Well, Temple Sinai has
survived a year of my Presidency . . . which really shows how important
everyone BUT the President is!
But, seriously, we survive
and thrive as a community because of the willingness of so many dedicated and
talented people to lead and contribute to Temple Sinai.
So, I want to start by
thanking folks – people who really inspire me with their passion, professionalism,
and their generosity.
Did you enjoy your
breakfast? Linda Retchin and her crew of helpers (Barbara Burroughs, Stefanie
Marko, Len Rubin, Marjie Sheppard, and Jeff Solomon) prepared it all for you
for this, our 10th Annual Annual Meeting Breakfast. And all
for a small contribution – where else can you feed your entire family breakfast
for just ten dollars?!). Thank you, Linda and your band of helpers!
Did you notice that we have
an AED in the building? Check it out! (Hint: head towards the library.) Thank
you Rabbi for purchasing and donating this to Temple – we will have training
for the Board in January and while I hope we never have to use it, just having
it here is essential for ensuring that we are able to provide immediate
assistance to those who may need it. Thank you Rabbi!
We have a remarkably
talented staff that are dedicated to leading and helping serve our members and
community. Even the Board-sponsored Oneg honoring our staff last Friday evening
(December 4th) could not have happened without the help of Michael
and Ibrahim. While we rely on Rabbi for his spiritual leadership, Judy for
directing our educational activities, Mark and Wendy and Meg for their music,
Ibrahim for keeping the building clean and ready for our every activity, and
Michael for holding everything together and doing things financial and
physical, this small but mighty group ensure that the day-to-day operations of
our synagogue run smoothly, working with the lay leadership to help us transform
our ideas into reality. Thank you to our amazing staff!
Have you ever wondered what
it might be like to lead or serve on one (or more) of our Congregation’s dozen or
so committees? The people who lead these committees are responsible for the
activities and governance of Temple Sinai. Take a look at the packet of
Committee Reports and the list of names of the lay leadership on the first
page. Each Committee Chair leads a group of Congregants focused on the
responsibilities of their Committee. It takes a lot of people to keep Temple
Sinai going, and I am in awe of the work that so many of our members volunteer
to do.
If you are interested in
being more involved – there is something for everyone – contact me or a
Committee Chair. If there is something we are not doing here that you think we
should be involved in, contact me or the appropriate Committee Chair. Read the
reports, listen to the Committee presentations later on this morning, ask
questions and see where you can make a contribution to Temple life. You will
get to know some truly remarkable people and have a more fulfilling connection
to the Congregation. Thank you to all of our members who lead and serve on our
Committees!
What about the Board of
Trustees? We have more than a dozen members of our Congregation who serve on
the Board. The Board meets every month (except for December) for about two
hours . . . and sometimes a little bit longer. We act on proposals and
recommendations that come from the Committees; we schmooze, we eat, and we
discuss the merits of the proposals and then vote and act on them. One of the
joys of being President is working with such a delightful group of people who
are thoughtful and come with such a diverse array of perspectives, talents and
skills. Everyone on the Board also has roles outside of our monthly meetings,
whether Chairing committees or overseeing our finances or education, etc. I
cannot thank the members of our Board enough for their hard work and dedication
to serving Temple Sinai, and I hope that you recognize how important their contributions
are to Temple.
Lastly, I want to thank all
of you – you make this community a
family and, whether you are hearing this live at the Annual Meeting or reading
it online in my Blog after the meeting, your contributions to and participation
in Temple events, activities, governance, etc. help define who we are. Thank
you for choosing to be a part of this Reform Jewish Community!
Sorry, but I am not quite
done yet.
We have a big year coming up
– we celebrate our 50th Anniversary next June and there is (yet
another) committee making plans to recognize this milestone in Temple Sinai’s
history.
But our history is the
result of planning and vision and applying core values as a foundation to what
we do. We are facing a turning point in our Congregation and we must plan for
the future if we, as an institution, are to be around to celebrate our 100th
Anniversary in 50 years.
I see two major initiatives that need to be addressed in 2016; two
initiatives that are critical to our continued success.
First:
we need to find out who we are. We
need to determine what is important to us, what defines us as a Congregation.
What are our core values? What is the vision our Congregation and how is that
reflected in our mission? And how does this inform and guide what we do and how we do it?
We have been so fortunate to
have a spiritual leader – Rabbi Glazier – who has been with us for more than 3
decades, who has seen us transform from a small band of Reform Jews without a
permanent home to the institution we are today. But with his impending retirement
in just two years, we must begin planning now for the inevitable transition to
a new Rabbi.
This transition is an
opportune time for self-reflection and assessment – both so that we are clear
as to who we are, but also so that we can better find a new Rabbi who shares
our values and vision for the future.
This is a very exciting
proposition which will involve outreach to everyone in the congregation as well
as Reform Jews in our community and is the very first step in our Rabbinic
transition planning process.
Second: we need to address the fiscal
and physical (infrastructure) challenges that we struggle with every year.
As we discuss the budget (I promise we will get to it soon!), you will see that
even with a balanced annual operating budget, we need to address the
accumulated debt that has resulted from the past few years of annual budget
deficits. Mind you, we are in a strong financial position – we own our building
outright and we have an endowment of more than $200,000. But last year we ran a
$16,000 deficit and, if we are fortunate, we will have a deficit no greater
than that this year. This deficit is real and means that we need to borrow
money to cover the losses each year, if we cannot find another source of funds.
We also have a beautiful
building and grounds, and while we budget each year for routine maintenance
expenses, we have not addressed major periodic maintenance expenses, resulting
in deferred maintenance that we do not have the funds to address (e.g., paving
the parking lot). Again, this may mean we need to borrow money to address the
most critical of these issues, if we cannot find another source of funds.
To address these two
significant initiatives, we will charge two working groups to focus on these
issues.
While we will draw membership from the Board and relevant Committees, it is
essential that we also engage members of the Congregation who are interested in
these issues and are willing to serve on an active, but limited time-frame
commitment, working group. These will be groups where your input and expertise
can have a profound impact on the future of Temple Sinai and I encourage everyone
to think about whether these might be areas in which you would like to be
involved in the coming year!
And, finally, thank YOU for
your attention – I look forward to working with you on these exciting
initiatives this coming year.
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