The month of Av is almost over, and we are getting ready for the month of Elul and our preparation for the High Holy Days. Your Board of Trustees is also preparing for the New Year. One way we are preparing is through the establishment of a Strategic Planning Committee. Another way is by asking ourselves how to help every member of BIJ make strong connections with the synagogue, connections that are based on where you are in your lives and what your interests are.
So What is the Strategic Planning Committee?
As we have said before, BIJ is moving toward greatness. It is time to think about how we will take our next steps and position ourselves for growth. With these points in mind, the Board of Trustees, along with Rabbi Glazer, established a Strategic Planning Committee to work with the Rabbi, the BOT and the entire congregation to determine the best ways to prepare BIJ for a long and successful future. To succeed, we need all of you. We need you to help us determine our mission to determine the important directions we need to take. Over the next few months, the Strategic Planning Committee will to connect with all of you and get your important input. Then we will develop the goals and action steps needed to take us forward.
One of the important areas we will be looking at is developing connections. The connections you develop with BIJ are what make your membership meaningful. We have many different constituencies, and each of them will have different needs and ways of connecting. Are you a parent of younger children looking to connect with other parents through Tot Shabbats, First Friday Services and Potlucks? Are you a senior interested in Current Affairs or Adult Education? Are you looking for ways to connect through committees and other volunteer activities?
Your Board of Trustees, along with the Strategic Planning Committee, want to work with you to define the most effective ways of connecting and to make sure we have the proper support for making connections by linking congregants to each other. We will work closely with Linda Park and our office staff to keep a record of all our members and ways they want to be involved now and over time. We will begin with a Board Retreat in August and will share some of our key plans with you during the High Holy Days. We will follow this retreat with some additional intensive strategic planning in October. Most importantly, after these meetings we will be reaching out to all of you. We need all of you to help us figure out how to take the best of what we have today and blend it with new ideas and directions. We look for a combination of the new and the familiar that will take us forward into a bright new era for BIJ.
As we move into Elul and prepare for the Days of Awe, we hope you will take some time to think about how you want to connect with BIJ, what BIJ means to you and what you would like to share with your Board of Trustees and Strategic Planning Committee to help us move into an exciting future.
L’Shalom,
Kathy Chaikin Bernstein