Dear Friends,

The SIM Board would like to express our deep gratitude to all our sangha members. Each of you contribute to making our sangha special either through your financial and/or volunteer support or by participating in our programs. The success of SIM is based on a strong community rooted in the Dhamma.

In an effort to keep the sangha informed of the SIM Board’s activities, we are initiating a practice of writing regular communications. We feel that it is important for you to know what the Board is doing to support the SIM mission of providing vipassana/insight meditation support to the Sacramento community. Our hope is that increased communication from the SIM Board will clarify issues facing SIM, generate excitement in its potential, and inspire involvement in our precious sangha.

Looking back on 2023, we would like to share with you our accomplishments for the past year. The Legacy Teacher Project was initiated, and teachers Diana Clark, Walt Opie, and Vance Pryor are teaching regularly at SIM. Our Legacy teachers have also signed up to lead the 2025 SIM residential retreat! We launched our new website which involved over a year of planning, resulting in an appealing and user-friendly interface. In November, SIM held a successful residential retreat with Greg Scharf at the Mercy Center, during which sangha members recharged their practice. To provide much needed administrative support to the Board and Faculty, we developed and filled the Operations Manager position, and we are pleased to have David Guerrieri in this role. And we had our most successful year-end fundraising ever, with $24,000 raised!

This year we have already had a good deal happen, especially with changes to the Board. I officially took over as president in January from Jon Siiteri who served as president for the last two years. Jon remains on the board as a Member-at-Large until next spring. Alice Carney, who has been on the board for five years and served as Secretary, stepped off the Board in early February. We so appreciate Alice’s work on the Board, particularly her efforts to manage the website project, which was a huge undertaking! Karen Tercho, who has been on the board for two years, will now be the Board’s Secretary.

In February we welcomed Carmen Pereira and Margaret Buss to the Board.

Carmen comes to the Board with bookkeeping skills and an enthusiastic attitude. She will be taking on the Treasurer position when Greg Gollihur steps down in April.

After serving as Volunteer Coordinator for seven years, Margaret Buss joined the Board. She comes with a wealth of knowledge about SIM and the SDC, and her wisdom will help guide us. Much gratitude to Jon, Alice, Karen, Greg, Carmen, and Margaret for their service to the SIM community.

In mid-January, the board and faculty held a daylong retreat to take extended time to practice and work together. From this meeting came several ideas for practice events, including a Volunteer Appreciation event in March and commuter mini-retreat in August. And plans to update our weekly newsletter, now called SIM News, are in the works.

One of the decisions that came out of the meeting is an increase in daylong and course fees. We will now have a base rate of $25 per daylong, and $50 per course with additional levels that sustain SIM. Although we would love to be able to provide the Dhamma freely, we face the economic reality of our need for more professional services and a potential operating deficit for 2024. However, we remain committed to inviting everyone to access the teachings and will not turn anyone away for lack of funds.

As we look forward into 2024, I ask for your continued support and participation. We have opportunities for sangha involvement in one of the SIM Board committees or working groups: Finance, Community Outreach, and Residential Retreat Planning. Participation in a committee is an excellent chance to acquire a greater understanding of the day-to-day operation of SIM and provides an opportunity to get to know fellow sangha members on a deeper level. If a committee is not your thing, the set-up team for Thursday evenings and Saturday daylongs needs volunteers. I encourage you all to consider participating!

I look forward to practicing with each of you on this Dhamma Path. And, if you see a Board member on Thursday night, please say hello. We would love to get to know you better and would appreciate hearing about your experience at SIM.

May you be happy and healthy, and live in ease.

With metta,

Amy Kovak 

SIM Board President