Summary of October 2021 Board Minutes

BZBI Board Minutes

October 14, 2021 meeting, 7:00 pm

Marketing Committee report from Bonnie Goldberg: The committee met with Lynne Balaban and David Haas to start a review of the BZBI website, updating it with new pictures and making it easier to navigate and find all relevant information.

Membership Committee report from Sharon Greis:  BZBI has 27 new member units, which is more than 50 people. The New Member Buddy Program is in place with 16 confirmed BZBI members who have agreed to participate.

Our New Member Event in the BZBI Succah on September 26^th was a success. It was a beautiful Fall Day and about 25 people attended. Rabbi Abe & Rebecca were in attendance and Rabbi Abe led a “Meet and Greet” activity, which was a great ice breaker. A screening of the 4-minute Membership video had its premier and was shown to all on a large monitor set up in the Succah. Refreshments were served and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time.

Community Committee report from Eileen Dwell;  The busiest committee reported 13 different activities!!

• Community Engagement Committee.
• Intergenerational Reading Program.
• Mishpahot group.
• Have a Committee of three making calls to BZBI Families who experience a death, illness, birth of a child or other significant event in which we can be of some support.
• A welcome Shabbat for Rabbi Abi.
• Reinstating our Kiddush Committee.
• BZBI Mahjong Group.
• Knitting group, which makes hats and scarves for housing insecure folks.
• Stocking up program for congregants in need during difficult personal times. (Meals are currently catered while we wait for our new kitchen to be complete.)
• Yesod dinners for 3^rd Friday night of the month.
• Volunteer Appreciation night during Chanukah.
• Our Inclusion Shabbat Program. Our mission is to be a fully inclusive, warm and welcoming community regardless of race, disability, or sexual orientation.
• We applied for a street tree from the City and Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.  We have been approved for a tree on the 18th Street side of the building.  There will be a festive tree planting on Sunday, November 21 at 10 am.  Rabbis Abe and Abi, along with any of our members who would like to attend, will gather and help plant and name our new tree. At Tu Bishvat we will celebrate the growth and permanence of our very own BZBI tree.

Early Childhood Committee report from Arielle Kerstein:  The 2021-2022 Early Childhood school year continues to be a success. The school is operating at full capacity and enrollment for 2022-2023 is underway. In September, Sara Goldfuss applied for an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Child Care Stabilization Grant. This funding from Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services is intended to stabilize the child care industry in the state. We recently heard that our application was approved and the school will be receiving a total of $153,452 in six equal monthly payments. We expect to receive the first payment in the near future.  These must be spent on specific things, so are restricted funds.

Youth & Family Committee report from Anne Albert: We are approaching a total of 50 students, which is higher than last year when it was all virtual, but it has not rebounded to the pre-pandemic size. Rabbi Max attributes the low numbers to the fact that some families have left the city, more BZBI kids are attending either day school or Makom, and there was no Bonim or Gan last year to feed into the lower grades.  We have a detailed safety plan in effect, congruent with that of the early childhood program. In addition to requiring vaccinations for everyone who’s eligible and maintaining careful social distance, we are moving ahead with a latke fundraiser as usual and working with Bev to see if we can also do a fundraiser by selling nice Hanukkah candles as well.

• Discussion items presented by Nikki Morris

1. • Clergy report from Rabbi Abe & Rabbi Abi: Mazel Tov to Sheri and Daniel Cohen on the coming Bar Mitzvah of their son. We will be starting meetings with families of B’nai Mitzvahs coming up this year.  There will also be meetings with the morning and afternoon minyan stakeholders about whether they should remain on zoom or come back in person.  Rabbi Abi is working on creating a davening team.

• • Executive Director’s report from Lynne Balaban:  The office staff is working on cleaning up the database, so the website and ShulCloud will work more smoothly for all of us.  The synagogue purchased two AED machines (defibrillator machines). They cost about $1500 a piece, if you would like to contribute to that purchase. We already have one sponsor. Staff and security have all been trained to use it, and the synagogue will offer a course (for a fee) for any congregant who would also like to learn how to use it.  We have posted Rebecca Krasner’s position and are waiting for responses.  Her responsibilities have been temporarily divided up, mostly to Lynne.  Lynne is on the National Board for ED movement serving as membership chair, and though it adds to her busy schedule it is also a great opportunity for her to network with other execs around the country.

• • Development report from Suzanne Litke: Our Annual Giving and other gifts are still at a healthy level, though slightly behind last year (partly because we have not had the string of deaths we had by this point last year). We are looking for positive ways to encourage donations and sponsorships (such as sponsoring Popsicle Kiddush). Each board member will get lists (of about 15) who whom we should keep in touch with. There will also be important building needs that might be sponsored as well.  The next letter goes out around Hanukkah, which is early this year.

• • Finance committee report from Daniel Cohen: We currently have significant cash and investments, but there is a more significant shortfall in our membership dues. As of September 30^th, we had collected 78% of our projected membership dues, leading to a current budget deficit, though we have added more dues payments since the start of October, and expect more membership income due to payment plans. This still leaves a gap. Sharon Greis says they can help contacting people who have not become members yet. For various reasons we do expect this to be a deficit year in general. The quarterly meeting will be next week to start on the 2022-2023 budget.  These trends seem to be common in most other synagogues.

• • Adult education committee report from Sarah Fleishman: She will be returning to teaching in preschool and is taking over as lead teacher in Early Childhood Education, so this is her last meeting on board.

• President’s report: We now need new person for Tikkun Olam (Rosalie Kurz) and Adult programing (Sarah Fleishman).