THE CANADIAN YOGA INSTITUTE

Photos from

CYI Archives:

Lotus Festival

With CYI Bhajan Group

Important Announcement Spring 2008

 

Dear Students,

From the beginning of CYI our mission has been to operate a registered charity that could offer the community of Lethbridge, quality structured yoga classes that address various need levels,  taught  in a facility designed for the practice of yoga. With your commitment, some hard work by many of you,  and dedication to this vision, together, we were able to fulfill that mission. In addition to offering  financial tuition assistance for individuals less fortunate, our other focus has been to provide a fully funded  outreach yoga programming  to schools and infirmed seniors. With your commitment to CYI that dream was realised , with over 100 community  outreach classes taught this fiscal year alone. It is our hope that this humanitarian work will continue. As a registered charity, we are in the best position financially that we have ever been, but we are seriously short on manpower.

 

Some of you may know that outside of the role of yoga teachers, Cam & I operate a Massage Therapy/Kinesiology Clinic. This is where we derive our income.  Teaching yoga is for us, a community service. As you know, yoga teaches us to maintain a healthy balance between work and rest, but in this past 2 years that balance has become more difficult to find as our clinical practice( our day job)  has taken another big step forward . As such we have had to examine our ability to sustain the work load at the clinic, make ourselves available for traveling to various business meetings and our community service teaching yoga, volunteering time for running the facility and the administration of CYI outside of classroom hours, in addition to our responsibilities on the Board of Directors.

 

It has come time for both Cam & I to let go of our teaching commitments ,and  our community service of operating the Centre,  for the foreseeable future, so that we can return balance to our lives and move forward on our journey.

 

One of the reasons we have waited so long to make this decision has been we have been watching for potential teachers hoping to find individuals who would feel a passionate connection to the Centre and be able to carry on the work with you all, at the same time watching for volunteers to assist with operating the charity, which we have been principally responsible for until now. In hind sight, the mistake we have made as an organization, and a common problem with many charities, is letting it all fall onto a few people. Our recent recommendation to the Board of Directors was to restructure the CYI Board into a working Board rather than advisory, and to recruit volunteers from the committed student body.

 

We are presently working with our Board to find the best resolution. The Board Members have requested that Cam & I put the word out that they would like to hear from you, if you would be willing to get involved with the charity on a volunteer basis ( a significant reason for our financial sustainability is the volunteer component, as it would otherwise have to pay for work which would begin to deplete our resources allotted for community service) so that the Centre can continue as it is, and better yet, to grow. Click here for a list of responsibilities that need to be done throughout the year, some small, some randomly done throughout the year and some are on-going.

 

Further, we are putting the word out in the yoga community that the Centre is in need of a minimum of 2-4 experienced instructors and our hope is that there will be a few good replies. If you know of any yoga teachers here or in other cities, please inform them of this opportunity to teach at CYI.

 

Unfortunately, Cam & I cannot prolong our personal plans to give the time required for CYI to replace its teaching staff, so you may experience a decreased class offering by the Fall Semester.  My (Aleyna’s) last Semester teaching will be the coming Spring Semester which will conclude at the end of June. Cam will stay on teaching through the summer and possibly the Fall, (but we can’t confirm that as yet) offering a few classes with Alecia Roblin who has been mentoring with Aleyna to take over the Therapeutic Programming and the Intro to Basics class. We hope you will give Alecia a chance to develop her teaching skills and help you with your practice.

 

I have been honoured to witness each of you as you develop your practice and find a meaningful connection with your life purpose.  Some of you are relatively new to the practice while others have been with us since the beginning of CYI, nearly 8 years ago, so you and the Centre have grown together, as have our heartfelt bonds. One aspect of personal growth, is that one is so aware of the impermanence of everything. We are also aware that in order to grow we must not grasp or cling to the past or the present...it must just be. We each make our contribution and then let go.

 

So, I have let go by tendering my resignation to the CYI Board, of which I was a founding member, and have offered my teaching resignation as of the end of June 2008.

I am deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to serve you all and hope that you will continue developing your practice.

 

Namaste,

Aleyna

Board of Directors