Managing the Sacred: A Guide for New Synagogue Board Members is a practical pamphlet filled with useful information for the new and not-so-new board member. Three-hole punched for easy insertion into the front of your board binder, the guide outlines your unique role and responsibilities as a trustee of a Reform synagogue, defines and sets priorities for board functions, and describes the resources that are available to your congregation through the UAHC. Its readable style and workbook format make it a key reference tool for you as you embark on your service as a board member.

You still have time to gather a team that can participate in Creating Learning Congregations: A Synagogue Transformation Project of the UAHC, which will take place at this year's Biennial. Take part in this unparalleled opportunity for your congregation to become an ever-more vibrant community that strives to deepen its vision, programs, and spiritual core. Your team should consist of current and future leaders, including your president and influential lay leaders, and one or two staff members, including your rabbi. The application deadline for this new and exciting program is October 8, so do not delay.

Noting how valuable it is to have trustee representation on the bimah at services, last month's Inside Leadership offered a method of structuring the assignments to insure board coverage. But what are the bimah sitters' responsibilities?

Arrive at services early and wear a name tag. Stand in the foyer and greet worshipers with a warm Shabbat Shalom. If you do not know them, introduce yourself and welcome them to the synagogue.

When you speak from the bimah, introduce yourself as the board representative. Welcome newcomers. Congratulate those celebrating simchas and those honored with aliyot during the service. Thank those who sponsored the evening's Oneg.

After the service, stay and mingle. Talk to newcomers about the synagogue's mission and programs and generally try to make them feel comfortable. Introduce them to the rabbi and cantor, if possible.

Being present at services is a valuable way to show your members and guests that the board is devoted to the spiritual as well as the "policy" aspects of the temple.

As a board member, one of your most important and most difficult responsibilities is to insure the financial integrity of your synagogue. To do so requires constant and creative attention. Although the day-to-day fund-raising operations are frequently left to the staff, the board is ultimately responsible for making sure that fund-raising is done and done well. A prior issue of Inside Leadership discussed tips on mounting a planned giving campaign. From time to time, we will offer suggestions on different approaches toward making your congregants aware of ways in which they can support the synagogue. This issue focuses on contributions of appreciated property.

As the taxable year draws to an end, this is an appropriate time to remind your congregants that substantial tax benefits are available to those who contribute appreciated property, such as stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, real estate, or other investments that have risen in value and would be taxed as long-term capital gains if they were sold. A useful way to make your congregants aware of these possibilities is to hold a seminar on contributing appreciated property to the synagogue. Be sure to follow up with articles in your temple bulletin.

Suggest to your congregants that they review their stocks -- determine which ones have appreciated the most -- and consider making a year-end gift to the synagogue, using one or more of those stocks. Remind them that if they sold the stock, they would incur a capital gains tax on the appreciation. But if they give the stock to the synagogue and allow the temple to sell it, they would receive a double tax benefit: They would avoid a capital gains tax and get a charitable deduction for the full value of the stock.

Real estate that is no longer needed or used by a congregant's family can make a valuable gift and can help ease the family's situation as well. The family can avoid a capital gains tax and receive a charitable deduction for federal income tax purposes based on the property's full market value. Even life insurance that is no longer needed to protect family members who are otherwise provided for can be donated to the temple for a tax benefit.

Julian Block, a member of Larchmont Temple, Larchmont, New York, and an attorney and copresenter at a recent temple seminar on donating appreciated property, believes that these often overlooked strategies make good sense for the congregant and the temple, allowing the congregant to save considerably more in taxes and the temple to gain new income.

Be mindful that for donations of stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, real estate, and other investments to count as deductions for 1999, delivery of them to the temple must be completed by December 31.

Click on http://uahc.org, the Reform Web site, to access hundreds of "pages" of useful tips that will help you as trustees develop your leadership skills. Below are a few highlights from the abundance of available information.

• For quick answers to most of your questions, try the Web Site Search engine, which examines all the documents that are on the Reform Web site, including information from the UAHC, CCAR, and soon to be added HUC.
• Need to speak to an expert? Departments & HQ Staff will give you the telephone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses of the UAHC national office staff. Regions will provide you with the telephone numbers of all the regional offices.
• Would you like to "chat" about your particular area of interest? Join an Internet Discussion Group that focuses on topics ranging from synagogue life (temple chat) and congregational Web sites (UAHC-web) to olam katan for Jews in small communities, rural situations, and small congregations and mail.liberal-Judaism for topics about liberal Judaism.
• Looking for a religious school teacher? Check out the religious school Job Bank, where you can post openings and check out postings from throughout the country.
• Want up-to-the-minute information on UAHC and Reform news ranging from statements by Rabbi David Saperstein in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act to Biennial updates? Check out What's NEW in the Reform Web.

Click on the Leadership Website -- a private password-protected page exclusively for temple leadership -- for even more relevant information. To access the site, use your synagogue's seven-digit telephone number for the user name and uahc (lowercase) for the password.

• In the News category, the Communications Update is the principal method of communication among the UAHC staff and temple leadership. It contains monthly listings of opportunities and initiatives available exclusively to temple leadership through the UAHC and the Reform Movement.
• Among the data banks available is Communicate! a computerized information resource that enables UAHC congregations to share information, ideas, expertise, and contacts.
• The Program Go and Study -- lay-led Torah study guides for use at board meetings that was featured in last month's Inside Leadership -- can be accessed on the Leadership Website.
• Past and current editions of Inside Leadership and other UAHC publications can be downloaded in whole or in part.

http://uahc.org can provide you with a wealth of information quickly and easily. It is a useful and accessible leadership tool that is well worth exploring and sharing with your board.

Share Your Ideas and Input

Do you have

• Programs that have worked well in your congregation?
• Topics about which you would like more information?
• Suggestions for articles for Inside Leadership?

For our October-November issue: How has your congregation responded to members' concerns about security issues?