LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD

UpdateCongregation Meeting

May 31, 2015

Let Your Voice Be Heard: Purpose

1.5 years ago we conducted our first LYVBH workshops at the request of our then-president Sally Zenick.

Our goal was to get feedback on: What draws our members here Why our members stay What gets in the way of meeting the needs of our members How we can do better And who is willing or able to help do it

Our vision was that this would be the beginning of on ongoing feedback and action process .

Today is a review of what’s been done and a preview of things to come.

This fall we will be conducting additional LYVBH workshops. 2

The LYVBH Workshops

Two LYVBH workshops were conducted - September 28 and October 6, 2013

52 people participated in these workshops

During each session, participants offered feedback and ideas about- Why Beth Shalom was important to

them- Challenges and barriers- Resources and assets we could

leverage- And actions we could take to

improve 3

During the LYVBH Workshops Themes around the Whys, Challenges/Barriers, Resources, and Proposed

Actions were identified and summarized

Participants voted on the top priority actions

Participants were asked to self-select actions and interests

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Synthesizing the Workshop Data

Five key themes were identified, consistent with Beth Shalom’s Vision Statement: Ritual Community Education Social Action Jewish People/Israel

Additional cross-topic themes included: Communications Leadership - preparing a pipeline of future committee chairs, Board members

and potential presidents

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And then…

We presented what we learned and relevant Proposed Actions to appropriate committees for follow up actions

We presented what we learned to the Board Some action teams were formed or individuals identified to

address priorities that don’t fall under a standing committee We provided updates to the congregation through L’Chayim Many ideas from LYVBH were immediately put into action

Some were easy fixes Some took more time Some are still in process

And here we are now, giving another update, and asking you to participant in the next round

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What We Learned, What’s Been Done,

What Still Needs to be Done

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Why People are Members

Top Five Reasons

1. Religious/cultural identity

2. Social/family connections

3. Traditions and values

4. Education

5. Social action

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Some Challenges and Actions Taken

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• Accept credit cards for paymentProvide more ways to pay

• Improved e-newsletter format and single source for all news and updates

• Multiple email addressed per member family• Improved L’Chayim and Website

Increase & Improve communications &

coordination

• Changes to High Holiday services• Experiment with more varied Shabbat service offerings

(e.g., Bark Mitzvah)• Still more to do

More diversity in services to appeal to

different groups

• More diverse programming options and experiments• Improved weekly Religious school email• Working on curriculum improvements• Still more to do

Multiple education challenges

• Java & Shmear• Still more to do

Social and community challenges

What We’d Like to Focus on Next

Volunteer/leadership development. Creating a pipeline of future leaders for committees and Board positions.

Youth (and education).

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