Like it or not Rabbi, you’re stuck with us for another 5 years. But seriously, I would like to thank you for your dedication to this congregation. Your true concern shows as you, on a daily basis, pour your heart and soul into your work. Please accept our heartfelt gratitude for all you do.
So let me leave off where I started a year ago. This time last year I talked of two main concerns I had for the future of our congregation: 1) Engagement and 2) Endowing our future.
As I look over our fiscal situation over the last year we have made strides to ensure that we have a solid financial footing going forward. Our budget looked pretty good by the end of our fiscal year. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Carey and Chris Potter, our Silent Auction was a phenomenal success which in the end was the key to a successful year. Additionally I would like to thank Jim Siegel for overseeing our expenditures and helping us to understand how and why we spend money. Our balance sheet is also in pretty good shape although we still have to pay close attention to rebuilding our Maintenance Reserve. Our endowments are now being managed with a greater degree of financial professionalism allowing us, as a participant in the community endowment, to have a greater confidence in our overall long term investment strategy. As well, the quarterly and fund specific reporting of our endowments has been greatly improved giving us a much clearer understanding of our overall assets. Although this community does have an endowment fund dedicated for our operating budget, we have yet to actively solicit for this fund so as to decrease the reliance on fundraising to balance the budget year after year. This is an issue that I believe must be addressed as part of our long term strategic plan.
Last year I also talked about increasing temple life and temple activities in each of our own lives. This has been and remains a very difficult issue. It is not solely an issue to this congregation, but also for congregations throughout the country. As well, this issue is not specifically a Jewish issue. It is an issue faced by all denominations. This is also not a generational issue but an issue that seems to affect people of all ages. We have had many successful events over the past year which I believe have been aimed at and have reached a diverse cross section of our community. Some have been well attended and some not so well attended. We have many times sought help from volunteers within our community: some times with overwhelming response and on other occasions it has been difficult. I certainly don't want to stand up here and make you suffer through a plea for participation and volunteerism but I do ask that you do our congregation a favor and let us know what it is that you want out of your congregation and your congregational life for you and your family. I know, as well as do the others in a leadership position in this community, that our congregation must change to better serve this community. We understand that without forward movement and a willingness to change; our community will not be best served by this congregation going forward. Help us mold this community into all that it can be for us, now, and for future generations. Without your input and involvement in this process, the leadership of this community is flying blind and will certainly miss the mark. With collective input, there is no way that this metamorphosis will fail.
I now would like to talk about something that is new, yet it is an old topic and a promise that we made but have not yet fulfilled. Many people in this audience revel in coming to our services, especially during the High Holiday season, yet when they get here, they cannot fully enjoy and participate in our celebration. They are left at a disadvantage not because of their ailment but rather because we as a community have failed them to this point. When I ask why this has not been taken care of yet I only have myself to blame. So why is it that so many are underserved? Because we have not given them the tools to hear us properly.
More clearly stated: most people with a hearing impairment struggle to clearly hear and understand services and events that take place in our sanctuary and/or the Lewis Social Room. It has been described to me as trying to listen to a speech while there is an enormous amount of white noise in the room. Not only is it hard to hear but comprehension of what you can here is very difficult.
During the celebration of our 150th anniversary this congregation raised money for many things: a Torah, repairs to our facilities, a celebration and we also raised money for a Hearing Loop System. To date we have yet to take a serious step forward to make this
Our biggest impediment to installing the loop is not the cost of the loop: we have already raised the lion share of the cost of the system, but rather it is carpeting. We very well may have to pull up carpeting to install the system. Unfortunately our carpeting has long passed its expected life and any attempts to lift or alter it will certainly destroy it. So, with the installation of a loop system comes the potential replacement of the carpet which will be expensive. I have started putting a committee together to spearhead the research, fundraising, procurement and installation of this system. If we must replace the carpet to accomplish this then so be it. We'll just have to have a good old fashion fundraising campaign that may take a week, a month, a year or several years but come what may, I am going to see that this gets done. We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to those who gave to the 150th anniversary fundraising campaign, and we owe it to those who visit our congregation as well. We talk of being inclusive and sensitive to those both within and outside of our congregation. This will be a giant step forward toward fulfilling that obligation. Please keep an eye out in the hallways, in our newsletter, on our website and our weekly emails for details of this project. If you would like to participate in this process, please don’t hesitate to call me.
I want to remind everyone that we are still collecting for a departing gift from the congregation to Rudy Sotelo, our longtime custodian who no longer is able to work for us. Rudy served our community for over 12 years with a dedication that we can only hope to duplicate. So far we have collected almost $1,000 to give to him. Please, if you are able, make a donation to this well deserved man. We will be concluding the collection just after High Holidays so please drop a gift off at the office or call to make arrangements. I appreciate your consideration.
- David Fishman, President