Or Shalom – Jewish Spiritual Community Association
Annual General Meeting, October 25, 2009
Unofficial Meeting Notes
Attendance: 22 members
Finances: The previous year ran a smaller deficit than expected,
which comes from our savings.
Report from Co-chairs Lu Winters & Barbara
Buchanan
This is a report on some of
the events of the past year and some of our concerns.
Events
It has been a very busy
year. In no particular
order, these are some of the Or Shalom events that happened:
¥
We celebrated the
donation and receiving of a new torah scroll.
¥
Over the May long
weekend we held our annual retreat at Camp Hope.
¥
We held a Global
Warming Cafe where community members discussed a variety of environmental
issues.
¥ We
established and maintained a healthy organic community garden.
¥
There were
numerous adult education classes, including Exploring Judaism, the RabbiÕs Philosophy Corner classes, and classes taught by
Gloria Levi.
¥
There were the
children's religious school classes and BÕnai Mitzvah classes.
¥
Our major
fundraiser,
Come on Over, raised funds and strengthened relationships. Community members hosted dinners
over two weekends at their homes.
¥ We hosted Hanukah and Purim parties.
¥
We held a
fundraiser for the Abayudaya, the Jewish farming community in Uganda where
Lorne Malin is currently volunteering.
¥
Nearly 100
volunteers worked to make the High Holiday services happen.
¥
New members
joined Or Shalom, some of them converts to Judaism whom the Rabbi escorted to
the mikveh.
¥
Work has been
done to strengthen board governance, communications and compliance with BCÕs Personal
Information Protection Act (requirements with respect to the collection,
use, disclosure and security of personal information).
¥
All year round we
shared life cycle events and many Shabbats with food organized by Kiddush queen
Lily and her committee.
How did this all happen? It happened with a dedicated board, hard working committees,
other volunteers, a very small staff and a committed Rabbi.
We want to thank all of the
board members for the time and work that theyÕve put into the last year. The board put in many long volunteer
hours. We were very fortunate to
work with a cohesive team of intelligent and thoughtful people who persevered
and made important decisions for Or Shalom regarding its operations, programs
and tasks.
We also want to thank the
committee chairs and members of each committee. So that we don't forget anyone, we will name the
committees. If you are the chair
of a committee or a member, please stand when you hear your committee
named.
Operations committees: Or
Shalom has eight operations committees.
These committees are standing committees that are established by the
board, and are essential to Or ShalomÕs functioning. They are:
1.
Bayit
2.
Communications
3.
Finance
4.
Fundraising
5.
Membership
6.
Personnel
7.
Governance
8.
Security
Program committees: Or
Shalom also has eight program committees.
The program committees are standing committees established by the board
that oversee Or ShalomÕs ongoing programs and activities. They are:
1.
Adult Education
2.
Children, Youth
and Family
3.
Gemilut Chessed
4.
Kiddush
5.
Retreat
6.
Ritual
7.
Tikkun
Olam
8.
Young Adult
Ad Hoc committees. Or Shalom also has Ad Hoc committees established by
the board to undertake specific time related tasks. Examples are:
1.
Art
2.
Expansion and
Renovation
3.
Siddur
4.
Visioning
Staff: We also want to thank the staff for their hard work
and dedication as they kept the office running, implemented programs for
adults, children, youth and families and kept us all informed.
It has been a very busy
year for Or Shalom, in particular for Rabbi Laura. Rabbi Laura leads us with a deep commitment to Judaism,
community and education. She is
our outstanding Rabbi who has worked harder for Or Shalom than any you may
know. Most of you probably don't
realize this, but Rabbi Laura has taken on much of the administrative work of
an executive director for over a year - Too Much Work! ItÕs gotten out of balance as Reb Laura
took on more and more administrative work.
We owe much to Reb Laura for
keeping our cool little shul going.
We are at a crossroads now.
It has gotten to the point where Rabbi Laura cannot carry on performing
the duties of a Rabbi and so much administrative work. The administrative work has taken up
too much of her time leaving her with less time to devote to being our
spiritual leader. The
personnel committee and the board are working on plans to address these
problems.
And this is where YOU come in.
You know the value of Or
Shalom in your life and the life of your families. You want Or Shalom to support you and now is the time to
support Or Shalom. Please don't
take Or Shalom or our Rabbi for granted.
Or Shalom has:
¥ Too little money
¥ People need to pay their full membership dues when
they have the ability to do so.
And, we need more paying members.
¥ People need to make extra donations for projects such
as upgrading the kitchen and painting.
We need a major fundraiser.
¥ Too few volunteers despite the number of named
committees.
¥ A core group volunteers do the heavy lifting while
others sit on the sidelines. The
core group is tired and the Rabbi is tired.
¥ Too many people say ÒIÕm too busyÓ.
These problems have led to
an overstretched Rabbi and structures that fall apart. We implore you to examine what new efforts
you can make to contribute to Or Shalom financially, intellectually and
physically.
The new board has
challenges to face and we hope that you will provide your support to make good
things happen. We went through a long process to envision the kind of shul we
want to have. Now itÕs up to us
all to follow through.
We have decided not to
return as co-chairs for the next year in order to fulfill some commitments in
other parts of our lives. We wish
the new board success in meeting the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
Barbara Buchanan and Lu
Winters
Co-chairs 2008-2009
Board of Directors 2009-2010 (alphabetical order)
Barbara Buchanan
Benje Bondar
Ron Einblau
Robin Friedlander
Martin Gotfrit
Tim Oberlander
David Kauffman
Linda Peritz
Laura Rosenthal
Lenore Rosen
Adele Ritch
Mark Weintraub
At present the
co-chairmanship has not been determined. The board will meet in November to
determine the remaining director roles.