― Vesta M. Kelly
Snow seems to be a prevalent theme this week. Israel had a rare winter snow storm, Elpis, closing down schools, Jerusalem and many activities. My next painting assignment is snow (no I can’t paint a polar bear in a snow storm. I tried.) We are expecting 2-12 inches of snow on Shabbat. If it was only 1 snowflake, we would not be concerned. Many snowflakes banding together like a team can incite great pleasure (days off of school, sledding, snow men, snowball battles) or wreak havoc (power outages, shoveling). Whatever the outcome, it is teamwork that precipitates it. Let’s hope our teamwork has a positive effect.
Purim, a topsy turvy time, hopefully with no snow, is 48 days away, March 16-17. Our Mishloach Manot team has been hard at work getting the baskets and supplies ordered and updating the membership information. At this point they need your help. Please check out your shul cloud account. Sign in and update your addresses, profile, etc. If you have not signed in before, go to “forgot password” and set up your login. Adding in your children’s names and birthdates is very helpful to our Youth Committee.
“Team work makes the dream work” is an apt statement for the Executive Management Task Force. As a team, they are re-assessing the framework and duties of the SOI Board and its volunteers. A representative from another community shul said it very well, “We get 100% of the work done by 5% of our shul members”. When an organization is run by volunteers there needs to be clear delineation of responsibilities and goals. Chemmie Sokolic has been instrumental in helping to formulate this so that in the future, transition to different leadership will be seamless.
A great volunteer Kitchen Committee met to re-assess our clean, organized kitchen needs, pricing for rentals and kiddush set ups and menus. We are examining rental fees from various facilities to keep competitive. A Banquet Manager is a necessity, if you know of anyone available and qualified. We have a beautiful facility and would like to make it more readily available to celebrate many simchas together.
Creative menus and additions to enhance our kiddushes and to provide more options are pending along with pricing verifications. Kiddush sponsorships and volunteers are always needed and appreciated. Help is needed in preparation, chulent cooking, set up and clean up. Flo Shulman has been instrumental in organizing the volunteers. Please Sign up here. On February 26th we will be having a Moroccan Cooking Event and Kitchen Shower. Please stay tuned for more details and sign up.
As you can see, we are trying to get all our ducks in a row and move forward. SOI Volunteers are fantastic , especially as we snowball together to make SOI a great place for all. Join our team.
Shabbat Shalom,
Donna Moskowitz
SOI President
president@soicherryhill.org
