Some 60 of you attended last week’s member meeting, constituting the necessary quorum. There were two key items before us: 1) approval of the congregation’s new officers and Board of Trustees; and, 2) approval of the 2023 – 2024 budget, which begins June 1.
The members approved our slate of officers, which includes:- Vice President, Debra Greenstein;
- Treasurer Fred Goldman, who has been serving in an acting capacity for a significant portion of this year;
- Secretary Judy Nystrom;
- Past President Mark Samrick; and,
- Yours truly as President.
We saluted three members leaving the board -- Larry Kamer, Jenny Shully, and Irene Yesowitch -- and said hello to Eve Kahn and Suzy Krieger as new Members-at-Large, plus welcomed back these returning Members-at-Large:- Mark Charney;
- Dave Dobrow;
- Allison Frost;
- Phyllis Kleid;
- Naomi Petrick; and,
- Shane Soldinger.
After I summarized the current year and spoke about the forthcoming one, I turned over the gavel to our treasurer, Fred Goldman, who did a thoughtful, thorough recap of where we are currently with the congregation’s budget, and what lies before us for the coming year.
Assuming we are able to meet an ambitious fundraising goal in the next 12 months, we will be able to balance the 2023-2024 budget. Our members approved it, but questions arose around the congregation’s key fundraising vehicle, L’dor V’dor.
Several members thought L’dor V’dor contributions served as a longer-term “endowment,” rather than an initiative designed to raise money to help CBS meet its daily operating budget needs. As we said in the meeting and repeated here, just to be clear: L’dor V’dor is not, I repeat not, an endowment fund; contributions made to it go towards CBS’ day-to-day operating budget.
The person who best addressed the concern was past-Board-of-Trustees member Josh Slater, who eloquently explained how funds from L’dor V’dor were being used properly. I’m unable to quote Josh exactly, but what he said went something like this:
“L’dor V’dor is about ensuring there is a future for CBS, both for us and for our kids; it is not and never was an endowment.”
I asked past-President Ellyn Elson, who was instrumental in the launch of L’dor V’dor, to comment on member concerns:“L’dor V’dor began in December 2017 when the Board of Trustees voted to implement an annual giving program to help cover the budget shortfall since only 58% of CBS’ budget was supported by dues. It was always presented as an annual fundraising drive, and every communication with the congregation specified that this was an annual campaign.
“Robert wrote a brief and wrote the original letters. Beth and I worked with Robert, and there were three letters sent out the first year. If my recollection is correct, one from me, one from Tucker Catlin, and one from the Rabbi.”
The “Beth” Ellyn refers to is former CBS Vice President and current Napa City Councilmember Beth Painter. The “Rabbi” is our spiritual leader, Niles Goldstein. CBS member Tucker Catlin served as the letter’s nominal “author,” but the person who actually wrote it is “Robert” -- that’s my husband Robert – which explains why I could ask him to pull a copy from his files to share with me (Robert was an advertising agency account person, which means he saves everything).
Robert did so; I gave it a re-read. As expected, the word “endowment” is nowhere to be found. If you’d like to see for yourself, email me and I will send you a copy.
That said, to avoid any confusion going forward, I assure you the Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees will be even more transparent and clear in our communications with members, especially when I comes to fundraising matters.
Next: a weekend of celebration to commemorate our 70th anniversary.
If you had occasion to read last Saturday’s Napa Valley Register, you couldn’t help but notice the front-page article by Jennifer Huffman on our congregation, in which she interviewed Rabbi Niles, Ellyn Elson, our Director Lauren Snyder, and me. If you missed it, here’s a link to the story.
Among other topics, we of course discussed this weekend’s festivities, so I won’t repeat details here, except to say I hope to greet all of you this Friday as we honor our past-Presidents and former Rabbis, all of whom have contributed mightily to our growth and development as a congregation serving our community.
We also shared with The Register a “Guest Editorial” on the anniversary. As we put this update to bed, we didn’t know if the paper would choose to run it as a complement to Jennifer Huffman’s piece, but in case it didn’t and you’d like to read it, click here to see what we provided.
Not to be overlooked: Mazal Tov to our 2023 Mensch Award recipients!
For those of you unfamiliar with this, the Mensch Award was established by an anonymous CBS member to acknowledge the good work of our teens and young adults in the Napa Jewish community. Current or prior CBS members who will be in college the following year are invited to apply; those granted the award have demonstrated their commitment and contributions to CBS or to the greater Jewish Community.
This year’s winners are Micah Eisenberg, Noah Ewig, Zahara Lucas, Noah Massey, and Ilenia Willmert.
Please join us in celebrating them and their contributions to CBS and to the Jewish Community at our upcoming Graduation Shabbat on Fri. June 9 at 5:30 pm!
And finally, we end with a generous gift to make more mouth-watering Onegs.
If you participated in our recent Friday evening service and stayed for the Oneg afterwards, you might have noticed that the evening’s spread is, to put it mildly, a little wanting.
The reason: in a year full of financial challenges, we were being constrained by budget limitations.
The solution: member Kathleen Conrey to the rescue!
I can’t thank Kathleen enough for her generosity in donating a substantial amount to fund Onegs for the next six months. We began last Friday with a vegetarian spread from Small World, with more delicious Oneg spreads planned every week for nearly the balance of the year.
That’s it for now; see you this Friday!
B’ Shalom,
Roberta |
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