Nishmat Shalom CDM, June 15, 2010

Present:  Emily, Max, Alex, Ed, Vicky, Alice, Carol
Regrets and input: Ethel, Raja, Lea, Claire
 
1) Treasurer’s report:  Balance forward:   $741.61

Outgo:  Childcare: 40.00; NHC Tshirt: $36.00; Bank charge: $3.00

Current Balance:  $662.61, including all transactions to date, cleared and uncleared

(For comparison, Alice reports that our balance was as follows at this time of year for previous years:
6/12/07:  622.33; 6/23/08: 787.72;  6/9/09:  809.04)

2) Calendar events for July through December:

July 17th (3rd Shabbat) (Shabbat Hazon)-Paul & Miryam will host
August 21st (3rd Shabbat),- Lea will host
September 18th (Yom Kippur break-fast) Ed will host; consult with Max on start time
September 25th (4th Shabbat, Sukkot)—In the Sukkah of Claire and Ed
October 16th (3rd Shabbat)- Eve and Alex
November 20th (3rd Shabbat) - Max?
December 18th (3rd Shabbat)-
December 3rd is Shabbat Chanukah, possible joint celebration with Beyt Chesed (Vicky will check on this).

Other:
*Nishmat will not be sponsoring events for Tashlich and Tisha B’Av but will publicize local opportunities through the listserve

*On all Nishmat communications we will note when we move a Shabbat off of the 3rd Saturday of the month (which tends to happen a couple of times per year).

Next CDM dates: Tuesday evenings, August 31st (Emily can host)  and November 9th

3) Camping Shabbaton: 08 to 10 October 2010 at Butano State Park; Lea is coordinating; four large campsites are reserved; can accommodate 24 people total, so far 10 have said they’re coming.  Alex will make sure an email gets out to the listserve.

4) Plan appeal letter and follow-up by email – Vicky will take care of this with the goal of having it done and approved by our 8/31/2010 meeting.   Note:  our current mailing list goes to 60 households/individuals.   

5) Discussion on additions or suggestions for our liturgy:

Suggestion to try Torah services without kavanot.   Reasons given:  try something different after 18 years, hard to get people to compose the kavanot, might enhance flow of the service.  Other comments: some people particularly appreciate the kavanot, we have a lot of back and forth during the Torah service and that shows engagement even though it takes time, try to follow up on the suggestion “let’s discuss this after lunch.”

Decision: let’s read Torah without kavanot in July and August and discuss it at the next meeting.  We can read Alex’s synopsis read before we start the Torah reading to help orient people, but the idea is not to do this before each aliyah.

Another suggestion was made to consider having individual aliyot only, but we are not going to limit the number of people
who can come up.  We’ll discuss all this again at the next CDM.

We also agreed that we will remove the Plaut chumash from our box of varied chumashim because they are confusing to use to follow the reading.   Will replace with another copy of the Hertz.

Several people commented they would like us to do the full repetition of the amidah more often.

6)  Childcare: 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.

Ed will send an email out to the list in July soliciting volunteers.  At each CDM in the next year, we will review how many children used the childcare at each Shabbat.   

7)   Electronic vs. Paper Newsletters: Can/should we implement electronic-only newsletters to some of our list?  

Information:  each mailing costs $27.00, 3 x per year.  We will do our annual appeal by regular mail anyway. 

Decision:  we do want to offer the option of the paper newsletter, but people can opt out by informing max@nishmat.org.   People who opt out of the paper newsletter will receive the e-newsletter through the listserve and annual fundraising appeal through the mail.

8) Agreed: the song Ed wrote in honor of Nishmat Shalom's 18th anniversary be posted on the Nishmat Shalom website, along with the comments people wrote about why Nishmat Shalom is special (no names attached).   Carol and Ed will work on getting the song recorded (by Ed) to be posted on the website.   Max agreed to post this under “simchas.”

9) We agreed that Max will create a“free book” page on the website, for books of Jewish interest to be available for local pickup to anyone who affiliates with Nishmat, to encourage involvement and support of Nishmat.

For Next Meeting:
Treasurer’s Report
Calendar—including Tu B’Shvat, Erev Shira
Review appeal letter & follow up
Review how it has gone not to have kavanot for two services
Review childcare: including # of children using childcare services during the previous 2 months and finding volunteers to fill in to provide childcare when George is not available.