Minutes ******** 6/12/07 *************

Minutes of Nishmat Shalom Community Decision Meeting, 6/12/07
Present: Emily, Lea, Ed, Alice, Max, Ethel, Carol
Regrets: Raja, Vicky

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CALENDAR RELATED ITEMS

Set Shabbat Morn services:

Sat am July 21st (3rd Shabbat) at Carol, Steve and Bessie's house.
Proposed Shabbat Morn services:
Sat am, August 17 (3rd Shabbat) ­ Jake may be interested in hosting-needs followup—if not, maybe Emily
Sat am, Sept 29th (5th Shabbat)--Chol Ha-Moed Sukkot; note Aq Min does have a service planned, however, the service in the sukkah is a longstanding Nishmat tradition; service includes Hallel ­Carol willing to host. (Claire is not available due to construction.)
Sat am Oct 20th (3rd Shabbat) -- ?
Sat am Nov 10 (2d Shabbat) ­ Alex and Eve have offered to host; Josh Gressel has confirmed to do a workshop after lunch re: spirituality and money.
Sat am Dec 15 (3rd Shabbat) ­ ?

Ed will make phone calls re hosting. Emily, Paul and Miryam and Max are likely future hosts. Maybe Lea, Judy and Mitchell.

Other
: CDM Tues Oct 9
CDM Tues Jan 8th

DECISION: We are open to announcing Beyt Chesed Tashlich service on the listserve, but have members who do not want to go to a restaurant on the Chag so we are not asking to co-sponsor.

Do we want a Neilah service? (Would be Sat. evening Sept 22, 2007) ­DECISION: We will see if we have leaders available in August and then announce. Ed is willing to talk to his housemates about possibility of hosting. Shana is interested in leading.

Joining with Aquarian Minyan for Tisha B'Av, Monday evening, July 23rd
DECISION: that we announce it on our email list. If we are asked to co-sponsor, we will agree to do that. Note: we probably do not have a newsletter coming out in time to include it. Lea will find out contact info for people who have questions or want to volunteer to participate.

DECISION: Assuming Beyt Chesed wants to, we will agree to co-sponsor a joint Friday evening Shabbat Chanukah service as in years past. Would be Fri evening December 7th .

FISCALLY RELATED ITEMS

Treasury report: Starting balance: 3/20/07 $672.93

Expenses since 3/20 $99.90

Received since 3/20 $ 49.00

This brings our income for 06-07 to within $22.00 of budgeted expenses.

Report on Torah scroll repairs, donations and costs: $425.00 will be covered by donations designated for the repairs. In addition, we received a designated donation of $200.00 in honor of using the Torah for a Bar Mitzvah in November.

FOLLOWUP: We are still awaiting a letter from the soferet stating that the Torah is kosher. Carol will followup. We also have a question for soferet: Would we be able to tell the difference between the 2 scribal hands she has reported she saw in the scribing of the Torah.

DECISION: $100.00 of the designated donation will be designated to cover Nishmat’s share of costs for bringing the soferet to the Bay Area.

DECISION: We will contribute $36.00 (previously approved in our budget) to have our name on the NHC T-shirt for 2007. Max will send out an email publicizing the NHC summer insitute on our listserve.

DECISION: Alice will write a letter acknowledging a memorial contribution Nishmat has received in memory of Bea Greenberg.

DECISION: Alice will draft fundraising letter, to be reviewed by Judy Kunofsky. Alice and Vicky both propose that this year’s letter be “new and different.” We will include a reference to donations tax deductible as per IRS Publication 1828. To include: input from repair of the Torah scroll, naming ceremony, continuous involvement with Shalom Bayit ­both mailings and tzadakah project. Co-sponsoring Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, co-sponsoring visit of Soferet to the Bay Area.

DECISION: Statement about Women’s Torah Project on our website as currently written is inaccurate. Max will remove it and Carol and others will research whether we wish to write a new one.

REPORT: Over time, we have discussed whether we would build or otherwise acquire an ark that fits our scroll better. We would welcome anyone who can offer leadership on this issue.

OTHER :

REPORT: Ed reported that he continues to Coordinate Childcare. George has been providing most of the childcare for us over the past few years. If he isn’t available, Ed is responsible for finding a sub. Ed is working out a system to clarify calendar. We adore George and “he does the world’s best tigger,” and we hope he can continue working with us, even though he has had a number of conflicts lately. Ed is working on a more intensive reminder system. If anyone has any questions about childcare provision or coordination, or would like to volunteer to help give reminders to George please contact *Ed.*

DISCUSSION: Haftarah at Services: we would like to keep this option open, and we need to discuss how to make room in the service without making the service length unreasonable. There were a range of opinions on our system of kavanot. We will ask if people want to have a liturgy project meeting to discuss the Torah reading, and the amount of time we have alloted to various parts of the service. We will float this idea on Shabbat as well to work toward calendaring a liturgy meeting in the upcoming weeks.

REMINDER TO TORAH READERS: If you are not able to prepare as thoroughly as you like, you are welcome to read from the chumash with another member pointing in the scroll.

REPORT: Outreach efforts: Lea called some people on the mailing list, and will call others when she is able. She also sometimes lists our services on Bay Jews and Aquarian Minyan websites.

Making sure we have a minyan at our services: Carol has found that ‘inreach’ calls can be quite successful, but she is somewhat burnt out from making them each month. We are all encouraged to check in with our friends and encourage them to attend services . . . especially in time to hear the Torah reading!