Nishmat Shalom CDM – 09 November 2010
Present: Alex, Lea, Vicky, Ethel, Ed, Emily, Carol, Max
Regrets and Comments: Raja, Claire, Judy, Paul, Alice
Treasurer’s Report: Balance forward: 580.61 as of August 30,
2010; 6 donations received since appeal totaling $126.00 plus $200
honorarium for use of Torah scroll; Total in: 326.00 plus two
donations received at the meeting. Out: Childcare 80.00; Bank
Charges 2.00; Total out: 82.00. Current balance: 824.61
plus 2 donations received tonight.
- Carol will send brief reminder email about donations. (Vicky
will provide text of fund raising letter for info). We note that
so far 8 households have contributed this year; typically the total is
15 to 20.
Childcare: In September children were present and George provided
childcare; In October, we had a volunteer prepared to provide childcare
but no children present. All present affirmed
that we will stick with the interim decision made in June, 2010 and
quoted from the June minutes as follows:
"Agreed that: For one year, effective July 2010, continue with our
system of having a professional childcare provider available for each
Nishmat Shabbat morning service, with the exception that if our regular
provider is not available, the childcare coordinator will first call a
volunteer experienced in childcare to see if that person is available
before calling other professionals. We will continue to use the current
edition of our brochure (which includes mention of childcare) during
this year . . . At each CDM in the next year, we will review how many
children used the childcare at each Shabbat."
Noted: Some members have expressed concern that having
professional childcare has not drawn many new members and that
members with small children don’t attend as much as we’d
like to see them, other members expressed willingness to donate
additional funds to keep this service. We will calendar a
full discussion for the May CDM to decide what to do about childcare
after June, 2011. We will have a discussion about designated
donations to Nishmat in February, 2011, as members have expressed an
interest in donating to support particular projects, including
childcare, or designating funds received for particular uses, such as
Torah repair or a new ark.
Childcare appreciation: We all wanted to express our
appreciation for George’s work with our Nishmat children and we
wrote a card to him. Lea will mail the card and Alex will
provide a gift of homemade marmalade. Ni
Kavanot: Our interim decision to experiment with not having
kavanot during the Torah service that was extended until this
meeting. We decided to return to having kavanot for each
aliyah as follows: We have one kavanot giver, assigned by the
leyning coordinator. Kavanot are no longer than two, preferably one,
sentence in length. The kavanah is a nugget of inspiration taken
from the text.
At the next CDM, we will discuss an intention-setting statement for the
Torah service. Meanwhile, we will encourage anyone in
Nishmat to send suggestions of what might be said via the Nishmat email
the list. Emily volunteers to gather suggestions and start
putting them together.
Enhanced announcements: Alex will send Paul the summary of the
Torah portion of the week to be included in the announcement of the
service each month. We considered including leyners and
daveners in this announcement but we did not reach consensus.
Ark discussion: Max will investigate another group that is
replacing its ark and whether their previous ark is available and
appropriate and/or whether they have a design for an ark we could
adapt. We had one input about using PVC pipe to create an enclosure for
the Torah that is highly portable, although others felt this would not
be what we are looking for. Concerns were raised for the safety of the
Torah in transport and ease of use for those who are transporting the
ark. (The current ark may or may not fit in a given car, and the
torah scroll is transported separately in a duffle bag). Ideas were
raised about making a new curtain and/or painting the current ark.
Calendar—Vicky will work on getting the Newsletter out in Early
January so we can publicize the change of place for the January
service. Ed will help find houses.
Eve and Alex will not be able to host on January 15th, 2011; Emily will
host.
February 19th (3rd Shabbat)—Presidents’ Day
weekend—Alex and Eve.
March 19th (3rd Shabbat)--
April 16th (3rd Shabbat)--
May 21st (3rd Shabbat)--
June 11th (2nd Shabbat)—
Other: for January 15th: Ed will help Emily beginning at 9:45 am;
Lea will help with cleanup. We leave it to Ed and Vicky to decide
how long to go in finding hosts for the dates mentioned.
CDM: Tuesday evening, February 8, 2011—Emily will host;
change confirmed with Ethel
CDM: Tuesday evening, May 17th, 2011 -- Ed will host
Singing get together: Vicky will contact Judy and Mitchell about
a Sunday afternoon date. Ethel will support at the
event. Suggestion to find a name other than “Erev
Shira” since it is an afternoon event this year.
Lea gave a report on a successful Camping Shabbaton, attended by
5 adults. She welcomes suggestions, especially about when to hold
next year’s.
Lea also reported on our Tsedakkah Project to provide Chanukah gifts
for a family identified through Shalom Bayit. About 8 Nishmat Shalom
households have contributed. Lea will provide Shalom
Bayit with contact information about Nishmat Shalom in case any of
their constituency is interested in attending services.
We appreciate Judy bringing to our attention the availability of
Reconstructionist Friday night prayer books and dishware from the now
defunct Gan Eden chavurah, but we are not interested in acquiring these
items.
Vicky announced that as of July 2011 she would like to pass on her
responsibilities as davening coordinator. (Carol is available to
take over). Vicky would also like to pass on the newsletter
as of September, 2011, after the next appeal letter. We
appreciate all that Vicky has done and will look for a volunteer!
For next meeting:
Treasury Report – incl Have all checks written by Nishmat
cleared? Number of households contributing?
Date Review
Annual renewal of decision on decisions
Setting budget for the year
Designated donations-do we want to accept them?
How to handle impromptu discussion of Torah during service, including
perhaps coming up with a guiding/welcoming statement for the Torah
service.
Followup on ark discussion; Max report back.
Mini job description for open coordination positions; emphasize it is
not necessary to attend CDM to do some of these tasks.