Strategic Plan
Authors: Dani Carrus, Ben Gordon, Aaron Sarna
Submitted: June 22, 2021
Introduction
Introduction
Using the time afforded to us during the pandemic while the minyan was not meeting, the strategic planning committee decided to take a hard look at the state of the minyan and create a plan for sustainability going forward. Through speaking with our different constituent groups, consulting professional advisors, and internal planning, the following strategic plan was created.
We also acknowledge that over the last 18 years the minyan has grown to become more than just a davening space. This plan outlines both recommendations for the future of the minyan as well as the discussions that were behind those recommendations in an effort towards transparency. These plans strive to create structures and procedures that will help our minyan continue to grow and prosper over the next 3-5 years.
This document is a road map but not a complete manual, nor is it in any way binding to the board Its intent is to catalyze constructive, actionable discussion, and to provide guidance for the board to modify, implement, or disregard as it sees fit. We hope that over the next year of reopening that we can implement many of the changes of the type described in the document. We believe they will increase membership, participation, and positive community feelings at Minyan Tehillah.
This document is primarily intended for the consumption of the current and incoming boards, but the committee also recommends that it be disseminated to the broader community to facilitate discussion and foster transparency.
Scope: The committee looked at the following areas within the minyan to make recommendations. This document is organized accordingly..
Anticipating that these recommendations will only be partially implemented, interdependencies are minimized where possible. By the same token, the committee does not represent that these recommendations are complete. While we believe that their implementation will help the Minyan, it is also our hope that the structure of this process will also inspire continued communal examination of the operational, communal, and identity challenges of the Minyan, and that the suggestions themselves will inspire the community to generate additional actionable ideas.
What is next for this document: The committee recommends that the board evaluate the utility and effectiveness of this document after a year, and codify feedback for future strategic planning committees. We further recommend that each incoming board should review the latest version of this document, and that it should assemble a committee to revise and update it as necessary.
How was this document developed: A small committee (Dani Carrus, Aaron Sarna, and Ben Gordon) met biweekly over a period of six months, inviting community members, conducting interviews, and codifying our conclusions. Where appropriate, we also incorporated feedback from the 2019 Membership Survey, as well as from other resources such as the Hadar 2021 Independent Minyan Conference and the book “Building Singing Communities” by Joey Weisenberg. The committee acknowledges that it was unable to represent every voice and every perspective, but it tried its best. Looking forward, these missing voices should be incorporated on an ongoing basis.
Looking forward: The committee sees the pandemic as an opportunity for renewal, with potential to come back stronger than ever. We are an incredible community with a core of committed individuals with tremendous talent. We hope this plan harnesses all the good and helps propel us into the future.
Leadership
MotivationAt the most basic level, the Committee wanted to focus on defining a sustainable leadership structure, since the recommendations in the rest of this document will not implement themselves. We also aimed to strike a balance between maintaining the roles that have generally served our minyan well, with adding new roles that will explicitly focus on some of our overarching strategic goals. Finally, we wanted to ensure that those who do the hard work serving our community feel recognized and valued, whether or not they are formally a member of the board.
Background/DiscussionFrom the very beginning, our Minyan has put in place a formal leadership structure, opting not to operate in a “chavura style” with bottom up decision making and rotating roles and responsibilities among all members. A number of different operational structures have been employed over the years, with varying degrees of intentionality, and the topic has been thought through numerous times by past boards and committees. Our general thought is that the current leadership roles are roughly correct, but the system of filling them needs an overhaul, and the loose network of non-board leadership positions needs improved organization and visibility. There are also areas where our leadership could benefit from better transparency.
The current board structure includes a general chair, ritual chair, communications chair, finance chair, programming chair, kiddush chair, welcoming chair, communications chair, and strategic planning chair, some of which are currently vacant. In addition there are a substantial number of non-board leadership roles, including treasurer, davening coordinator, leyning coordinator, dvar torah coordinator, children’s programming coordinator, chessed coordinator, gabbaim, ritual committee, halakhic advisor, programming committee, high holidays coordinator, and others that pop up as needed for seasonal or infrequent event.
One thing we noticed with this structure is that everyone, with the exceptions of the general and strategic planning chairs, has a very pragmatic and fairly well-defined role. This is good, in the sense that it helps ensure that every task has an “owner,” which makes the responsibilities clear and well distributed. The flip side, however, is that novel and less tangible issues do not have a clear owner. In the structure we propose below, we explicitly make the chair the owner of most of these issues. We also rebrand the strategic planning chair as the “community chair,” whose aim is to focus on the less tangible needs of the Minyan and its members, and to make improvements that might span the domains of multiple other board members, or, for that matter, that are not covered by any other board member at all.
We also looked into the fact that the current system for filling board seats and other leadership roles is entirely ad-hoc. There are no specific terms, nor are there any elections.. The result is a system where board members stay on in their roles until they either totally burn out or they find some face-saving excuse to step down, usually based on a change in life or work status. Currently, it is then up to that person, or sometimes the rest of the board to identify candidates for replacement and convince them to join. There is an upside to this, in terms of institutional memory, but there are major downsides to the cycle of burning out our leaders, never actually having an open field process for people to join the board, and having the people recruiting for the board being burnt out themselves.
The third dimension we looked into was the organization of the non-board leadership. Under the current structure, the non-board leaders do not attend board meetings and often do not interact with other leaders of the minyan outside of executing their specific role. This has the benefit of limiting the time commitment required of these roles, but it also limits the ability of the board to maintaina comprehensive view of the workings of the minyan, identify emerging issues, and execute coherent strategies across all aspects of the Minyan’s operations. It further limits these leaders’ abilities to share ideas with each other and to feel connected with the overall running of the Minyan.
Recommendation for leadership structureOutlined below are our recommendations to update our leadership structure. We have kept most of the positions similar to what they are now since we felt that overall the positions meet the needs of the community and that the board functions well. We did feel that each position's role should be more clearly defined so that those who assume positions have a clear understanding of what is expected from their position and what parts of the minyan fall into their purview. This structure comprises an Executive Board and a Steering Committee:
Executive Board
A significant new recommendation for the new structure is the institution of terms limits. We felt these are necessary to help keep the board from developing burn out and also to help people who are joining the board feel that they are not being signed up for a “life sentence.”
The steering committee will be a group of volunteers who help to run the minyan without sitting on the executive board. The minyan already has many of these positions and again we wanted to use this as a way to formalize these positions. We also thought long and hard about how to help the members of the steering committees feel a part of the larger leadership structure and not just off in their own spheres with little connection to each other or their overseeing executive officer.
A final recommendation is the establishment of a nominating committee to fill board vacancies. This recommendation is detailed below.
Executive Roles and DescriptionsChair: Has an eye on the overall workings of the Minyan, and helps to implement the strategic vision and mission of the minyan. Sets the schedule of meetings and make sure that all is running smoothly, and that the board is in sync. Functions as the external liaison (with TBS, and broader Camberville Jewish community).
Ritual: In charge of davening quality and overseeing continued betterment of the davening, facilitates the halachic decision making process, coordinates and organizes the gabbaim. Oversees the organization of all the davening logistics.
Finance: In charge of making financial choices that grow the minyan’s membership and further the values of the minyan, tracking and reporting on the finances and helping to create and adhere to the budget, thinking of ways that the minyan could raise more money through sponsorships and grants, thinking about how to conduct our annual membership drive to maximize membership and the feeling of engagement of the membership.
Programming: Responsible for overseeing all of the programmatic aspects of the minyan. This includes planning and implementing events which provide socializing, learning, and opportunities for social justice. They will coordinate with other Minyanim around joint programming. They will help to provide programming that reflects the needs of minyan members and helps to further our collective mission.
Community Building (new): Responsible for the overall health of the MT community. This includes assessing the current community for strengths and weaknesses and coming up with plans to nourish the strengths and address the weaknesses. Of particular interest are: what subgroups exist within the community, do they mix with each other, and what avenues are we providing — not just davening — for these groups to enhance their relationships? Is the community welcoming to new people? Are the needs of all age groups and life stages being met? Are the connections within the community that could be made stronger through explicit intervention?
Communications: In charge of identifying what information needs to get out to the community and how best to do it. Is the point person between the community and the board and steering committees. Also manages communications with the outside world, such as keeping up with local events of interest to the community that are not Tehillah-run, responding to outside inquiries or routing them appropriately, and making sure that the public face of the minyan on the website, social media etc is accurate, up-to-date, useful, and positive. Should be continually assessing whether current communication mechanisms are effective and how to improve them. Works closely with the Community Building chair to ensure goals are being met.
Steering Committee PositionsCommunications
Board meetingsWe recommend that the executive board continue to meet monthly and more often when needed. We also think that Executive board members should meet with steering committee members when needed and also to check in with them regularly. At all executive board meetings minutes should be taken. There was much debate about how to add transparency for the community around board meeting minutes. We suggest that the board share parts of the minutes from the meetings in the written weekly announcements that go out to the community.
Nominating Committee As the board is currently structured, someone who wants to leave the board is often given the daunting task of finding their own replacement. If they do not find one, then the entire board’s time is taken up by working to find a replacement which can take a long time. We recommend shifting to a nomination process for filling both board and steering committee positions. This will both help make the process of finding new leaders more communal and alleviate the board itself from this responsibility.
We suggest the following implementation:
Minyan Community Building
MotivationBeyond ritual, a key mission for the Minyan is to foster community, providing a forum for people to meet each other, socialize, and build contacts, relationships, and support networks. On examination, the Committee saw many successes in these areas, but it also identified areas in need of improvement. Addressing these areas is key to the Minyan’s sustainability in terms of encouraging community engagement and maintaining membership.
Background/DiscussionOur Minyan has served as a social nexus since its inception, through a mix of spirited communal davening, learning, chessed, social programming, and of course, kiddush. Throughout its history, these activities have successfully provided for our community, building several networks of supporting friends and a strong tradition of coming together as a community to help members in need. However, interviews and the survey reveal that there is also a strong perception that these structures have evolved to better serve long-standing members than people newer to the Minyan. Anecdotal evidence tells us that this dynamic deters new members. This threatens our community’s ability to maintain or grow its numbers, especially when facing natural attrition. On the positive side, we have seen that community support has been tremendously helpful to families in need, and we should take actions to further foster this resource.
The Committee advises that the Minyan’s long-term strategy implement additional intentionality around building and strengthening community. Here, “building” specifically refers to helping to foster connections between members, such that every individual can feel connected to many different parts of the community, in some form. “Strengthening” specifically refers to maintaining and solidifying existing connections, such as through shared experiences, shared values, shared goals, or chesed. To both these ends, the recommendations that follow include general considerations, organizational changes, and specific actions.
RecommendationsOverall, these recommendations fall into two categories: The first assignsresponsibility for stewardship of community health to a small set of volunteers (which includes a dedicated board position). The second covers suggestions of new practices to help create an ecosystem to foster community growth and well-being:
A third challenge is changing informal minyan social dynamics, particularly during kiddush which is a central community-building event. This will require some innovation. It could be as simple as seeding kiddush with “schmoozers” (see above) who actively seek new or loosely-connected individuals, or it may involve more explicit conversations with the community, or something as simple as incorporating more celebrations of community life/career events.
Davening
MotivationWhile our community has expanded beyond just being a group that davens together, davening is still the bread and butter of what the Minyan does together. The Minyan’s leadership has continually worked to improve the quality of davening, so this set of recommendations does not focus much on the minutiae of davening. Rather, it looks primarily at how davening can be used as a tool to build and strengthen community. In turn, a larger and stronger community should naturally improve the quality of davening itself, thereby creating a sustaining cycle
Background/DiscussionA key element of building community through davening is to make sure that everyone who attends feels like they are truly part of the davening, as opposed to just observing it. For some people, this means taking on some specific role or responsibility that enables the davening to happen, ranging from being chazzan or leyning, to setting up kiddush, to coordinating childcare, to welcoming new people and guests. For others it might mean being a part of the kahal by lending their voice, drumming skills, or pure energy to enhance everyone else’s davening. For still others it might just mean supporting their child/friend/relative who is leyning or leading davening for the first time. The key is to ensure that everyone in attendance feels that their presence benefited someone else besides themselves, since that gives a feeling of buying into the community.
The simplest way to buy in for most people, especially newcomers, is to be an active kahal participant in davening. This is tricky to do when the rest of the kahal is passive for much of the service, and musically it is a lot harder to blend your voice in when people are physically distant. We therefore propose methods that increase singing and energy from people seated fairly densely around the chazzan, while leaving the space inviting to those who don’t know anyone, and also not excluding people like parents who might need to stay somewhat on the periphery.
Additionally, for the first time in the Minyan’s existence we will soon have substantial numbers of teenagers. Despite the fact that we expect most of these teenagers will one day leave for college or other future endeavors, we absolutely want them to feel like this is their community. When they come back to visit, they should look forward to returning to Minyan Tehillah, where the adults who collectively helped raise them will have the joy of celebrating their accomplishments. From an educational point of view, this helps ensure that young adults coming from our community go out into the world as ambassadors of our community, with the values that our community espouses and davening skills that make us proud.
Recommendation Overall suggestion: Implement more measures to intentionally direct davening towards a kahal-involved service. These could include:
Halakhic Decision Making Process
MotivationAs a lay-led minyan that explicitly commits to halakhic practice, but does not have a Rabbi, it is vital to determine how halakhic decisions are made. Communal confidence in this process is a critical component of a halachic community. Over the last 20 years, the minyan has been well served by its ritual committee, but we also see opportunities for further improvement.
Background/DiscussionFrom its inception, the Minyan Tehillah community has valued being lay-led and has also valued the contributions of its community members. As a Minyan that was on the vanguard of innovation in the space of women’s involvement in davening that was committed to halakha, it was necessary to dive deep on what aspects of normative Orthodox davening practice were actually halachically mandated to stay in their current form, and what had room for innovation. In 2008, a couple who were members of the Minyan and served as its Halakhic advisors published the Guide for the “Halakhic Minyan”, which the Minyan adopted as the basis of its halakhic practice. The Minyan then proceeded on its own to develop its own Document of Davening Practice that documents each decision the Minyan has made that deviates from the Guide for the “Halakhic Minyan, which has been continuously updated to this day.
The specific process of decision making is less well documented. Currently there are four different modes of decision making: 1) Referring the question to the halakhic advisor, who issues a ruling. 2) Discussing the question in the Ritual Committee, which includes the halakhic advisor, and then making a decision. 3) The board makes the decision based on guidance from the halakhic advisor. 4) Discussing the issue in an all-Minyan meeting and putting it to a community-wide vote.
Although these modes have worked for the minyan, we identified areas of development. For example, it is not well documented how to choose between thesemodes. It is not clear to the community who exactly constitutes the Ritual Committee. Finally, aside from the last mode above, none of these modes have a clear path for community involvement in the process, either by collecting community input into the decision-making process or even publicizing the decisions that have been made.
We advise that a Minyan that so values its halakhic process — particularly when that is what differentiates it from other davening options at a global scale — should celebrate it, both internally and externally. It must be well-documented, transparent, and advertised, while still being sensitive to the personal and private nature of some decisions.
Recommendation
Children
MotivationWe have had a growing number of families join our Minyan, as well as people who have kids while being members of the community. We want to make sure we are meeting the needs of both the families as well as the children themselves.
Background/DiscussionTo help frame our discussion and recommendations, the committee wanted to proposea mission statement for how we view children of all ages at the minyan. We came up with the following: “Minyan Tehillah strives to build a community of children who feel connected to each other and their Judaism, and a supportive environment for parents that allows them to participate fully in davening.”
Using this as our guiding mission, we discussed what we can be doing for families and children at all age points both within our main davening as well as additional programming during davening. We looked at all of our past, and current programs. We spoke about physical safety, volunteer burnout, and policies around children’s participation. We spoke at length about how to help create integration and foster leadership as children age through the Minyan. We hoped to reframe the discussion away from solving a childcare problem to asking how to make children an integral part of the minyan. We have come up with the following recommendations.
Recommendations Rehire Babysitters/reconfigure their role. Ideally, this should be done before we return to indoor davening at TBS
Relationship with TBS
MotivationOver the last year, we have not been at our usual home at TBS. As we transition back into meeting in person and again need an indoor space we wanted to check in with TBS about our relationship and to feel out the possiblities of what that relationship could become.
Background/Discussion
Cons
Recommendations
Physical Space
MotivationThe physical spaces we inhabit for our formal and informal events can have a dramatic effect on the health, growth potential, and perceptions of the Minyan. We are very fortunate to have access to TBS, but adjustments to the space are recommended to better support davening, socializing, communal support, and children. The committee acknowledges that space issues are intricately intertwined with all the other areas covered in this plan, but for the purposes of providing strategic direction, recommendations here are focused on specific needs. As such there is some duplication/overlap with recommendations for other areas.
Background/DiscussionSpace has been a long-running strategic challenge for the Minyan. At present, the relationship that it has established with TBS has enabled it to access a beautiful davening space along with storage space, food-storage and serving capabilities, areas that can be used for child-care, and assorted benefits of being a part of a jewish space (e.g. spare sifrei torah, proximity to other minyanim, emergency auf-ruf candy, etc.).
Despite these positives, the experience can be further improved. For example, the configuration of the sanctuary could be made more conducive to communal davening, modifications to the space could be made to better support childcare and social events, and changes could be made to better ensure access to members of the community with physical challenges.
Space issues are also intertwined with finances. In previous years, there have been musings about making large capital investments in the space, or even pursuing a capital campaign to buy a building. The committee recognizes that taken as a whole, the demographic of our community has limited financial resources, which may preclude direct pursuit of some of these recommendations. However, if suggestions are compatible with intentions of the wider TBS community, they may yet be feasible.
Recommendations The recommendations of the committee are focused in five areas:
Membership
MotivationThe committee chose to look at Membership as it is a measurement of how we are doing as a community. It is expected that if we have a strong and vibrant community that we would have a large membership. This was a challenge since we did not have great numbers for this year to look at because of COVID. We therefore choose not to look specifically at this year. Since we cannot predict what COVID’s effect on membership will be going forward we came up with some more broad thoughts and recommendations.
Background/DiscussionOur discussion focused specifically on the question of why someone should become a dues paying member of Tehillah, as currently there are no differences in benefits between members who pays dues and those who do not. committee discussed the pros and cons to this: We considered what it would be like to have members only perks, and privileges and weighed that against the values of becoming a more inclusive and welcoming community. These discussions should continue as the Minyan continues to develop its planning.
We also discussed our current dues structure and whether we believe that it is right for the minyan. We decided that we do believe that it currently meets our needs.
Recommendations A member of the week (or month). This might be a great way to highlight our members in either the weekly announcements or in other ways. It could be a few sentences about them or they are the ones who submit the joke of the week in the announcements.
Proper minyan directory. Our committee felt that having a more clear database of members and ways to help members connect outside of shabbat using it would be a benefit one would get by becoming a dues paying member.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading and considering the recommendations above. We hope that these will catalyze further reflection and strategic discussion, and we believe that by implementing changes in this spirit over the course of the next year, that the Minyan can help ensure its success and sustainability. We know that there is much work to be done now from the board and members of the community and the work does not end with this document. Finally, we wish to thank all of the members of the community who volunteered their time, wisdom, and insights to this effort. Your voices made this document possible, and we hope that others will join the process, ultimately driving a process that reflects the perspectives of the entire Minyan.
Submitted: June 22, 2021
Introduction
Introduction
Using the time afforded to us during the pandemic while the minyan was not meeting, the strategic planning committee decided to take a hard look at the state of the minyan and create a plan for sustainability going forward. Through speaking with our different constituent groups, consulting professional advisors, and internal planning, the following strategic plan was created.
We also acknowledge that over the last 18 years the minyan has grown to become more than just a davening space. This plan outlines both recommendations for the future of the minyan as well as the discussions that were behind those recommendations in an effort towards transparency. These plans strive to create structures and procedures that will help our minyan continue to grow and prosper over the next 3-5 years.
This document is a road map but not a complete manual, nor is it in any way binding to the board Its intent is to catalyze constructive, actionable discussion, and to provide guidance for the board to modify, implement, or disregard as it sees fit. We hope that over the next year of reopening that we can implement many of the changes of the type described in the document. We believe they will increase membership, participation, and positive community feelings at Minyan Tehillah.
This document is primarily intended for the consumption of the current and incoming boards, but the committee also recommends that it be disseminated to the broader community to facilitate discussion and foster transparency.
Scope: The committee looked at the following areas within the minyan to make recommendations. This document is organized accordingly..
- Leadership
- Minyan Community Building
- Davening
- Children
- Physical Space
- Membership
- Finances
- Broader Camberville
- Halakhic Decision Making Process
- The relationship of the Minyan with other Camberville Jewish organizations (in addition to TBS). This is particularly timely, as the dynamics of the greater Jewish community are shifting, due in large part to COVID.
- Financial planning.
- Re-examining our official governance documents (e.g. bylaws) and updating and amending them as necessary.
Anticipating that these recommendations will only be partially implemented, interdependencies are minimized where possible. By the same token, the committee does not represent that these recommendations are complete. While we believe that their implementation will help the Minyan, it is also our hope that the structure of this process will also inspire continued communal examination of the operational, communal, and identity challenges of the Minyan, and that the suggestions themselves will inspire the community to generate additional actionable ideas.
What is next for this document: The committee recommends that the board evaluate the utility and effectiveness of this document after a year, and codify feedback for future strategic planning committees. We further recommend that each incoming board should review the latest version of this document, and that it should assemble a committee to revise and update it as necessary.
How was this document developed: A small committee (Dani Carrus, Aaron Sarna, and Ben Gordon) met biweekly over a period of six months, inviting community members, conducting interviews, and codifying our conclusions. Where appropriate, we also incorporated feedback from the 2019 Membership Survey, as well as from other resources such as the Hadar 2021 Independent Minyan Conference and the book “Building Singing Communities” by Joey Weisenberg. The committee acknowledges that it was unable to represent every voice and every perspective, but it tried its best. Looking forward, these missing voices should be incorporated on an ongoing basis.
Looking forward: The committee sees the pandemic as an opportunity for renewal, with potential to come back stronger than ever. We are an incredible community with a core of committed individuals with tremendous talent. We hope this plan harnesses all the good and helps propel us into the future.
Leadership
MotivationAt the most basic level, the Committee wanted to focus on defining a sustainable leadership structure, since the recommendations in the rest of this document will not implement themselves. We also aimed to strike a balance between maintaining the roles that have generally served our minyan well, with adding new roles that will explicitly focus on some of our overarching strategic goals. Finally, we wanted to ensure that those who do the hard work serving our community feel recognized and valued, whether or not they are formally a member of the board.
Background/DiscussionFrom the very beginning, our Minyan has put in place a formal leadership structure, opting not to operate in a “chavura style” with bottom up decision making and rotating roles and responsibilities among all members. A number of different operational structures have been employed over the years, with varying degrees of intentionality, and the topic has been thought through numerous times by past boards and committees. Our general thought is that the current leadership roles are roughly correct, but the system of filling them needs an overhaul, and the loose network of non-board leadership positions needs improved organization and visibility. There are also areas where our leadership could benefit from better transparency.
The current board structure includes a general chair, ritual chair, communications chair, finance chair, programming chair, kiddush chair, welcoming chair, communications chair, and strategic planning chair, some of which are currently vacant. In addition there are a substantial number of non-board leadership roles, including treasurer, davening coordinator, leyning coordinator, dvar torah coordinator, children’s programming coordinator, chessed coordinator, gabbaim, ritual committee, halakhic advisor, programming committee, high holidays coordinator, and others that pop up as needed for seasonal or infrequent event.
One thing we noticed with this structure is that everyone, with the exceptions of the general and strategic planning chairs, has a very pragmatic and fairly well-defined role. This is good, in the sense that it helps ensure that every task has an “owner,” which makes the responsibilities clear and well distributed. The flip side, however, is that novel and less tangible issues do not have a clear owner. In the structure we propose below, we explicitly make the chair the owner of most of these issues. We also rebrand the strategic planning chair as the “community chair,” whose aim is to focus on the less tangible needs of the Minyan and its members, and to make improvements that might span the domains of multiple other board members, or, for that matter, that are not covered by any other board member at all.
We also looked into the fact that the current system for filling board seats and other leadership roles is entirely ad-hoc. There are no specific terms, nor are there any elections.. The result is a system where board members stay on in their roles until they either totally burn out or they find some face-saving excuse to step down, usually based on a change in life or work status. Currently, it is then up to that person, or sometimes the rest of the board to identify candidates for replacement and convince them to join. There is an upside to this, in terms of institutional memory, but there are major downsides to the cycle of burning out our leaders, never actually having an open field process for people to join the board, and having the people recruiting for the board being burnt out themselves.
The third dimension we looked into was the organization of the non-board leadership. Under the current structure, the non-board leaders do not attend board meetings and often do not interact with other leaders of the minyan outside of executing their specific role. This has the benefit of limiting the time commitment required of these roles, but it also limits the ability of the board to maintaina comprehensive view of the workings of the minyan, identify emerging issues, and execute coherent strategies across all aspects of the Minyan’s operations. It further limits these leaders’ abilities to share ideas with each other and to feel connected with the overall running of the Minyan.
Recommendation for leadership structureOutlined below are our recommendations to update our leadership structure. We have kept most of the positions similar to what they are now since we felt that overall the positions meet the needs of the community and that the board functions well. We did feel that each position's role should be more clearly defined so that those who assume positions have a clear understanding of what is expected from their position and what parts of the minyan fall into their purview. This structure comprises an Executive Board and a Steering Committee:
Executive Board
- 5-7 Members
- 1 year term
- 2 or 3 term limit. After the last term, require a 1 term break before rejoining the board.
- An exception to the term limit is an existing board member, who is not the chair, transitioning into the role of chair. That person can immediately serve up to 2 terms as chair.
- Board members may immediately transition to steering committee roles at the completion of their term, regardless of how many terms have been served.
- Approx 10 members
- Each steering committee member sits under one of the Exec. Board members.
- Steering committee meets as needed with their board members. The Exec board and Steering committee meet as a whole at least once a year for an entire board meeting.
- Once a year or more, as needed, members of the steering committee should be asked to attend an executive board meeting to check in, and report how their role is going, and to surface any issues. This would also be a good opportunity for the board to show individual recognition/appreciation to steering committee members.
A significant new recommendation for the new structure is the institution of terms limits. We felt these are necessary to help keep the board from developing burn out and also to help people who are joining the board feel that they are not being signed up for a “life sentence.”
The steering committee will be a group of volunteers who help to run the minyan without sitting on the executive board. The minyan already has many of these positions and again we wanted to use this as a way to formalize these positions. We also thought long and hard about how to help the members of the steering committees feel a part of the larger leadership structure and not just off in their own spheres with little connection to each other or their overseeing executive officer.
A final recommendation is the establishment of a nominating committee to fill board vacancies. This recommendation is detailed below.
Executive Roles and DescriptionsChair: Has an eye on the overall workings of the Minyan, and helps to implement the strategic vision and mission of the minyan. Sets the schedule of meetings and make sure that all is running smoothly, and that the board is in sync. Functions as the external liaison (with TBS, and broader Camberville Jewish community).
Ritual: In charge of davening quality and overseeing continued betterment of the davening, facilitates the halachic decision making process, coordinates and organizes the gabbaim. Oversees the organization of all the davening logistics.
Finance: In charge of making financial choices that grow the minyan’s membership and further the values of the minyan, tracking and reporting on the finances and helping to create and adhere to the budget, thinking of ways that the minyan could raise more money through sponsorships and grants, thinking about how to conduct our annual membership drive to maximize membership and the feeling of engagement of the membership.
Programming: Responsible for overseeing all of the programmatic aspects of the minyan. This includes planning and implementing events which provide socializing, learning, and opportunities for social justice. They will coordinate with other Minyanim around joint programming. They will help to provide programming that reflects the needs of minyan members and helps to further our collective mission.
Community Building (new): Responsible for the overall health of the MT community. This includes assessing the current community for strengths and weaknesses and coming up with plans to nourish the strengths and address the weaknesses. Of particular interest are: what subgroups exist within the community, do they mix with each other, and what avenues are we providing — not just davening — for these groups to enhance their relationships? Is the community welcoming to new people? Are the needs of all age groups and life stages being met? Are the connections within the community that could be made stronger through explicit intervention?
Communications: In charge of identifying what information needs to get out to the community and how best to do it. Is the point person between the community and the board and steering committees. Also manages communications with the outside world, such as keeping up with local events of interest to the community that are not Tehillah-run, responding to outside inquiries or routing them appropriately, and making sure that the public face of the minyan on the website, social media etc is accurate, up-to-date, useful, and positive. Should be continually assessing whether current communication mechanisms are effective and how to improve them. Works closely with the Community Building chair to ensure goals are being met.
Steering Committee PositionsCommunications
- Website/social media
- Chesed
- Welcoming/Hospitality
- Kiddush
- Programming (social action/learning/social/holiday programming) (3-5 people)
- Children and Family Shabbat
- Fundraiser
- Treasurer
- Leyning
- Davening
- High Holidays (up to the board if they think this should go under programming instead)
- Dvar Torah
- Halachic Advisor
Board meetingsWe recommend that the executive board continue to meet monthly and more often when needed. We also think that Executive board members should meet with steering committee members when needed and also to check in with them regularly. At all executive board meetings minutes should be taken. There was much debate about how to add transparency for the community around board meeting minutes. We suggest that the board share parts of the minutes from the meetings in the written weekly announcements that go out to the community.
Nominating Committee As the board is currently structured, someone who wants to leave the board is often given the daunting task of finding their own replacement. If they do not find one, then the entire board’s time is taken up by working to find a replacement which can take a long time. We recommend shifting to a nomination process for filling both board and steering committee positions. This will both help make the process of finding new leaders more communal and alleviate the board itself from this responsibility.
We suggest the following implementation:
- 3-5 people, composed of representatives of different demographics of the membership. Note that this is not part of the steering committee. They are a separate entity only active for the time in which they are needed.
- The current executive board will appoint the nominating committee 2 months before the annual meeting. The committee will be tasked with nominating the full slate of empty board member and steering committee member positions that the board would like the nominating committee to fill.
- The board will give the head of the nominating committee a list of open positions. The nominating committee will also have the right to replace anyone they would like to for any position.
- The nominating committee will meet and propose a slate of new people to the board 2 weeks before the annual meeting.
- The board will share the slate with the entire community 1 week before the annual meeting.
- At the annual meeting the entire slate is voted up or down.
Minyan Community Building
MotivationBeyond ritual, a key mission for the Minyan is to foster community, providing a forum for people to meet each other, socialize, and build contacts, relationships, and support networks. On examination, the Committee saw many successes in these areas, but it also identified areas in need of improvement. Addressing these areas is key to the Minyan’s sustainability in terms of encouraging community engagement and maintaining membership.
Background/DiscussionOur Minyan has served as a social nexus since its inception, through a mix of spirited communal davening, learning, chessed, social programming, and of course, kiddush. Throughout its history, these activities have successfully provided for our community, building several networks of supporting friends and a strong tradition of coming together as a community to help members in need. However, interviews and the survey reveal that there is also a strong perception that these structures have evolved to better serve long-standing members than people newer to the Minyan. Anecdotal evidence tells us that this dynamic deters new members. This threatens our community’s ability to maintain or grow its numbers, especially when facing natural attrition. On the positive side, we have seen that community support has been tremendously helpful to families in need, and we should take actions to further foster this resource.
The Committee advises that the Minyan’s long-term strategy implement additional intentionality around building and strengthening community. Here, “building” specifically refers to helping to foster connections between members, such that every individual can feel connected to many different parts of the community, in some form. “Strengthening” specifically refers to maintaining and solidifying existing connections, such as through shared experiences, shared values, shared goals, or chesed. To both these ends, the recommendations that follow include general considerations, organizational changes, and specific actions.
RecommendationsOverall, these recommendations fall into two categories: The first assignsresponsibility for stewardship of community health to a small set of volunteers (which includes a dedicated board position). The second covers suggestions of new practices to help create an ecosystem to foster community growth and well-being:
- Elevate Community to a Board position. This recommendation is described in more detail in the “Leadership” section above, and should be implemented along with other communal roles.
- In addition to the Board role, designate members to help make introductions and connections that go beyond the superficial (and dead-ending), such as “This is Shira. She came to the area from New York.” Ideally, the Board would identify “schmoozers” within the membership who are well-connected and adept at getting to know new people and know who to connect them with based on interests, background, etc… In addition to helping new members, this will also help more established community members at the periphery, who have not yet “broken through” beyond superficial contacts with much of the community.
- Address Tehillah cliquiness. A first step is to convince the current community that this is a priority. Many members may feel that things are “fine as they are,” or “I already have friends, so I don’t need more forced upon me by the shul.” While true, the missed opportunities and adverse consequences of this mindset needs to be communicated to the membership, either through informal conversations or via Minyan events and communications.
A third challenge is changing informal minyan social dynamics, particularly during kiddush which is a central community-building event. This will require some innovation. It could be as simple as seeding kiddush with “schmoozers” (see above) who actively seek new or loosely-connected individuals, or it may involve more explicit conversations with the community, or something as simple as incorporating more celebrations of community life/career events.
- Focus energy on identifying communal links that already exist, and cultivating them to make them stronger. For example, perhaps the minyan can find ways to encourage hosts for meals, such as by buying the wine, or increasing recognition and relationships initiated via chessed activities. It might be appropriate to experiment with informal social activities, e.g. contemporary versions of “Men’s club/sisterhood.”
- Make necessary changes to our physical space. These will include changes in seating, as well as longer, unrushed kiddush schmoozing. We recommend working with TBS to find ways to rearrange our seating and kiddush logistics to favor these environments. (More on this under “Physical Space.”)
- Build on the successes of our chessed programming. Our chessed activities are tremendously helpful to our members. How can we convert these repeated, life-changing outpourings of communal warmth into connections that extend well beyond the life-event that triggered them? This is challenging because Chessed is “light-touch” (nearly anonymous) by design. Perhaps there are some natural follow-on opportunities, like facilitating “new moms get-together” or something inspired by classical sisterhood/men’s club activities (Axe-throwing? Quilting bee? Tehillah Jazz Band?). Perhaps there is a newfound role for social action here, as in gathering folks to work at a soup kitchen, pack groceries for Family Table, etc...
- Continue utilizing Zoom, even post-pandemic. Low-barriers to engagement will help people connect and stay connected, say if child/elder care responsibilities limit in-person participation.
- Publicly introduce (and re-introduce) members, repeatedly, again and again. This can take many forms. For example, the Minyan can feature a “member (or member family) of the week” to introduce at each davening. At the beginning of the year, this could focus particularly on people new to the community. A different suggestion: When someone gives a d’var torah, they should say 2-3 sentences about themselves, even if they are “well established.” This could be done at kiddush as well.
- Nametags? Used in many shuls, these can be particularly effective at the beginning of the year, when there are so many new people. We note, however, there was not consensus on this recommendation: Some of the committee felt this could be counter-productive.
- Review and update davening and gabbaing practices to ensure that they are consistent with the increased emphasis on community building. For example, this may have implications on how honors are distributed, or on how the gabbai approaches and introduces him/herself to new people, etc...
Davening
MotivationWhile our community has expanded beyond just being a group that davens together, davening is still the bread and butter of what the Minyan does together. The Minyan’s leadership has continually worked to improve the quality of davening, so this set of recommendations does not focus much on the minutiae of davening. Rather, it looks primarily at how davening can be used as a tool to build and strengthen community. In turn, a larger and stronger community should naturally improve the quality of davening itself, thereby creating a sustaining cycle
Background/DiscussionA key element of building community through davening is to make sure that everyone who attends feels like they are truly part of the davening, as opposed to just observing it. For some people, this means taking on some specific role or responsibility that enables the davening to happen, ranging from being chazzan or leyning, to setting up kiddush, to coordinating childcare, to welcoming new people and guests. For others it might mean being a part of the kahal by lending their voice, drumming skills, or pure energy to enhance everyone else’s davening. For still others it might just mean supporting their child/friend/relative who is leyning or leading davening for the first time. The key is to ensure that everyone in attendance feels that their presence benefited someone else besides themselves, since that gives a feeling of buying into the community.
The simplest way to buy in for most people, especially newcomers, is to be an active kahal participant in davening. This is tricky to do when the rest of the kahal is passive for much of the service, and musically it is a lot harder to blend your voice in when people are physically distant. We therefore propose methods that increase singing and energy from people seated fairly densely around the chazzan, while leaving the space inviting to those who don’t know anyone, and also not excluding people like parents who might need to stay somewhat on the periphery.
Additionally, for the first time in the Minyan’s existence we will soon have substantial numbers of teenagers. Despite the fact that we expect most of these teenagers will one day leave for college or other future endeavors, we absolutely want them to feel like this is their community. When they come back to visit, they should look forward to returning to Minyan Tehillah, where the adults who collectively helped raise them will have the joy of celebrating their accomplishments. From an educational point of view, this helps ensure that young adults coming from our community go out into the world as ambassadors of our community, with the values that our community espouses and davening skills that make us proud.
Recommendation Overall suggestion: Implement more measures to intentionally direct davening towards a kahal-involved service. These could include:
- Maximize communal singing, and speed up everything else.
- Encourage percussion during singing to provide alternative ways to be part of the musical experience for those who are uncomfortable with their singing abilities
- Follow advice in “Building Singing Communities.” One example: Cultivate a “choir” of people who know it is their role to show up and support the chazzan by singing loudly with them. Arrange seating to be more conducive to singing, and advocate for baalei tehillah to practice the techniques mentioned in the book, or at least familiarize themselves with them.
- Identify or commission a Minyan “anthem,” which is a unique melody used every week for a part of davening, that is energizing and helps people identify this Minyan as special.
- Increase the usage of multiple chazzanim at once, like we do for High Holidays, maybe for Hallel and other times where it could make sense. The coordination between co-leaders leads to more thoughtful leadership and both leaders feel empowered to support each other. Downside is that this requires more leaders total.
- Make the space feel smaller and fuller. Probably requires reevaluating the use of pews at TBS.
- Encourage people to cluster people towards the front middle, leaving the outsides and back for people supervising kids who can play quietly, while concentrating the strength of the davening in a smaller area. Encouraging people who arrive early to move to the middle of rows, rather than the edges can make rows fill in more densely.
- Put the bimah in the middle of the seats, rather than at the front, both for davening and leyning.
- Consider having some seats facing the middle rather than the front
- Work with TBS to put in removable walls/dividers to divide the sanctuary
- Think about acoustical improvements to the space
- Designate someone (could be the gabbai) on each side of the mechitza to identify and greet new people and guests. Offer them aliyot and other kibbudim.
- Have an additional gabbai (maybe with a different title) who does not stand at the shulchan during Torah reading, but can hand out aliyot to people who arrive late, and also help coach people on when to go up for their aliya, make sure they get a tallit, how do do hagbah/gellilah, etc.
- Have one or more Minyan representatives walk around behind the Torah procession and greet everyone. Could also encourage kids to walk behind the Torah.
- Each new role should be additive and not dependent, which is to say that none of these roles should increase the burden on making davening happen, particularly when there is a small turnout. If the roles are not filled on a particular week, that’s ok.
- Increase the number of people who take on roles of “Minyan representative” by decreasing barriers to entry. Find ways to enlist new daveners, leyners, and dvar torah givers from people who show up on Shabbat but aren’t on the standard lists, which requires ways to follow up not on Shabbat. Provide chazzanim and gabbaim with advance coaching of a list of ways that this week is different from other weeks, so that they don’t need to be independently aware or be micromanaged on the spot (for example special nusach, or additional piyyutim etc). Also follow-up afterwards with productive and actionable feedback. Increase front-facing roles that don’t require special skills or knowledge.
- Continue to publicly thank everyone by name.
- Recognize that the davening leadership roles we have carved out for women would traditionally be the roles carved out for children in a typical Orthodox shul, and that we lose something as a result, particularly as we increase the number of elementary and middle schoolers in our community.
- Aim to have the community help raise the kids, so that each kid’s accomplishments are something for the whole community to celebrate. These might even include secular accomplishments.
- Encourage kids under bar/bat mitzvah to lead the end of mussaf. Consider having an adult lead a “training camp” on how to do this, either on Shabbat morning or at some other time. Encourage leading in groups to decrease pressure. Encourage other kids to come back into davening for this, so that they can learn from their friends and support them.
- Find quiet activities for younger kids to do in shul, so that they can be present for davening, even if they’re too young to stay focused and follow along.
- Design space so that parents can supervise kids playing while still being involved in the service, without kids being disruptive.
- Designate one aliyah per week to be leyned by a teenager.
- Once we have enough teens, have a teen shabbat where everything is led by teens.
- The quorum policy is central to the minyan’s mission toward inclusivity, and was wrought through extensive, careful deliberation by devoted and caring membership. However, its design rests upon a premise that our community is not currently structured to support: A large membership. As a result, the policy has had unintended negative consequences that counter its aims toward inclusivity. In fact, some people report that it creates feelings of resentment and a feeling of failure, particularly to those who work hardest to implement it. Revising the policy cannot be taken lightly, but it the realities of the current situation should be addressed..
- The committee therefore recommends that the board strongly consider initiating a formal, transparent process to adjust the policy, prioritizing community engagement but taking into account the realities of what our community is able to support. This will undoubtedly be a difficult process, so careful consideration will be needed of its execution. We also suggest that the board evaluate whether it may be appropriate to temporarily relax the policy (e.g. perhaps not disallowing singing), both to accommodate post-pandemic reopening and to kick-off the discussion process while minimizing negative consequences as new people arrive in the area.
Halakhic Decision Making Process
MotivationAs a lay-led minyan that explicitly commits to halakhic practice, but does not have a Rabbi, it is vital to determine how halakhic decisions are made. Communal confidence in this process is a critical component of a halachic community. Over the last 20 years, the minyan has been well served by its ritual committee, but we also see opportunities for further improvement.
Background/DiscussionFrom its inception, the Minyan Tehillah community has valued being lay-led and has also valued the contributions of its community members. As a Minyan that was on the vanguard of innovation in the space of women’s involvement in davening that was committed to halakha, it was necessary to dive deep on what aspects of normative Orthodox davening practice were actually halachically mandated to stay in their current form, and what had room for innovation. In 2008, a couple who were members of the Minyan and served as its Halakhic advisors published the Guide for the “Halakhic Minyan”, which the Minyan adopted as the basis of its halakhic practice. The Minyan then proceeded on its own to develop its own Document of Davening Practice that documents each decision the Minyan has made that deviates from the Guide for the “Halakhic Minyan, which has been continuously updated to this day.
The specific process of decision making is less well documented. Currently there are four different modes of decision making: 1) Referring the question to the halakhic advisor, who issues a ruling. 2) Discussing the question in the Ritual Committee, which includes the halakhic advisor, and then making a decision. 3) The board makes the decision based on guidance from the halakhic advisor. 4) Discussing the issue in an all-Minyan meeting and putting it to a community-wide vote.
Although these modes have worked for the minyan, we identified areas of development. For example, it is not well documented how to choose between thesemodes. It is not clear to the community who exactly constitutes the Ritual Committee. Finally, aside from the last mode above, none of these modes have a clear path for community involvement in the process, either by collecting community input into the decision-making process or even publicizing the decisions that have been made.
We advise that a Minyan that so values its halakhic process — particularly when that is what differentiates it from other davening options at a global scale — should celebrate it, both internally and externally. It must be well-documented, transparent, and advertised, while still being sensitive to the personal and private nature of some decisions.
Recommendation
- Add a section to the Document of Davening Practice on how to make decisions, defining what types of decisions can be made by which process. Also post this in some form on the Minyan website.
- Clean up the Document of Davening Practice (it currently has many copies of the same text) and publish it on the Minyan website.
- Clarify who constitutes the Ritual Committee and provide an easy path for anyone interested (and qualified) to join.
- When appropriate, announce ahead of time what Halakhic questions are being discussed and decided upon, and solicit community feedback ahead of time.
- When appropriate, include all new decisions in community announcements.
Children
MotivationWe have had a growing number of families join our Minyan, as well as people who have kids while being members of the community. We want to make sure we are meeting the needs of both the families as well as the children themselves.
Background/DiscussionTo help frame our discussion and recommendations, the committee wanted to proposea mission statement for how we view children of all ages at the minyan. We came up with the following: “Minyan Tehillah strives to build a community of children who feel connected to each other and their Judaism, and a supportive environment for parents that allows them to participate fully in davening.”
Using this as our guiding mission, we discussed what we can be doing for families and children at all age points both within our main davening as well as additional programming during davening. We looked at all of our past, and current programs. We spoke about physical safety, volunteer burnout, and policies around children’s participation. We spoke at length about how to help create integration and foster leadership as children age through the Minyan. We hoped to reframe the discussion away from solving a childcare problem to asking how to make children an integral part of the minyan. We have come up with the following recommendations.
Recommendations Rehire Babysitters/reconfigure their role. Ideally, this should be done before we return to indoor davening at TBS
- We need to make sure we have babysitters who are regularly attending, and can manage and maintain all the children left in their care.
- Have clear written protocols for the babysitters that are shared with them as well as with the parents. These are to help ensure more reliability around physical safety. These include that all children in attendance on Shabbat under the age of Bar Mitzvah must either be supervised by an adult over 18 or be part of babysitting.
- Make clear which areas of both the indoor and outdoor space are being supervised by the babysitters.
- Have a way for parents to check their kids in and out of baby sitting so that the baby sitters are aware of who they are watching.
- Create signs for the gimmel room, front of shul, and playground around the new supervision safety guidelines so that they can be enforced.
- This would be a box in the back of the shul that has items that children can use while in the davening room. This will help parents have something their child can be doing quietly in the pews to encourage more parents to keep kids in the davening space with
- Give the older children a place where they can be supervised but also away from younger children so they can have the space they need.
- Communicate with the TBS centennial committee as they relaunch to help think about how to create more physical space inside the building that can be used by kids of different ages.
Relationship with TBS
MotivationOver the last year, we have not been at our usual home at TBS. As we transition back into meeting in person and again need an indoor space we wanted to check in with TBS about our relationship and to feel out the possiblities of what that relationship could become.
Background/Discussion
- Ongoing relationship: It is important that Tehillah continue to partner with TBS. This committee used its time to consult with members of the TBS board who also take an active part in the Tehillah community. We wanted to get a more full picture of what all of the options on the table for the partnership between TBS and Tehillah were.
- TBS itself is going through many changes. They are currently working on their own strategic process, as well as an adjustment of their bylaws, and a large centennial campaign. As these changes progress, Tehillah should continue to reevaluate how it fits into the TBS ecosystem.
- There have long been advocates for Tehillah to merge with TBS. To more formally examine this possibility, the committee took first steps toward evaluating the pros and cons of a merger, under the assumption that would mean that Tehillah members would become TBS members, enjoying the rights and privileges associated with membership, and paying TBS dues. These initial pros and cons are summarized below, and seem to indicate that a more careful examination would be necessary before Tehillah could take a step like this.
Cons
- Many Tehillah members already pay dues to both organizations. This would save them money.
- Increased privileges on the TBS board to shape its direction, especially with respect to the building.
- It’s the “right thing to do,” to unite the Jewish community.
- Deeper bench of volunteers for programming.
- Potential for TBS staff to take some pressure off of Tehillah volunteers
- Tehillah members not financially prepared to pay TBS dues. (Though this could be phased.)
- Given TBS’s governance model, it is unclear whether Tehillah would gain more voice than it currently has via a merger.
- Impressions are that it would add burden to Tehillah leadership, rather than reduce it, as they would need to manage both Tehillah and additional TBS responsibilities.
Recommendations
- Tehillah should continue to be an active participant in its relationship with TBS. As TBS continues to go through the process of defining itself Tehillah should work with them closely to make adjustments in physical space, dividing up the davening spaces, and staffing.
- As kiddush comes back to TBS Tehillah should meet with TBS to better address how to have a joint kiddush in the space when we are unable to have separate kiddushes (e.g. due to weather or lack of alternate indoor space).
- Tehillah needs to better understand the cost/benefit analysis of a merger. The initial impression of the Strategic Planning Committee was that it is unclear how such a merger would materially improve Tehillah’s operations, nor how would it reduce the load on volunteers, at least in the short term. In the longer term, however, with the right professional staffing and governance structures, these things could be possible.
- The Board should initiate a brainstorming dialog with TBS over these issues to clarify cost/benefit questions, regarding both the short and long term. With sufficient creativity and flexibility in both entitites, there may be a path that makes sense. For example, a merger may require not only changes in Tehillah, but also a reimagining of TBS’s governance structures. Or it may require major changes in the physical space. Which brings us to…
Physical Space
MotivationThe physical spaces we inhabit for our formal and informal events can have a dramatic effect on the health, growth potential, and perceptions of the Minyan. We are very fortunate to have access to TBS, but adjustments to the space are recommended to better support davening, socializing, communal support, and children. The committee acknowledges that space issues are intricately intertwined with all the other areas covered in this plan, but for the purposes of providing strategic direction, recommendations here are focused on specific needs. As such there is some duplication/overlap with recommendations for other areas.
Background/DiscussionSpace has been a long-running strategic challenge for the Minyan. At present, the relationship that it has established with TBS has enabled it to access a beautiful davening space along with storage space, food-storage and serving capabilities, areas that can be used for child-care, and assorted benefits of being a part of a jewish space (e.g. spare sifrei torah, proximity to other minyanim, emergency auf-ruf candy, etc.).
Despite these positives, the experience can be further improved. For example, the configuration of the sanctuary could be made more conducive to communal davening, modifications to the space could be made to better support childcare and social events, and changes could be made to better ensure access to members of the community with physical challenges.
Space issues are also intertwined with finances. In previous years, there have been musings about making large capital investments in the space, or even pursuing a capital campaign to buy a building. The committee recognizes that taken as a whole, the demographic of our community has limited financial resources, which may preclude direct pursuit of some of these recommendations. However, if suggestions are compatible with intentions of the wider TBS community, they may yet be feasible.
Recommendations The recommendations of the committee are focused in five areas:
- Improve the davening experience (particularly in the sanctuary)
- Improve the childcare/young member experience (outside the sanctuary).
- Improve the social experience for members outside of davening. An important focus here is on kiddush, which creates awkwardness with other TBS minyanim when we share the room together. This dynamic has a direct negative impact on community building within the Minyan. Separate kiddushes are not uncommon in shared Jewish spaces, and have been successful for Tehillah when the weather allows meeting outdoors while TBS meets downstairs, as long as it is clear to both communities that everyone is welcome at either gathering.
- Support structural changes to better support members with physical challenges, particularly with respect to access to the restroom and different floors of the shul.
- Increase attention to physical security, acknowledging that while rare, attacks on shuls pose a real threat.
- The Minyan should work closely with the TBS building committee to affect the recommendations below. Many of these suggestions already have some support from TBS, but have been stalled by logistics and/or lack of people to take the lead.
- To help realize these suggestions, the Minyan should consider contributing its time and/or its money. For example, volunteership to get quotes from contractors, research permitting with the city, or poll the membership will go a long way to helping make these projects a reality. In the same spirit, the Minyan can try to find ways to invest some of its (limited) financial reserves to help support these efforts.
- Major space changes:
- The Minyan should advocate for changes to make the sanctuary more configurable and comfortable. The committee believes that this would best be accomplished by removing all of the pews and replacing them with comfortable chairs/folding chairs. This will enable different minyanim to arrange the space to suit their needs. In Tehillah’s case, this will enable seating arrangements that bring people closer together for singing, creating a wider aisle to accommodate both the mechitza and foot traffic, and placing the shulchan in the midst of the kahal, instead of in front of it. (For more specifics, the Minyan should follow the guidance in Building Singing Communities. The author also does workshops; perhaps the Minyan should bring him in, perhaps together with another Camberville minyan.)
- The rear of the sanctuary should be modified to enable making the rearthird into a separate room, e.g. via movable walls or other partitions dropping roughly where the gimmel room partitions hang, but on the main floor. This will create much-needed space for additional children’s programming (supporting both Tehillah and TBS communities), and will provide an alternative socialization space for kiddush (after davening) or kibitzing (during davening).
- As an interim solution, the rear 5 or 6 rows of pews should be removed. During davening, this would encourage minyan attendees to sit closer together (post-pandemic), and it will also free up an alternative space for the Minyan to have its own kiddush, especially during bad weather. This should be a high priority.
Membership
MotivationThe committee chose to look at Membership as it is a measurement of how we are doing as a community. It is expected that if we have a strong and vibrant community that we would have a large membership. This was a challenge since we did not have great numbers for this year to look at because of COVID. We therefore choose not to look specifically at this year. Since we cannot predict what COVID’s effect on membership will be going forward we came up with some more broad thoughts and recommendations.
Background/DiscussionOur discussion focused specifically on the question of why someone should become a dues paying member of Tehillah, as currently there are no differences in benefits between members who pays dues and those who do not. committee discussed the pros and cons to this: We considered what it would be like to have members only perks, and privileges and weighed that against the values of becoming a more inclusive and welcoming community. These discussions should continue as the Minyan continues to develop its planning.
We also discussed our current dues structure and whether we believe that it is right for the minyan. We decided that we do believe that it currently meets our needs.
Recommendations A member of the week (or month). This might be a great way to highlight our members in either the weekly announcements or in other ways. It could be a few sentences about them or they are the ones who submit the joke of the week in the announcements.
Proper minyan directory. Our committee felt that having a more clear database of members and ways to help members connect outside of shabbat using it would be a benefit one would get by becoming a dues paying member.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading and considering the recommendations above. We hope that these will catalyze further reflection and strategic discussion, and we believe that by implementing changes in this spirit over the course of the next year, that the Minyan can help ensure its success and sustainability. We know that there is much work to be done now from the board and members of the community and the work does not end with this document. Finally, we wish to thank all of the members of the community who volunteered their time, wisdom, and insights to this effort. Your voices made this document possible, and we hope that others will join the process, ultimately driving a process that reflects the perspectives of the entire Minyan.
|
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.
|
Detail ThreeLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.
|
