Centres and Groups
Photo by Jan Antonin Kolar on Unsplash
As we can see on several pages of this Societal Mirror, feeling connected to a community of fellow-practitioners is very important to Shambhala members and friends. This page explores some characteristics of local participation: center affiliation, size of group, level of activity, and leadership.
Affiliation in Shambhala
The primary means of connecting to a community of fellow-practitioners is through a local Shambhala group or centre. Most of the work to support meditation practice and study is performed by local volunteers. That includes recording who is a member and recording their participation. Because data collection and management is a local activity, definitions of membership and participation vary somewhat; how membership and participation are recorded in the Shambhala Database (SDB) varies as well. However, the data from our SDB can be seen as a good approximation.
The data on this page (as well as those on membership and enrollments) depends on the collective efforts of many volunteers who create and edit the data held in the Shambhala Database. The following table shows how many people are involved and the different roles that they play (as of May 2023).
| Role | Individuals | Function |
|---|---|---|
| SDB Administrator | 269 | Edit and approve changes made by others (primarily to local records) |
| SDB Assistant | 275 | Read and search access (usually goes with other roles) |
| SDB Calendar Administrator | 447 | Create and edit events (mainly on the local calendar) |
| SDB Direct email privileges | 418 | Send email messages to individuals affiliated with a local center |
| SDB Newsletter Editor | 377 | Send email to local newsletter |
| SDB registrar | 271 | Accept and process event registrations |
Centre and group size
Most members of Shambhala are affiliated with a local Shambhala Centre or Group. The societal experience of those groups varies by group size, geography, and personal circumstances (many of which are explored in the Societal Mirror Survey).
Centres and groups around the globe
Shambhala centres and groups are located all over the globe. This graph gives an impression of where Shambhala membership is concentrated regionally and distributed across seven continents. The circle size is proportional to the number of members at year end 2022. Exact numbers are not shown because the data is not exact.
Enrollments in Shambhala programs
The following map shows how participation has changed at the group and centre level by aggregating local registrations over three years – before and after 2018. Circle size is proportional to the number of people registered in local programs. Outer (dark) circles represent the years 2017-2019 vs inner (red) circles represent the years 2020-2022.
Zoom in and out to see different comparisons and levels of detail. Changes in enrollments between the first and second periods can be attributed to loss of a physical space to hold programs, the COVID pandemic, and leadership crisis.
Leadership roles in Shambhala
The generations that connected with Shambhala between 2007 and 2018 play a large role in center leadership, particularly in the role of Council Member. People who connected with Shambhala earlier predominate in the Practice and Education area.
Diverse Roles and Generations working together
Group and centre councils will in general include several roles. Council Members in the counts below are those who do not also have other leadership roles.
The details below show the numbers that are represented in the graphs above.
| Role | Before Jun '99 | '99 to Jun '07 | '07 to Jun '12 | '12 to Jun '18 | Since Jun '18 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Council Member | 53 | 42 | 81 | 60 | 7 | 243 |
| Coordinator or Director | 41 | 44 | 54 | 37 | 4 | 180 |
| Treasurer | 36 | 23 | 34 | 34 | 4 | 131 |
| Practice and Education Lead | 32 | 40 | 28 | 11 | 0 | 111 |
| Total | 162 | 149 | 197 | 142 | 15 | 665 |