Tim’s State of Temple Sinai Comments – July 11, 2014

Welcome.  I assume that you are here this evening for service, my mid-term report, and Chinese Food … but realize it may be the service, Chinese food, and my Mid-Term Report.    You may be wondering why we are holding this meeting on the Sabbath.  Rabbi will take a few minutes to explain why this is appropriate.  This evening I will report on many areas of Temple life.  Since it is Shabbat, we aren't able to debate issues tonight. Please follow-up with me next week if there is other discussion that you would like to have.  The Board and I are very excited to share where our Temple is mid-year. We have wrestled with some difficult issues this year.  While we don’t agree on everything, we are proud of the discussion and open process that we follow.  I have a huge thank you to:  the Board, the committee leadership, & the staff for all their hard work this year.  I also thank those of you that have given the board and me your praise, comments, and suggestions.

You will find two items on your table.  Each table has some cards written by the children of the College Street Congregational Church thanking us for the use of our building after their fire.  You will also see blank cards and pens for you to write on.  We request and welcome your thoughts.  Please drop the cards in the Box by the door.  We will include a summary of the responses in an upcoming newsletter.  The questions that we would like you to answer on these cards are “What is going well?”  and “What would you like to see more of?”

We currently have 174 members (individuals & families), consisting of paying and non-paying (employees & under age 30). We have seven new members this year – 3 under 30 and 4 over 30.  Our religious school experienced growth. Two years ago we had 46 students Kindergarten through Chai School. This past school year after projecting no increase, we had 55 students.  Our youth programming includes Tot Shabbat for ages infant to 5; Story Hour for ages 2-6; & Youth Service for ages 6-12.

Much of our time has been spent on financial issues.  In addition to monitoring our budget, we now also reconcile our restricted and non-restricted fund commitments.  By way of explanation, our budget tracks the money we receive and the money we spend – our cash flow.  Our funds track the money we have in reserve for committed expenses – kind of like your personal retirement or vacation account.

Our dues projection of $278,000, the majority of our income, is right on.  Non-Dues income is the other portion of our income and includes everything else i.e. fundraising events, lifecycle, etc.  Our non-dues projection is $100,000.  We received $40,000, leaving $60,000 to meet our budget. The remaining $60,000 is very attainable. We have raised $15,000 - $20,000 from the Chai Society in each of the past 2 years.  We budgeted $20,000 for the education appeal to fund religious school and adult education for members. We want to net $20,000 on our annual  fundraiser in December.  I just found out yesterday this will be Saturday December 6^th, the night before our Annual Meeting.  The dinner will be a roast of me; they tell me that there is a lot of fodder to work with so everyone should plan to come and get your shots in. 

In addition to that, we will have income from Hannaford, Scrip, and our annual Appeal at the end of the year.  There are other ideas brewing, not ready for public consumption.

Our restricted funds track donations made for specific long-term purposes.  These include our Cemetery Fund, Mark Leopold Gift Fund, two adult/continuing education funds, & our endowment.  At the December Annual meeting we committed to reconcile the restricted accounts.  The Finance Committee determined that we had $345,600 with restricted fund commitments.  Our cash was $293,000, leaving a shortfall of $52,000. This shortfall has been accumulated over many years.  The board has taken three steps to address this shortfall.  Please understand that it will not be solved in one year.  First, we transferred $27,600 from our operating account to our cemetery fund.  Second, we secured a line of credit with $75,000, $50,000 which is dedicated to meeting these obligations if the need if needed.  Finally, we are adding a line item to our next budget to building the funds to fully fund our obligation.  I can’t emphasize enough that we were never in jeopardy of not meeting these obligations.  We own our building and have an endowment of over $200,000 and do not have any debt.  It is very unlikely that we will ever need all of this money at one time.  With that said we recognize that best financial practice is to have cash equal to our short and long term obligations.  One other note, our line of credit also includes up to $25,000 if needed to cover operating expenses.

I also want to mention that we want to be sure that our dues-based revenue model is serving the needs of our members and the Congregation, so Linda Retchin is convening a group to explore options for our dues system.

We continue to explore ways to enrich our spiritual connection.  For example, will be deciding this summer about streaming our services for those that are not able to attend.

Jennifer Hyman continues to arrange for meals, rides, and other assistance as needed for those in our congregation in need.

Before I close by letting you know how you can help, I am excited to share how our building is helping our community.  I mentioned earlier about allowing the church to use our place of worship.  Our building is now the home of weekday AA meetings, weekly ALANON meetings, & weekly CSA pick-up. 

What you can do.

1. Please use Scrip and Hannaford Cards.  We have 20 members buying groceries at Hannaford with cards from Temple with 5% of every dollar they spend going to temple.  If we have 75 families using Hannaford cards, we will raise over $10,000 annually – with no additional cost to the member.  When we use Scrip, Temple receives 2-18%.

2.       Please make a commitment to the education appeal that I mailed last month.

3.       Please volunteer to help with something – this is how we build community.  It is amazing what a difference an hour of your time will make.

4.       Save the date December 6^th for dinner and our roast.  Now is the time to get your shots in.

5.       Continue sending your praise, criticism, & suggestions to me and the other Board Members.

Thank you for the confidence that you have placed in me and our Board.   Thank you for stepping up when asked.  Thank you for your commitment to Reform Judaism and Temple Sinai.