March 8, 2013
This has been an exciting week at Beth Radom. On Wednesday March 6th we held the first of many working sessions of the Transition Task Force (TTF). We were thrilled to see so many of you come out, roll up your sleeves and get busy with the important work of building and bettering our shul as we transition into the future of Beth Radom.
Meeting Summary:
1. Cantor David led us in a D’var Torah where he discussed this past Shabbat’s torah portion in light of the role of leadership and how B’nai Yisroel reacted when Moshe, their leader, did not return from his journey up Mount Sinai. Cantor David explored the notion of the responsibility that each person has to assume the role of leadership, to grow their own leadership and to help grow the leadership of others.2. TTF Chair – Cari Kozieork Bahar presented the TTF framework for the transition process which includes the four stage process of HEALING -> DISCOVERY-> SEARCH-> INTEGRATION. This was a shortened version of what the TTF originally presented to the Board because financial realities at the shul changed since the January inception of the TTF and so plans had to change as well. Original timelines included the hiring of an interim/transitional Rabbi by summer 2013 and the hiring of a permanent Rabbi by summer 2014. Realities being what they are, the TTF has had to change its recommendations to include:
a. Hiring of a Ba’al Korah – to help with conducting of services
b. Hiring a Rabbi for High Holiday services- to ensure continuity of meaningful services
c. Continue with the “Healing” and “Discovery” processes as planned
d. Work together to try to resolve the major financial and other serious shul issues in the next six months in order to continue with the original TTF plan to search for and integrate a new Rabbi
3. Cari discussed the key learnings that have been gleaned from the past several months in the shul as being:
a. The shul is run by volunteers – no one is paid a salary to do this job and must fit their volunteer work into the rest of their life’s obligations to career and family
b. Up until now, there have been a handful of people coming up with all of the ideas, doing all of the work and making all of the decisions in the shul
c. More people want to help generate ideas and implement solutions
4. Formation of 3 sub teams of the TTF. We formulated the following three teams listed below (* denotes Team Leader).
a. Volunteerism/member engagement: Mandate: To increase volunteers by 20 people in the next 6 months
Robin Flamer *
Allan Fryman
Bluma Wagner
Cindy Joseph
Ed Saxe
Jeff Bernknopf
Jenny Ophek
Karen Cohen-Fryman
Linda Saxe
Richard Tinianov
Robin Flamer
Ilene Bronsteter *
Ann Sharpe
Flora Finewax
Moishe Finewax
Sandy Shessel
Sharon Rubin
Terry Schacter
Cari Bahar *
Cari Bahar
Debbie Elman
Lottie Glass
Marty Kochberg
Ron Kohn
5. The new teams had breakout sessions where they brainstormed ideas and events and came up with actionable plans and set times for follow up meetings to continue their work over the next 6 months. Watch for reports from these teams in the coming weeks as we hear what they have planned.
Overall, the meeting on March 6th was a turning point and marked the beginning of a new way for people to become involved, have their ideas heard and to have a say in how our shul goes forward. The teams will continue to welcome any members that would like to join or who simply have ideas to suggest. Please email the team(s) you are interested in
joining and indicate how you would like to help, and we will get you in touch with the people in that team.
- Volunteers volunteers@bethradom.com
- Fundraising fundraising@bethradom.com
- Membership membership@bethradom.com
The TTF thanks everyone for showing up and participating in the meeting. We understand that many of you have strong and hurt feelings about the events that have taken place in our shul over the past several months. We all need to heal now and the best way to heal is to be empowered to participate in designing the kind of shul that you want to have. We hope that you will embrace this opportunity to have your say by joining one of the teams working on transition.
Transition Task Force
Cari Kozierok Bahar, Chair
