From the Desk of the President

I thought it was important and helpful to create a blog post page on the new Temple Beth El website as the President of the Board of Trustees. I believe this is a great time to change over from the more traditional bulletin article. This new format will allow me to write more often if needed and on topics that are more timely. The monthly bulletin is a great resource, but the problem is that in some instances by the time the bulletin is released some of the information that may be important to share and discuss is then too late or out-of-date.

So for my very first blog “From the Desk of the President” I wanted to talk about the role of the President. What does the President do (and not do), and how does the Board of Trustees and as our committees/task forces fit into the fabric of policy and direction of Temple Beth El. I felt this was an appropriate time to talk about this as I have seen my name and title included in various discussions as though the president has the sole executive power to make policy decisions.

The structure and definition of how Temple Beth El is governed can be found within the Temple Beth El by-laws. I would like to include these on the website so that anyone can reference them. While a dry read, they contain some very important information. I will only be touching on a small portion of our by-laws in the text of this article.
 

Role of the President

The main duty of the President is to act as the chair of the Board of Trustees and to oversee and set the agenda for board meetings, special meetings, and the annual congregational meeting. The president has no power to set and create policy without the vote of the board. The president and committees only have the power to make policy recommendations to the Board of Trustees who ultimately have the power to vote on these recommendations. In fact, the president does not have a vote unless there is a tie vote among board members and a deciding vote is necessary.

The duties of the president as stated in the by-laws include:

1. Act as Chair at all meetings of the Board of Trustees and Congregation;   

2. Establish and discharge ad hoc Committees that may, from time to time, be required except as otherwise provided for in Article VIII;    

3. Call a special meeting of the Congregation at the request of a majority of the Board of Trustees, or upon written and signed application of fifteen [15] Members of the Congregation in good standing, setting forth the purposes of the said meeting;   

4. Call a special meeting of the Board of Trustees, whenever in their opinion the necessity therefore exists;   

5. Appoint the Chair and members of the Standing Committees or delegate to the Committee Chair the responsibility of selecting members of the committee;

6. Appoint a Rabbinical Search Committee, subject to the approval of the Board;

7. Appoint a Cantorial Search Committee, subject to the approval of the Board; 

8. Appoint a Religious Education Director Search Committee, subject to the approval of the Board; 

9. Cast a deciding vote on all questions upon which there may be an equal division of votes; 

10. Make a written report to the Congregation on the status of the affairs of the Congregation at its annual meeting;

11. Sign all legal documents, according to established board policy;

12. Perform all other duties required by the office of the President; and,

13. At the expiration of the term, the President shall deliver to their successor all properties pertaining to the office.

14. The president may call additional gatherings of the board for purposes of board development where business is not conducted; these assemblies do not require congregational notification.

Role of the Board of Trustees

The overall role of the Board of Trustees is to oversee and govern the business of the congregation. This is where the power to set universal policy resides, and not with any officers such as the president. In the by-laws, it states that the Board of Trustees shall govern the affairs of the Congregation, control its revenue and assets and take such action as shall in its judgment best promote the welfare thereof.

The power of the board of trustees is to:

1. Elect the Officers (President, VP, Secretary, and Treasurer) of the Congregation.  

2. Adopt policies to approve new members or suspend members or terminate members.

3. Establish Annual Financial Commitments based upon recommendations of the Budget and Finance Committee. 

4. Approve the annual operating budget based on recommendations of the Budget and Finance Committee.

5. Oversee the selection of employees as may be necessary and amend their duties and compensation, except that the power to select and/or retain the Rabbi and the Cantor shall be reserved by the Congregation. The Board shall fix the compensation and term of office of the Rabbi and the Cantor. 

6. Discharge any employee except the Rabbi and the Cantor.

7. Call annual and special meetings of the Congregation.

8. Enter into an act or transaction and execute any instrument or writing pursuant to the approved annual budget, subject to the limitations set forth in paragraph (3.) below. 

9. Recommend by-law amendments.

Role of Committees

Committees have a number of various business roles within the congregation. As mentioned above a number of committees have the responsibility to offer policy (fiscal, business, and governing) recommendations and assistance to the board of trustees. In addition, many committees have the responsibility of managing the operations of the congregation. There are two types of committees. There are both standing committees, which are defined in the by-laws, and later established committees and task forces. These latter groups are those committees and task forces established to oversee specific tasks or functions as deemed necessary. They may include the need to run specific events such as a fundraiser or event or to look at the area-specific policy. I have tried to use the term task force over the term committee. The reason for this is that a task force has an end date, while committees’ work will continue for the foreseeable future, with no specific end date in the work or operation of the group.
 

Thoughts on this structure

It is again important to note that the President does not have the sole power to create policy. The president, committees, or any members of the Board of Trustees have the power to make recommendations on the creation and implementation of policy. Some emergency orders may be necessary, but still must always go before the board for approval.

Another thing of note is that the process may seem slow to respond at times. This is a product of the governing system and the realities of the established structure. Much of the work is completed at the committee level and then presented at a once a month board meeting. A good deal of the burden of organizational management is taken on by the committees. Because these committees are run by volunteers who also have busy lives outside of their Temple Beth El commitments, there needs to be a level of understanding that things will not move as quickly as some may hope. This structure is both a result of this reality and partially a desired outcome of the governing and management structure. The transition task force even recognized the reality of the burden of management of volunteer lay leaders. This realization was part of the reason that the transition task force recommended that we needed to look at hiring an executive director/administrative director.

I hope that you enjoyed and even learned something in my first blog post. I look forward to communicating with all of you in this format over the coming year.

Aaron Petersen