Village Temple Planning Process
Dear Village Temple member,
We are writing to you with a progress report on the development of a Village Temple Strategic Plan.
Last month, at the two Town Hall meetings, we witnessed something amazing. About 100 people – an exceptionally large turnout in a congregation with about 230 members – came to share their commitment to the temple, their opinions and ideas about our future, and to volunteer to help.
Based on the inputs from the Town Hall meetings and long-range planning discussions that the board held last spring, we are now ready to move forward on a strategic plan. Following the Town Hall, the Co-Presidents appointed a six-person strategic plan steering committee. Its roles are to use existing inputs to draft a very preliminary plan and then design a process in which the entire congregation will have opportunities to offer advice and input, debate priorities and help make the first rough draft into a final plan that benefits from wide input.
The steering committee has three board members (Bill Abrams, Emily Hacker, Deb Seidman) and three others who are not on the board (Craig Albert, Betsy Krebs, Jill Wilkinson). Bill and Deb are leading this group.
The goal is to complete the plan by May 31. There will be four basic phases in the process:
§ Discovery: In addition to notes from the board workshops and Town Halls, the committee will review sample strategic plans from other synagogues, strategic planning guides from the Union for Reform Judaism and other sources, trend data and studies, and other materials. We also will be working closely with Rabbi Koster to incorporate her wide experience and her own vision for our future.
§ First draft: The steering committee will write a first draft of a plan. “Really rough first draft” is more accurate, since the intent is create a document that is a catalyst for deeper thought and discussion by the entire Village Temple community.
§ Community review: In April, we will host several meetings where members are invited to discuss the draft plan. Some of these meetings will be designed for small groups and be very specific in topic (e.g., religious school parents talking about education, interfaith families talking how to serve their needs); other meetings will be larger forums. We also hope to invite an expert on synagogue strategic planning to be a guest speaker at one of our forums.
§ Final draft and approval: Based on all the inputs from the April review phase, the steering committee will revise the draft plan. It will be reviewed first by the board, then shared with the community in a May special Town Hall meeting.
There are two important values to guide us through the planning process: participation and transparency. As described above, we aim to benefit from the perspectives of all Village Temple stakeholders: Rabbi Koster and Alex Tansky, staff, board leaders, major donors, and every Village Temple member who wishes to join us in this process. We also hope to have comments from outside experts who bring a broad perspective. While it will be impossible, of course, to get every idea incorporated into the final plan, we hope to create a platform in which ideas are heard and the perspective of every member is respected.
Transparency is also vital. As a practical matter, we need a small working group to do research, do drafting, organize meetings, etc. But we will make all of our input materials available and will share drafts and work-in-progress versions with everyone via a special website that we hope to launch in early March. As important as face-to-face meetings are for sharing ideas, we also will harness the power of the Internet to deliver on our values of participation and transparency. We also plan to send periodic progress reports like this one.
If you have questions or suggestions on our process, please write to any or all of us at the email addresses below.
B’shalom,
Bill Abrams ([email protected])
Craig Albert ([email protected])
Emily Hacker ([email protected])
Betsy Krebs ([email protected])
Deb Seidman ([email protected])
Jill Wilkinson ([email protected])
Village Temple Strategic Planning Committee
We are writing to you with a progress report on the development of a Village Temple Strategic Plan.
Last month, at the two Town Hall meetings, we witnessed something amazing. About 100 people – an exceptionally large turnout in a congregation with about 230 members – came to share their commitment to the temple, their opinions and ideas about our future, and to volunteer to help.
Based on the inputs from the Town Hall meetings and long-range planning discussions that the board held last spring, we are now ready to move forward on a strategic plan. Following the Town Hall, the Co-Presidents appointed a six-person strategic plan steering committee. Its roles are to use existing inputs to draft a very preliminary plan and then design a process in which the entire congregation will have opportunities to offer advice and input, debate priorities and help make the first rough draft into a final plan that benefits from wide input.
The steering committee has three board members (Bill Abrams, Emily Hacker, Deb Seidman) and three others who are not on the board (Craig Albert, Betsy Krebs, Jill Wilkinson). Bill and Deb are leading this group.
The goal is to complete the plan by May 31. There will be four basic phases in the process:
§ Discovery: In addition to notes from the board workshops and Town Halls, the committee will review sample strategic plans from other synagogues, strategic planning guides from the Union for Reform Judaism and other sources, trend data and studies, and other materials. We also will be working closely with Rabbi Koster to incorporate her wide experience and her own vision for our future.
§ First draft: The steering committee will write a first draft of a plan. “Really rough first draft” is more accurate, since the intent is create a document that is a catalyst for deeper thought and discussion by the entire Village Temple community.
§ Community review: In April, we will host several meetings where members are invited to discuss the draft plan. Some of these meetings will be designed for small groups and be very specific in topic (e.g., religious school parents talking about education, interfaith families talking how to serve their needs); other meetings will be larger forums. We also hope to invite an expert on synagogue strategic planning to be a guest speaker at one of our forums.
§ Final draft and approval: Based on all the inputs from the April review phase, the steering committee will revise the draft plan. It will be reviewed first by the board, then shared with the community in a May special Town Hall meeting.
There are two important values to guide us through the planning process: participation and transparency. As described above, we aim to benefit from the perspectives of all Village Temple stakeholders: Rabbi Koster and Alex Tansky, staff, board leaders, major donors, and every Village Temple member who wishes to join us in this process. We also hope to have comments from outside experts who bring a broad perspective. While it will be impossible, of course, to get every idea incorporated into the final plan, we hope to create a platform in which ideas are heard and the perspective of every member is respected.
Transparency is also vital. As a practical matter, we need a small working group to do research, do drafting, organize meetings, etc. But we will make all of our input materials available and will share drafts and work-in-progress versions with everyone via a special website that we hope to launch in early March. As important as face-to-face meetings are for sharing ideas, we also will harness the power of the Internet to deliver on our values of participation and transparency. We also plan to send periodic progress reports like this one.
If you have questions or suggestions on our process, please write to any or all of us at the email addresses below.
B’shalom,
Bill Abrams ([email protected])
Craig Albert ([email protected])
Emily Hacker ([email protected])
Betsy Krebs ([email protected])
Deb Seidman ([email protected])
Jill Wilkinson ([email protected])
Village Temple Strategic Planning Committee