Our religious school year ended the way it began, with a beautiful havdallah service. Our students had a lot of fun on their last day of school, playing field games designed by our madrichim. School was followed by the last youth group activity of the year, a barbecue put on by the youth group parents. Everyone had a great time enjoying the fantastic weather, good food, and fun games. They can't wait til next year for a new year of school and youth group. Now is the time to register for school for next year. Please fill out the deposit/registration forms as soon as possible so that Cindy can adequately plan for next year. If the deposit is an issue, especially for those of you who have more than one child in the school, please contact Paul Chastanet to make alternate arrangements.
By now, all members of the Beth Tikvah mishpacha (family) should have received their letter announcing the congregational meeting on Sunday morning, May 31, 2015 at 10 AM. If you did not receive your letter, please contact me as soon as possible. Please do your best to attend this meeting as we need a quorum of 51% of our members to conduct business. In addition to voting on the slate of officers for next year, the proposed bylaw changes, and approving the budget for next year, attendees will see a demo of our new synagogue software system from Shul Cloud.
I've updated our bylaws to include all amendments through last year. If you see any errors in the bylaws, please send an email to Shelley Dubin.
For those of you have paid attention to my President's speech at the High Holiday services you might have noticed that I'm not a fan of membership dues. I have been troubled by the dues concept for a long time. To me, dues sound more appropriate for a gym or country club, not a synagogue. I also believe our current dues model is complex and unsustainable over the long term.
Last year our board read Ron Wolfson's book, "Relational Judaism". This book validated a lot of my thoughts regarding dues. Others on the board shared these feelings as well. Then, this past winter, Mike Smith, Benita Amsden, and I went to a Synagogue Council Meeting that focused on synagogues that have embarked on a pledge based model. All the synagogues represented there that adopted the pledge model spoke about its success. We then had a few meetings to address the concept with our current and potential members. In addition, I have had conversations regarding this plan with many of you. A few months ago, I shared the article from the NY Times on the Synagogues that adopted the pledge based model and several other articles. This past week, Mike, Benita, Rabbi Mike and I attended a conference on the pledge based model. There were over 150 attendees representing synagogues up and down the East Coast. Clearly, this is a movement that is gaining momentum.
The UJA-Federation of New York conducted a study of synagogues who adopted the pledge based system. Their findings were extremely encouraging with the average synagogue increasing membership and income by 4%. Interestingly, the pledge based model seemed to work better in smaller congregations. The UJA prepared a guide, "Are Voluntary Dues Right for Your Synagogue? I recommend that you take a look at this document in preparation for the congregational meeting. I have annotated the document and highlighted paragraphs that particularly resonated for me. Here is comment from one of the synagogues interviewed for the study (page 28):
"A third of our congregation is already on abatement and we already let them pay what they want, so let's just call it what it is and make the switch. Why say we have an abatement policy if we don't use it? We need to change this now."
That is almost word for word what I said at one of our meetings with our members. The whole abatement process is broken. It puts one of our members as judge and jury over what another member can afford. On what basis does anyone decide what anyone else can pay? Also from the guide (page 11):
"We removed the whole paternalistic system of dues forgiveness, where people had to justify why they paid what they paid. Now, our model honors everyone for whatever s/he is able to pay, everybody in on the same "honor" system, and most people choose to be "honorable". This is much more compatible with the kind of Judaism that our members - including myself - want to be part of."
Therefore, our proposed bylaw changes this year are focused on membership. The most significant change will give the board the authority to accept pledges in lieu of setting membership fees/dues. After much discussion based on all of the above, we felt that dues, by its very nature are transactional in nature, you pay "x" and you get "y". However, how do we set "x" and what is "y"? The "y", and the value of "y" varies from individual to individual. The pledge based model flips this into a relational model. You the member will decide how much having Beth Tikvah means to you. You will decide how much to pledge based on your perceived value and what you can afford. Of course, you will not do this in a vacuum. One of the benefits of this model is it will add a lot of transparency to the process. We will recommend a sustaining amount that will allow us to meet our budget. We will provide a lot more details about this at the congregational meeting. Our new website and software program will also make this process much easier for everyone. The congregational meeting should end by noon. I will stay after to talk further about this to anyone who still has questions or concerns that were not answered during the formal meeting.
Don't forget that even though the year is coming to an end, we still have services coming up. Sunday, May 24, 2015, 10 AM, we have a joint Yizkor service with Congregation Bnai Shalom at Beth Tikvah Synagogue. There will be a study session prior to the service. See Rabbi Mike's letter below for more information.
The following Saturday, May 30, 2015 is a Shabbat morning service at 9:30 AM. In addition to our regular, spiritual, participatory service, Ella Sharon will be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah during that service. Our final Shabbat morning service of the year will be on Saturday June 20, 2015 at 9:30 AM. At this service we will honor all our recent graduates. Please email me if you have a child graduating from high school or college this year so that we can recognize them at the service. In addition, Maya Farizon will be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah. I hope everyone in our Beth Tikvah kehilla (community) joins us for these Shabbat services as we welcome Ella and Maya into Jewish adulthood. If you have friends who are looking for a synagogue for next year, please bring them to one, or both, of these services.