Our meeting took place Tuesday evening, September 7th, at the home of Ethel
Murphy. We started at 7:45, and hardly stopped at 9:30PM.
(In attendance: Ethel, Carol, Max, Vicky, Ed, Paul, Mindy, Alex)
Agenda
* Consensus reached that we rename ‘business meeting’ Community Decision Making meeting.
(This more expansive title will be more inviting, and direct attention toward doing more liturgy and other processing).
* Treasurer's report:
previous: $ 454 income: $ 54
outlay: $ 192 (3x35 (childcare), 36 (placement of our name on the national havurah
t-shirt), 51 (newsletter))
balance: $ 316
* Schedule topics:
We decided that we maintain the 3rd Shabbat of the month for our regular Saturday
morning services. (Last meeting, we
raised a question about changing our regular shabbat due to conflict with children's
services. Anticipated conflicts with children's services have not materialized.)
Also discussed that the Reconstructionist Havurah's latest minutes show they
are planning 2 shabbat services, one 10/30
and one in December. Carol emailed Hannah from Chicago about the conflict with
our plan. Their reply was that they've
decided to choose the date without consulting anyone else. But in the future,
they want to be more conscious of
coordinating with other havurot.
Carol informally emails Marcia, Sara Lea Schley, Hannah, Marty + Abigail, Richard
Kaplan [need Max to share his
email], Shoshanna, Lincoln. She usually tells them that we strive to have an
adaptive schedule
Specific schedule for the Fall:
Saturday morning service: 10/30 (Miryam and Paul Sas's house)
Saturday morning service (3rd Shabbat): 11/20 (Eric and Angie Fixler)
Community Decision meeting-Tues evening 11/30/04 (Ethel's)
Friday evening - Chanukah w/ Beyt Chesed - 12/10
Saturday morning service (3rd Shabbat): 12/18
Saturday morning service (3rd Shabbat): 1/15
Tu B'Shvat Seder - Monday evening 1/24 (Mindy's)
Saturday morning service (3rd Shabbat): 2/19
* Brochure- everyone liked the purple fold up that Carol laid out. Alex will
help us photocopy 200 copies, 90 of which are
to be included in our next mailing, and 110 of which are to be available at
designated High Holy Days sites. Who will bring them over to various minyanim?
Miryam and Paul will place at Beyt Tikkun and Sha'ar Zahav
Marcia will be asked to do Kehilla
Vicky will ask Hanna Cohen to do Aquarian Minyan
Mindy will bring to Netivot and the JCC
*Fundraising letter written by Vicky was warmly praised. We will explicitly add a mention of our own sefer torah.
*Website still does not show Minutes from the last year and the new Shacharit
outline. What kind of support can we give
Max to do this odious task?
*Mailing list backup:
This summer it was realized there was no current document which includes all
contact info. Max exported from his
database into Excel spreadsheet. It now exists in a backed up form, shared with
Ethel. Information from this directory will
be accessible from Ethel by request. Paul proposed that this document's inner
being aspires to become a directory.
He will develop a proposal for the next meeting to send a survey to the email;
People can choose to fill out a form that includes their contact info, Hebrew
name, and useful information for reaching them. Demonstration project: Share
with the group a form. Carol and Max note: The nishmat email list is not isomorphic
with the mailing list.
*Listserv (Backup listserv moderator will be shared with Paul). Related issue:
npogroups The more Max has dealt with
yahoo groups, the more he has appreciated what npogroups is doing for us (no
advertising, no opt-outs). When started, it
was free service. They started sending us a bill for $10/monthly, which we don't
have to pay. We should consider paying $18 as votive offering.
* Supporting Vicky during the next months while facing surgery. Bikkur Cholim coordination will be placed in Mindy as the point-person.
*Proposed liturgy projects within one year: new pages for Torah service (ready to review by next business meeting); tapes for Torah service (by February) and Shacharit (next summer). Carol's plan: Meet 1:1 to collate people's input before the next meeting.
*Approved a raise for the Nishmat childcare providers.
Pre-school substitute aide currently makes a minimum of $12/hour.
Baby sitter's going rate is $15/hour -- We decide to go for $40 a service (which
is a $60 a year increase for our budget)
If we get the money flowing in after our annual letter, we can revisit. We can
also consider finding a way for people to sponsor a child care event (akin to
bima flowers).
Unfinished Business:
For our next meeting:
Report back on progress on website and listserve updating.
Paul will present proposal on creating a self-organized directory via email
survey input
Carol will report on liturgy project, ideally to show draft pages of Torah service
For some meeting in the future:
Development of next edition of the brochure