Post by Rabbi Neil on Dec 21, 2018 23:49:14 GMT
This thread is not for a sermon, but for an open discussion about the way that Temple Beth Shalom will develop in 2019 and 2020.
Introduction
At the end of June 2019, Aaron and Meredith will be retiring after twenty years of service to our community. Aaron has been our Music Director - organizing all aspects of music in our community, ranging from recruiting the High Holy Day choir to leading music in services and during Religious School. Meredith has been our Cantorial Soloist, lending her voice to Friday night and festival services, and also organizing the B'nei Mitzvah process. When they announced their retirement, we started consulting the community through our Kulanu Process. Some members wanted us to move forward with two new staff members, although many just wanted one. There was wide variance in opinion, with some wanting an Associate Rabbi and some wanting a Cantor.
We consulted the URJ for their advice. They listened to a long description of what we have done so far, and what possibilities already exist in our wider, local community. They made two recommendations. The first was to create a Strategic Plan to bring in far more of our community members into consultation about the future of our community. We want to discuss not just staffing, but vision, finances, outreach, family involvement, services, and much more. They suggested hiring either one or two interim positions for a year so that our community could continue to function healthily while we together discuss what to do more permanently in the future. Since the Board, and membership, were so divided on whether we should hire an Interim Associate Rabbi or an Interim Cantor, I suggested that we do both. The URJ loved the idea. They recommended two specific local individuals, but the TBS Board wanted a more open and transparent process involving advertising and interviews. Recently, I heard people saying that jobs have been promised to certain individuals and that the Board has already essentially hired two people. Anyone who has been to all our Board meetings will affirm that that is absolutely untrue. There are front-runner candidates (the two suggested by the URJ), but nothing is a fait accompli.
Moving Forward - 2019
Job descriptions for an Interim Associate Rabbi and an Interim Cantor are being drawn up. I took the jobs and hours done by Aaron and Meredith and added a number of things that our community has already said through the Kulanu process is important, such as outreach to our current families, outreach to new families, increased pastoral care, differing approaches to spirituality, lay leadership training, and the restarting of the conversion course. Hours have been assigned to those roles based on importance, which in turn was determined by the feedback from the community. Job descriptions are now being written up in full before consultation with the Finance Committee who will assign salaries for these one-year interim posts. After that, the Personnel Committee, headed by the VP of Admin, will advertise the posts from Taos to Albuquerque and will interview all candidates for the posts. They will be hired to start on July 1st 2019 for one-year contracts. If the Strategic Plan ends up determining that it has been successful then there is the possibility of extension, but the successful candidates will be clearly informed that there is no expectation of that to happen.
At the same time, the Strategic Plan will start, headed by Co-President Rebecca Entwisle, assisted by the URJ. This will try to bring in as many members of our community to discuss how to shape Temple Beth Shalom to respond to the needs of 21st century Santa Fean Jews. We know, for example, that a group of 50 unaffiliated young Jewish adults meet to celebrate the Jewish festivals in Santa Fe - they even erected a succah on the southside of town. It is no longer a case of "If you build it, they will come." The next generation of Jews behave totally differently to this generation, and we need to be able to support all generations and bring them into our community. So, we know that we need to develop our community to meet the challenges of today, and we want to do that by consulting with all of our members.
But Do We Need An Associate Rabbi and a Cantor?
This question has come up a few times, and certainly deserves response. What we definitely do need during our interim year are safe pairs of hands. We also need to explore new things during 2019 to see what works and what doesn't. If we just hired musicians, for example, then we wouldn't be able to also do all the things mentioned above, such as increasing family involvement in services, outreach to unaffiliated members, restart the conversion course, and so on. In a year when we're exploring all our options, we need to see some more options in action.
Will we need an Associate Rabbi and a Cantor in the future? Who knows? Literally none of us know the answer to that question, because we have no idea what the feedback will be from the Strategic Plan. That's not us being evasive, but we honestly don't know what the community will say during the next year of consultation. What we do know for sure is that 2019 has to be a year of increased member involvement in every aspect of our community. Members need to come to services, events, educational sessions, meetings, and more, to be sure that the feedback is based on what we are seeing in the community, and what we're envisaging for the future.
What Now?
We would like everyone to be able to use this forum page as a place for asking questions. This is not the place for giving feedback because the consultation process hasn't started yet. Certainly, this would be a good place for members to advise the Board or Personnel Committee "Have you considered X or Y?" That advice will then be passed onto relevant people. But you may be confused about an element of what's to come, or want to know more. If so, this is the place to ask. We welcome questions because we want everything to be as open and transparent as possible.
So, please give advice to the Board in terms of things we may not have considered, and please ask questions if you need anything clarified.
Introduction
At the end of June 2019, Aaron and Meredith will be retiring after twenty years of service to our community. Aaron has been our Music Director - organizing all aspects of music in our community, ranging from recruiting the High Holy Day choir to leading music in services and during Religious School. Meredith has been our Cantorial Soloist, lending her voice to Friday night and festival services, and also organizing the B'nei Mitzvah process. When they announced their retirement, we started consulting the community through our Kulanu Process. Some members wanted us to move forward with two new staff members, although many just wanted one. There was wide variance in opinion, with some wanting an Associate Rabbi and some wanting a Cantor.
We consulted the URJ for their advice. They listened to a long description of what we have done so far, and what possibilities already exist in our wider, local community. They made two recommendations. The first was to create a Strategic Plan to bring in far more of our community members into consultation about the future of our community. We want to discuss not just staffing, but vision, finances, outreach, family involvement, services, and much more. They suggested hiring either one or two interim positions for a year so that our community could continue to function healthily while we together discuss what to do more permanently in the future. Since the Board, and membership, were so divided on whether we should hire an Interim Associate Rabbi or an Interim Cantor, I suggested that we do both. The URJ loved the idea. They recommended two specific local individuals, but the TBS Board wanted a more open and transparent process involving advertising and interviews. Recently, I heard people saying that jobs have been promised to certain individuals and that the Board has already essentially hired two people. Anyone who has been to all our Board meetings will affirm that that is absolutely untrue. There are front-runner candidates (the two suggested by the URJ), but nothing is a fait accompli.
Moving Forward - 2019
Job descriptions for an Interim Associate Rabbi and an Interim Cantor are being drawn up. I took the jobs and hours done by Aaron and Meredith and added a number of things that our community has already said through the Kulanu process is important, such as outreach to our current families, outreach to new families, increased pastoral care, differing approaches to spirituality, lay leadership training, and the restarting of the conversion course. Hours have been assigned to those roles based on importance, which in turn was determined by the feedback from the community. Job descriptions are now being written up in full before consultation with the Finance Committee who will assign salaries for these one-year interim posts. After that, the Personnel Committee, headed by the VP of Admin, will advertise the posts from Taos to Albuquerque and will interview all candidates for the posts. They will be hired to start on July 1st 2019 for one-year contracts. If the Strategic Plan ends up determining that it has been successful then there is the possibility of extension, but the successful candidates will be clearly informed that there is no expectation of that to happen.
At the same time, the Strategic Plan will start, headed by Co-President Rebecca Entwisle, assisted by the URJ. This will try to bring in as many members of our community to discuss how to shape Temple Beth Shalom to respond to the needs of 21st century Santa Fean Jews. We know, for example, that a group of 50 unaffiliated young Jewish adults meet to celebrate the Jewish festivals in Santa Fe - they even erected a succah on the southside of town. It is no longer a case of "If you build it, they will come." The next generation of Jews behave totally differently to this generation, and we need to be able to support all generations and bring them into our community. So, we know that we need to develop our community to meet the challenges of today, and we want to do that by consulting with all of our members.
But Do We Need An Associate Rabbi and a Cantor?
This question has come up a few times, and certainly deserves response. What we definitely do need during our interim year are safe pairs of hands. We also need to explore new things during 2019 to see what works and what doesn't. If we just hired musicians, for example, then we wouldn't be able to also do all the things mentioned above, such as increasing family involvement in services, outreach to unaffiliated members, restart the conversion course, and so on. In a year when we're exploring all our options, we need to see some more options in action.
Will we need an Associate Rabbi and a Cantor in the future? Who knows? Literally none of us know the answer to that question, because we have no idea what the feedback will be from the Strategic Plan. That's not us being evasive, but we honestly don't know what the community will say during the next year of consultation. What we do know for sure is that 2019 has to be a year of increased member involvement in every aspect of our community. Members need to come to services, events, educational sessions, meetings, and more, to be sure that the feedback is based on what we are seeing in the community, and what we're envisaging for the future.
What Now?
We would like everyone to be able to use this forum page as a place for asking questions. This is not the place for giving feedback because the consultation process hasn't started yet. Certainly, this would be a good place for members to advise the Board or Personnel Committee "Have you considered X or Y?" That advice will then be passed onto relevant people. But you may be confused about an element of what's to come, or want to know more. If so, this is the place to ask. We welcome questions because we want everything to be as open and transparent as possible.
So, please give advice to the Board in terms of things we may not have considered, and please ask questions if you need anything clarified.