When the possibility of purchasing the Dharma Rain Zendo first came up, the natural question was, Does the community support this purchase? One way to interpret this is purely financially: Do we have the money coming in for a downpayment and monthly loan payments. Of course, support is more than financial and it’s even more than volunteer energy. The question truly is: Would the community make its home here and deeply settle into this building?
A pledge drive answered these intertwined questions. Right now, we have $3,115 per month in pledged support from 50 community members. This amount of money — more than we’ve ever taken in before — shows that we can consider taking on a loan. But the fact that there are 50 people who came forward to offer this support has been an inspiration to the Board that the community support is here.
Now, it’s time to consider what kind of offer we can present to Dharma Rain. To avoid the natural winter holiday slump in community energy as people turn to their families and travels, the Board has set a goal of bringing an initial offer to Dharma Rain by the middle of December.
In order to make an offer that the Board has confidence in, we need to consider what conditions create a viable purchase. We have undertaken to learn:
what shape is the building in
how much insurance will cost
how do we create a useful reserve fund
what initial remodeling might be beneficial
how renting to others will facilitate this purchase
It also means considering other community costs like better supporting the Spiritual Director and getting some professional help with our bookkeeping systems.
In short, there are a lot of plans to be made during this next month. It is an exciting time, with many people putting time into supporting the community by working on this purchase, keeping our programs going and practicing together. The energy is building and the signs are promising.
To learn more about our directors and view our board meeting dates, visit: https://pdxdhamma.org/mission/governance/
Greg Satir, vice-president