Close to 75 Havurah members joined together on April 17 for the first of two Congregational Meetings this year. At this meeting, we:

• Approved the budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year
• Heard about new efforts related to fundraising and endowment, keeping in line with Havurah’s values
• Had an update from the Rabbi Search Committee
• Learned about the Gesher (Governance and Staffing Recommendations) team recommendations

The Gesher team was charged to consider and propose a new governance structure and operational framework to help Havurah carry forward our strategic plan and meet the needs and goals of our congregational community.

Broader goals in this work were to:

• Maintain Havurah’s participatory culture
• Create greater efficiencies and effectiveness
• Build additional leadership and staff capacity to manage for the future

Our data gathering completed earlier this year identified issues around the manageability of volunteer leadership roles, confusion about our decision-making structure, and the need to focus the Steering Committee on policy and strategy issues vs. operational ones.

We decided to follow the framework in our Long Range Plan and to concentrate Havurah’s organizational structure on these focus areas – Kehillah (Community), Avodah (Spiritual Life), Limud (Lifelong Learning), Hadracha (Governance) and Tikkun Olam.

The proposed structure includes:

• A single governing body (Steering Committee) with clear areas of responsibility for all members serving
• Leadership roles that can be filled by volunteers without unreasonable expectations of time or energy
• Committee clusters around the focus areas of the Long Range Plan – Kehillah, Avodah, Limud , Hadracha and Tikkun Olam – with a lead ‘sponsor’ for each area serving on the governing body
• Clear staff links with the governing body and committees
• Guidelines for decision making and communicating strategic direction that fit the Havurah spirit
• Attention to onboarding community members into leadership roles on committees and the governing body
• A more defined role for past presidents

A copy of the presentation can be found HERE.

Please use this form to submit your questions and comments no later than May 10. Questions will be answered by a member of the Gesher team and will be posted on this page along with the comments we receive.

Acceptance of the Gesher proposal necessitates revisions to our existing bylaws. We will send out the proposed bylaw changes by email no later than May 25. Our second Congregational Meeting to approve the bylaw changes will be held on Sunday, June 5 at 1:00 pm.

We look forward to reading your comments and moving forward into implementation of the new governance structure. You can read other Havurah members' comments here.

Gesher Team – Eve Berry, Janet Byrd, Chris Coughlin, Debbi Nadell, Aaron Pearlman, Larry Reichman and Shelley Sobel

Photos taken at the Annual Meeting by Miryam Brewer and Teri Ruch.