February 2025 – Meeting Minutes

IMIYA BOARD MEETING
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
7:30PM

ATTENDING
President: Joanne Pearson
Vice President: Rebecca Wallace (Absent)
Secretary: Charlotte Hardwicke
Treasurer:  Cecilia Huisman (Absent)
Scholarship: Mandy Coates
Membership: Kyoung Suk Kim 
Communications:  Sara Mahowald – Chair
Communications: Alyssa Sikora – Newsletter 
                       
MINUTES
BOARD
Welcome Melanie Docskil to the Scholarship Committee!
A BIG THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR IMIYA!
Happy Birthday, Charlotte!!

SCHOLARSHIP (Mandy Coates)  
Melanie voted in as a board member on the scholarship committe. The IMIYA scholarship committee met recently to discuss ways to increase exposure to members.
Susan Abernethy shared that when we put scholarship posts on Facebook and Instagram that we could pay to boost the posts so they receive more attention on those platforms.
The next scholarship opportunity could be focused on assessment fees. The date range could be March 1st through April 15th. Assessment fees range from $600 to $750. The committee wants to focus on giving away larger scholarships rather than small ones. 
Scholarship committee wants to grow the number of Iyengar Yoga teachers and focus on teacher training scholarships. We’ve offered that in the past and are unsure how successful those offerings were. The average price for teacher training programs are about $1200 a year. 

Dedicate a special newsletter focused on IMIYA scholarships. The newsletter could touch on what people have used scholarships for in the past. The first newsletter could have a message about the new opportunity for people who are considering going up for assessment this year. 

Yoga Days – once a year. A different studio and teacher would teach a free class.
Charlotte, Mandy and Melanie can work on new scholarship form.
Melanie put up the assessment scholarship opportunity for a vote and it passed unanimously.
How many members do we have in each state? How many studios are in other IMIYA states? List of studios in other IMIYA states
Where could we have a Yoga Day? A studio other than the church. Do we have a timeframe for this event?
YCD. It can be a little difficult to organize events. 
Living Yoga. We could ask Kelly to teach the class. How can we keep this open to non-Iyengar teachers?
Motion to have a Yoga Day in June or July. The gathering can happen in September. Advertising through Living Yoga email and/or IMIYA social media. How do we bring in non-Iyengar students to a Yoga Day? How do we tease out some of the hallmarks of Iyengar Yoga (student-focused, alignment, etc.)?

TREASURER (Cecilia Huisman) 

YOGA AND EQUITY (Charlotte Hardwicke, Joanne Pearson)  
This may be coming more into our sphere with recent changes.

WEBSITE (Charlotte Hardwicke) 
Board photos for IMIYA site – Please send a pic to Charlotte if you have not already.
Charlotte will reach out to Melanie for bio and pic.

OUTREACH/COMMUNICATION/Membership  Sara Mahowald, Alyssa Sikora, Kyoung Suk Kim) 

By Laws – Rebecca Wallace (BYLAWS almost ready for review)
Spring event:  What , Where, When, Who. This could be Yoga Day!
Survey – We talked about a survey several years ago and put it on hold. Any interest now? Needs of members – what do people want? Are people willing to help plan an event? Community and structure. Mentorship? How have people’s lives changed with Covid? 
Iyengar Yoga, then and now: What are the needs? Is there a different landscape/vision out there for the practice of Iyengar yoga?
Fall Gathering. Possibility of Avery Kalapa coming to Akasha Collective. Holly Kostura is another possibility for a guest teacher/workshop.

“ The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is the light that shines through it.” BKS

How can we shine light out to our members?