Last weekend, I attended the second SHJ Northeast Regional Meeting. I was one of several attendees from our congregation. This report focuses on my experiences and take-aways from the meeting. There were separate note takers for different sessions, and this discussion does not in anyway replace those discussion notes.
The meeting started with ice breakers followed by singing. This was followed by a pair of sessions separated by socializing and eating. I attended sessions on membership and leadership. In each session, the leader suggested topics and then the attendees discussed their experiences around these topics.
PROGRAMMING SESSION
The programming session looked at programming overall and each congregation’s success stories.
Havdalahs/Shabbats
- The attendees seemed to have a much more formal approach to Havdalahs/Shabbats than we do. Our approach in terms of allowing the host to determine the type (date, Havdalah vs. Shabbat, inclusive or kids only) seemed novel to many of the attendees.
Successful Events
- Tu Bishvat: Planting parsley in January
- Fair Trade Bazaar
- Honoring member’s talents: Events focussed around art, music and poetry.
- Empty Bowls event: Artist donates bowl, members fill it with soup and sell it to other members as a fundraiser.
- Movie Night with Jewish-related topics. People did not want to see Holocaust movies or Israeli war movies. Some example movies:
- The Bards Visit
- Weapons of the Spirit
- Sing alongs. Some reported very good success with them; others not so much.
Social Action Events
- Everyone agreed that in order to have social action events, there needs to be a strong consistent leader championing them.
- People are already volunteering their time to be on the congregation board and that is social action enough.
- Too many social action events during the year are not a good thing.
- Where do people hold events: This was mixed between someone’s house and a rented space. Everyone agreed that for the most part events at someone’s house cannot be advertised.
Advertising Events
- There seemed to a general consensus that advertising in the local town papers is not effective because they will only be limited to a house. One group used radio ads on NPR.
Political Topics
- There was a discussion of programming around political topics, such as Zionism or Israel. We indicated that we stay away from the topic. I discussed this with others during the social hour and it looks like it can be a dangerous topic for a congregation. In the past congregations have split over these kinds of issues.
LEADERSHIP SESSION
There was general confusion among several participants about what this session was about. The religious leaders seemed to think that leadership was about religious leadership. Others thought it was about how to maintain an active board and grow leadership in a congregation.
Some highlights from this session were:
- Several congregations do not have religious leaders but lay leaders like us.
- One congregation forms “Try Teams” of a few members who run events.
- Most congregations have a nominating committee like us.
- They recommend that we have an SHJ Institute Scholar in residence for a weekend to give talks and advise the congregation.
Matthew Harelick
Secretary
