Summary of December 2021 Board Minutes

BZBI Board of Trustees Minutes
December 9, 2021 meeting, 7:00 pm

Marketing Committee report from Bonnie Goldberg: The Committee along with David Haas and Lynne Balaban are continuing to work on the BZBI web site to make it more informative, transparent and easier to navigate.

Membership Committee report from Sharon Greis: The virtual Yesod Shabbat Dinner took place on November 19th was a great success. We are still in the process of pairing recent new members with buddies. Please contact Sharon Greis if you would like to volunteer as a Buddy to a new family member. Shel Bernick crafted a questionnaire to be used in polling former members who did not renew, which will be used as a guide during a phone conversation with those people called.

Israeli Engagement report from Sheldon Bernick: He is looking to get local speakers developed around Yom HaZikaron or Yom HaAtzmaot.

Governance Committee report from Jessica Simon: The Governance Committee collected mission statements from each Board position to help attract volunteers, to avoid unnecessary overlap with the work of other committees, and to fine tune or repurpose existing committees to work toward ensuring the board is functioning at its most efficient.

Clergy report from Rabbi Abe & Rabbi Abi:

• We had a successful transfer to hybrid minyan, but it is still a work in progress.
• We are in the experimental stage of our davening team for Friday night with new tunes, then we plan to add more music to our Shabbat morning service as well. Eliana Light will be here next week to add to the liveliness of the service and meet with all our students.
• Our Torah academy is up and running and so far very successful. We are now moving into peer mentoring program, which is more for people who know how to read Torah but need some practice, so it is less intense than the Torah academy. We hired a Torah reading coordinator, Gedalia Penner-Robinson, and he has almost the whole year fully scheduled for complete Torah reading. He is also a tutor.

Executive Director’s report from Lynne Balaban:

• We had a great Hanukkah all around with lots of activities, especially with the kids. Lynne gave all staff members gifts on behalf of the board and they were very appreciative. We are still looking for a community engagement person but since the right candidate has not yet been found, we continue to get the work done as best we can. Lynne is also working with Sarah and Arielle on ways to update the preschool using monies we have received from ARPA.
• We have started working on the evaluation of security in the building in preparation for applying for the Homeland Security Grant. With respect to security we are looking into the possibility of adding a new camera that could cover any dead spot.

Development report from Suzanne Litke:

• Our current AG puts us at about 64% of our annual goal and ahead of last year. Other donations are behind by a similar amount from last year.
• The kitchen renovations have uncovered space for new stained-glass windows. We are looking into insurance, as well as funders and ideas for designs.
• Development committee will discuss how to start a big capital campaign to prepare for the future.
• It was suggested we educate older congregants to give their gifts directly from their required distribution from IRA(401K’s). Maybe we can send the targeted audience a video that explains this benefit.

Finance committee report from Daniel Cohen: We currently have a small surplus. As noted, AG is doing great, we have hit our goal for membership, and with our increases in Early Childhood Education and other gifts; even with slight losses from Neziner and uncollected B’nai Mitzvah fees we may have a slight surplus at year end. Daniel and Lynne are working on next year’s budget draft and hope to have it completed by mid-December.

President’s report: We will start a call for volunteers for all our committees soon.