Strategic Planning 2020
Nohra Leff – Strategic planning Chair
Strategic Planning kickoff – as seen in the January 2012 Shaliach
DREAMING – DREAMING – DREAMING – DREAMING
The dictionary gives us some definitions of daydreaming:
- Imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake
- A condition of achievement that is longed for; an aspiration
- A cherished hope
- Ambition
- To consider the possibility . . .
Yes, let’s consider the possibilities of what the OJC may look like, feel like, in the year 2020.
This is where we are right now in our strategic planning process. The “Dreaming Stage”—no financial constraints, no time or other constraints, just pure possibility.
Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, stated, “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons we have so little that becomes great.”
The OJC is good—very good. People are happy. There is a lot of learning going on. We are a house of worship, learning, community. We are good! We could stay there and just be. But if we are not moving forward, we are dying. The world around us is moving forward.
We have started the process of Strategic Planning 2020 to plan for a Great OJC, to enable our children and grandchildren to enjoy the creation we have fulfilled.
Collins compares this process to a bus. First you need the right people for the right seats.
Our Executive Board:
Kim Lori Sokol - President
Amy Nelson - 1st Vice President
Jeffry Horowitz - Vice President
Fran Mintzer-Dolber - Vice President
Bob Kleinberger - Treasurer
Adele Garber - Financial Secretary
Hara Hartman - Recording Secretary
Marc Levine - Corresponding Secretary
Glenn Hirsh - Past President
The Board of Trustees:
Steve Bass, Robin Brill, Jonathan Cohen, Lloyd Fishman, Staci Gelb, Alan Hack, Cedine Issman, Dawn Kitz, Helen Kuttner, Nohra M. Leff, Jonathan Lesserson, Phil Mosner,
Ilisse Perlmutter, Steven Richter, Maddy Roimisher, Larry Rosenberg, Andrea Weinberger, Howard Weiner
Our Strategic Planning subcommittee chairs:
Andy Blau Organizational Management
Andrea Weinberger Marketing & Demographics
Lloyd Fishman Financial
Howard Price Technology & Sustainability
Staci Gelb School & Youth
Javier Rosenzweig School & Youth
Larry Rosenberg Welcoming & Engagement
Kenneth Leff Jewish Life (Ritual and Programs)
We are looking for more of the right people to help in the process. Is that you? Your voice is needed.
The Congregational Conversation will be starting in February. We plan to offer a number of different opportunities for you to get together with your fellow congregants for the purposes of engaging in the process of dreaming the OJC of 2020. Would you be willing to open your home for a small get-together of congregants? Are you able to be a conversation facilitator? Would you prefer to just participate in the conversation in the setting of someone else’s home?
This process may take us about a year or so, but eventually we will figure out which way to drive our OJC bus. What is that single vision that will propel us to OJC 2020? What can we create during the next 9 years? What is our next step? The book of Proverbs states, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Once the congregation-wide dreaming is done, our subcommittees will meet to prioritize and to focus on one to three major goals for each subcommittee. Out of dreaming for those major long-term goals, many short term goals will pop up. These short-term goals may be useful to the Executive Board and Board of Trustees to plan the actions taken today.
Then the reality of where we are and where we want to go will become operationalized, keeping in mind these three major questions:
- What can the OJC be the best at in the world, and what can’t the OJC be the best at in the world? What are we absolutely great at already? What is our USP, our Unique Selling Proposition?
- What drives our economic engine? What is our cash flow; what is our financial future; our endowment?
- What are we passionate about? How can we better focus on activities that ignite our passions?
Understanding these three questions and accomplishing the goals they lead us to will drive us to be great. The future is ours to grab. Strategic planning is the way to grab it.
I look forward to working with you toward the future of a great OJC.
Nohra M. Leff
Strategic Planning Chair
