June 2025 – Meeting Minutes

IMIYA BOARD MEETING Wednesday, June 18, 7:30PM

ATTENDING President: Joanne Pearson Vice President: Rebecca Wallace Secretary: Charlotte Hardwicke Treasurer: Cecilia Huisman Scholarship: Mandy Coates/Melanie Doskocil Membership: Kyoung Suk Kim Communications/ Newsletter: Alyssa Sikora Communications/Social Media: Sara Mahowald

Regional Rep/Vice President(Rebecca Wallace)
The IYNAUS regional representative position expires Sept 30. Nomination for a member needs to occur by July 15th. Rebecca would like to continue in the position. She is on the Governance Committee and Volunteer Coordinator with IYNAUS. We need to recommend and vote. Joanne recommends we support Rebecca to continue in this position. Charlotte seconds the motion.

IYNAUS volunteer system is in the process of being rehauled. The committee is working to develop a Welcome plan to onboard new volunteers and an exit process for departing volunteers.

2026 Convention Abhijata will give a talk on July 20 about building community and the upcoming convention in 2026. There will be a super early bird registration option for the 2026 Convention and this will include the teacher’s class. Newsletters from other regional associations have included a reminder about the talk. Could we send out something to let members know about the upcoming talk?

Bylaws Please review before meeting. All voting must be sent out via Google form. Bylaws have been approved and accepted.

Meeting Time The Board discussed the possibility of changing the meeting time if it works better for the majority of members.

GRANTS (Mandy Coates /Melanie Doskocil)
Update and status of assessment applications.
Joanne will reach out to Mandy to find out the plan around offering scholarships for Avery’s workshop in September. Could we offer scholarships to other workshops happening this summer?

MEMBERSHIP (Kyoung Suk Kim)
Ideas to increase membership for Yoga Day
Yoga Day – No definite dates yet. The Board may have to think about 2026 dates. The Board discussed ways to reach non-members and those less familiar with Iyengar Yoga.
Community week. Another regional association offers a community week where teachers in that region volunteer to teach a free class to members.

TREASURER (Cecilia Huisman)
Please reach out to Cecilia if any checks need to be cut.
Cecilia needs to rotate off the board before fall. Rebecca proposes that she could rotate off the Vice-President role and take over the Treasurer role. Rebecca proposed that LeeAnn could join the board in the Vice-President role.

YOGA AND EQUITY (Joanne Pearson)
IYNAUS Yoga Equity work book. Please review it online. We may need to defer discussion to next month.

WEBSITE (Charlotte Hardwicke)
Charlotte will update the website to reflect the change in language from scholarships to grants.

OUTREACH/COMMUNICATION
Newsletter – Alyssa Sikora
Social Media – Sara Mahawold. Sara is working to submit information about Avery and Nancy’s workshop to IYNAUS workshop listings. Sara is looking for suggestions for photos and videos that she could use to post on IMIYA’s IG account.
IMIYA regional update in Samachar. When is the next Samachar submission date?
How can IMIYA go out and support practitioners? Collect information about events that support health and wellness (YMCA, 5Ks, Outdoor Expo) are happening in the areas that we could go and share information about Iyengar Yoga. Discussions last week about starting a book club so that we show up in a safe and welcoming manner.

YOGA GATHERING (Joanne Pearson)
Leslie is willing to check on available dates. She is suggesting early September. August 23, Sept 6 or 13. Need to check on dates ASAP. Check your calendars!!

Upcoming Workshops
Deb Baker is offering Level 3 pop up classes to help her prepare for assessment.
Nancy Stechert workshop@ PHY, July 25-27, 2025
Avery Kalapa workshop @Evolition, Sept 26-28, 2025