Dates to Put on Your Calendar
Keeping Connected May 2019
Dear Friends,
I feel proud to write about another joyous anniversary in our temple’s life. A year-and-a-half ago we celebrated 50 years since Congregation Shalom’s founding. And now we are celebrating Rabbi Perry’s 20thanniversary with our congregation! On May 11 we will be honoring her with a fun night of music, socializing, and storytelling. We will be providing hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and desserts. Many, many members and friends have already said you’ll be coming and I expect it to be a lively evening. If you haven’t already, please send in a check for your tickets. In the event you would like to make a donation in her honor, she would prefer donations be directed to the Chai Fund.
I know Annual Meeting is still a month away, but I’d like to take a few lines to outline some of the objectives for that day. This Annual Meeting will be very much like other recent ones. We need to approve the budget, we will vote on the nominees for the Board of Trustees, and we will talk about upcoming capital projects. The budgeting process on the expense side is exactly the same as always, although we hope to present the information in a more transparent way. We have added the capability for members to participate “virtually”, now able to include those who cannot come to the temple on June 2. But in one way this meeting will be quite different, as the membership has the opportunity to allow us to implement a new system of annual pledges to replace our mandatory dues. Since our Bylaws were written in terms of required dues, we need to present some amendments to allow a pledge system. Our goal here was to keep the Bylaws changes as simple as possible, and so the main change is to provide a new definition of the term “dues” in the Bylaws to allow either an assessment or a pledge. We will have a presentation about the new pledge system, of course, before any vote is taken on the Bylaws. Look for important emails about Annual Meeting and the proposed Bylaws amendments. You will also be getting info on two voluntary pledge information sessions to be held on the evenings of May 14 and 23.
Our temple is made strong by continuity, but also by our willingness to embrace thoughtful change.
L’shalom,
Joanna Myers