Get Involved

The job of sustaining the ongoing presence of Pioneer Valley Shambhala Center, as a welcoming space for community, learning and practice, has several dimensions. Some of the main ones are: organizing and running classes, programs, retreats and special events, coordinating the membership, communicating Center offerings and maintaining a web presence, bookkeeping and financial advising, and keeping track of building maintenance.

There are many supporting roles that a person can step into in each of these areas. Doing so will result in enhancing everyone’s experience at the Center. There are simple one-time roles and ongoing roles. 

If you like meeting people, you can come to an event a bit early, and greet people at the door as they enter. If you like to cook, you can bring a salad or soup for sharing after an event. You can bring flowers! There’s a tradition of practicing the art of ikebana in Shambhala. Give it a try! If you are available to contribute in one-time ways, we ask that you communicate that to the relevant event coordinator, or to the Communications Director at [email protected]  

Ongoing roles can be carved out in different ways, depending on what you are interested in as well as what we are trying to do. A natural way to find such a role might be to work with a person or team of people in a certain area of responsibility. Right now, maintaining basic functions (Finance, Membership, Practice and Education, and Communications) is top priority, so one suggestion might be to start by assisting a point persons in one of these areas. But the situation is evolving, and there is room for expanding our activities.

The Council could use a Secretary to take notes and send the minutes to members. The Council meets every other Monday evening from 7:30 to 9:00. Another Council position that we would like to fill concerns community care – staying in touch with people and finding people to provide assistance when needed. 

If you have completed two or more weekend training retreats, you can help staff a retreat at the appropriate level. In addition to the Coordinators and Director-Teachers, we need people to help with registration, shop for supplies, direct interview traffic, keep time and so on.

Finally, it would probably help to have one person as Volunteer Coordinator. That person would take inquiries about ways to volunteer, reply to the offers of help, and meet or otherwise communicate with volunteers about where they would fit in. 

Until there is such a person, please speak with someone in your area of interest, or fill out the form below, or contact [email protected]

Volunteer Form

Use this form to volunteer at PVSC
  • First and Last Name
  • Preferred pronouns: (examples) she her her hers herself | he him his his himself | they them their theirs themself | zie zim zir zis zieself | sie sie hir hirs hirself | ey em eir eirs eirself | ve ver vis vers verself | tey ter tem ters terself | ...
  • Phone Contact
  • Email Address
  • Please check all that apply to your areas of interest / expertise.
  • Other area(s) of interest:
  • Are you currently a member of Pioneer Valley Shambhala Center?
  • Please tell is if you have been, or are, a member of any other Shambhala Center(s)
  • What experience/expertise do you have in any of the areas of above that might be helpful?
  • Do you have any other questions / concerns? If so, please feel free to ask about them.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.