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General Information: Overview: : History Index : ZPC-USA Steward Report November 5th, 2003 Report from ZPC-USA Steward![]() Greetings to all of you! I am writing to you, as Steward of the Zen Peacemaker Circle-USA, to communicate the spirit of our last ZPC-USA meeting, which was held in Northampton, MA, in September. I want to bring you up to date on policies and procedures that have been decided by the ZPC-USA as it has been constituted up to now. Please remember, however, that we will all be creating our circles together. If there is anything that I don't state clearly enough for it to be understandable, or anything that seems unworkable for you and your local circle, do not hesitate to communicate with Teiju and myself and give us feedback. This is a very exciting time in the history of the ZPC, because we all have the opportunity to study together, to create and to try out our ideas. The wisdom of our circles will speak to us as to how to proceed. So lets jump in, listen to one another, see what transpires, and keep in touch! I really look forward to hearing from you as to how things are going in your circles. Keep on truck'n. MargiEight CirclesThere are now eight established or possible circles. These are in:
We are defining a Zen Peacemaker Circle as having one Trained Steward and at least two other people who are Applicants or Companions. A Provisional Circle is defined as having a maximum life of one year, a Trained Steward and three members, including the Steward. In a Provisional Circle, the two members do not need to have Applicant or Companion status. We recognize that it takes time to create a functioning circle. Circle ConstitutionThe major shift we made at the last meeting was to decide that from now on the ZPC-USA Circle will be constituted according to the ZPC model. In other words, the current group of people, those who have been meeting together as a transitional policy-making group since last March, will be disbanding to make room for stewards and representatives of all of the local circles to come into the circle. Although representatives to this circle will eventually be drawn from regional circles, for the time being (since there are no regional circles), we are asking stewards of the local circles to attend our next meeting, along with up to two representatives. (It is also OK for a steward to attend the meeting alone, without an accompanying representative. That is a matter to be decided within your local circle.) However, the representatives who attend the ZPC-USA meeting should be either Applicants or Companions of the ZPC. It doesn't make sense to have people attending the policy-making circle if they are not yet committed to the overall functioning of the ZPC-USA. So stewards, please share this information with your circle. In December you might want to decide who will be attending the next ZPC-USA meeting. The dates are January 19-20th, 2004. Please contact me with your decision by Jan. 10th at the latest. We may all finally get to practice our circle voting process skills! BudgetIn August we voted to operate within our budget, which is very small. Therefore, we will be relying as much as possible on internet and telephone communication. We've authorized Bruce O'Leary, Director of Information Technology and Communication at PCI in Montague to set up a website for the ZPC and to create an interface for each Circle that will be entered on the web and interfaced with the ZPC database. You will be hearing from Bruce or Teiju, who will let you know what data to enter and how to do it. The Steward of the ZPC-USA Circle, currently myself, is also responsible for updating our unfolding, by writing a short piece for our website following each meeting. Teiju will be coming to our next meeting with a proposal for a monthly communication plan that will serve all ZPC-USA members on our email list. What we are?How do we help people who may be interested in joining our circles know who/what we are? At the moment, that is a question for local stewards to figure out and you are welcome to call Teiju, Margi or Genro for some ideas. Genro and Teiju have been asked to put together an outline for a one-day training. When that is done our task will be a bit easier. Since all circles will to some extent look different, part of knowing what we are can only be experienced, of course, by actively participating in a circle. Further ClarificationsA couple of further clarifications. Applicants pay a one-time fee of $108 and Companions pay a fee of $50 a month. Applicants do NOT need to pay the $50 monthly fee on top of their application fee. The length and process of the Applicant phase will be decided upon by each local Circle and will be posted on the web. . All former Zen Peacemaker Order Applicants will be grandfathered in as current ZPC Applicants. It is expected that each circle will have regularly scheduled meetings. The particular schedule will be determined by the local circle and posted on the web. There have been requests for more communication between Europe and the USA. It will be my responsibility to share with you all, any information regarding news, events and trainings that I hear about from Paul Schwerdt, the ZPC-Europe Steward. Similarly, I will pass on to Paul, any pertinent information that you share with me. Eventually we hope to have a way for persons holding similar seatholder positions to meet and communicate together also.Montague Circle Meetings![]() In order to be able to coordinate the efforts of the ZPC-USA with the Peacemaker Foundation and the PCI International, the Steward and a representative of the ZPC-USA Circle will be attending Montague Circle meetings. It was decided that the Resource Seatholder would be this representative. So Paco Lugoviña, who currently holds this position, will attend these meetings with me. VisionAt the end of our meeting, Genro led us in
the Circle Brainstorming Process to create a Vision and Action Plan. We
defined "Vision" as "Where we want to be when all is done" and
"Mission", otherwise known as "Action Plan", as "How we're going to get
there". Our vision statement for the ZPC-USA Circle is as follows: Action PlanWe decided that we wanted our Action Plan to enumerate what we'd like the Circle to accomplish in the next 4 months. Given other circumstances, the Action Plan could have been a one-year or even a 10-year plan. Basically it turned out to be a "to do" list for members, that grew out of ideas generated during the meeting, and was divided into two categories, "Linkage" and "Service". There is no need to go into each detail, but we did decide that the ZPC-USA Circle would meet at least three times a year and that each time we meet, we will evaluate our Action Plan. I mention this because it is hoped that eventually each circle will have it's own Vision and Action Plan. "Spirit" of the MeetingI was asked to communicate to you the "spirit" of our meeting. That is a hard task. On the one hand we were more formal than ever. We decided to proceed according to Robert's Rules of order, and it was amazing how many thoughtfully crafted resolutions we churned out in a short time. We were on a roll and anxious to get this baby off the ground. Hence our decision to reconstitute our circle in January. Following our meeting, Bernie organized all the resolutions passed since last March into categories, and our new Resolution Book is available for all new members of our Circle to refer to. On the other hand, it was a meeting filled with humor, horrible jokes and great camaraderie. May the spirit of the "Order of Disorder" be with us all evermore! |
Bernie's Zen
The Dude Abides
