Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Annual Meeting Comments – December 6, 2015

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.