Board of Directors meeting minutes, February 16, 1994

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING FEBRUARY 16, 1994 MINUTES PRESENT Dr. Allan Boruszak Amy Boruszak Michael Cherry Dan Goldfarb Gene Greenberg Melanie Greenberg Rick Hollander Eva Kallick Edythe Katz Marty Loeb Sandy Mallin Michael Novick Lenard Schwartzer ABSENT Daryl Alterwitz Dr. Stanley Ames A1 Benedict Shelley Berkley Ron Cook Dorothy Eisenberg Philip Engel Judy Frank Elaine Galatz Danny Greenspun Gregory Kamer Ron Kirsh Arthur Marshall Hal Ober Dr. Marv Perer Dr. Neville Pokroy Arne Rosencrantz Milton I. Schwartz Leslie Simon Marta Sorkin Jerome Turk Douglas Unger Dr. Harris Waters Gerald Welt STAFF Ronni Epstein Beverly Eisen Sharon Heiman Suzan Loeb I. WELCOME AND ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES Dr. Allan Boruszak welcomed everyone to the February Board Meeting, and ask for a motion to accept the Minutes of the January 18, 1994 meeting. Rick Hollander moved to accept the Minutes of the January 18, 1994 meeting. Dan Goldfarb seconded and motion carried. Dr. Allan Boruszak announced the Goldberg Lecture series was off to a wonderful start with Rabbi Steve Greenberg as our first speaker. He encouraged everyone to attend these programs as the speakers are excellent and he would like everyone to fully participate. Allan 1 said the. speakers are also speaking at both the Women's Division and the Business and Professional Group, and he has heard only positive feedback regarding both programs. He said the next program is scheduled for Sunday evening February 27th 7:00 p.m. at Temple Beth Sholom with Rabbi David Nelson who will speak on "Who Doesn't Like gossip." Allan announced the appointment of Doug Unger as this year's Chairman of our Nominating Committee. He said members of the Board will be receiving forms shortly to make recommendations for Board members. He said anyone who is recommended must be a contributor to the Federation Campaign and have exhibited a commitment to involved themselves in the Jewish community. Allan said anyone recommended must give a significant gift be it $500, $1,000 or $5,000 and also must give a commitment of time for the meetings Board members attend. Allan requested Ronni mail a letter stating the By-laws to refresh the Board members regarding their commitment to the Federation. Allan said last Saturday night the Major Gifts Event was held at Tournament Player's Club with guest speaker Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick. He thanked Carole and Jerry Turk, Mike Novick, Doug Unger and Dr. Marv Perer for putting the event together. He said the Campaign is presently 41% ahead card for card of those people who attended that evening with several gifts outstanding. II. CAMPAIGN REPORT Allan said Marv Perer could not attend this evening's meeting and he would give the Campaign Report in Marv's absence. Allan said he was pleased to announce that as of this afternoon the Campaign is $747,854 compared to $488,277 from the same cards last year. He said this represents a 53% card for card increase and this total was the result of 265 gifts which means the majority of cards have not yet been covered. Allan said many members took cards several months ago at a Board meeting and some of those cards have still not been covered. He urged everyone to do so as quickly as possible. Allan said he was pleased to announce Marta Sorkin accepted Chairmanship of Super Sunday. He said Super Sunday would take place in the Community Room on March 20th and Recruitment Forms for phone volunteers will be mailed out tomorrow. Allan requested each member of the Board give at least one 2-hour session to help phone solicit. He called everyone's attention to the form attached to the Agenda asking for individuals or companies to sponsor a telephone for $100 per phone, and to consider doing this so we can reduce our Super Sunday expenses. 2 Allan said the Campaign is in full swing. He reported last Saturday night was a successful Major Gifts Event. He said close to 100 people participated, all of whom have made the commitment to give at least $5,000 to the Annual Campaign. He said there is approximately a 41% increase to date from those who attended the event. Allan said this coming Sunday the Maimonides Society will hold their event at the Tournament Player's Club in Summerlin where Dr. Theo Golan will discuss Israeli medicine. He said so far, 45 people have signed up for this event. Allan said on Sunday evening, March 6th the Brandeis Division will hold their event at the home of Elaine and Neil Galatz with John Rothmann as the keynote speaker. Allan announced the Women's Campaign was doing very well and called on Amy Boruszak to give the Women's Division report. III. WOMEN'S DIVISION REPORT Amy said to date, $278,627 has been raised representing over 126 gifts and this reflects a card-for-card increase of 43%. She said several women's gifts were still outstanding, and they hope to have a record breaking year. Amy said Board members have been assigned cards for solicitations and should be completed by the end of the month. Amy said the Lion of Judah Luncheon was held, today, in a suite on the 29th floor of the new MGM Grand Hotel. She said 35 women were in attendance, and Deborah Lipstadt was the guest speaker. She said the Lion of Judah category now boasts 39 Lions, 8 of them new this year; 12 of them are Ruby Lions giving a gift of at least $10,000. Amy said Miriam Adelson became our first Sapphire Lion with a gift of $18,000. Amy gave a special thanks to the chairman for today, Linda Cohen, for an exceptional event. Amy said next Thursday, the Pomegranate Division will hold its Luncheon with Michael Medved at the Monte Carlo Room at the Desert Inn. She said women giving between $1,500 and $4,999 will be in attendance. Amy said to encourage more participation in Federation and Campaign, the Women's Division have held coffees in various geographic locations in town. She said new women have been contacted to join Board members, Ronni and Suzan for coffee and conversation to learn more about Federation. She said some of these women have already committed gifts for 1994, others are yet to be closed. 3 Amy said breakfasts with the CLAL speakers from the Goldberg Lecture Series are being held with Board members and new women in the community. She said they hope these outreach/education programs will result in gifts for this year's Campaign. Amy said the Main Event Luncheon with an increased minimum gift to $3 65 (a dollar a day) is scheduled at Mortons at the Fashion Show Mall on Tuesday, April 5th. Former Presidential Advisor Midge Costanza will be the Guest Speaker. She said because of the success of this event, women are indeed increasing to the minimum gift level to remain in this category. Allan thanked Amy for her report and the women for doing an excellent job. IV. CRC REPORT Allan said the CRC Committee met last month and called on Mike Cherry to give a CRC report. He said Mike would discuss the letter from the Coalition of Clark County Jewish Employees and request a recommendation from the Board to be involved in this issue. Mike said no one on the School Board is Jewish and there is no one to pick-up and phone and call. He felt there was a need to encourage people from the Jewish community to run for School Board. Mike said, "the Coalition of Jewish Clark County School District Employees were requesting a cover letter to accompany the Coalition's letter (attached to the Agenda) on our letterhead to be mailed to the community supporting the endorsement to the fact that every child, regardless of his religious beliefs or lack of them, should not be placed in a situation where the child is made to feel uncomfortable because he is not a part of what is clearly the majority religion." Amy asked if the School Board has voted on any matters officially, and Mike said yes. Bev Eisen said the School Board allows/permits religious programs after school if student initiated. She said the word of mouth is that some teachers are initiating some after school functions. Bev was requested to get Minutes from some School Board Meetings. Rick said the letter must be specific enough to make them aware we are a "watch dog" for neutrality. Allan agreed adding the goal is we are aware and watching. Mike said there was a need to point out and to caution the School Board that the Federation is aware they are becoming lax on the "separation of church and school." 4 Rick Hollander moved to back the Coalition of Jewish Clark County School District Employees with a Federation cover letter endorsing their position and signed by the President and CRC Chairman of the Federation. Edythe Katz seconded and the motion carried. Allan thanked Mike for his report. V. STRATEGIC PLANNING REPORT Allan said members of the Executive Committee gave up two successive Sundays to come together and participate in the Strategic Planning Process. He thanked Dennis Stein for his untiring efforts on our behalf. Allan said the sessions were informative, the discussions lively and he believes we have an excellent blueprint to move forward with all areas of the Jewish Federation. Allan said Action Steps for the Action Plans are being worked on. Once the report is completed it will be distributed to this Board and every member of the Board will be asked to play a significant role in the process. VI. PRESIDENTS MISSION Allan said at the last Board meeting he asked for a show of hands of those individuals who would participate in a Board Mission to Israel this October. He said we are still evaluating whether we will plan such a Mission. He said there are a number of people eligible for participation in the UJA's Presidents Mission October 9 - 20, 1994 which is for contributors of $10,000 or more to the Jewish Federation Campaign. He wanted to know which members of the Board would be interested in participating in this Mission as well as helping us plan a Community Mission. He said to let Ronni or him know as soon as possible if anyone is interested. Sandy Ma 11 in pointed out the fact we need another Community Mission. Ronni said we need at least 40 people (one bus load) and two buses would be ideal. VII. BUILDING FUND REPORT Allan said he was pleased to announce Sharon Sigesmund has completed payment of her pledge on the building six months ahead of schedule which has saved this Federation significant dollars. He wanted to publicly thank her, again, for all she has done in providing us with this beautiful building which will be a symbol of a strong Jewish presence here in Las Vegas for years to come. Allan said this leaves us with approximately $150,000 outstanding and after the completion of our Annual Campaign there are plans to 5 complete our Building Fund. He said the building is almost fully occupied and our new management company has done an excellent job in attracting new tenants. He said there are still some maintenance issues that need to be addressed but over all we are moving in the right direction. VIII. EARTHQUAKE EMERGENCY FUND Allan said two years ago this Board voted to send approximately $15,000, out of the Endowment Fund, to Miami for victims of Hurricane Andrew. He said attached to the Agenda is a request from the Council of Jewish Federations for us to participate in a similar program for the California earthquake. (A short video showing the damage done to Jewish institutions and homes as a result of the earthquake was shown.) Ronni said the area the earthquake hit has the largest national concentration of Jews in the United States and said 12 Jews were killed in the earthquake on January 17, 1994. She said the impact in the Jewish community is expected to be in the $2 0 million range, not including $40 million in damages to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Ronni said intermediate cities, as our is, have been requested to give $25,000 - $50,000. Dan Goldfarb moved we allocate $15,000 from the Unrestricted Reserves to give to the CJF Earthquake Emergency Fund. Mike Cherry second and the motion carried. Amy reminded members, whatever money is taken from the Unrestricted Reserves must go back into the Reserves. Sandy commented that it is every Jews responsibility to help each other, and perhaps we should publicize this is being done and said we do need to replenish this money. Rick suggested perhaps an article in the Jewish Reporter telling of the specific damages done in Los Angeles and the specific amounts we sent them. Eva Kallick said the Public Relations/Marketing Committee will be doing a mailer and perhaps the community can be educated as to what we do in the mailer. Ronni suggested that after the Campaign, March 30th, a mail box could be opened to gather additional money from the community to be sent to the earthquake victims. 6 IX. JEWISH REPORTER Allan said the newspaper really needs the Federation's support to survive. He said people advertizing in the Israelite are not advertising in the Jewish Reporter and requested Board members consider advertising here. X. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER Rick asked how the Jewish Community Center is progressing. Ronni said this coming Sunday Avi Namak will be facilitating a day long workshop with the JCCSN for long range planning. She said the JCCSN is a small group at this time but will be growing slowly. She said they are preparing a proposal due March 1, 1994 on what they need. Allan requested the JCC members be givers to the Federation. Ronni said when the Memorandum of Understanding is done all the agencies board members who are beneficiaries must be givers to the Federation. She said we must crawl before we walk and long-term growth in a community is important. XI. GOOD AND WELFARE Allan asked for announcements. Harold Hymam announced the Jewish War Veterans will be holding a Purim Dinner Dance, Saturday evening, February 26, 1994 at the Showboat Hotel and Casino beginning at 6:30 p.m. Lenard Schwartzer announced his wife is running for Dept. 15 - District Court Judge election. Edythe Katz announced a Holocaust Conference Teleconference will be taking place shortly. XII. ADJOURNMENT Allan adjourned the meeting. 7