Learning Communities and Action Communities

More than 1,000 people belong to a community that they probably don't notice.

Here's what they have in common: They are members of Conservative kehillot (sacred communities). They are now synagogue leaders or someone thinks they should be someday. They want to know more about a specific topic, or are curious about what they might learn. They want to do something to change their synagogues or themselves. They want to feel that they're not alone.

From presidents to current leaders to emerging leaders, they share a commitment to learn, do and feel something new that will help them strengthen themselves as leaders and, in turn, their kehillot. They're using United Synagogue's new Sulam Leadership resources, developed in the last two years, and they form two distinct groups - a Learning Community and an Action Community.

Let me tell you about what's happening in each one.

Sulam Learning Community

In the last year, more than 600 people came to conferences and workshops in their shuls and in groups around the continent to learn about mission and vision, leadership succession, "sacred strategies" and goals, governance, and strategies for increased engagement. About 200 people regularly joined in on webinars about volunteer development, starting strategic planning, assessment, and financial sustainability. 55 new and incoming synagogue presidents went on retreat with our Sulam faculty. And more than 300 new leaders were identified, recruited and engaged in Sulam for Emerging Leaders.

We published some of the good things they had to say about Sulam for Current Leaders' resources, and Sulam for Emerging Leaders trainers and participants spoke publicly about what it did for them. But here's what else we know:

• Evaluations from more than 300 "current leader" program participants were overwhelmingly positive. More than 90% said they learned something new and would share what they learned. More than 75% said they'll be able to do something new because of what they learned. 
• An independent evaluation of Sulam for Emerging Leaders by Drs. Steven Cohen and Ezra Kopelowicz showed that our pilot cohort hit the mark in terms of identifying and engaging potential leaders in the 30-45 year old age range. A study of SEL's second year will be published shortly, and will include information about how participants moved from learners to do-ers. 
• Every Sulam session, workshop, retreat or webinar has some kind of activity that requires analysis, strategic thinking or decision-making. Kehilla leaders in our learning community did more than just learn: They created new mission statements or reviewed their current ones, set goals that relate to their missions, mapped the roles of clergy and lay leaders, created volunteer descriptions and profiles, compared their fundraising efforts to their development efforts, and assessed their readiness to change their membership models.

Sulam Action Community

41 congregations took action last year with the help of United Synagogue:

• 31 congregations launched Sulam for Emerging Leaders. This requires a significant training and preparation time commitment from their rabbi and a training partner who facilitate the program, and from the synagogue leaders to identify and recruit people who have the potential to come to the leadership table in the future. 
• 10 congregations are creating and implementing strategic plans through Sulam for Strategic Planners.

The Sulam Leadership Network

Synagogue leaders don't want to go it alone. For 21 years, the presidents who met each other at Sulam for Presidents stayed in touch and supported each other through their presidencies and beyond. Many friendships forged at Sulam continue 20 years later. Sulam for Presidents was United Synagogue's strongest synagogue leadership network. Now the network is expanding.

The hundreds of leaders in our Action Community meet face to face when they begin working with our Sulam team, and continue to interact on regular conference calls. The Sulam for Strategic Planners cohort will meet at our Centennial Celebration in October. Not only will they get the next level of training in strategic planning, but a number of sessions at the conference, particularly those on "The Communal Conversation" and "relational Judaism," will inform their strategies as they move from planning to action. Also at the Centennial, our Sulam for Presidents graduates will reunite in a special "Sulam Suite," and at VIP learning sessions.

Our Learning Community has networking opportunities as well. Our MetNY district regularly brings together synagogue presidents at the beginning of the year. Small congregations conferences in our Central and Northeast districts, and a conference for large congregations last year brought together leaders with similar interests and challenges. Our district, regional and special interest networked gatherings will continue in the coming year.

But here is my dream - that hundreds of our emerging leaders will meet each other, too, and we'll grow our Sulam Leadership Network beyond current leaders. The Centennial Celebration is the perfect venue to begin. Imagine if the leaders of tomorrow could find each other while they experience prayer and learning at its best. Their voices need to be heard at "The Conversation of the Century," and when the conference is over, their energy needs to be supported so that they can create the Conservative kehillot of the 21st Century together.

Contact me if you want to help make that happen.

Collaborations, Alliances and Mergers

I like data. I am easily distracted by practical articles with comparison data, like this one on housing prices, (sorry about the continued downturn, Europe). I can also get hooked on peculiar websites, like this one with the scariest data that I can't understand, or one that just makes me smile from knowing that, unlike the Twitter world, I am much happier today than I was in 2009.

I have another source that I regularly monitor - United Synagogue's client relationship management system (CRM). Our staff and volunteers record significant contacts and conversations in our CRM so that we can inform one another of issues, make assignments and track follow up. And some of this year's numbers caught my attention.

From July 2012 until June 2013, our kehilla relationship managers had 219 conversations with leaders from 75 synagogues about collaborations, alliances, and mergers.

I don't view data as telling the whole story, but as pointing to where I might find a story. So before trying to figure out the story, here's a closer look:

• 12 of the 75 synagogues have fewer than 100 member households.
• 8 of the 75 have more than 500 member households.
• Most of the congregations - 31 total - fall within the 200-500 member range.
• 20 of the congregations are in the corridor from New York to Baltimore.
• 15 of the congregations are in Florida.
• 14 of the congregations are in New England.
• 13 of the congregations are in California.
• Most of the conversations were about collaboration, sharing resources or merging components of the communities, like religious schools, not selling buildings or a larger congregation absorbing a smaller one.

I'm not surprised about where these conversations are happening. United Synagogue has high concentrations of its affiliated synagogues along the east coast, and reflects the generational history of Conservative Jews, creating communities in the early 20th Century in the northeast, and then in Florida in the mid to late 20th Century.

Before my friends who wish to point out that this also shows the decrease in numbers in the Conservative movement jump in, I'll say, "Point taken," and I'll ask that we move on. Collaboration and merger have the potential to change the dynamics, if not the demographics, of Conservative communities, particularly when mid-sized congregations combine forces.

Some of the most innovative collaboration and merger strategies are happening among mid-sized congregations in New England. For example, three synagogues in the Boston area - Mishkan Tefilla, Beth Emeth and Temple Reyim - are formally working towards creating a merged religious school with an innovative approach to formal and informal learning. Three other synagogues in the area were recently discussing creating one large community on the south shore. 

Not every merger story is about synagogues on the decline or one synagogue "absorbing" another. Florida has areas where large congregations of primarily older members are situated near small and growing congregations, made up of mostly young families. Discussions of alliance come from trying to create complementarity and continuity.

If I looked no further than the data I'm finding in our system, the numbers point towards the story that today's synagogue leaders are more open than ever to the idea of creating a strong community rather than clinging to their separate structures, and there are many potential collaborations and mergers on the immediate horizon. However, I'm not sure it will be that easy.

In the last month, the merger of the three synagogues in the Boston area changed course as Ahavath Torah in Stoughton, MA, pulled out of the talks. Another formal initiative in New Jersey between Beth Judah in Ventnor and Beth El in Margate stopped when the Beth El community voted against it.

In an eJewish Philanthropy article last week, Debra Brosan and Rabbi Hayim Herring describe their quick check on the landscape of collaboration and merger:

"The bottom line is that the leaders with whom we spoke saw the opportunity for greater synagogue collaboration and, in some cases, mergers, but were cautious about the prospect of congregational leaders taking a proactive stance."

Brosan and Herring discuss the hesitance:

"...synagogues resist collaboration even when it makes sense because they fear a loss of their own identity and a loss of members."

I believe that more than ever, this generation of leaders understands the benefits of working together towards creating strong, vibrant community. They are willing to discuss many options with our kehilla relationship managers, and sometimes begin a conversation with someone in the synagogue nearby. But as the details of the give and take of cooperation move from theoretical to real, synagogue leaders navigate complicated territory with no single "right" roadmap.

The majority of USCJ affiliated congregations - more than 65% - are in areas that do not have a local Federation bureau or program that supports synagogue strengthening and transformation. Until recently, United Synagogue had few resources to help congregations with mergers or collaboration. We began with sharing Tzemed Chemed, a helpful overview of the landscape written by Rabbi Paul Drazen, and often referred congregations to consultants, volunteers or other synagogue leaders who experienced it themselves. Our new resources, particularly on strategic planning, and our kehilla strengthening team approach are the beginning of our response to work with our affiliated kehillot more closely. We are gearing up for more services in this area over the next three years. I believe that with support, we will see more collaboration and alliances than ever, with the possibility of new communal structures that replace the traditional concept of merger.

The data in our system tells me that there is a new story ready to be written.