Executive committee meeting minutes, August 23, 1994

JEWISH FEDERATION OF LAS VEGAS Executive Committee Meeting August 23, 1994 PRESENT ABSENT Dr. Allan Boruszak Daryl Alterwitz Ira Fischbein Hal Ober Mike Novick Doug Unger Rabbi Sanford Akselrad Amy Boruszak Gene Greenberg Sandy Mallin Arthur Marshall Emily Novick Leslie Simon STAFF Ronni Epstein Tony Figueredo Ted Flaum Sharon Heiman I. WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Dr. Allan Boruszak welcomed everyone to a special Executive Committee Meeting. He explained that several issues have surfaced which require immediate attention. Allan welcomed the new members of the Executive Committee: Hal Ober, Co-chair of CRC, Rabbi Sanford Akselrad, Co-chair of CRC, Ira Fischbein, Treasurer. Allan announced that Mike Novick has agreed to chair the 1995 Annual Campaign, and his wife Emily will be chairing the Women's Division portion of the Campaign. He said the Campaign plans were well underway and he was looking forward to an even more successful Campaign than last year. Allan said he was expecting every member of the Executive Committee to take an active role in seeing that we raise more money this year than ever before. Allan said everyone should have received a form to nominate individuals for our Young Leadership Program. He said that to date there has been a very limited response and we need to find the best and the brightest to participate in the program. He asked everyone to take the time to recommend additional candidates for this crucial program. Allan said this was the first Executive Committee meeting that our Campaign Director Ted Flaum was present, and he welcomed him to our community. Allan said Ted had moved here recently, with his wife Jackie and their one year old son Gabriel. 1 II. INSURANCE PROGRAM Allan said that this year the Personnel Committee of the Federation, after careful review of present employee insurance benefits, recommended a change in our company. He said the Federation was able to save significant dollars in the benefit package provided to our employees. Allan said we also changed our broker to Orgill & Singer, a major company here in Las Vegas. He said subsequent to signing with Orgill & Singer, our new broker David Dahan presented our Executive Director, Ronni Epstein, with a new and innovative concept that we felt was important enough to pursue. Allan said David has also agreed to chair our Super Sunday phone-a-thon this year and will be one of his new nominees to this board at our September meeting. He said David's concept really goes to the heart of building a strong relationship with our local synagogues and at the same time establishing the Jewish Federation as the central organization of the Jewish community. He said it was the goal of the Jewish Federation to encourage as many people as possible to join local synagogues. Allan called on David Dahan to explain this new concept. David thanked Allan for the opportunity to bring the proposal to the Executive Committee for their consideration. He said that in conversations with Ronni it was felt a strong link between the Jewish Federation and the local synagogues was needed and at the same time establish the centrality of the Jewish Federation. He said understanding the need of the Jewish community to significantly increase synagogue membership that perhaps by providing a benefit that members may not be able to obtain on their own might be an additional incentive for them to join. He said a proposal that would establish an "association" of some type which would allow the Federation to offer a "group health insurance plan" to those people who were members of local synagogues was suggested. He said it was important to emphasize that this would be exclusive to synagogue members and could not be obtained in any other venue. He said this concept, coming from the Federation will demonstrate to the synagogue leadership that the community shares their priority of increasing synagogue affiliation. David said the issues such as "sponsorship" and/or "association" will still need to be worked out. He said any costs to the Federation could conceivably be worked out "pro-bono", and these might include some attorney1 s time in drawing up or reviewing the contracts and marketing which could be done through the Jewish Reporter. David said it was important that Sierra Health was always looking for ways to give back to the community and is willing to put its resources including marketing materials to assist the Federation, and of course Orgill & Singer will help administrate the program. 2 David said he needed approval to go forward and explore the possibilities for this program. Allan said any licensed insurance broker can sell this insurance so all agents in the Jewish community can be involved with this program. Ronni said the connection between the Federation and synagogues is not strong enough and it is important for us to encourage everyone to join a synagogue. Ronni said David needs approval of the concept to move forward and explore the issues. David said guidelines were needed as our liability must be covered, covered. Daryl Alterwitz said the Federation must check into Liability insurance. Allan said it was the concensus of the Executive Committee to move forward with this program. Allan thanked David for his work on this project and for becoming a new active member of the Jewish community. III. MARKETING FOR MISSIONS Allan said that last year the Federation was asked to serve as a pilot project to market UJA Missions to Israel. He said the Board approved an allocation of $12,500 to come from the Community Reserve Fund to be matched dollar for dollar by the National UJA. He called on Ronni Epstein to give an update on the process. Ronni said Missions were extremely important, and we need to begin an organized mission program here in Las Vegas. She said historically after a mission a person is tied to the Jewish community becomes stronger. Ronni said the pilot marketing program is to market a plan to 1) market missions and 2) to get the Federation's name before the Jewish community. She said the UJA now has a marketing plan in place with television ads, newspaper ads and mailers. She said Joan Levine, a lay-person with UJA, is involved with the process and would be in Las Vegas this Friday to present the package. Ronni said missions would be targeted for younger people, single young leadership (25 to 40ish). She said missions for other age groups were available. Allan thanked Ronni for her presentation. He said that it was very important for this community to have an active missions program. Allan said missions to Israel definitely have a positive affect on the Campaign. IV. JEWISH STUDENT UNION AND THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER Allan said this past year the Federation took a very significant step in bringing the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada into the Federation family. He said the Board voted, this year, to allocate money to hire a part-time professional for the JCC. Allan said that since that time other issues have surfaced and we would like to present to you a proposal which many of you have already been polled for. He said we needed to move ahead with this matter so Ronni spoke to the officers of the Board to get a preliminary agreement. Allan said that it came to the Federation's attention that there were significant problems with the program of the Jewish Student Union. He said that for the past several years the Federation has been paying students to run the programs. Allan said it has been difficult for full-time students to devote the time and energy to provide a significant program for the Jewish students at UNLV and there appeared to be a need for professional assistance in creation as well as execution of the program. Allan said that in discussions with Ronni it was felt that a reasonable solution to our problem to provide professional expertise to our students without spending additional dollars could be found. He recommended that money be taken from the Jewish Student Union budget and combined with the allocation made to the JCC of Southern Nevada allowing them to hire a full-time professional whose responsibilities would include staffing the Jewish Student Union. He said Ronni has been working with the west coast consultant from the JCCA to make sure that we were moving the JCC in the right direction, and he is in full agreement that this move would enhance both programs and be in line with what other JCC's do around this country. Allan said it is also understood that this professional would be supervised by Ronni and this has been approved by the JCC. Mike Novick moved to take $8,000 from the Jewish Student Union budget to combine with the allocation to the JCC to hire a full-time professional to work with both programs. Daryl Alterwitz seconded and the motion carried. Allan said the possibility of providing quality programs for all ages in our community, including our college students was exciting and this recommendation will greatly enhance our ability to do that. V. JEWISH REPORTER Allan said that last year we had an agreement with HBC Publications to publish the Jewish Reporter at no cost to the Jewish Federation. He said that unfortunately they were unable to make a go of it and informed us several weeks ago that they would no longer be responsible for the paper. He said this has put us in a serious 4 position as we need to have a quality Jewish paper for the community. Allan said since we did not have prior warning they would be relinquishing their responsibilities with the paper, we provided no budget for this and now we are faced with a dilemma as to how to manage and finance the paper. Allan called on Ronni to explain what has transpired in the interim after which we need to address how to deal with the problem. Ronni said she was an editor for 15 years for a Jewish newspaper in Palm Beach and is familiar with the problems the Federation is facing. She said we need to get this paper out. Ronni said Beri Kaplan who is a Journalism student from Reno, and published the Sagebrush newspaper, is our interim editor. Ronni said from the financial standpoint we are down one staff member and a portion of that money will be used to pay Beri. The printing costs, postage and mailing have not been budgeted. She said advertising reps are being sought and would be given 15% of the ad price as a commission rather than a salary. Hal Ober moved the money to run the Jewish Reporter for three months be taken from the reserve fund. Mike Novick second and the motion carried. VI. AUDIT Allan said that at our May Board of Directors Meeting it was voted to do a full audit of our books this year instead of a review which was originally budgeted for. He said after putting this process out for bids we secured the firm of Main-Gorman to do the work. Allan said in addition to a competitive bid they came highly recommended by our treasurer, Ira Fischbein. He said we do need to ask for an additional $1,250 for the audit above what was previously allocated for the review. Mike Novick moved to allocate an additional $1,250 from the Federation reserve fund for the audit. Doug Unger seconded and the motion carried. VII. NEXT MEETING Allan said the first official Executive Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday evening, 7:00 p.m. September 13th. Allan wished everyone a very healthy and Happy New Year from Amy and him and said he looked forward to working with everyone this year. 5 AGENDA SPECIAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING AUGUST 23, 1994 I. WELCOME II. INSURANCE PROGRAM III. MARKETING FOR MISSIONS IV. JSU & JCC V. JEWISH REPORTER VI. AUDIT VII. NEXT MEETING SEPTEMBER 13, 1994 JEWISH FEDERATION OF LAS VEGAS S1GESMUND CESTER - 3909 South Maryland Parkway. Suite 4CO - Las Ve%as. Henvia 89119-7520 (702) 732-0556 - FAX (702) 732-3223