important work that was accomplished, which significantly improved the structural integrity and safety of the building, is now performing its function invisible to the eye.

While most of the work for a project of this scale is most efficiently done by a contractor, we did some of the work ourselves. Shelley Brock did the initial design work. Ken Powelson managed the project, sourcing many of the materials and searching out more cost-effective options. Access panels were rebuilt during work day. Walter Kieser made the shower rods in the bathroom, and Ken made the towel racks. Henry Herndon wired up all our smoke detectors to meet code for our final inspection.

newKitchenWe will be offering guided tours of 1929A at our all-sangha fundraising party on Saturday, September 24, so you’ll be able to see the completed construction (in case you missed the impromptu tour held after a semi-recent Saturday program). Come check it out!

Many thanks to the Building Committee members — Ross Blum, Shelley Brock, Mary Duryee (point person), Walter Kieser, Ken Powelson, and Ron Nestor — who helped plan and carry out the renovation project, and to Ken in particular for shepherding the whole project from beginning to end. The project went much longer than expected (9+ months to the point of the apartment being habitable, and closing in on 12 months to button up final details). This amounted to a “second job” on top of Ken’s employment and residency schedule. His steady attention to detail and patience were evident and much needed. Special thanks to both Katy and Ken for their good-natured flexibility and endurance during the time they lived out of suitcases — in so many different locations that they lost exact count (but somewhere between 8 and 9 places in as many months) — and to sangha members Lisa Nelbach, Jed Appelman, Linda Hess, Laurie and Hozan for opening their homes to Ken and Katy while they were itinerant. This was a moving expression of the treasure of sangha.

Studies from Dogen’s Extensive Record (Eihei Koroku) with Hozan Alan Senauke

Hozan Alan Senauke will lead this year’s one-day study sesshin on Sunday, September 4, from 5:00 am to 5:30 pm. As the summer winds down, this day will provide a quiet and reflective respite. It will include zazen, oryoki meals for breakfast and lunch, soji, and two study and discussion sessions. Our study will be a selection from Dogen Zenji’s Eihei Koroku, drawn and collected from Dogen’s extensive later teaching. These are recorded talks and pithy commentary, part poetry, part performance, offered from the teaching seat in the Dharma Hall, similar in style to those of Chinese masters in the Tang and Sung dynasties.
Materials will be available on the bulletin board shelf in advance of the sesshin. The fee is $35, and should be paid in advance. Please leave payment marked “Study Sesshin” by Wednesday, August 31, in the donation slot. For more information, contact sesshin director Carol Paul: caroljpaul@yahoo.com or (510) 206-5051. A sign-up sheet is posted on the bulletin board.

Practice Period Is Here!

Practice Period began on Saturday, April 30th and will end on Sunday, June 12th.

This year’s shuso is long time practicing member Walter Kieser, Kosan Shinshi, (Tall Mountain, Deep Stillness). Helping Walter as his benji is Mary Duryee.

Download the practice period calendar here: [sdm_download id=”11398″ fancy=”0″]