ועד מנהל  פגישתJAN 5^TH 2010בס''ד

MINUTES:

In attendance:                    Noomi Stahl (Chairperson) Kobi Abelman, David Gleicher, Esther Edell,            Gary Heller,

Daniel Rohrlich, Miriam Fine (chairperson), Pnina Arbit

Debbie Greinerman, Carol Fuchs (Vaad Bikoret)

Gaby Shine Markowitz (Staff)

Apologies:                          Pnina Arbit, Bob Carroll, Michael Stahl, Randi Garber

1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

Re: 12 B’Cheshvan campaign

Daniel Rohrlich questioned whether there was a petition. The petition was to the high court. There was no actual petition to sign. The above and the clarification that the request was for an investigation as to whether the literature was illegally inciteful was added to the ratified minutes

The minutes of the last meeting were approved

2. BUDGET 2010 :

Esther Edell presented the budget:

The estimated 2009 budget was very close to what the actual budget will be!

Without the depreciation (“pachat”), which will put us in deficit on paper, we will have 49,000 NIS income over expenses.

DUES: We will get close to 190,000 NIS in dues, but budget-wise we want to be conservative & therefore underestimate income & overestimate expenses.

We should bring dues up from 175,000 to 180,000 which is a more reasonable estimate. We don’t know if more money came in because postdated cheques may have been started earlier etc.

We should bring high holiday seats up to 2,000 to be conservative.

DONATIONS: Donations are brought up to 30,000 NIS. This budget line should be kept down as we assume people are giving to the building fund and therefore giving less to general fund.

Daniel Rohrlich queried whether donations are more popular to the building fund because of the naming opportunity involved etc but Noomi responded that naming opportunities are only for donations of 80,000 NIS & up.

LIBRARY: The Book & Library donation listing was queried: Income for books coming in is listed under general donations. 2000 NIS came in over budget earmarked for library due to willingness to fund the new library project. Esther agrees with Koby that it should be spent eventually, but only if as much was donated as is actually spent on the library. Avital didn’t need more than 6000 NIS for library acquisitions next year, so will spend what was actually contributed.

4000 NIS has been budgeted for the library with 2000 NIS as income. Avital will be told that the library expenditure budget over 2000 NIS is contingent on money being raised (includes last years excess). Noomi raised the issue that the wish list is great but purchase power is the 3 bookcases (wall) of space that there will be available downstairs. The budget can always be revised. Last year Avital had a wish list of books.

CONTINGENCY FUND: Koby asked what happened to the 46,000 NIS extra over budget that we have from this year. Esther responded that it is not tapped into but remains as our contingency fund. Koby raised the issue of when those funds can be used.

EVENTS & PROGRAMMING: 1,000 NIS over budget from events budget line for November & December.

Expenses increased by 25,000 NIS. Half is from the building fund to fund future programming to be coordinated by the new programming staff member. The rest will go towards programming staffer’s salary.

BUILDING USE: We were conservative & building use was down.

Kiddushim increased to 10,000 NIS because of this year’s expenditure, perhaps because prices have gone up & possibly because we are buying more because membership has grown.

Maintenance Special is brought up to 25,000 NIS since as the building ages it needs a higher maintenance budget. The figure is Marc’s suggestion and covers major repairs and major cleaning done once a year, as well as the electricians.

Cleaning materials almost doubled their budget so needed to be increased.

Telephone & computer expenses were brought up due to the upgrade of ADSL etc (If we invested in an actual program it would be an asset & therefore included in capital expenditure.)

BOOKEEPER: The amount was raised by 2000 NIS and then negotiated back down to the current rate after negotiation with the new bookkeeper.

PERSONNEL: There is a large increase: We are over budget due to both Gaby & Philip working this month plus Philip receiving his bonus. If the bonus & double staff overlap in December are excluded, we are slightly under budget. The increase is also based on cleaners’ costs & the anticipated cost of Gaby’s income. Figures currently include Helena (a cost of 10,000 NIS a year at her current employment misra)

BEIT MIDRASH EREV: Haim Watzman confirmed that the budget will remain the same & hopes to raise money to start paying teachers.

CONTINGENCY: The contingency reserve is in the black. We will hopefully have 11,000 NIS more than we spend and will be able to supplement other budget lines if we overspend. Currently we have 300,000 NIS in our general fund in the bank which is an accumulation of the contingency funds. Noomi pointed out that we will need to keep this in reserve for kablanim issues etc. Esther noted that the reserve should remain & grow for future.

APPROVAL: There are 9 members of the finance committee – 7 voted to pass the budget. Esther, in the name of the Finance Committee therefore requests approval of this budget. The Budget was unanimously passed.  Gary expressed that Esther is doing a phenomenal job and that she gets a vote of thanks for all her efforts as well as for the clarity of the budget. All agreed that the budget is in good hands.

The budget document is attached to this protocol.

3. TU BISHVAT: Noomi Stahl

The Tu bishvat event will take place Motzei Shabbat Jan 31st 2010

The program idea came from David Wyman. Daniel Pederson will join him in part of the presentation on “green building”. Additional presentations will include Gita Melchior on Yedidya’s “budding” green committee & Elisheva Blum, an expert on green building. It has the potential to be an interesting evening. We will be inviting like-minded synagogues to join us and everyone should bring their own dried fruit.

4. HACHNAST SEFER TORAH:

Daniel reported that the event went well. An error was found in the Sefer during the bat mitzvah krait hatorah but the Sofer, Akiva Garber, was less taken aback then expected, since the error is a misspelled word & checks done are in “letter mode” not “word mode”. All scrolls from Amutat Menorah go through a computerized scan that checks letters not words. He can correct it overnight

Miriam spoke to Eudice & reported that the evening was wonderful in terms of programming however we need to learn from this event to supervise children especially when non member children attend & participate. We were overwhelmed by the wonderful numbers of children attending.

Noomi noted that this was different to our last hachnasat Sefer Torah because of the donor & the Amuta etc and it was very successful in a different way.

Daniel suggested that we should send photos of the event to Amutat Menorah.

5. CHANUKAH EVENT:

Noomi reported that attendance was disappointing. There were many more people than previously but there should have been more. All went well except for the performance element. The sound system was playing up and some performers did not turn up. The book exchange was very successful – the book store on Palmach picked up the leftover books and Yedidya even made some profit.

FACEBOOK:

The Facebook campaign doubled the facebook group membership which is now at 130 out of 330. We need to work on filtering invitations so that they are not sent out to the entire list but rather to the relevant people invited to a particular event e.g. New Members Party. Gaby knows how to track invitation response/expected attendance.

We need to send out a reminder notice in the newsletter to sign up and use the facebook group.

6. SIMCHAT TORAH DISCUSSSION

Pnina reported that most of the 8 people who attended the Simchat Torah meeting held in shul want to see return of early minyan on Simchat Torah. No definite conclusions were drawn at this meeting. Pinchas will draw up and send out a preference option questionnaire including:

· old system (early & later minyan with hakafot in the middle & readings at the end

· keep as is (7:30 onwards)

The issue was raised of adding a question regarding dancing preferences, as some want the early minyan because they don’t want to dance (or just want to dance at night only)

The Gabaim have difficulty trying to end hakafot.

A link to the questionnaire will be put in Yediot Yedidya and the information compiled and responded to accordingly.

7. BUILDING UPDATE:

Noomi reported that we are still tied up with bureaucracy. Marc, Render, Yuval Beer (in house architect) & Noomi met today, with Gaby in attendance. A date will be set for a “siyur kablanim” when prospective contractors are shown the site so that they can bid for the project.

We hope to start digging after Pesach. The option of starting building inside rather than waiting for a permit for the outside was discussed, since we don’t need an ishur. However we want to avoid getting caught in a kablan being delayed between two stages of building and getting a penalty for it.

8. HELENA:

Noomi followed this up after it was raised at the last meeting. Helena currently works 6 hours a week. The suggestion is to cut down her hours by half to 3 hours a week which would be appropriate for Gaby in terms of having useful work for her to do. This was legitimized on checking with her supervisor. The Tzedaka Committee was asked to fund half of Helena’s salary with the proposal to do a pilot of this format for next 6 months. Gary has a possible donor interested in helping us retain her (paying half of her annual cost – if there were matching funds – but only on the stipulation that she remains at 6 hours a week so that she remains employed.) Esther suggested that there is not enough work that she is capable of doing to keep her on 6 hours a week. Gary asked whether we can pay her to help out with library

Noomi says Helena’s supervisors feel it’s a good solution for her to be here 3 hours instead of 6. The original context of hiring her was not a permanent one. The Tzedaka committee is meeting to discuss the issue when Elli Render returns. Helena wants to come here & work. She is comfortable here so it seems that this is a better solution than not having her here at all. The Personnel Committee met & agreed that it was a mistake to hire her initially but since she is here we need to find the best solution

Koby asked if some of her work done is for the Kupat Tzedaka. Noomi & Miriam said that it was suggested but that the Vaad Tzedaka don’t want to use the tzedaka fund to pay someone to issue their receipts.

Esther proposed a minimum of 3 hours a week with an option of coming in extra hours on an as-needed basis. Gary seconds that proposal to personnel committee.

9. COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES:

To be discussed at the next meeting

10. MARBLE PAPER DEMO:

The Marble paper demo will take place in the next few weeks.  Yehuda Miklaf brought someone in from Islamic Art Museum who was very excited and decided to create an exhibit in the museum.

11. 12 CHESHVAN:

They have gone ahead & petitioned the Supreme Court. We can still be one of signatories supporting the petition to High Court. Bob’s issues concerned the Jerusalem Post article. Miriam spoke to Gadi & no other shul has signed it. Carol suggested that one needs to read the entire book to decide.

Noomi asked if we want to be signatories on the petition to force the State Attorney to start action against writers & distributors of the book by starting an investigation of whether they are guilty of incitement.

This would cost the kehilla up to 1000 NIS which can come out of Yedidya’s general budget or through specific donations to this cause. Daniel is personally willing to donate 100 NIS. David feels since it is already going ahead there is no need to participate now. Daniel responded that broader representation is important and credence and helps prioritize the case. Debbie thinks it’s a good thing since it is not signing a petition to ban the book but rather asking for an investigation by the Attorney General because he is not taking action.

Koby said that the book excerpts are most objectionable and misrepresent Halacha & therefore we should do this possible Kiddush Hashem to take action. Gadi, as head of the 12 Cheshvan organization, is not the best representative to the media (he can be extreme) but the petition is proper and appropriate.

Kolech & Neemaneei Torah V’avoda may have signed – it would be comfortable to join them

Miriam asked whether someone can write something in Deot with a suggestion of a contribution to cover the cost

Koby suggested the Shabbat Iyun

A vote: was taken whether Yedidya should add its name for a maximum cost of 1000 NIS and to enable donations towards this cause. It was passed by majority vote.

12. MISCELLANEOUS:

Noomi related that Andi Katz is behind an initiative to contact the Armenian archbishop regarding Jews spitting on Armenian Christians and what we could do to counter or act on this. Daniel thinks it is a worthy initiative and if there is a suggestion of something we can do we should, but he is doubtful that there is something and rather they should work with our interfaith professionals.

Stephen Edell has requested that Deot Yedidya not be used as a method of personal direct communication but rather only as a discussion group.

13. DONM:

Next meeting Tuesday Feb 2nd 2010 at 8pm