Julia Sommer's Articles on Lions Roar

Julia Sommer reports on an intensive three-year process at San Francisco Zen Center to set its goals for the future. San Francisco Zen Center has been a mecca for serious Buddhist practitioners for more than thirty-five years. It operates three renowned practice centers in Northern California and offers community service and outreach programs for prisoners, the homeless and people in recovery. Teachers trained at Zen Center have founded some forty Zen centers and dharma groups around the country. Lectures by its legendary founder, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, continue to be published. So why did this venerable institution decide that it needed a new vision and strategic plan? “The main fact about Zen Center is its size and age,” says Norman Fischer, SFZC co-abbot from 1995 to 2000. “A lot of people have been doing Zen there for a long time. It’s the flagship Buddhist institution in the West. Because of this, it’s had to deal with organizational issues that younger, smaller sanghas haven’t, and it’s had a chance to make more mistakes. I wonder what will happen to some of the other Buddhist sanghas in the West when their charismatic founding leaders die.” SFZC has had to define and redefine itself several times in its history: at its pioneering founding at Sokoji Temple in the early 1960’s; after Suzuki Roshi’s death in 1971, when Richard Baker became the second abbot; in 1983, when Baker Roshi was asked to step down as abbot, and again in 1987, when the board of directors decided that two co-abbots were better than one. Since then, SFZC has seen an orderly transfer of authority from the first two co-abbots, Mel Weitsman and Reb Anderson, to four of their disciples: first to Norman Fischer and Blanche Hartman, then to the current co-abbots, Linda Cutts and Paul Haller. With this solid leadership base established, the time seemed ripe to tackle the challenges that come with a young but established institution: How do we support ourselves financially? How do we respond to changing times and changing demographics? How do we train the next generation of teachers? How do we support Zen Center teachers who have founded and continue to found dharma groups around the country? How do we address the ongoing concerns of residents at the three practice places? “The inspiration and motivation for the strategic planning process was the realization that SFZC was at a transition point,” says Haller, “We had a sense of the potential of Zen Buddhist practice in the West and wanted to make sure that what we offer is relevant to the needs of our sangha and society.” Blanche Hartman, co-abbess from 1995 to 2003, points also to practical and financial concerns: “We came to the conclusion that we needed to launch a capital campaign to support our many constituencies, including outreach programs and affiliated dharma groups, and to pay for deferred maintenance. When we approached our major long-term donor for support, he suggested we first establish a vision and strategic plan for the next five years on which to build this campaign. And he offered to pay for this visioning process.” So started a grueling, three-year journey of consensus-building among SFZC’s three practice places (City Center, Tassajara monastery and Green Gulch Farm) and its non-resident sangha and supporters about where SFZC should be going. Leading the journey was a vision committee appointed by SFZC’s board and assisted by nonprofit consultants TDC of Boston. “We started with our existing mission statement and asked people what brought them to Zen Center, how their practice was supported by Zen Center, and how Zen Center could better support their practice,” explains SFZC President Victoria Austin. “While ninety-nine percent of the sangha felt supported, many also pointed to areas that needed to be brought out of the shadow. “At the beginning of the process, there was a fair amount of suspicion,” recalls Austin. “People were scared to mention certain things. But in a religious organization, the only thing of real value is trust. Talking straightforwardly, being open and transparent, promotes trust.” TDC and Austin interviewed almost 300 of SFZC’s constituents, assessed SFZC’s financial situation, and reported on their findings. The results of these interviews and a survey of affiliated sitting groups were presented to the board and sangha and posted on SFZC’s Web site (www.sfzc.org) in July 2002. From that process emerged SFZC’s new vision and strategic plan, with seven primary goals: Strengthen and clarify all paths of practice (teacher, priest, monk, layperson, parent/child). Build upon and strengthen service to existing and emerging sanghas. Ensure Zen Center’s long-term financial health. Clarify and streamline the decision-making process and lines of authority. Steward resources of land, built assets, and people to make the dharma available to others and to succeeding generations. Implement Zen Center’s diversity and multiculturalism initiative. Develop and expand Zen Center’s social outreach programs. Also, TDC’s financial assessment concluded that SFZC needed to get serious about fundraising, and SFZC is in the process of assessing the feasibility of a capital campaign. Co-abbess Linda Cutts served on the vision committee, which regularly held four-hour meetings and conference calls with up to a dozen participants. “Without TDC, we would have given up,” she recalls. “We got into very deep conversations about Zen Center, but Liz Curtis of TDC kept gently bringing us back to what we needed to do. It was very difficult, time-consuming work requiring a certain kind of thinking that she helped us conceptualize. We learned terms like ‘stake-holder’ and ‘community buy-in.’” “I feel very good about the visioning process,” says Austin. “It’s part of bringing Zen to this country and this time. I feel good about a process that respects all the different voices of the sangha, and I hope that every member of the sangha will see him- or herself reflected in the strategic plan. “The visioning process was enormously helpful to the sangha,” continues Austin. “As a community-wide conversation, it prepared us to move forward in a unified way. It’s an ongoing conversation. The vision and strategic plan also communicates in a conventional way that will serve as our contract with donors. This is a new way for Zen Center to work.” The need for a strategic plan first became clear during Norman Fischer’s tenure as co-abbot, when he found himself dealing with issues far from his natural avocation of poet. “I was the first abbot of SFZC trained in the West by Western teachers,” notes Fischer. “I felt a responsibility to pass Suzuki Roshi’s teaching on to future generations, so my agenda as abbot was to solidify the future of an American style of Zen. That meant establishing rational policies and creating a more explicit understanding of how things are done at Zen Center, such as the training and ordination of priests. What had started as a face-to-face band of disciples around Suzuki Roshi was now a large institution without its founder. “That’s when I realized we needed an endowment to guarantee our existence over the long haul,” says Fischer. “And for that kind of fundraising, we needed a vision document to show who we were and where we were going. We couldn’t just say, ‘We’re nice guys, so please give us some money.’ And this visioning process was also good for us. “To tell the truth,” says Fischer, “our vision has always been clear: the practice and teaching of Soto Zen. But the vision process gave us a more shared, explicit understanding of this. Zen Center also has a larger vision: to have a humanizing influence on the culture in general.” That is exactly what Fischer is doing now with his Everyday Zen Foundation, whose aim is to “share the Zen attitude, spirit and practice with the world in a variety of settings.” Mel Weitsman, an early disciple of Suzuki Roshi and co-abbot of SFZC from 1987 to 1996, has a somewhat different take on the need for an explicit vision and strategic plan—but as long-time abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, he has always been able to take a more independent view. “It’s probably a good idea to know what you’re doing,” he says, “but I don’t know if it’s solved anything. Some important issues didn’t get resolved. “Zen Center already had a vision,” Weitsman continues, “which is to teach and provide a place to practice Zen in all its forms. But many people think there should be something else.” About was seen by many as a financial crisis at SFZC, Weitsman comments: “When you don’t worry about money, it’s not a problem. But when you start to worry about money in a professional way, you see problems, and when you address those problems in a professional way, it looks like a crisis. “SFZC is used to living high on the hog,” says Weitsman. “It started with Dick [Baker] and was financed by Dick’s friends. We need to live within our means. Suzuki Roshi had no plan. He just did zazen and people were attracted to him. SFZC grew up around him. He used to say, ‘We don’t want a Zen boom.’ He didn’t want us to be too ambitious or chauvinistic about Zen Center.” The fact remains, however, that SFZC has become many things to many people. It is perhaps the only Buddhist practice place in the country where dedicated students can theoretically be supported from cradle to grave: from the generous allowance given to resident parents and their children, to the provision of housing, jobs, stipends and health insurance, to retirement support for many residents. “We try to be all things to all people,” says Blanche Hartman. “The visioning process has helped the sangha examine how SFZC’s resources are being allocated, and whether they are being allocated equitably. During the hard times at Zen Center, the practice kept us going. That’s what we’re here for, so it makes sense. We’re not here to be a landlord or an employer, although we’ve become both.” Yvonne Rand, one of the founders of...

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