Past Years
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VIMC Annual Reports
2024
Steve Wangh, President; Lisa Schmitt, Treasurer; Chris Arieta, Secretary; Claudia Caine, Sarah Cooper-Ellis, Board members; Drew Kovach, Practice Leaders’ Representative; Susan Dreyer Leon, Teacher Council Representative, Paula Swenson, Elders’ Council Representative
Dear VIMC Sangha:
While the daily sittings, the course offerings, and the visiting teachers’ retreats constitute the VIMC activities you probably know… a lot of what we do happens inside the groups and committees that do much of the day-to-day work needed to keep VIMC going. Each year, all the working groups of our sangha report to the Board on the past year’s activities. So, our Annual Report is your chance to “look beneath the hood.”
Some highlights:
In the reports below, you may discover things you didn’t know about your sangha. Here are a few highlights gleaned from the full report. You may be surprised to learn that…
- The teachers continue to offer individual practice guidance meetings with members of the sangha.
- VIMC paid rent of $350 per month to the Center Congregational Church though November 2024 (the end of the lease). But VIMC is currently paying rent of $950 for new the space at 28 Vernon St.
- A total of 25 sangha members volunteered to contribute to and deliver our meal team’s twelve dinners during the year.
To learn more about your sangha, read on. And know that if you have questions, you can contact the board by writing to: https://vermontinsight.org/contact/
Steve Wangh, Board President, May 2025
TEACHERS’ REPORT – in four parts
Shifting to 3 teachers
We began 2024 with a shift from having 4 teachers to having 3 teachers. Cheryl Wilfong’s retirement from all teaching activities has resulted in several major changes for the teaching team and the sangha. Perhaps the most notable change is the need to typically have at least one three-sit Sunday per month, rather than having a teacher-led program most weeks. Some folks enjoy having the time for more extended practice on some Sundays.
Our courses this year have basically kept pace with the previous few years. We are averaging around 7 or 8 classes per year since the pandemic. With only two teachers offering classes, this may be about the limit of what we can offer until we have more people available to teach. One suggestion to offer more options for Sangha members may be more Dharma Friends groups that do book discussions or have a specific focus on areas of interest to the group members.
The teachers continue to offer individual practice guidance meetings with members of the sangha. These meetings generally happen on a “as requested” basis and members continue to request them.
The twice monthly Saturday morning gathering called Meditation and Conversation continues to be a well-used offering with regular attendees. What once was called The Beginners Group has shifted to an opportunity for attendees to engage in rather deep and introspective discussions about practice.
We continue to offer a meditation class at Turning Point twice a month. The organization itself has gone through some dramatic changes and the upheaval resulted in limited use of this resource. But there have been regulars who show up, in small numbers. The organization values the offering.
The monthly Full Moon gathering has continued despite the occasional scheduling challenges due to conflicts with other VIMC offerings.
Quadpod
This year we also expanded the “Tripod” structure of the 2 teachers to a “Quadpod” that includes two teachers, a representative of the administrative team and a senior Sangha member. This group is continuing to function as the programming committee, organizing our half-day or daylong retreats each month, recruiting visiting teachers, and working with the Board and Practice Leaders on issues as they emerge with regard to our program offerings. The expansion has proven to be helpful, as many of our conversations involved administrative issues. The collaboration has energetic and the collaborative nature of the group is growing. One question has arisen about how frequently we may want to rotate the senior Sangha member on the committee, so this will be a good topic for discussion for 2025. The full list of our visiting teachers and special events can be see here.
Multi-day retreat
One big highlight of 2024 for many Sangha members was our two-day non-residential retreat with Rachael O’Brien. The effort took a lot of administrative coordination and time between VIMC and Potash Hill, but was a big success according to the members who attended in person and on-line.
Opportunities for Expanding the Teaching Team
Paul, Claire and Susan are continuing to explore options for expanding the teaching team. To this end, we’ve been in conversation for nearly a year with Barbi Schulick, who is also a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program alum. She is interested in offering some sessions at VIMC and has been co-teaching meditation and conversation with Susan since the fall of 2024.
Susan Dreyer Leon – Teacher
VIMC FINANCIAL REPORT
VIMC again ended in a strong financial position, enabling support for programs and meditation at the Centre Congregational Church and the current space at 28 Vernon St.
There were three fundraising activities in 2024: the spring and fall appeals and “Crepe Night” held at Scott Farm. The spring appeal, which raised $2651 was again used to support the Teacher Development Fund. The proceeds from the annual fund ($19,920) and Scott Farm fundraiser ($1057) support general operations. VIMC continues to make considerable use of volunteer support and augments that support with paid support as needed. VIMC pays for the support of a part-time administrator and bookkeeper
Income: VIMC receives income from a variety of sources including sitting dana, the spring appeal, the fall appeal, registration fees, sustaining support, and an endowed fund.
Income from Sitting dana was $10,484.
The Spring Appeal generated $2651 for the Teacher Development Fund.
The Annual Appeal generated $19,920. This is significantly increased from 2023 due to a gift of $10,000 from one donor.
Sustaining donations for 2024 totaled $2521. Sustaining donations remain fairly steady.
Income from course registration fees was $1558 and from retreat registration fees, $6133, bringing the total from registration fees for 2024 to $7691. Interest in VIMC programs remains strong.
Additional income from the endowment fund, bank interest, and “other” (small donations from PayPal Giving Fund) came to $2990.
Total Income for 2024: $47,315.
Expenses: Bookkeeper, charitable gifts, liability insurance, rent, office expenses, administrator stipend, PayPal fees, postage and PO box, website development and maintenance, IT support, internet, zoom account, core teacher retreat assistance, and visiting teacher support.
VIMC paid rent of $350 per month to the Center Congregational Church though November 2024 (the end of the lease). VIMC is currently paying rent of $950 for the space at 28 Vernon St. This space is subleased from the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center and our first rent payment was in October 2024.
Part-time administrative support expenses for 2024 were $4980. Other professional fees (bookkeeping) were $1229.
Total expenses for 2024: $21,418.
Income minus expenses for 2024: $25,897.
VIMC ended 2024 with a reserve fund (in CDs) of $58,196 and $48,659 in bank and PayPal accounts. Total assets at the end of 2024: $106,855.
Lisa Schmitt, Treasurer
ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM REPORT
The admin team saw some unexpected changes this year, the biggest being that administrative assistant, Catherine, suffered a blow to her health and could no longer continue editing the newsletter, posting on social media and other administrative tasks. The gap was filled by Paula Swenson with help from Denise Glover, until Amée LaTour who had been proofreading materials for us, stepped into the role of administrative assistant.
Over the last few months of 2024, the newsletter was redesigned and social media was reengaged with new graphics. Since the updates, the VIMC weekly newsletter’s statistics show consistently higher rates of opening.
The website has thrown a few curves this year, but we have been able to keep our event registrations updated and functioning. Amée has taken a comprehensive approach bringing the information on the webpages up to date and this is a work in progress.
VIMC’s dedication to the study and practice of Vipassana (Insight meditation) was fostered by the number of fee waivers given to dharma students. In 2024, a total of 48 scholarships were given to 31 individual participants who attended VIMC courses and retreats. Their practice is a gift to us all.
Paula Swenson, Board Member & Amée LaTour, Administrative Assistant
SET UP COMMITTEE
When VIMC moved this year from the Center Congregation Church, we made significant upgrades to our audio and video systems. We are now reaping the benefits of the enhanced quality for both Zoom and in-center participants.
With these improvements comes some added complexity – so we are extremely grateful to a new Set Up Committee who has learned to set-up, maintain and troubleshoot before our sits, dharma talks and retreats: Claudia Caine, Jeff Martin, Paula Swenson and Jane Worley, as well as “forever members”: Mary Mathias and Rose O’Connor.
Our goal is to make every event a seamless experience for everyone who participates. In the months to come, we will try to identify new sangha member volunteers to learn these systems and get involved in this important support role.
Additionally, the move to the Vernon St space has made it possible to offer more events that involve the serving of tea, and Kelli Moran has joined with long time set-up member, Mary Mathias to help make things run smoothly.
Claudia Caine, Set Up Committee
PRACTICE LEADERS REPORT
Vermont Insight now has 11 practice leaders (PL), Arlene Cassidy, Fiona Cook, Charlene Ellis, Ann Fielder, Denise Glover, Gary Graff (2025), Drew Kovach, Rose O’Connor (Ret), Mary Mathias, Maria Tevolini, Paul Rodrigue. This includes one new PL and one retired PL who stands at-the-ready to fill in when needed.
Practice leaders cover 5 daily morning sits from 7:00 to 7:40 in the Hall and on Zoom. The Friday morning period is in-person only. The PL’s also lead evening sits on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:10pm, and two Friday evening sittings at 5:30 and 6:30 pm. Once a month, the PL’s offer 3-Sit Sundays—9 am to 12pm. Ann Fielder does a great job coordinating the Center’s schedule of teacher and practice leader sittings.
Throughout the week, practice leaders are responsible for opening up the meditation hall; setting up hybrid computer system with Zoom; time keeping; and, delivering a short reflection after the meditation. The practice leaders continue to be consistent and willing to help each other out when needed for coverage. There was a learning curve with another responsibility (monitoring the iPad to buzz people in if needed) when we moved into our new space. This issue was handled with patience and coaching from other sangha members.
Drew Kovach – Head of Practice Leaders
VERMONT INSIGHT DINNERS FOR THE GROUNDWORKS SHELTER (2024)
Providing healthy, nutritious and tasty dinners, as well as breakfast items, for the Groundworks Shelter is currently Vermont Insight’s only community outreach program, offering our sangha an opportunity to practice compassion and generosity towards our unhoused neighbors since 2008. Our Vermont Insight meal team is one of about twenty local faith and community groups who serve monthly dinners year-round at the Groundworks Shelter in Brattleboro.
A total of 25 sangha members volunteered to contribute to and deliver our meal team’s twelve dinners during the year. Each month, we provide a hearty tuna casserole main dish, a vegetarian alternative main dish, a side salad and dressing, bread and butter, desserts, milk and cider. We also donate breakfast items for the overnight guests.
The Groundworks Shelter is an essential lifeline for the unhoused community in Brattleboro. In October, the Shelter experienced a sharp increase in the numbers of people depending on their support when the state-run motel program closed. The Shelter was built to provide emergency accommodation for 35 people, and relies on community groups for the guests’ evening meal. Suddenly, there were 60 to 65 people turning up every evening for dinner. To meet this urgent need, the Shelter managed to raise the number of beds for overnight guests to 46 and were able to include the other 20 people in the evening meal by asking all the meal teams to increase the amount of food they provide. Happily, our Vermont Insight meal team helpers have really stepped up to this challenge, and so we have managed to increase the amount of food and number of dishes we make to serve the additional 85% in numbers for the evening meal, and now donate enough breakfast items for the extra 30% overnight guests.
As the coordinator for Vermont Insight’s meal team, I am constantly delighted by the level of commitment and support shown by our sangha members towards the Shelter meals program and by their generosity to those in need in our community.
A deep bow of gratitude to all who helped during the year.
Fiona Cook, Shelter Dinners Coordinator
VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE REPORT
In the two years since we reported goals and plans for developing our volunteer organization as mandated in the Strategic Plan Priority IV (see website) we have worked towards involving newer and younger sangha participants in events and activities.
We now have a more robust corps of members who know the everyday routines of opening and closing the center for 7 am sits, Saturday events, and Sunday sits and dharma talks. We have systems in place to assure smooth operations and volunteer collaboration to support our teachers and administrative teams. In addition, we have a team of sangha members who can mount events such as annual celebrations and fundraisers including Crepe night at Scott Farm (2024). Our volunteer roster includes contact information, interests, and skills.
As 2024 came to an end, Chris Arieta and Gino Palmieri formed the beginning of a core of dedicated volunteers who greet the Sangha on Sunday morning. Others have begun signing up on the online form in 2025.
Sarah Cooper-Ellis and Chris Arieta, Volunteer Committee