GOALS FOR THE -NEW YEAR

By Jeff Selig

When you receive this TOL newsletter, the summer will be behind us. I hope you have all gotten some time off to enjoy family and friends and to recharge yourselves. For me, getting more involved with the Tree of Life has had many rewards and, I must be
honest, a few challenges. However, those few challenges are opportunities to take a perceived negative or so-called problem and turn it into a positive or a success story. Such is the case with the areas that your board and officers of the Temple will be spending time on during this next fiscal year of 2009-2010.

With the tough economic situation that we are all feeling, the fiscal stability of the Temple must be a cornerstone of our focus. The solid experience and wisdom of our treasurer, Howie Weiss, has given me a great deal of comfort that we are heading in the right direction. Peter Kline, our finance chair, while new to the TOL, has many years of involvement in his former congregation and brings some good new perspective
to our opportunities. Our budget committee will continue to meet on a regular basis to monitor our finances and take steps to ensure we have satisfactory financial results.

The succession planning related to our Temple board and committee chairs will have some new faces. Some younger, some not so young, that will move to the forefront of our organization to ensure that we continue to excel and handle our Temple affairs in a manner that is satisfactory to all. We want to ensure that we have people that have had experiences and mentoring to help them move to the next level of responsibility within the Temple. If you want to get involved or become more involved, please let anyone
of your board members know.

Our leadership development stays a constant, not only for board members, but for all congregants at the Tree of Life. We must all be involved from becoming a board member…to attending temple functions… to making our financial commitments to the
Temple. With everyone’s involvement – we want everyone involved – our congregation is able to continue our wonderful momentum of membership growth and diversity of programming. We continue tosustain our rich history and lay the groundwork for
future generations.

Fund raising presents great opportunities to create and sustain our Temple’s ability to offer our members excellent programs/activities. I have asked Todd Weiss to chair this critically important committee. Annette Goldstein, our first vice president, will
support and assist Todd in these efforts. Both individuals are well-known at the Temple and have a wealth of knowledge and experience. With any success story, there must be good planning and good execution. We will meet monthly to ensure we are on target regarding our fundraising goals. The Scrip Program has been headed up by Debra Stombler who has really done a superb job starting from scratch only a few months back. Our Jewish Food Festival will again be an important area to realize revenue potential for the Temple, and simultaneously introduce our community to the uniqueness of Jewish foods.

I would be remiss if I didn’t credit making my role as the Tree of Life president an easier one by mentioning our great organization of people who make Tree of Life work. Starting with our wonderful Rabbi Sherman. Our rabbi has greatly enriched our
Temple in the short time he has been with us; I applaud him for his efforts and positive results. Risa Strauss has given us energy and enthusiasm within our Religious School and in our youth programs. Risa’s knowledge as a Jewish educator combined with her
caring demeanor has made our youths’ experiences lasting. Linda Frederico, our office manager, continues to keep the Temple moving along. If you wonder who is in charge of the details – that’s Linda! We thank Linda for making things easy for the rest of
us. Demitris Gilmore, our custodian, keeps things clean and orderly. When things need to get done, Demitris is there to make it happen. Thank you to all.

As we move into the fall, our High Holidays are just around the corner, so mark your calendars. I hope to see all of you soon at the Tree of Life. On behalf of Walton and the rest of our family, we want to wish you all a “sweet and healthy” New Year for 5770.

Jeff Selig
president@tolsc.org