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Meanwhile, a recurrent annual resident turnover of approx. 50%, began to shift the focus of seasonal meetings from long term planning to basic levels of integrating new members. Each year, more discussions around
“How to…
*be the watch
*receive visitors
*keep warm in the winter
*why practice together
…In the Lama way”
were necessary and less meeting time was available for introducing the various official documents (By-Laws, Master Plan). Reading them was always recommended and copies were available. Residents who got involved with committees or became caretaker members were expected to be familiar with them. The mission statement was presented at fall meetings and a discussion of what “the awakening of consciousness” actually meant usually followed. For those new to a traditional spiritual path, (usually almost a majority) it was too ethereal for them to envision how to embody or manifest it. Those that stayed beyond a year, and used their time to explore a spiritual practice, did begin to “catch on” in amazing ways. However, the turnover for 2 and 3 year beans was over 50%.

In order to keep the Foundation running smoothly, more responsibility was given to people who had been here for a short time. Summer Staff often had guardianships (masterships) and first year residents often had core responsibilities (planning Summer Program/Winter Intensives, Secretary, Kitchen, Seva, etc.) The watch became a catch all for the various community facilitation needs. Where there were no residents of Jewish origins, Shabbat became a watch function. Heart Club also became a watch function at this time. With a 50% turnover rate, every other watch is first time watch, someone who is at the center of the community, undergoing an incredible learning curve.

From 92 through April of 96, this format could be seen as successful because it did:
*maintain a place where long term decisions could be discussed with multiple continuing members
*provided enough support for the resident body to grow from 8 in ’92 to 18 in ‘96
*Resident continuing members used Annual Meeting to approve new directions
(Permaculture Report, Site of Community Center) and made implementation decisions within the resident body, based on recommendations from the committees.
*Allowed many long term decisions to be made by the resident core group
*NRCM interaction with residents greatly increased the lama attunement in new beans

The Burning Gives Us More Transiency

May of ’96 brought the fire and many drastic changes. The traumatized resident body surrendered the running of the Foundation to the Trustees, via the Santa Fe Fundraising Office. An additional off site office was established in Arroyo Hondo for the Coordinator. Most of the resident involved in administration lived and worked at this office for the summer of ’96. The Lama Council was created to be a long term discussion and decision body that integrated Trustees, NRCM’s, and Residents into a body that could meet monthly to deal with the large amount of long term decisions that fire recovery necessitated. The original intention was that the Council was a temporary solution to fill the gap until the resident body was stable enough to again carry the responsibilities of making long term decisions.

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