Turn Your Great Nominees Into Solid Board Members
Take Your Board Back to Mount Sinai
The Soul of the Union: Small Congregations Conference
Planned Giving----The "Ultimate" Gift
School's (Almost) Out----Honor Thy Teachers
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Your Nominating Committee has done a great job and has just presented you with a bang-up slate of new members. Now is the time to provide these new Board members with a solid foundation, get them excited about their new position, and educate them about their responsibilities. You can reduce Board apathy and create more focused Board meetings by conducting an orientation program for your new members.

Harold Kirtz, past president and current chair of the Leadership Development Program of Temple Emanu-El in Atlanta conducts a three-hour Board orientation meeting between the date of election and the first Board meeting for the newly elected Board members. Subjects range from How to Do a D’var Torah to How to Make a Shabbat Morning Presentation to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah Child. Mr. Kirtz asks the new Board members to prioritize the following characteristics of a good Board member:

• Contributing sound ideas to Board discussions; 
•  Attending Shabbat and holiday services; 
• Serving on and/or chairing committees when called upon by the president;
• Contributing generously according to one’s means to the temple and Jewish causes; and 
• Taking an active interest in all temple activities.

The goal is for them to realize that they need to do all of the above.

How to Formulate Your Orientation Program

• Define the Board’s role as Jewish leaders committed to Torah, which will include helping the members to develop Jewishly through prayer, Torah study, and acts of loving-kindness;
•  Study the Mission Statement of your congregation and your Board’s role in fulfilling that mission; 
• Familiarize the new members with the bylaws of the congregation and the structure of the synagogue Board and its committees and presenting them with the Board calendar and schedule of meetings; 
• Acquaint the new members with all aspects of the programmatic life of the synagogue—worship, education, social action, youth programs, and so on; 
• Explain the division of responsibilities among the Board, the rabbi, and the administrator; 
• Present the synagogue’s financial condition and policies, as well as explaining the administrative structure and the physical plant; 
•  Delineate clearly what is expected of the individual trustee in terms of committee work, fund-raising, and participation in worship and other synagogue activities; and 
• Introduce the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Union’s regional office with which the synagogue is affiliated as resources for materials, programming, and guidance.

Planning an initial Board orientation meeting with thought and care can help create a productive, directed, hardworking, and visionary Board.
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Taken in part from Improving Synagogue Board Performance by Daniel S. Schechter, which is available upon request from the UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management by telephone, 212-650-4040 or by e-mail, synagoguemgmt@uahc.org.

Shavuot: A Wonderful Opportunity for Board Visibility, Worship, and Study

Board Visibility The celebration of confirmation during Shavuot is a perfect opportunity for Board members to see and be seen.

• Show support for and confidence in these young people and their families during their important milestone. 
• Listen to the confirmands’ speeches and gauge the quality of their religious school education. 
• Determine how effectively the Ritual Committee has integrated the confirmands participation into the worship service.

Worship Celebrate receiving the Torah at Sinai by taking part in the commemoration of thisP important festival as the Ten Commandments and the Book of Ruth are read. The Book of Ruth has traditionally been linked with Shavuot because Ruth's decision to embrace her Jewish mother-in-law's people as her own, making her the first Jew-by-Choice, parallels the Israelites- decision to bind themselves to God by accepting Gods gift of the Torah.

Study Create a Shavuot Board study pro'gram. Tradition teaches that Tikkun Leil Shavuot, the custom of staying up the entire night of Shavuot studying Torah, prepares Israel to enter into a sacred relationship with God. As a Board member, use this opportunity to learn about commitment and community by studying the traditional Shavuot texts.

To help your Board conduct this traditional evening of study, the UAHC Department of Religious Living has developed a comprehensive set of materials consisting of a video and a written discussion guide, seven workshops, and two closing exercise ceremonies, entitled Megillat Ruth: Journeying Toward the Sacred.
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These materials are available upon request from the UAHC Department of Religious Living by telephone, 212-650-4193 or by e-mail, rliving@UAHC.org.

Representatives of over 100 congregations participated in this biennial meeting, which took place on April 16-18 just outside Chicago. Workshops ranged from. A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: When "Jews for Jesus" Come to Town to Explorations… Revolutionizing Religious Education, which featured a lay-designed experimental education program that best utilizes the limited resources of a small community.

The leadership sessions offered concrete help and guidance in every aspect of synagogue management. We shared, we learned and I leave armed with tools to make a difference.
Anne Barrash
Temple Beth El, Dubuque, Iowa

The best way to insure the financial stability of your congregation is to mount a successful planned giving campaign. Some large congregations like Temple Israel of Minneapolis (a 2,000-family congregation) hire a full-time director of development. Even if your congregation relies on dedicated lay leaders to oversee its planned giving campaigns, these ideas from Temple Israel may be useful.

• Every month a page of the congregation's bulletin is devoted to the Temple Israel Foundation. It features articles whose titles include "Five Tips for Year-End Giving," "A Time to Plan, a Time to Reap," and "The Only Way to Predict the Future Is to Shape It Ourselves." 
•  Parlor meetings to introduce the Foundation are held in Florida, California, and Arizona, where many of the synagogue’s congregants winter. 
•  A short video was produced that is used to educate congregants about the importance of giving now to sustain the future. 
•  To prepare congregants for solicitations, four postcards are being mailed over a two-month period with themes like "Generations Will Thank You" and "A Lasting Legacy Made Easy."

The Temple Israel Foundation is being headed by the past president of the congregation Marvin Borman, who is very excited about this approach: "I think this effort will be successful because we are doing it the right way. We are developing rules and policies and taking our time."

Whether or not you hire a director of development, the goal of your Endowment Committee should be to maximize planned giving, which includes bequests and life income options such as pooled income funds, charitable remainder trusts, and charitable gift annuities. Your role as a trustee is to educate your fellow congregants by example and by education on how to make this "ultimate" gift.

Since everyone makes a will, you simply need to be sure that your temple is always on the minds of your congregants, especially when they are ready to take this step. Every temple bulletin should urge your fellow congregants to consider mentioning the temple in their wills.

A good way to take the initial step to obtain bequest commitments is to distribute Declaration of Intent cards to your Board, friends, and fellow congregants. The cards allow supporters to indicate their intention to give to your temple in the future through a will or deferred gift.
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For further information, contact the UAHC Development Department by telephone,
212-650-4140, or by e-mail, chalpern@UAHC.org.

Did you know that

• More than 15,000 educators teach 120,000 students in UAHC religious schools each week? 
• These teachers are college educated, many have master's degrees, and at least one- third are trained secular teachers? 
• These teachers identify themselves as Reform Jews, are of parenting age, and belong to congregations, frequently the one in which they teach?

Board-originated and sponsored events that exhibit appreciation for the services of your teachers will enhance the professionalism, commitment, and performance of the staff and the reputation of your temple and Board. Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, Florida, has a comprehensive program that honors its teachers publicly and privately throughout the year. Betsy Blechman, the immediate past vice president of Education and Youth as well as a teacher at Beth El, knows the system is working because no issue pertaining to the religious school has been brought before the Board in nineteen years!

Here are some surefire techniques to highlight your religious school's accomplishments while showing appreciation to those most responsible:

• Ask your teachers and children to make a presentation to the Board on a specific program or project. Encourage them to show off their accomplishments while educating the Board about this vital arm of your congregation. 
• Have a Board-sponsored and Board-attended Shabbat dinner and service. Such a public display of appreciation will make the teachers feel particularly honored while giving the Board and teachers a chance to get to know one another. 
• Profile your teachers in your monthly bulletin. An article in the bulletin produced by Temple Sinai of Oakland, California, exclaimed, "We're proud of the fine Jewish role models on our staff and want to give them the kavod [respect] they deserve!" 
• Consider offering incentives to your teachers, such as discounts for High Holiday tickets, temple dues, and religious school or nursery school fees; 
• Pay for your teachers to attend professional development conferences and encourage them to participate in temple adult education classes; 
• Put your teachers on the temple bulletin mailing list. This will make them feel part of the temple community and let them see all those great articles about what they are doing.

The more your teachers feel appreciated and part of the temple community, the longer they will stay and the better your religious school will be.
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Taken in part from Portraits of Schooling by Samuel K. Joseph, UAHC Press, 1997. For more information, contact the UAHC Department of Jewish Education by telephone at 212-650-4110 or by e-mail at educate@UAHC.org.

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