Co-President Update

Shalom from your board co-presidents! We are writing to share our monthly updates. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions to our Kol Ami email addresses: leonard@kol-ami.org and rebecca@kol-ami.org.

 

March Congregational Meeting/Rabbi Search: Thank you to everyone who participated in the special Congregational Meeting on Tuesday, March 19 - online, in-person, and by proxy. We rely on our members to lead, govern, and support the community and everyone’s engagement is important. We are pleased to share that the membership unanimously voted with 87 votes to confirm the Board of Trustees’ recommendation to select Rabbi Lindy Reznick as our new Senior Rabbi. There was no opposition or abstentions. Your Co-Presidents are currently in negotiations with Rabbi Reznick and hope to share additional updates soon, including how to get involved with the Rabinic Transition. Special thank you to Richard Bernard for chairing the rabbi search committee, as well as committee members Hope Faust, Nancy Cohen, Yaffa Hughes, Eric Isenhower, David Levy, and Kegan Jones.

 

Gratitude for Purim: Purim was spectacular this year. We wanted to thank all of those involved with putting the evening together. Thank you to Rabbi Lutz, Lisa Edwards and our megillah readers Nancy Cohen, Jane Drucker and Tyler Christiansen. For the fabulous Barbie themed spiel, and huge thank you to Joshua Finkel, Hope Faust, Janene Sneider, and Michael Kauffman for their leadership on the production, dinner and decorations and all the spiel cast for great performances.

 

 

Budget Process: To kick off the 2024-2025 budget process, the board dedicated time during the March board meeting to discuss priorities for investment and new opportunities we hope to explore. The budget committee has begun to develop a budget based on this information, and will share the budget at the annual congregation meeting over the summer. Keep an eye out for more information.

Scheidt Seminar: In March Rebecca Shurz attended the URJ Scheidt Seminar in Atlanta. This  is a leadership development program for reform synagogue presidents across the country. More than 80 presidents attended and Rebecca learned about vibrant communities and belonging, sacred partnerships, culture of philanthropy and much more. It was a great opportunity to engage with URJ Leadership and also other presidents of other congregations. A lot of congregations have similar challenges and it was good to hear about different approaches and successes. There are lots of learnings with the congregation as we move forward.