It has been
another difficult month at Valley Beth Israel. We have lost another one of the
people who have been so instrumental in what happened at our synagogue. Gloria
Sheftel passed away after a relatively short illness. Gloria for many years was
the editor of the bulletin that was mailed to everyone and in her inimitable
way she was able to coax everyone that had to make an input work with her. That
was in the days of cut-and-paste. You would find her in the office spread out
on one of the desks directing how the final product would be. Sometimes she and
I would butt heads but her heart was definitely in the right place. Getting a
word in was a difficult matter as she would constantly complete your sentences
whether you liked it or not. I will miss her; past presidents of the
congregation are hard to come by since I’ve had the job for so long.
After counting
the omer for seven weeks we celebrated the holiday of Shavuot. Much like
Passover the services were not very well attended. Somehow we need to remember
why Valley Beth Israel is here; we are a religious institution and the morning,
Shabbat and holiday (all holidays) services are most important. Try to attend
just a little bit more than you currently do. We have some of our newer members
attending and you should come to meet them.
As I have pointed
out in recent messages we are in the midst of a severe financial crisis. Many
things are being done to get us back on an even keel. Our May Board meeting
specifically dealt with the synagogue budget and all who were there worked not
as individual committee members but as a committee of the whole and I think it
ended splendidly. We crunched numbers and produced a somewhat workable budget.
We found ways to cut expenses by approximately two thousand dollars a month and
as we look closer there may be a few more dollars that can be subtracted from
what we have projected in prior years. To “balance” our budget requires us to
bring in more revenue. As our membership has stayed pretty much the same we
need to raise our dues across-the-board by a minimal 10% and it will be
reflected in the billing statements that will go out during this month. Please
help us by paying your dues/fees as soon as possible either in full or at least
half of your total amount.
The June Board
meeting will center on ways and means. That’s the fund-raising that the
synagogue must do to close the gap between dues, high holidays and other income
projections versus the budget for 2018-19. We have a number of dinners and events
planned and several restaurants will be helping us by giving back to our
synagogue a portion of the proceeds they take in on nights that we designate.
Please participate when we tell you the date and location. You have to eat
anyway. We’ve got a long way to go but I am confident that we’re going to make
it.
Remember: our
time to make changes is NOW!! Be a part of the change.
Ron
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