If you’ve ever missed dharma talks that you wanted to hear, they are available online at Common Ground’s website. That’s thanks to Common Ground’s growing volunteer contribution (and gradual technological evolution). Tom Gullett, Jimmy Schnobrich, Todd Stitt and Casey Nordendale have been making it easier for community members to access past lectures.
Todd, Jimmy, and Tom (Not pictured: Casey)
In the past five years, our recording capacity has gone from cassette tapes, to CDs, to web access. Tom, who has been volunteering since the cassette days, did the original research on how to get the talks online. He now records and processes guest lectures. “It makes me feel much more like I am part of the community,” he says. “For me, it’s a way to be of service.”
The lectures are currently listed chronologically. Tom says the next step will be to organize them in a more searchable format.
Jimmy started volunteering after taking an intro class several years ago. A sound engineer by trade, he saw the stack of cassette tapes and thought: “They could do better than that.” Among other things, Jimmy got the Center set up for sound, procuring the equipment and installing it. He also records and processes Mark’s dharma talks.
“It keeps me tied to the scene,” he says. “I can be busy in other areas of my life. I always know there is something I have to do and I come back. It’s nice to give back to the community.”
Casey has recorded retreat lectures, and fills in to record when others can’t make a talk. Todd fills in, too, and he does the computer magic to get all talks onto the web. (Stan Johnson records the Buddhist studies classes. Those don’t go on the public site but class members have access to them.)
The recording volunteers also set the sound volumes for the talks–and that gives them a little something to work with during their practice. Tom says he still gets nervous beforehand. During his pre-dharma sit, his mind starts wandering: “What if I do it this way?” or “What if it doesn’t work?”
During the lecture itself he is very aware when he hears that tiny tinny sound, the one that says the sound system is about to feedback.
Jimmy has similar concerns about having good sound quality. “You do tweak out a little bit,” he says. “It’s one of those things. When it works well, no one notices.”
You can subscribe to our dharma talk podcasts via an RSS feed (also known as a ‘web feed’, ‘syndication’, and ‘news feed’) directly from your browser or with a web application like Google Reader. The Common Ground Podcasts can also be found in the iTunes store. Do a search at the store for “Common Ground Meditation.”