This is an exciting time for us all – our first year with official members; a religious school that is thriving (as in more students than last year, a new exciting curriculum for our religious school with new teachers and Yardena Barzilay at the

helm); a year’s worth of Shabbat services already on the calendar with clergy attached; and much, much more to come. We are beginning to become the participatory community that we all envisioned and signed onto when we decided to join this exciting new Jewish community.

This past year, we created the Education Committee, and we want to thank Karen P, Susan L, Mike K, Randy F, Mimi F, and Jeri O for all of their hard work this summer getting us ready for school to start.  When you notice and appreciate the improvements this year, those are some of the people to thank.  

Modeled on the success of our Education Committee, we are trying to create a few new committees this year. We need both committee chairs and committee members for most of these committees. We would like you to consider volunteering even if your schedule allows you to give only short-term or very focused help. Every little bit will help us – and hopefully will help you to feel more involved and an integral part of what we are creating together. Here are some of the areas in which you and members of your family can be involved.  I think we will all be amazed that a small (but mighty) group will be able to make so many things happen. To volunteer, please print out this PDF file and fax or mail it to us at your earliest convenience (online form will be coming soon).

Education Committee    Co-Chairs: Karen Powell and Mike Kalan. This committee is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of school programs and policies, including structure, curriculum and communications. The committee has been meeting biweekly in preparation for the start of the new school year; meetings are expected to be reduced to every three or four weeks after the start of the school year.

Adult Education Committee
Our Guest Rabbi Neal Weinberg, and our Cantor/Rabbi Micha’el Akiba area available and interested in providing opportunities for the adults in our community to learn – about almost whatever we are interested in learning about.  On a separate sheet of paper in this packet, we have asked each of you to let us know what that might be.  The focus of this committee will be to tabulate the results and work with our Rabbis to create and implement programs that address the needs and interests of our unique community.   

Communications/Marketing Committee
We have marketing and communication needs both within and outside of our community.  The focus of this committee will be to recommend the best means to use to communicate all of the wonderful things that we will be doing this year to the different audiences.  This might include advertising in the local newspapers, creating flyers and email messages to our community, and whatever else you come up with. 

Education Committee
Join the committee that already exists and help us to continue to improve our religious school.

Finance Committee
Now that we have a revenue stream and associated fiduciary responsibilities, we need some people to help guide us through the management of our funds.

Fundraising Committee
We have never fundraised beyond asking for membership dues.  Should we?  If yes, how?  And what should we raise money for specifically? The focus of this committee will be to develop a Fundraising plan for Temple Shalom of the South Bay.

High Holiday (5768/2007) Committee
We will have some big decisions in this regard this upcoming year.  Should we continue to share in the Kehillat Israel High Holiday services at the Wadsworth Theatre or should we create our own services?  If so, where and how?  This committee will work with the board to determine the most prudent plan for the High Holidays next year.

Membership Committee
We have all been new members of Temple Shalom of the South Bay recently, and there are others in the South Bay that are learning about us as well.  This committee will interface with those interested in learning about our community and possibly deciding to join us, and will recommend how we can do an excellent job of managing the process. 

Newsletter Committee
We all want to know what is going on in our new community.  The focus of this committee will be to create a plan for a newsletter program – how often, what it will look like, who will contribute material, will it be online or hard copy, etc.  Ideally, this committee will take that information to the next level and create the newsletter itself and a process for continuing this important form of internal communications.   

Rabbi Liaison Committee
There are certain challenges and opportunities to having part-time clergy.  One of them is creating an open line of communications between the Rabbis and our community.  The focus of this committee will be to assist the Rabbis and, in conjunction with the Board of Directors, to communicate to them some of the needs of our community.  These tasks may be as simple as getting materials from the Rabbis to be photocopied before holidays and services, and as complicated as coordinating a Shabbat dinner before services.

Shabbat Services Committee
People are needed as Ushers, Greeters, and for set-up and clean-up after each Shabbat service and Oneg Shabbat.  This committee will ensure that those tasks are delegated and completed.

Shabbat Kids’ Program Committee
Our current plan is for our Shabbat services this year to include the children for some portion and then to allow them to leave for their own separate, supervised program.  The focus of this committee will be to figure out how to make that happen.

Teen Program Committee
We have had many inquiries into incorporating a Teen Program into our community.  There are a few options available to us right now. The focus of this committee will be to recommend to the Board of Directors how we can best create a teen program that appeals to our teens and when it should launch.

Tikkun Olam Committee
In Reconstructionism and Judaism as a whole, the idea of Tikkun Olam (e.g. Healing the World) is of paramount importance.  The focus of this committee will be to develop a plan that brings opportunities to our community for Tikkun Olam. 

Torah Rescue Committee
Some initial work has already been done by one of our members on this, but bottom line:  We are interested as a community in looking into “rescuing” one of the Torahs that was hidden during the Holocaust and has been recovered recently.  This committee will research how this works, and how our community can be involved.


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