This spring, we celebrate our third anniversary of our move to Persimmon Tree Lane. When I look back at the many changes in the congregation, the most stunning is the explosion in our congregational programming in the past three years. We have evolved from a congregation that met only on Shabbat morning, with other, minor programming taking place in members’ homes, to a full service congregation with our building in use seven days a week.
New programming develops in two ways. The main way is through planned expansions by our committees. The other way is by members creating programs on their own.
Program expansions by our committess have been fairly straight forward. For example, nearly three years ago, after extensive conversations with the clergy, the Adult Education committee proposed that we offer classes for adults on Sundays when Torah School is in session. They submitted a budget request to support this increase in programming and asked the lay leadership to make adult education top priority in the allocation of our scarce rabbinical time. We agreed to try this new model for six months and evaluate the level of attendance. By and large, attendance showed a strong demand for this type of programming and it has continued.
The explosion of programming created by the Israel Connections Committee, the Community Life Committee, Life Cycle, Social Action, and the other program committees have followed much the same path. In each case, the group that came up with the new ideas made sure that they fit into that committee’s mission and overall plan for the year and then consulted with the other program committees to ensure that there was time and space for these new initiatives in the overall structure of the community’s calendar. In all these cases, attention was given to making sure that our offerings were balanced and that the additions met our overall priorities.
The other way our programming has grown is more spontaneous. Members have come up with ideas, called the office to arrange for the use of a room and announced the program on the listserve. This “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom” approach has the advantage of enabling ideas to spring up from the grass roots, which is something we want to encourage. Unfortunately, this approach has also resulted in programs that are under-attended, may compete with other programs, or don’t always fit with our overall priorities.
A major problem with this spontaneous creation of programming is funding. When a program is created outside the committee structure, there is no budget to support the event. Sometimes this has led to confusion and misunderstandings about whether we can reimburse members after they spent money on programs that they thought Adat Shalom was sponsoring. To alleviate this problem, the Board created a process by which committees and others can apply for money from a special budget line designated to support programs that emerge part way through the budget year. Unfortunately, even this process cannot fund every idea generated in our creative and enthusiastic community.
As we have felt our way in this new era of expansive programming, some programs have slipped through the cracks. In the most extreme cases, someone arranged to use a room in the shul but never consulted anyone on the Board. In a few cases, they have just asked attendees for contributions to pay the costs. Sometimes, the organizers don’t really mean for these programs to be official Adat Shalom programs; they just want to use the building and they want to invite members. Understandably, the line between Adat Shalom’s programs and events organized by individual members has at times been very blurry.
Today, we are past the point where we can create our community’s programming by having members with good ideas call the office to find out if the multi-purpose room is free on a Tuesday night. New programs need to fit into our overall calendar of programming and into our priorities for the community’s resources. What is difficult is creating a structure which sets these priorities without stifling grassroots ideas and creativity. This entire issue is one of the focus areas of the ongoing work on the Long-Range Plan.
In the meantime, while we wait to see what new processes emerge from the Long-Range Plan, our programming process needs to follow our existing structure. Representatives of the committees sit down twice a year to set the program calendar. In this meeting, we make sure that programs don’t conflict and that the overall structure makes sense. In order to get on the congregational calendar, people who want to start new programs or activities need to find a committee to sponsor the activity. Committees need to evaluate these proposals to make sure that they fit into our overall congregational mission and to check whether they duplicate offerings in the wider community. In addition, we would need to look at how to fund these new proposals. Nevertheless, as we do this, I believe that our basic bias in assessing new ideas needs to be supportive of innovation and risk-taking.
Committee review does slow down the process of adding new programs. Yet, one price of institutional growth and success is that this exhilarating “Hey, kids! Let’s put on a show!” energy needs to be channeled so that all the shows have an audience. Our hope is to channel this energy without crushing it or by discouraging the innovative ideas that make this such a participatory community.
B’Shalom u’vracha,
Judy Gelman, President