WHAT’S NEXT?
In Bloomington, May is full of transitions – North, South and New Tech High School graduations, IU graduation, the end of school and beginning of summer. At Congregation Beth Shalom, May is also a time of transition: our annual congregational meeting, election of new Board members, the start of our fiscal calendar, and the mailing of membership forms enabling congregants to renew their covenant for another year.
It’s also a time of re-assessment at Beth Shalom. We receive final reports from committees. The Board of Directors reviews its objectives and begins to plan new ones. It is a recent tradition to invite the incoming Board members to the May board meeting to meet those going off the board and have input into the next year’s priorities.
To give you an idea of what we have been working on…
This year we divided our goals into 2 major categories – “Physical Infrastructure” and “People Infrastructure” – each with several goals. We reviewed our progress each month at Board meetings. Being accountable to 11 other individuals seemed to work quite well, as we accomplished a great deal.
Last summer we remodeled the kitchen, cleaned the building top to bottom, created new storage space, painted many areas, and installed the new playground. Since then, we installed new carpet in the ‘original’ classrooms behind the sanctuary, repaired the skylights, and constructed new drainage channels between the building and the playground. We have started researching how best to remodel our original bathrooms. We have also approved the purchase of a new key fob security and fire system and, as this Bulletin goes to print, comparing bids. We now have a working kitchen committee and have created systems for keeping the building clean and organized. We continue to monitor our energy bills and find new ways to green our building. Finally, we are in the
first stages of implementing a very exciting new software system for the office that includes a new website.
Under “People Infrastructure”, we had several key goals. Number one was to hire a rabbi. Rabbi Besser and I took over a month to correspond back and forth over the many aspects of his job so that we could have a clear and complete final employment agreement. As we asked questions and posed hypothetical situations, we developed a style of working together. During his visit the weekend of March 23rd; Rabbi Besser and I invited the chairs of the Rabbi Search Committee and their spouses to witness the signing of the final Engagement Agreement.
We chanted the Shehekeyanu and read aloud the following words from the Agreement: “We recognize that the relationship between congregation and Rabbi is a covenant through which each party undertakes the obligations of working together in the service of God and the Jewish people.” Rabbi Besser will officially start work on July 16.
More difficult to implement and assess, the Board is committed to enhancing the lines of communication between members and elected leadership, building community through one-to-one member interactions, increasing administrative efficiency and proactivity, ensuring that committees are working to full capacity, and building a solid volunteer system. Clearly, this cannot be accomplished in a single year or by any single individual.
It will take the participation of the entire community to meet these goals. This year we hope all members will attend the annual meeting on Tuesday evening, May 22nd. In what ways did we succeed this year? What might we do differently next year? What are your goals and dreams for Congregation Beth Shalom? How might you help?
Please come to the annual congregational meeting on May 22nd and help answer the question “What’s next?’
Judith Rose, President
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We welcome Joshua Herman as our student rabbi. 
