Bob Zimmerman asked a good question in his recent comment on Congregational functions. In addition to the five seasonal teams (fall, winter, spring, summer, and HHD), there are a number of support functions that most or all teams will need. These include:
- Communications Team: Outlook editor, WebRebs, List Mayvens, DB Reb, press release writer, and publicity placement contacts. The secretary chairs this team.
- Speakers Team: the people who find BLL speakers, a Shabbaton speaker, and who recruit Yom Kippur afternoon workshop speakers.
- Tachlis (Nuts and Bolts) Team: fund development and ad hoc fund raising, dues proposals (made to the Leadership Team), facilities liaison, rabbinic liaison. The treasurer chairs this team.
When there are special needs for attention, ad hoc teams, task forces, committees, etc. can be created. For example, the Nominating Committee becomes an ad hoc team (led by the immediate past president, as we do now). If we have a specific ritual issue requiring attention, the Leadership Team can create an ad hoc team to review that are and make a recommendation. If one of our sifrei Torah needs repairs, we recruit an small group to spearhead that.
If additional support teams are really needed, we should consider that. If, for example, there are so many ritual issues issues that we need something more like a standing ritual committee, we might reexamine why so many ritual issues are arising, and we might add a team to review ritual issues on an on-going basis.
The new model certainly will require a change in mindset. Among the goals is to allow people to volunteer for a fixed period of time and then move on, to be engaged in Congregational operations and governance without having to consider a long-term commitment.