Planning for the Future

1. Beth El Temple Center May 2008 Strategic Planning Team Planning for the Future “If you will it, it is no dream” Theodore Herzl

2. BETC Strategic Plan Agenda The Journey Strategic Planning Process Overview Strategic Plan Questions

3. BETC Strategic Plan How did we get here? The big picture: • The BETC Board committed to Leadership Development • The Leadership Development Team participated in a year-long program • The Board committed to a Strategic Planning Process • The Strategic Planning Leadership Action Team committed to seek out and listen to as many voices as possible and come back to the community with a vision and a plan.

4. BETC Strategic Plan Strategic Planning - Why? What do we want as a congregation? Where are we going? How do we want to do our organizational business? How do we want to be with each other? How do we move forward and make changes asa spiritual Jewish institution? A Strategic Planning process can provide a healthy framework for these questions and for the implementation of the answers.

5. BETC Strategic Plan Strategic Planning Our Missionis the purpose for which our organization exists. Our Vision is a detailed picture of our idealized self in the future. Our Strategic Plan includes a concrete plan of actions to bring us from our mission toward our vision. Our Strategic Plan will provide a spiritual and organizational road map: It will help guide future board and congregational decision-making It will help us determine and prioritize our shared institutional and spiritual principles It will further build our community and enhance our spiritual connection to each other

6. BETC Strategic Plan Strategic Planning Goal To secure Beth El Temple Center as a thriving, vibrant, and holy congregation for now and the future. “You are not obligated to complete the task, but neither are you free to refrain from it” – Pirkei Avot

7. BETC Strategic Plan What did we do this year? Jan ’08 Congregational Interviews & Snapshot CJP Consultants, David Trietsch and Amy Gorin spent one month interviewing a selection of congregants from a range of categories (age, life style, relationship to the Temple, experience with the various aspects of Temple life). From those interviews, David and Amy created a congregational “Snapshot” of BETC,its strengths and challenges as perceived by the congregational community. Jan ‘08 Workshop: Snapshot of BETC Now Community conversation facilitated by our LDI consultant Where we are, what we love and what the challenges are Feb ‘08 Workshop: Visioning the Future Congregational workshop to create a vision for BETC's future Identify widely shared aspirations and values in the community Apr ‘08 Workshop: Create an Action Plan for getting from now to the future Distil themes of major importance to the congregation Working groups develop a prioritized, integrated action plan that will move us towards our Vision. May ‘08 Strategic Plan Presentation

8. BETC Strategic Plan Our “snapshot” - Jan ‘08 What we appreciate about Beth El Temple Center: BETC is great community that people joined for a number of different reasons, but people stay because it is a warm, diverse, and caring Jewish religious place where they have created deep and lasting relationships. We are proud of our commitment to diversity and to being inclusive in all ways. When we come to services, we are enthusiastic and engaged. When we perform Tikkun Olam, we are dedicated. We are committed to respecting each other, in spite of and because of our differences.

9. BETC Strategic Plan Where we are today... Where we might be in the future... FROMTO Doing a lot of things Doing things purposefully and by design Members feeling unconnected/ Members feeling invested/broadly small core of active members engaged and connected congregation Focus on day-to-day management/ Incorporating Vision into management plan/ competing priorities & agendas shared priorities & agendas Change to meet immediate needs/ Change within the context of our Vision/ ad-hoc use of resources strategic use of resources Inefficient communication Effective, streamlined communication Fee-for-service relationship with BETC Covenental relationship with BETC and each other

10. BETC Strategic Plan Our Core Values The Strategic Planning Team used your positive voices to create a set of CORE VALUES.These core values, derived from the snapshot workshop, the Board retreat, and many additionally conversations, represent the “HOW” -- the way in which we will strive to act to reach our vision. BETH EL TEMPLE CENTER'S CORE VALUES: We choose to do things within a Jewish context and to see things through a Jewish lens. We choose to enhance and build a deep sense of Community in all we do. We choose to be inclusive, creating a connection between diverse parts of our Jewish Community. We choose to show Kavod—respect for all—and treat each other as if we are all created in the image of G-d.

11. BETC Strategic Plan Visioning Workshop - Feb ‘08 • Envision the future of BETC in 2018, when our temple is known as “a vibrant, successful congregation” • Paint a picture of where we see ourselves in the future. • We generated many wonderful ideas including: • creating a director of adult activities • developing a social action youth program • establishing regular Havdallah services for our community

12. BETC Strategic Plan BETC Vision Our Strategic Planning Team distilled the workshop ideas, along with detailed feedback from our Board retreats, meetings with committee chairs, and our Mission Statement process to draft a VISION STATEMENT-- a description of our idealized self, set in the future. The “WHAT” we desire/dream to be as an organization/community and theset of criteria by which our decisions are measured: • BETC’s Vision is of a vibrant Jewish religious community: • Where the culture, structure and activities support a sense of Community and multiple levels of Connections throughout the Community • That is self-sustaining, and both fiscally and resource responsible • Where all are treated with Respect (Kavod) • That is Imbued with a thread of holiness • Where we consider our work through a Jewish lens

13. BETC Strategic Plan Action Plan Workshop - April 08 • After brainstorming specific actions that would take us from where we are today to our vision, we sought out additional feedback from several committees and congregants. • How did we go from the long list of ideas to where we are today? How did we decide which actions would best take from where we are today, to where we want to be? • We needed to figure out a system to prioritize all of the great ideas—we needed a set of criteria and means by which to measure it: • First, we used our CORE VALUES to determine whether the action fell within our community's core set of beliefs. If it did, we kept it in. • Then, if the actions were specific enough, we measured them against our VISION.

14. BETC Strategic Plan Action Plan Impact & Criteria Guidelines used to determine items to include in our action plan: • If successful, would the action have a high, medium, or low impact on reaching our vision? We prioritized actions that fell in the high category, assuming they would have the biggest impact. • Would the action strengthen our community connections a little or a lot? • Would the success of the action be weighted with a sense of spirituality—of religiousness, of holiness? • We measured the potential action against key criteria: • How much did it cost? • How many people would it take to get it moving—to run it? • How much time would it take to accomplish? • How much “energy” was already brewing in support of this action area and was there a current committee structure which might take it on? . • We painstakingly determined which ACTION IDEAS were HIGH IMPACT and started from there.

15. BETC Strategic Plan Action Plan • Use the values and criteria we identified to align our decisions toward reaching our vision. • Identify key actions we can take over the next year as we work together to reach our goal of BETC as a vibrant, self-sustaining, religious Jewish community.

16. BETC Strategic Plan Action Plan Moving Towards Our Vision: Our Integrated Plan of Action(s) 12+ months 6-9 months 3-6 months 0-3 months Sept ‘08 Preschool Leadership Development Lay teaching Havdallah Variety of services Improve Communications Communications Audit Family track Lifecycle celebrations Revive Chavurot Intergenerational Learning Experiences Covenant of Membership Social Action survey Promote temple-wide activities Target teens forSocial Action Student Buddies Adult Activity Coordinator Target members w/oschool kids for Mitzvah day involvement Tikun Olam inCovenant of Memb.

17. BETC Strategic Plan Our Integrated Plan of Action(s) 0-3 Months • Variety of services • Variety of services, including: Learner's service, lay-led pieces of service, etc. + pot luck/post service dinner • Lifecycle celebrations • Invite members to share/celebrate life cycle events or special occasions as part of the service • Social Action survey • Survey members to determine Social Action interest areas • Student Buddies • Initiate a Student Buddy Program between older & younger kids

18. BETC Strategic Plan Our Integrated Plan of Action(s) 3-6 Months • Havdallah • Establish regular Havdallah services with a related Jewish activity • Communications Audit • Conduct an institutional Communications Audit (focus on how members acquire their information, via flyer, bulletin, email, etc., then target them in those areas also assess layout/design/content) • Intergenerational Learning Experiences • Inter-generational learning experiences (i.e., adopt a Bethelder for a learning experience such as the life of an immigrant, the Holocaust, etc.) • Target teens for Social Action • Social Action programs/activities that are particularly appropriate for/engaging for teens

19. BETC Strategic Plan Our Integrated Plan of Action(s) 6-9 Months • Leadership Development • Establish a leadership development program to cultivate and support a continuous base of lay leaders for BETC • Improve Communications • After audit, improve Web site, emails, bulletin, mailings as appropriate • Revive Chavurot • Connect members to further establish community • Promote temple-wide activities • Coordinate activities/programs across communities within BETC for greatest reach • Target members without school kids for Mitzvah day involvement

20. BETC Strategic Plan Our Integrated Plan of Action(s) 12+ Months • Preschool • Conduct feasibility study, re-establish thriving Jewish preschool • Lay teaching • Encourage congregants to teach courses or join religious school staff • Family track • Develop a parallel track for families to learn along with their children in the religious school • Covenant of Membership • Explore, develop a covenant of membership that articulates expectations for congregant involvement • Adult Activity Coordinator • Establish professional position to coordinate all activities (education and social) for adults • Include Tikun Olam in Covenant of Membership • Make it clear that our convenant included participation in Social Action/Tikun Olam

21. BETC Strategic Plan CLOSING QUESTIONS: • Did you hear your voice during the course of this process? Have we addressed key areas of “concern” in the life of the congregation? Or have we missed something? • What one thing that you heard tonight excited you most? • Which of these actions would you like to help make a reality?