Our Strategic Plan
Mountain Stream is excited to share our three-year strategic plan with you! The plan was formed in 2021 during a number of open forums where the Mountain Stream community was invited to express their visions for our future. These forums were very well attended, and many wonderful ideas about what would be best for our future were offered.
Mountain Stream’s Board of Directors synthesized these ideas onto a draft plan and then held further forums where the community refined and honed each plan and goal to reflect more accurately how they felt we should grow and change. The board incorporated these clarified ideas into a final three-year plan and voted to approve it.
As a result of this careful, community based process, Mountain Stream’s plans are grounded in and informed by the ideas and inputs received directly from the community. Many thanks to our entire Sangha for your enthusiastic participation and great ideas!
In order to ensure our plan’s success, we have set up five workstreams that correspond to the five North Stars that are outlined in our Strategic Plan. Each workstream has a leader who will report monthly to the board on progress made, decisions or guidelines requested from the board, and top upcoming priorities and next steps. You can view workstream reports here. We will be updating these after each board meeting, so please check back if any are out of date or not yet posted.
Workstream Reports
To financially support our new Strategic Plan, we created a three-year fundraising strategy that included our recent fundraising campaign called “Rooted in the Dharma,” launched in the summer of 2021. Sangha members were invited to join together in financial support of the strategic plan, ensuring that our Center, teachers, and teachings continue for years to come. The campaign was successful in reaching its goals and provides the funds to implement our North Stars ensuring a healthy future.
Please take a moment to read the foundational documents below that are the result of our strategic planning process. Before Board approval, Mountain Streams Vision, Mission and Values were updated to be more current to our community’s expressed interests and needs.
Thank you very much for your engagement, as we move forward as community.
Mountain Stream Meditation Board of Directors
Mountain Stream Vision, Mission, Values
Vision
For the benefit of all beings, Mountain Stream supports our community in awakening in the heart and depth of the Buddha’s teachings
Mission
Our mission is to offer Dharma teachings with a dedicated focus on Insight practices supporting mindful living. We provide ongoing programs, including meditation groups, retreats, classes, and opportunities for community service. We are committed to offer our programs in a safe, nourishing environment of respect and inclusion.
You are invited to take refuge in our virtual offerings, and to visit and practice at the Nevada City Insight Center, our village temple.
Values
The Buddhist ethics of non-harming are the foundation for our Values. As practitioners, we aspire to:
-Diversity and Inclusiveness: May we welcome all to our community-Generosity: May we be guided by the spirit of open-handed giving
-Loving-kindness: May we live with an open-heart
-Deep Listening and Wise Speech: May we nurture trust, inquiry and understanding,
practicing mindful communication-Transparency: May we act responsibly and with accountability in all we do
-Compassion: May we demonstrate care for the suffering of ourselves and others
-Wisdom: May we deepen and grow through our practices together; may we aspire to
liberation for the benefit of all beings
Mountain Stream Three-Year Strategic Goals
The following “North Stars” inform our annual priorities and resources:
Cultivate a Welcoming Community that Values Diversity
a. Design strategies and implement plans that welcome a diverse range of people (age, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender orientation, socio-economic status, other)
b. Create a more engaging orientation process for newcomers
Weave a Strong Community
a. Build a cohesive, felt sense of belonging: “I am a part of Mountain Stream”
b. Increase the opportunities for volunteer engagement
c. Open the Nevada City Insight Center (post-COVID) on a more frequent basis
d. Increase the number of informal social gatherings to enhance cohesiveness within the community
e. Provide opportunities for small, community-led (affinity) groups to support participants in deepening the dharma in daily life
f. Consider targeted community outreach to serve the greater Grass Valley/Nevada City area
Design our programs/offerings to reflect the diversity of the community members’ meditation experience and their preferences for how they choose to access the teachings
a. Offer programs to benefit a person’s interest in Dharma study and practice
b. Generate programs and practice opportunities, to include direct access to senior teachers
c. Build a hybrid delivery system to maximize opportunities for exposure to teachings (i.e., live and virtual Dharma talks and retreats, access to a larger number of recorded Zoom teachings, live feed teaching from non-MS affiliated teachers, other)
d. Offer a variety of Mountain Stream-sponsored residential retreats
Nevada City Insight Center Facility Planning
a. Develop a detailed 10-year repair/maintenance/reserve budget
b. Identify any capital improvement projects, to include opportunities to apply environmentally-friendly approaches and materials
c. Prioritize the list of low-cost improvements or upgrades
Provide Stewardship of Mountain Stream’s Finances
a. Ensure long-term financial sustainability through wise fundraising
b. Align priorities and investment decisions with our community’s expressed needs and our mission
c. Regularly provide easily understandable financial reports for our Board and sangha members
Attract additional Guiding Teacher(s) during the next three years
a. Consistent with John’s long-term transition plan, attract a new Guiding Teacher or collective of teachers who will work under John’s guidance as he continues as Founding Teacher
b. Establish a larger circle of senior practice leaders
c. Raise sufficient funds to support these endeavors