TBE/COA Joint Statement
Meeting Date: April 30, 2010
The Committee for the Creation of a Conservative Congregation for Richmond (C4R) core committee met at Temple Beth El for an hour and a half to assess where the committee is in our process and what our next steps should be.
The committee members present from Temple Beth El shared their perspectives on the first of Temple Beth El’s three scheduled internal Town Hall meetings that took place last Sunday. Additional meetings are planned for Sunday, May 2 and for Tuesday, May 11.
C4R discussed how best to continue moving the work of the committee forward during this time period.
Joe Cheslock, one of the co-chairs of the finance subcommittee, reported that the finance subcommittee is scheduled to meet next on May 5 for the purpose of continuing its work. The focus will be to project the capital side of the proposed new entity by developing a balance sheet of assets and liabilities.
It was discussed that at this point it is impractical for C4R to undertake any new work until the outcome of Temple Beth El’s Annual Meeting scheduled for May 16th has been determined. Based upon the outcome of that meeting, C4R will be in a better position to establish its next steps.
It was agreed that C4R should meet soon after the Temple Beth El Annual Meeting so that an action plan can be developed with sensitivity to both congregations’ time-line needs.
The next meeting of C4R is scheduled for 7:00 on May 24 at Congregation Or Atid.
TBE/COA Joint Statement
Meeting Date: April 19, 2010
The Committee for the Creation of a Conservative Congregation for Richmond (C4R) core committee met at Congregation Or Atid for two hours and forty five minutes. C4R has not met since March 23rd to allow the governance and finance sub-committees the opportunity to give their full attention to what needed to be done in order to prepare their reports.
The primary topics for discussion at this meeting were the feasibility reports from the governance and finance sub-committees.
Glenn Weiner and Steve Linas are the co-chairs for the governance committee. The charge of the subcommittee was to create an interim framework to guide governance of the new congregational entity until such time as a permanent document is drafted and ratified by the new congregation.
In providing its report, the Governance sub-committee reminded C4R that its recommendations are intended to be a framework for interim use and are not intended to necessarily reflect the details of a final constitution. The sub-committee made the following recommendations:
- The size of the Board of Directors will be dictated by a number equal to 5% of the number of membership units plus the chairs of standing committees, presidents of the Men’s club and Sisterhood, and the immediate past president. A membership unit shall consist of a single adult, a couple, a single parent with dependent children, and a couple with dependent children. This definition does not necessarily delineate dues categories.
- The officers of the congregation shall be the President, President-elect/senior vice-president, vice- president of finance, vice-president of education, secretary, and treasurer. The initial terms of the President and Senior vice-president/ president elect shall be for two years. Each will have been a member of different original congregations.
3. The standing committees shall be: school, ritual, budget and finance, personnel, membership/welcome, membership relations, facilities, adult education and family programming, I.T./publicity/communications, social action, library/archives/art gallery, and nominating. Endowment and cemetery committees were relegated to the “parking lot.”
4. Each committee will have two co-chairs, one each from the two former congregations . These co-chairs will serve for a period of two years, after which the chairmanship reverts to a single chair.
5. The executive committee will consist of the president, president elect/senior vice president, vice- president of finance, vice president of education, treasurer, secretary, president of Men’s club, president(s) of Sisterhood, and the immediate past president.
6. Voting privileges.
~There shall be one vote on congregational issues per membership unit of the new congregation. ~Only those membership units who are current in their financial agreements with the new congregation at the time of any vote shall eligible to vote.
~All extraordinary financial agreements shall have to be preapproved by the membership relations committee, and such obligations must be current at the time of voting.
7. A family is defined as 2 co-habitating adults, a single parent, parent/parents with dependent children.
8. For the first term, the current C4R committee shall be the defacto nominating committee for the new congregation. Members of the C4R committee may be considered for nomination only if they recuse themselves from the nomination vote for the position they seek. For the first term only, the defacto nominating committee will attempt, as closely as possible, to nominate equal numbers of former TBE and COA members to the board of directors.
9. The C4R committee will decide whether a TBE member or COA member shall be the first president.
Next, Joe Cheslock presented the feasibility report from the finance sub-committee. The sub-committee created three budgetary models based upon a series of assumptions. The models were realistic, pessimistic and optimistic and tried to account for the membership attrition that may occur in the event a new entity is created.
In the time frame the sub-committee had available to it, it focused on the development of an operational budget, not a projected balance sheet of assets and liabilities for the proposed new entity.
The sub-committee used actual expenses whenever possible based upon the current operating budget for TBE and assumed the location of the new entity at Parham Road. The sub-committee also assumed payroll and benefits calculated on a somewhat reduced number of the current positions at TBE.
The sub-committee assumed that the religious school would work toward Framework for Excellence accreditation as recommended by the Education sub-committee and incorporated additional school hours into the payroll calculations.
Under each of the assumed scenarios, the new entity would not be profitable in its first year. However, the sub-committee is hopeful that the new entity might be fully self-sustaining within five years of its inception under even the most pessimistic scenario.
The next meeting of C4R is scheduled for 4:00 on April 30 at Temple Beth El.
TBE/COA Joint Statement
Meeting Date: March 23, 2010
The Committee for the Creation of a Conservative Congregation for Richmond (C4R) core committee met at Temple Beth-El Religious School for the purpose of debriefing following the Town Hall Meetings held on March 21 and March 22.
The committee members agreed that the meetings were very well attended, with approximately 280 people attending on March 21 and approximately 250 people attending on March 22. It was agreed that the facilitator from USCJ, Shelly Goldin, had done a very good job moderating and it was reported that so far 242 feedback forms had been completed and returned. Although the feedback forms had not yet been fully compiled, Michal Zivan-Coffey reported to the group that the feedback was generally positive, with questions/comments/concerns about finances being the most prevalent. Gratitude was expressed to the JCC for hosting the meetings.
After discussion, it was determined that the timeline previously contemplated by C4R needed to be adjusted to allow the Temple Beth-El community the opportunity to become fully educated about its financial situation and to decide, internally, the question of which of its two properties to sell irrespectiveof the issue of creating a new congregational community.
The April 25 Special Meeting previously contemplated was determined to be premature and it was determined that the date would be used instead for an internal Town Hall meeting for Temple Beth-El. It was further discussed that Temple Beth-El would use its regularly scheduled Congregational Annual Meeting on May 23 to vote on whether or not to sell Grove Avenue or Parham Road.
It was agreed that the work of C4R should continue. It was decided that the governance and finance sub-committees begin their work immediately with the goal of submitting a report to C4R at its next meeting on April 19.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Roday, President
Congregation Or Atid
Brian Imburg, President
Temple Beth-El
Note: The power point presentation shown at the Town Hall meetings can be viewed, together with the notes, at each synagogues website. For the month of April, a video tape of the March 21 Town Hall meeting can be viewed in three parts, the presentation, the question and answer, and the comments, by clicking the links to each segment located on each synagogues website.
TBE/COA Joint Statement
Meeting Date: March 15, 2010
The Committee for the Creation of a Conservative Congregation for Richmond (C4R) core committee met at Congregation Or Atid for the purpose of finalizing the feedback from to be used at the upcoming Town Hall meetings on March 21 and March 22, predicting questions that might be asked at the Town Halls, sharing the final version of the Town Hall meeting power point presentation, editing the draft resolution for the anticipated Special Meetings to be held at each synagogue on April 25 and finally, putting together the task list and charge for the governance and finance sub-committees.
After discussion, a list of open logistics items for the Town Hall meetings was finalized. Comments were shared about the feedback form and it was determined that all responses not turned in personally would be submitted by mail or email to Judy Crocker. Considerable time was spent engaged in a discussion of anticipated questions.
A draft of the proposed resolution for the April 25 Special Meeting was discussed and it was agreed that Lisa Roday would compile all the comments and distribute a draft by email for C4R’s review prior to the Town Hall meetings. It was discussed that given Temple Beth-El’s constitutional requirement of 30 days advance notice of a Special Meeting, that the resolution had to be in final by March 23, the day of the post-Town Hall meeting Debriefing session.
Finally the committee developed the charge for the governance and finance sub-committees who are expected to begin their work immediately following the Town Hall meetings.
Provide recommendations to the core committee after discussion of the following:
Identify commonalities from each shul related to the named committee;
Recommend efforts to maximize our strengths;
Discuss known obstacles;
Recommend efforts to overcome obstacles;
Provide sub - committee’s recommendation in regards to merger talks to the core committee;
Each sub-committee will develop a prototype related to their committee so the core committee can develop a congregation model.
Governance will develop an interim board and governing document with an expiration date to govern the congregation’s activities.
Finance will look at the financial health of each congregation and review such items as: Employee contracts, real estate rentals, dues, reduced dues, balance sheets, school budgets.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Roday, President
Congregation Or Atid
Brian Imburg, President
Temple Beth-El
TBE/COA Joint Statement
Meeting Date: March 7, 2010
The Committee for the Creation of a Conservative Congregation for Richmond (C4R) core committee met at Temple Beth El Religious School together with the members of the Ritual, Location and Education Sub-committee. Prior to the meeting, each of the sub-committees had submitted their report to C4R in the form of slides to be used for the Town Hall meetings to be held on March 21 and March 22 at the JCC.
This was the first opportunity that each of the sub-committees had to see the other two sub-committees conclusions and a lively discussion took place about additional content, tone and presentation. It was suggested that each congregation present data showing their membership broken down by age group.
All the comments were noted for inclusion in the power point. The meeting adjourned with a plan for the synagogue presidents to continue to work on the presentation. Tasks for the next meeting were determined to be finalization of a feedback form for use at the Town Halls, a mock question and answer session, development of a charge for the governance and finance sub-committees and a final run-through of the power point.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Roday, President
Congregation Or Atid
Brian Imburg, President
Temple Beth-El
TBE/COA Joint Statement
Meeting Date: February 22, 2010
The Committee for the Creation of a Conservative Congregation for Richmond (C4R) core committee met at Congregation Or Atid for two hours to continue discussions. The agenda for the meeting included reports by the co-chairs of each of the Ritual, Education and Location/Physical Plant subcommittees, a discussion about preparation for the upcoming Town Hall Meetings, (which included the creation of a Feedback Form for use by Town Hall Meeting attendees), and a discussion about the prospective timeline in the event the outcome of the Town Hall Meetings indicate that we should continue to pursue a new congregational community.
The Ritual Sub-Committee reported that they had discussions concerning their Town Hall presentation. Discussions about Kashrut resulted in their recommendation that the new entity would be completely Kosher as defined by Conservative Jewish standards, including a recommendation that only food prepared in the new synagogue kitchen, food prepared by approved kosher catering companies or hechshered products would be approved for bringing into the new synagogue. The Ritual Sub-committee also discussed their view that the new synagogue provide a warm and welcoming atmosphere for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people within the guidelines of Conservative Judaism and with Rabbinic guidance.
The Education Sub-Committee reported they were also preparing their Town Hall presentation. They have worked on defining the vision and mission for the religious school, using as the basis of discussion the themes of community, hands-on, experiential learning, family involvement, and student involvement. The group agreed they would recommend a process-oriented, hands-on school. Finally, the group began their consideration of whether or not the new religious school should be a Framework for Excellence school. The sub-committee plans to continue the Framework discussion in future meetings.
The Location/Physical Plant Sub-Committee reported they have prepared their presentation and have considered the pros and cons of each of three considered options: locating the new congregation at Grove Avenue and selling Parham Road, locating the new congregation at Parham Road and selling Grove Avenue, selling both Grove Avenue and Parham Road and locating the new congregation on a new site in the West End. The sub-committee stressed the importance of preserving and honoring all architectural, historical and memorial artifacts from both congregations no matter which option is recommended.
C4R affirmed the following time line for the next few months:
On Sunday, March 7, the C4R core committee and sub-committees will meet to work on the presentation for the Town Hall Meetings.
On Sunday, March 21 at 9:15 am and Monday, March 22 at 7:00 pm, the members of Congregation Or Atid, Temple Beth El, and any interested members of the Richmond community are invited to informational Town Hall Meetings to be held at the Weinstein JCC, during which attendees are encouraged to share their opinions, voice their concerns, and have their questions answered.
C4R core committee will have a “debrief” meeting on March 23 to discuss and analyze the results of the Town Hall meetings, and the feedback forms. At the conclusion of the March 23 meeting, it is hoped there will be a clear mandate—move forward with discussions or terminate discussions.
If the outcome of the Town Hall meetings is to proceed with discussions, the Finance and Governance/By-Laws sub-committees will be ready to begin their work immediately after March 23rd.
The recommendation of the C4R core committee will be presented to the Boards of each congregation at their regularly scheduled March/April meetings.
If the recommendation is in favor of proceeding with discussions, the C4R core committee determined that each congregation will call a Special Meeting on April 25th to discuss and vote on the proposals. This would be a better way to proceed, rather than having that discussion and vote occur at the Annual Meeting of each congregation in May, because these meetings will be held on different days.
The core committee and sub-committees have worked tirelessly to ensure the congregants of both COA and TBE have the information necessary to evaluate whether or not to move forward with discussions. We hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to meet with us at the Town Halls, and/or contact us by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Respectfully submitted,
Brian Imburg, President, Temple Beth El
Lisa Roday, President, Congregation Or Atid
TBE/COA Joint Statement
Meeting Date: February 8, 2010
The Committee for the Creation of a Conservative Congregation for Richmond (C4R) core committee met at Temple Beth El Religious School for two hours to continue discussions. The agenda for the meeting included reports by the co-chairs of each of the Ritual, Education and Location/Physical Plant subcommittees, as well as a discussion about preparation for the Town Hall Meetings (see below for details). It was observed that as the group continues to meet, our energy is focused on “making the case for change”—in other words, creating a new model that will best serve Conservative Judaism for the next generation.
The Ritual Sub-Committee reported continued broad agreement on all areas discussed, having spent their last meeting focusing on issues related to interfaith families. The next meeting will focus on Kahsrut. It was agreed that the sub-committee co-chairs would get Rabbinic guidance on issues of Halakha from a rabbi at USCJ.
The Education Sub-Committee reported that they were unable to meet as a result of inclement weather, but were working to continue to gather information. The sub-committee’s main focus is to write a mission and vision statement for what the sub-committee members perceive would be the preeminent religious school! These statements will strive to capture what should be taught, how instruction should be delivered, what the atmosphere of the school environment should provide, and a view of what our children should be as “finished products” of the religious school. The sub-committee will also be considering some of the “nuts and bolts” of the logistics side of things and the feasibility and desirability of seeking Framework for Excellence status.
The Location/Physical Plant Sub-Committee reported that they have done a thorough examination of the floor plans for each current Temple Beth El site, as well as reviewed written appraisals that were done of both properties last year. A demographic study of the age bands and residence locations of the membership from both synagogues has been done. The sub-committee has evaluated three options: locate the new synagogue at Grove Avenue and sell Parham Road, locate the new synagogue at Parham Road and sell Grove Avenue, sell both Grove Avenue and Parham Road and locate the new synagogue on a new site in the West End.
It was confirmed that each of the sub-committees are on target to submit their feasibility recommendations to the core committee of C4R on March 7.
It was ag
ain discussed that both synagogues have important decisions that they are postponing pending the outcome of this feasibility study. To that end, the committee agreed to staff the next two sub-committees, which are Finance and Governance/By-Laws. Although each synagogue president will be selecting sub-committee co-chairs and sub-committee members, the Finance and Governance/By-Laws sub-committees will only start working when and if the outcome of the feasibility study is that discussions continue. It is expected that that determination will be made on or around March 26. If discussions are going to continue, this will enable Finance and Governance/By-Laws to begin their work immediately after Passover.
Important Dates: On Sunday, March 21 at 9:15 am and Monday, March 22 at 7:00 pm, the members of Congregation Or Atid, Temple Beth El, and any interested members of the Richmond community are invited to a Town Hall Meeting to be held at the Weinstein JCC. Each meeting will be facilitated by a professional facilitator from United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. During each meeting, we will present the recommendations of the C4R committee as to the feasibility of creating a new Conservative synagogue for the Richmond community. In addition, there will be a question and answer session. It was agreed that it would be very helpful if questions could be provided to the committee in advance of the Town Hall meetings by emailing them to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. During each Town Hall, there will be a “sound-off” section of the meeting during which participants will have the opportunity to make a statement, voice their support or otherwise comment on the process. C4R encourages everyone to attend; supporters, detractors and undecideds. And if someone is unable to attend, he/she is asked to reach out for the committee by email and to complete the feedback form which will be available on each synagogue’s website in the days just before the Town Hall meetings.
It was agreed that C4R would have a “debrief” meeting on March 23 to discuss and analyze the results of the Town Hall meetings, as well as the feedback forms. At the conclusion of the March 23 meeting, it is hoped that there will be a clear mandate—move forward with discussions or terminate discussions.
The recommendation of the C4R committee will be presented to the Boards of each congregation in April. If the recommendation is in favor of a new unified congregation, that resolution would go before a vote of each Congregation’s membership in May.
C4R continues to work with positive and cooperative spirit in seeking the best path to preserving a vibrant and thriving Conservative community in Richmond.
Respectfully submitted,
Brian Imburg, President, Temple Beth El
Lisa Roday, President, Congregation Or Atid
TBE/COA Joint Statement (1/25/10):
The C4R met at Congregation Or Atid for two hours to continue discussions. The agenda for the meeting included in person reports by the co-chairs of each of the Ritual, Education and Location/Physical Plant subcommittees, all of whom have met several times with their subcommittee members.
The Ritual Sub-Committee reported broad agreement on the areas to be discussed, including Services, Lifestyle Events, Interfaith Marriage, Gay/Lesbian, Kashrut, and Shabbat. It was noted that committee members would attend services at each congregation. It was observed that there is much commonality between the two services. Discussion included the use of music at services and the roles of women and children at services.
The Education Sub-Committee reported broad agreement on the areas to be discussed. They had in depth discussions during which they:
1. Developed consensus on core tenants of vision and mission.
2. Established roadmap for future discussions such are the Framework for Excellence, policy considerations.
3. Are working well together and finding much consensus.
The Location/Physical Plant Sub-Committee reported the cooperative spirit with which their members were working. The sub-committee members have toured the existing TBE facilities at Parham Road and at Grove Avenue and have made schedules of the attributes of each. A demographic study of the age bands and residence locations of the membership from both synagogues has been done.
It was agreed that the sub-committees will submit their feasibility recommendations to C4R on March 7. It was also determined that the core committee will hold joint congregational Town Hall meetings to inform the congregations of the progress of the discussions, to answer questions, and to provide a forum for the congregations to express their views. The larger Jewish community is invited to attend. The meetings will take place at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday, March 21 and at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, March 22. The location of the March 21 meeting is yet to be determined. The March 22 meeting will take place at the Weinstein JCC.
Respectfully submitted,
Brian Imburg, President, Temple Beth El
Lisa Roday, President, Congregation Or Atid
TBE/COA Joint Statement (1/11/10):
The C4R and the members of the Ritual, Location and Education Sub-Committees met at Temple Beth El, Parham Campus for an hour, during which each member of the core committee and each sub-committee introduced themselves. We welcomed the sub-committee members and shared with them the mission statement of the C4R. In addition, we outlined for the sub-committee members the “road map” that the C4R had created for them, namely:
Identify commonalities.
Recommend efforts to maximize strengths.
Discuss known obstacles.
Prepare status updates for core committee.
Keep minutes and send them to Judy Crocker within 72 hours of meeting. Develop a prototype.
Goal: What does the prototype look like? What product will we be selling to the Richmond Community?
Complete tasks and make recommendations to the core committee by 3/31.
The sub-committee members were reminded to set up a meeting calendar that would enable them to meet regularly for the next 8 weeks and meet their March 31st deadline for a final report. It was also stressed that the spirit of collegiality that has marked the C4R discussions should be practiced by the sub-committees, too.
The larger group meeting adjourned after an hour and the sub-committees each met for another hour.
Each sub-committee reported that they had productive and positive meetings and looked forward to continuing their work together in the coming weeks.
Respectfully,
Brian Imburg, President, Temple Beth El
Lisa Roday, President, Congregation Or Atid
TBE/COA Joint Statement (12/14/09):
The committee’s task for this meeting was to develop an agenda for the orientation of the sub-committee members to be held on January 11, 2010 at 6:45 pm. at Temple Beth El Religious School at 601 N. Parham Road. The first three sub-committees are Ritual, Youth Education and Location/Physical Plant. Co-Chairs from the core committee, one from TBE and one from COA, have been selected for each of the sub-committees. The core committee continues to work cooperatively and once again completed the meeting tasks ahead of schedule.
An agenda for the January 11 meeting was developed as follows:
Welcome
Introduction of Core Committee members
Introduction of Sub-Committee members
Provide Sub-committee with structural direction and give them their “charge”, which is as follows:
Identify commonalities from each shul related to the named committee.
Recommend efforts to maximize each synagogue’s strengths.
Discuss known obstacles.
Recommend efforts to overcome obstacles.
Prepare periodic reports to the core committee prior to each scheduled core committee meeting.
Sub-committees will appoint a scribe to take minutes of each sub-committee meeting. Such minutes will be provided to Judy Crocker, Secretary of the core committee, within 72 hours following the conclusion of each sub-committee meeting.
Each sub-committee will develop a prototype related to their committee so the core committee can develop a congregation model.
Complete their tasks and provide recommendations to core committee with respect to feasibility of creating a new congregational community by March 31, 2010.
Discuss Communications Protocols
Sound-Off: Provide Sub-Committee members with opportunity to voice rumors, share concerns, etc.
Future meeting dates for C4R core committee were set for 1/11/10, 1/25/10, 2/8/10, 2/22/10, 3/8/10, and 3/22/10.
TBE/COA Joint Statement (11/30/09):
The committees first task this meeting was to formulate a mission statement. This is a directing piece of work that keeps us focused on what we are trying to accomplish. That statement is:
Our committee will determine the feasibility of creating a new congregational community to meet the cultural, educational and spiritual needs of the Conservative Jewish community in Richmond.
The committee was to spend the entire two hour session on crafting this statement, but we finished in about a half an hour. This is a testament to the good working relationship of the committee.
The committee then constructed a framework for sub-committee work. The high points of that framework are:
Co chairs will consist of one member from each congregation drawn from the core merger committee.
Representation will be evenly divided between the congregations.
No more than 10 total members in each committee.
The maximum number of members can expand if the core committee agrees
The core committee will determine the broad, primary tasks to be achieved by each sub-committee.
The tasks for each sub-committee will be to determine where the congregations are similar, where they differ, and any new functions they would like to see. The committee will work to overcome the differences and then build a prototype of their ideal operation so the core committee can incorporate it into a model of a new organization.
We will continue to meet biweekly for the foreseeable future. Our next meeting is 12/14/2009 where we will develop an agenda for the sub-committee orientation meeting of 1/11/2010 for the first three sub-committees Ritual, Education and Location. Their timeline is to produce a product by the end of March.
