Community Call: Retreat Trends and Insights: A comprehensive analysis of industry data presented by Retreat Guru
Call begins at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Cameron Wenaus and Alec Janssens
Topic: Retreat Trends and Insights: A comprehensive analysis of industry data presented by Retreat Guru
Serving more than 350 retreat centers worldwide, Retreat Guru supports transformative experiences by providing intuitive software that helps retreat leaders create smooth, participant-centered journeys from registration to check-out. In an upcoming online community call, Retreat Guru will share privacy-protected, data-driven insights drawn from the RCC community, highlighting emerging trends, common challenges, and evolving themes in retreat programming. This conversation offers a rare big-picture view of the retreat landscape, exploring how centers are adapting, what’s working well, and how participant expectations are shifting—helping leaders plan thoughtfully, innovate responsibly, and continue offering meaningful experiences in a changing world.
Community Roundtable: Board & Staff in Partnership – Leading Well Together
Call begins at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitator: Usha Kilpatrick
Topic: This engaging conversation will explore the vital relationship between boards of directors and staff in shaping healthy, mission-driven organizations. Featuring real-life experience from Usha Kilpatrick, Chair of Mount Madonna Centre in California, the call will reflect on shared leadership, trust, clarity of roles, and navigating challenges with integrity. Drawing on the collective wisdom of the Collaboration, expect practical insights, honest stories, and fresh ways of strengthening board–staff partnerships for the work ahead.
Tea with Tatyana - Communication Skills for Difficult Conversations.
Communication Skills for Difficult Conversations.
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Topic: Communication Skills for Difficult Conversations.
Tatyana Sanikovich is a trusted HR Advisor, Leadership Coach, and group facilitator who specializes in guiding mission-driven organizations through periods of change and growth. With over 16 years of experience in human resources and organizational culture, including 12 years as HR Director at the Esalen Institute, she brings a grounded, insightful approach to complex people challenges. Tatyana partners closely with non-profits, retreat centers, and conscious businesses to align vision with structure, support leadership development, and create the conditions where teams and individuals can truly thrive.
Community Call: Uncovering a “Hidden Gem”: A Story of Rediscovering Identity, Rebranding, and Rebuilding After Nearly 50 Years
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Lara Kilpatrick
Topic: Uncovering a “Hidden Gem” A Story of Rediscovering Identity, Rebranding, and Rebuilding After Nearly 50 Years
In this community call, Mount Madonna Center focuses exclusively on the marketing journey behind its revitalization after nearly 50 years. Facing post-Covid revenue instability, the team undertook a comprehensive rebrand and built a cohesive, mission-driven marketing and communications master plan rooted in collaboration, customer insight, and data-informed strategy. They share lessons on restructuring a marketing team, rebuilding their website, strengthening SEO, adapting to the rise of AI, and aligning brand identity with sustainable growth for the future.
Onboarding with Intention: Onboarding as Belonging & Culture Transmission
Part One of a Three-Part Paid Series
Onboarding at retreat centers is more than orientation. It is an initiation into community, culture, and care. The first 90 days shape not only performance and retention, but also a new hire’s sense of belonging, clarity, and trust in leadership.
This three-part workshop series is designed to support RCC members in building onboarding practices that are human-centered, practical, and sustainable. The series emphasizes shared learning, real-time application, and light structure through the 30/60/90 framework.
Participants are encouraged (but not required) to bring real onboarding scenarios, drafts, or challenges to each session for live exploration and peer learning.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Community Roundtable: 2025 Retreat Marketing Debrief: What Actually Drove Inquiries and What Didn’t
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Amir Jafari
Topic: 2025 Retreat Marketing Debrief: What Actually Drove Inquiries and What Didn’t
In this candid 2025 Retreat Marketing Debrief, moderated by Amir Jafari of Retreat Finder, experienced retreat center leaders unpack what truly drove inquiries and bookings this year—and what fell flat. Together, they explore which visibility strategies generated real demand (not just likes), where centers over-invested with minimal return, and how discovery and trust-building evolved in 2025. The conversation surfaces practical insights about what to double down on, what to simplify, and what to let go of in 2026—offering clear, repeatable principles to guide smarter, more focused marketing decisions.
Onboarding with Intention: The First 90 Days — Clarity, Check-ins & Cross-Connection
Part Two of a Three-Part Paid Series
Onboarding at retreat centers is more than orientation. It is an initiation into community, culture, and care. The first 90 days shape not only performance and retention, but also a new hire’s sense of belonging, clarity, and trust in leadership.
This three-part workshop series is designed to support RCC members in building onboarding practices that are human-centered, practical, and sustainable. The series emphasizes shared learning, real-time application, and light structure through the 30/60/90 framework.
Participants are encouraged (but not required) to bring real onboarding scenarios, drafts, or challenges to each session for live exploration and peer learning.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Community Roundtable: The Joys & Challenges of Seasonal Hiring
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Alexander Thompson
Topic: The Joys & Challenges of Seasonal Hiring
Seasonal hiring sits at the heart of retreat center operations — shaping not only logistics and budgets, but culture, continuity, and guest experience. Few roles bring this into sharper focus than the chef: essential to the rhythm and hospitality of a place, yet often hired, trained, and released in cycles that repeat year after year.
In this round table, we’ll create space for candid reflection on both the joys and the strains of building seasonal teams. Together, we’ll explore what it really takes to recruit well, onboard thoughtfully, foster connection quickly, and begin again each season with resilience and creativity.
Onboarding with Intention: Making It Real — Tools, Ownership & Sustainability
Part Three of a Three-Part Paid Series
Onboarding at retreat centers is more than orientation. It is an initiation into community, culture, and care. The first 90 days shape not only performance and retention, but also a new hire’s sense of belonging, clarity, and trust in leadership.
This three-part workshop series is designed to support RCC members in building onboarding practices that are human-centered, practical, and sustainable. The series emphasizes shared learning, real-time application, and light structure through the 30/60/90 framework.
Participants are encouraged (but not required) to bring real onboarding scenarios, drafts, or challenges to each session for live exploration and peer learning.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Community Roundtable: Starting a Retreat Center — Risks, Realities, and Joys Along the Way
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tayla Shanaye and Jennifer DeCoste
Topic: Starting a Retreat Centre — Risks, Realities, and Joys Along the Way
Starting a retreat centre is a deeply rewarding vision, but one that comes with real risks and practical realities alongside its joys. It often demands significant financial investment, regulatory navigation, and sustained emotional and physical energy, especially in the early stages when income may be uncertain and responsibilities are many. At the same time, the work can be profoundly meaningful: creating a space for rest, healing, and connection, building community, and aligning daily life with personal values and purpose. The journey requires resilience, adaptability, and clear-eyed planning, but for those prepared for both the challenges and the beauty, a retreat centre can become a powerful and fulfilling offering to the world.
Emerging Community Call
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Facilitators: Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma and Michael Shewburg
Topic: Emerging Community Call: Retreat in a Time Like This
The Emerging Community Call: Retreat in a Time Like is an invitation for retreat leaders and practitioners to come together in a moment of shared uncertainty and possibility. As social, political, economic, and spiritual shifts ripple across borders, this gathering offers space to reflect honestly on what we are witnessing, how retreat work is being affected, and how it continues to be called forward. Echoing RCC’s early COVID-era conversations, the call centers connection, shared wisdom, and mutual encouragement—creating a compassionate, cross-border space to listen deeply and discern what leadership, hospitality, and care look like in this season.
Tea with Tatyana - Recruitment and Interviewing: Finding the right fit for your organization
Recruitment and Interviewing: Finding the right fit for your organization
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Topic: Tea with Tatyana - Recruitment and Interviewing: Finding the right fit for your organization
Tatyana Sanikovich is a trusted HR Advisor, Leadership Coach, and group facilitator who specializes in guiding mission-driven organizations through periods of change and growth. With over 16 years of experience in human resources and organizational culture, including 12 years as HR Director at the Esalen Institute, she brings a grounded, insightful approach to complex people challenges. Tatyana partners closely with non-profits, retreat centers, and conscious businesses to align vision with structure, support leadership development, and create the conditions where teams and individuals can truly thrive.
Community Roundtable: Shaping Connection: Regional Groups & Peer Support Circles
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Michael Shewburg
Topic: Community Roundtable: Shaping Connection: Regional Groups & Peer Support Circles
This Community Table Talk explores the future of RCC’s Regional Groups — how they might grow, shift, or take new shape — alongside the development of role- and interest-based Peer Support Groups. Together, these threads invite us to imagine a more connected, grounded, and well-supported RCC community where every voice belongs.
Community Call: Retreat Centers and Hospitality II
Call begins at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Eve Wachhau
Topic: Retreat Centers and Hospitality II
We talk a lot about the why of retreating. It's transformative value, our deeply held missions, visions, and values. Our brilliant programs! We often talk less about the how of retreating. All the expense of hospitality staff, utilities and building upkeep. The revenue goals. Facility maintenance and improvements. Lodging. Meeting Space. Staff training. And OH! The Food! It's all so time-consuming and expensive.
Many folks deep in knowledge about programs and practice tell me they feel less assured when it comes to hospitality operations. Ever feel some imposter syndrome when talking about your hospitality KPIs, NPS scores, and COGSs? In our time together, we can talk about what retreat center hospitality is, how we can use hospitality benchmarks, and a few hospitality skills to start using today.
Tea with Tatyana - Supporting Leaders with little or no HR background.
Supporting Leaders with little or no HR background.
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Topic: Supporting Leaders with little or no HR background.
Tatyana Sanikovich is a trusted HR Advisor, Leadership Coach, and group facilitator who specializes in guiding mission-driven organizations through periods of change and growth. With over 16 years of experience in human resources and organizational culture, including 12 years as HR Director at the Esalen Institute, she brings a grounded, insightful approach to complex people challenges. Tatyana partners closely with non-profits, retreat centers, and conscious businesses to align vision with structure, support leadership development, and create the conditions where teams and individuals can truly thrive.
Community Call: Sacred Self-Care
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Robert Mulhall
Topic: Sacred Self-Care
As we begin a new year, this RCC Community Call will be a time to set our intentions — a moment for renewal, grounding, and gentle inspiration.
Rather than diving straight into planning or strategy, we’ll create space to breathe, reconnect, and listen for the deeper “why” that guides our work in community and leadership.
This session will be facilitated by Robert Mulhall.
Come as you are. Bring your hopes for the year ahead. Leave feeling centered and renewed.
RCC Sacred Circles Gathering RFP
RCC is hosting a Sacred Circle Gathering next year for the Stewardship, Listening, Wisdom, and Staff Circles, and we invite member centers to submit proposals to host.
RCC Fall 2026 Retreat
The Retreat Center Collaboration is coordinating an onsite retreat in Fall 2026, and is seeking a retreat center in the United States or Canada to host this gathering of 40 people from the larger RCC community.
Community Roundtable: Generations in Conversation – Wisdom, Values & the Future of Retreat
Call begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Gloria Baraquio and Linda Copenhagen
Topic: Generations in Conversation – Wisdom, Values & the Future of Retreat
This lively conversation will explore what it means to lead in a multi-generational world. We’ll reflect on how each generation—Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z—brings its own values, assumptions, and leadership styles, and how we can strengthen collaboration across these differences. Expect meaningful insights, shared stories, laughter, and new ways of thinking about shared leadership.
Tea with Tatyana - Delegation and the Shift from Doer to Manager.
Delegation and the Shift from Doer to Manager.
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Topic: Delegation and the Shift from Doer to Manager.
Tatyana Sanikovich is a trusted HR Advisor, Leadership Coach, and group facilitator who specializes in guiding mission-driven organizations through periods of change and growth. With over 16 years of experience in human resources and organizational culture, including 12 years as HR Director at the Esalen Institute, she brings a grounded, insightful approach to complex people challenges. Tatyana partners closely with non-profits, retreat centers, and conscious businesses to align vision with structure, support leadership development, and create the conditions where teams and individuals can truly thrive.
Community Call: Tactical fundraising - strategies for success
Call begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Peter Wrinch
Topic: Tactical fundraising - strategies for success
Cancelled - Tea with Tatyana - Communication Skills for Difficult Conversations.
Cancelled: Communication Skills for Difficult Conversations.
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Topic: Communication Skills for Difficult Conversations.
Tatyana Sanikovich is a trusted HR Advisor, Leadership Coach, and group facilitator who specializes in guiding mission-driven organizations through periods of change and growth. With over 16 years of experience in human resources and organizational culture, including 12 years as HR Director at the Esalen Institute, she brings a grounded, insightful approach to complex people challenges. Tatyana partners closely with non-profits, retreat centers, and conscious businesses to align vision with structure, support leadership development, and create the conditions where teams and individuals can truly thrive.
Community Call: Programming as a Path to Profitability
Call begins at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Ling Lo
Topic: Programming as a Path to Profitability
Join us for the Retreat Center Collaborative’s upcoming community call, “Programming as a Path to Profitability.” This session will explore how thoughtful, creative programming can drive both impact and income. We’ll dive into strategies for curating innovative programs, building authentic relationships with your audience, and diversifying offerings to meet the moment. You’ll also learn practical ways to optimize profit margins while delivering on mission—turning vision into sustainable success.
Ling Lo is a social impact leader with deep experience helping retreat centres and mission-driven organizations align program vision with financial sustainability. She combines innovative programming with creative storytelling and smart business strategy and has worked at Hollyhock, Kripalu, and Big Bear Retreat Center through LiLo Consulting. Trusted by founders, boards, and senior leaders, she brings an entrepreneurial agility to organizations of all sizes and complexities. Her diverse perspective and insights are shaped by her work in Canada and the U.S., coast to coast, and now in the United Kingdom.
RCC 2025 Fall Retreat
Join 30+ retreat center leaders from across North America for our annual gathering at Mount Madonna. This special weekend is an opportunity to connect, share insights, and explore both the opportunities and challenges we face in leading retreat centers. We’d love to have you — and others from your team — be part of this inspiring community.
Tea with Tatyana - Onboarding Best Practices: setting new hires up for success
Onboarding Best Practices: setting new hires up for success
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Topic: Onboarding Best Practices: setting new hires up for success
Tatyana Sanikovich is a trusted HR Advisor, Leadership Coach, and group facilitator who specializes in guiding mission-driven organizations through periods of change and growth. With over 16 years of experience in human resources and organizational culture, including 12 years as HR Director at the Esalen Institute, she brings a grounded, insightful approach to complex people challenges. Tatyana partners closely with non-profits, retreat centers, and conscious businesses to align vision with structure, support leadership development, and create the conditions where teams and individuals can truly thrive.
Community Call: Retreat Centers and Hospitality
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Eve Wachhau
Topic: Retreat Centers and Hospitality
We talk a lot about the why of retreating. It's transformative value, our deeply held missions, visions, and values. Our brilliant programs! We often talk less about the how of retreating. All the expense of hospitality staff, utilities and building upkeep. The revenue goals. Facility maintenance and improvements. Lodging. Meeting Space. Staff training. And OH! The Food! It's all so time-consuming and expensive.
Many folks deep in knowledge about programs and practice tell me they feel less assured when it comes to hospitality operations. Ever feel some imposter syndrome when talking about your hospitality KPIs, NPS scores, and COGSs? In our time together, we can talk about what retreat center hospitality is, how we can use hospitality benchmarks, and a few hospitality skills to start using today.
Community Call: Purpose and Fundraising for Retreat Centers (rescheduled)
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Peter Wrinch
Topic: Purpose and Fundraising for Retreat Centers
On July 15, please join Peter Wrinch, Principal at Uncommon Partners, former CEO of Hollyhock and RCC Stewardship Circle Member for a deep dive into fundraising for retreat centers.
During Peter's time at Hollyhock the team was able to grow organizational fundraising by 200%. Since leaving Hollyhock in 2024, Peter has been advising retreat center and advocacy leaders on how to best increase investment in their organizations by getting incredibly clear on their purpose.
In this Community Call, Peter will share some of his reflections on how to better define your organizational purpose to drive investment, best practices on fundraising for retreat centers, and some fundraising tactics that can help you raise more money.
As a primer, check out Peter's blog post on leading retreat centers with purpose.
Tea with Tatyana - Compassionate and Effective Terminations: How to let someone go with empathy and clarity
Compassionate and Effective Terminations: How to let someone go with empathy and clarity
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Tatyana Sanikovich
Topic: Compassionate and Effective Terminations: How to let someone go with empathy and clarity
Tatyana Sanikovich is a trusted HR Advisor, Leadership Coach, and group facilitator who specializes in guiding mission-driven organizations through periods of change and growth. With over 16 years of experience in human resources and organizational culture, including 12 years as HR Director at the Esalen Institute, she brings a grounded, insightful approach to complex people challenges. Tatyana partners closely with non-profits, retreat centers, and conscious businesses to align vision with structure, support leadership development, and create the conditions where teams and individuals can truly thrive.
Community Call: Retreat Center Operations and Finances
Call begins at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Heather Deeth
Topic: Retreat Center Operations and Finances
On September 15, please join us for where we explore retreat center operations and finances with Heather Deeth. Heather joined Hollyhock in 2022 after a long career in ethics and sustainability within the corporate sector. During her tenure at Hollyhock, she brought her skills of managing (tight!) margins, building caring and accountable teams, and driving earned revenue across multiple retreat center revenue streams.
Community Call: Purpose and Fundraising for Retreat Centers
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Peter Wrinch
Topic: Purpose and Fundraising for Retreat Centers
On July 15, please join Peter Wrinch, Principal at Uncommon Partners, former CEO of Hollyhock and RCC Stewardship Circle Member for a deep dive into fundraising for retreat centers.
During Peter's time at Hollyhock the team was able to grow organizational fundraising by 200%. Since leaving Hollyhock in 2024, Peter has been advising retreat center and advocacy leaders on how to best increase investment in their organizations by getting incredibly clear on their purpose.
In this Community Call, Peter will share some of his reflections on how to better define your organizational purpose to drive investment, best practices on fundraising for retreat centers, and some fundraising tactics that can help you raise more money.
As a primer, check out Peter's blog post on leading retreat centers with purpose.
Community Call: We are Each Other’s Magnitude: Celebrating Our Community Contributions
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: RCC Stewardship Circle
Topic: We are Each Other’s Magnitude: Celebrating Our Community Contributions
Join us to honor Nanci Lee as she departs from the RCC Stewardship Circle, and Brenda Salgado as she moves on from her role directing the Racial Healing Initiative. Poems or words of blessing and encouragement from our community for Brenda and Nanci will be welcome! We’ll also have a chance to experience an updated interactive map of our community and hear updates about the new RCC membership opportunity.
Community Call: RCC Evolution Update
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: RCC Stewardship Circle
Topic: RCC Evolution Update
Join the RCC Stewardship Circle to hear updates on our leadership transition and share your feedback as part of the collaborative community that is the RCC. Your voice matters as we build our network’s future together in a spirit of transparency, deep listening, and mutual care.
Racial Healing Workshop: Nurturing Our Nervous System within Beloved Community
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitator: Brenda Salgado
Topic: Nurturing Our Nervous System within Beloved Community
Building Beloved Community is crucial to the work of retreat centers. During times of the unknown, rapid change and shifts in the world, it can be difficult to stay informed and present with what is happening in us, around us and within our communities. Tending to our nervous system, connecting with others to share and grieve is an urgent imperative in these times. Join us for an opportunity to ground in your body and breath, and to engage in Toltec breath and energy practices to resource ourselves for the times ahead.
Community Call: Resilience Within Climate Chaos, Part 3
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Stanley Wu, Oren Slozberg
Topic: Resilience Within Climate Chaos, Part 3
Join us for a conversation led by Stan and Oren on January 21st about challenges and possibilities for retreat centers given this current political, social, and ecological moment.
This past year has been a moment of deep restructuring in the US and globally. The climate crisis is accelerating, and so is artificial intelligence, authoritarian governments, polarization and a mental health crisis — among many other things that could be named.
We are living through a time of remarkable transformation. While our minds naturally focus on what is unsettling or uncertain, it’s also true this period holds new possibilities. All around us, new paths are opening up — some subtle, others revolutionary — that invite us to reimagine how we live, work, and connect with each other.
Join us to reflect on the salient challenges and possibilities we imagine are ahead for ourselves and retreat centers. This collective exercise can help see paths forward and expand our own vision of what lies ahead.
Please spend a moment before our gathering to reflect on this question and come prepared to share.
Resilience, as we’ve come to understand, is not only focused on adapting to change and challenge, but contributing to a thriving future. We are asked to look both backwards and forwards at the same time.
Community Call: Places of Refuge: Sense-Making of the US Election
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: RCC Stewardship Circle
Topic: Places of Refuge: Sense-Making of the US Election
Like many of you, we watched this year’s election campaign with keen interest and a heavy heart. At its best, politics is about vision, about the kind of society we want to live in, about what kind of people we believe we are. In this election there were two competing versions for the United States and by a popular vote margin of roughly 2%, the voters opted for one of them. The result, and the deep polarization across US society, has left half the country reeling and the other half jubilant.
On the RCC Stewardship Circle we’ve been asking: What is the role of retreat centers in a divided country? How do we hold on to our commitment to “universal flourishing” in the current political landscape? Rebecca Solnit asks us to “embrace the ideals of love, kindness, open-mindedness, the ability to engage with uncertainty and ambiguity, inclusiveness” as the first job at this time.
We invite you, your team, and your constituents to a gathering of refuge to make sense of the US election. In this ninety-minute call we will share space with each other to process the election results and imagine the role of retreat centers going forward. How can we support each other in the work that needs to be done?
Midwest Region Affinity Group: Creating and Cross-Promoting Together
Call begins at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Please contact RCC Admin Assistant Erin to get more information and attend this conversation.
Facilitator: Midwest Region Volunteers
Topic: Creating and Cross-Promoting Together
The Midwest Region Affinity Group meets quarterly and is for any retreat centers located in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
Racial Healing Workshop: Embodying Resilience: A Path Forward Together
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitator: RHI Team
Topic: Racial Healing Workshop: Embodying Resilience: A Path Forward Together
In times of transition, our commitment to connection, resilience, and healing is more important than ever. We invite you to join the Racial Healing Initiative as part of Retreat Center Collaboration for a special 90 minute post-election Community Call. This is a dedicated space for grounding, reflecting, and cultivating collective healing after the U.S. Presidential Election.
Together, we’ll explore how to root ourselves in resilience and respond thoughtfully and compassionately to the events and outcomes that shape our lives and communities. This gathering offers a virtual refuge for contemplative reflection, group dialogue, and supportive embodiment practices designed to help us process and navigate the moment with greater awareness.
What to Expect
Opening Embodiment Practice: Grounding ourselves with gentle breathwork and mindful movement to prepare for deep listening and reflection.
Contemplative Reflection & Community Discussion: Guided reflection on the impact of the election and an opportunity to share insights, hopes, and challenges in breakout groups. Together, we’ll consider questions like:
What are you noticing in your body and emotions following the election?
How can we support each other in moving forward with courage and compassion?
What intentions can we set as a community to embody resilience and care for one another?
Closing Embodiment Practice: A centering practice to ground and support each participant, cultivating a sense of peace, hope, and readiness for the path ahead.
This is a safe, supportive space for open, honest sharing. We look forward to being in community with you and navigating this time with presence, resilience, and hope.
Warmly,
Community Call: Fine-Tuning Your Guest Experience with Equity and Racial Healing in Mind
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitator: Nanci Lee
Topic: Fine-Tuning Your Guest Experience with Equity and Racial Healing in Mind
To kick off dialogue and sharing about equity and radical hospitality in our RCC community, Nanci will share some of the practices at Tatamagouche Centre and insights arising from working in reparative land practices and BIPOC circles including a recent RHI Retreat at SoulFire Farm. Part of our work is cultural- to move our organizational and circle cultures from inclusion to equity, radical hospitality and a feeling of home and collective care. We'll have some large and small group dialogue around these important conversations and practices.
Community Call: Resilience Within Climate Chaos, Part 2
Call begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Stanley Wu, Oren Slozberg
Topic: Resilience Within Climate Chaos, Part 2
Join us for a conversation on what practical resilience means for retreat centers in the context of hurricane Helene’s devastating impacts.
We want to hear from you if your community and retreat were impacted by this recent storm. What you have learned and how you are responding?
Secondly, we will explore together a scenario where natural disasters are exacerbated by climate change. Imagine a scenario where this power is out for a week or more, displaced refugees are looking for shelter, emergency response is overwhelmed, stores are low on food, and tap water is unsafe to drink. How would you respond in this scenario?
Scenario work offers several key benefits:
1. Improve decision making: explore possible futures and informed decisions.
2. Enhance preparedness: identify potential risks and opportunities.
3. Strategic flexibility: encourages adaptive strategies.
4. Challenge assumptions: reveals and questions deeply held assumptions.
5. Fosters creativity: stimulates innovative thinking.
We can use scenario work to increase our adaptive capacity and support resilient decision making. Given the fact that natural disasters are increasingly frequent and impactful, how do we prepare for a future many of us will most likely need to navigate?