Centre Participation, Programs, and Online Courses

1 How would you rate these aspects of participation in your group or centre?

Figure 1

Centres identify several areas where improvement is most needed.

The strongest priorities include:

Increasing the proportion of participants becoming members or regular donors
More new participants
A more diverse mix of participants

These responses indicate that growth in participation and engagement is a central concern.

In contrast, centres are more satisfied with the levels of interaction between different generations and support for those with relationships to different teachers.

Open Text: Would you like to add anything about resource needs, participation or other issues at your group or centre?

We received 34 responses, which were varied. A majority described various shortfalls, in finances, new attendees, volunteers and space adequacy, mostly commenting how these constrained what they sought to do, or how they were now only functioning in a very limited way. One response asked for specific, strategic leadership support, and one for translation of videos into Italian.

However, several responses were notably positive, reporting growth and success in some areas.

Examples

“We are a humble group, we are happy with our present situation, growing is slow, but constant.”

“Our leadership is aging out and slowly burning out.”

“We are enjoying a full shrine room for Sunday Open House(25-45). Many new folks are receiving meditation instruction, but our weekly donation request goes mostly unheeded. Although many folks attend open house, few become members. 90% of new attendees are young 20-30-ish. Attendance to programming is good. Somehow, the new folks don’t understand the need to provide financial support for the services we are offering. Probably a failure of our messaging. But, in spite of all that, there is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and energy that is palpable here.”

2 Are the Shambhala Care and Conduct Policies and Procedures readily available to members and visitors to your group or centre?

Figure 2: Whether the Care and Conduct Policies are readily available to members and visitors.

Although centres and groups are required to make the Care and Conduct policies readily available, only two thirds report that they do. Others report they do not make them available, that they are not sure, or even that they do not know how to obtain them.

3 Do you incorporate Shambhala Online courses in your group or centre program offerings?

Whether centres incorporate Shambhala Online courses in their program offerings.

Only just over one third of centres and groups say they actively integrate Shambhala Online courses in their program offerings. Of the remainder, a large portion report that they have used this resource but prefer to offer their own courses. A small portion say they are considering offering them, though the rest do not incorporate them at all

4 How satisfied are you that the current array of Shambhala Online programming meets your needs as a group or centre?

Satisfaction with whether the current array of Shambhala Online programming meets centre needs.

Among centres that responded, satisfaction that Shambhala Online programming meets centre or group needs is mixed. Less than half are fully satisfied and the remainder report that they are either somewhat satisfied or not satisfied.

5 Open Text: What suggestions do you have for different Shambhala Online program offerings?

We received 27 responses to this question. While four responses rated the current programming highly, the largest number of responses (one third) offered practical ways in which programming could better serve centre needs, and almost as many more stated that they needed programs in their own languages. Five respondents said the prices were too high for their participants.

Examples

“The costs are just too high for us to promote them to our sangha. They are in USD and often well above what we would charge locally. Also, when we get a lot of people attending and want to do it from the shrine room, it is too hard to be in a Zoom group as the energetic container doesn’t match. We had this happen in a level 3.”

“Some of the pricing is much too steep. We were aghast at the cost of the Meditation Instructor training. Much of the programming is of interest.”

“It would be good to have a more advanced schedule of Shambhala Online levels so that we could do a mix of our own levels with hosting for Shambhala online levels when our local cohort is too small.”

“We don’t have enough local teachers to offer all Shambhala levels, so we need larger groups to afford out-of-town teachers. It would be good to have a more advanced schedule of Shambhala Online levels so that we could do a mix of our own levels with hosting for Shambhala online levels when our local cohort is too small.”

6 How well does the Shambhala Online revenue share policy meet your needs?

Figure 3

Only about one third of respondents say the current revenue-sharing policy works well. A notable number of respondents report being unfamiliar with the policy, or that they would prefer to purchase the program and adapt it for their local needs.

We received 17 open ended comments to this topic. Of these, the largest number stated that they would prefer to purchase the program for their centre than use the revenue share. A quarter stated that they had found the policy confusing, or that it had not worked very well for them, and several stated that the cost was too high.

Examples:

“The course fees are too high given the economic situation in Chile. We need to do it differently.”

“I recall it being very expensive for the student. We would like to be able to sell it for a lower price and then send you the appropriate share.”

“The revenue share was quite confusing for our Centre”