Tikvah 2020 Strategic Visioning & Planning Process Update

Tikvah 2020 is Ohavi Zedek Synagogue’s strategic visioning and planning process to update the 1995 Long Range Plan.  We are delighted to share with you our Tikvah 2020 progress.  We invite you to review the 1995 Plan on the OZ website.  Great effort was undertaken in 1994 and 1995 to think through the future needs of our congregation, and we have been operating from that plan for the past 14 to 15 years.   

With Board of Directors engagement and support, we have spent the past year reflecting on and planning for our future through 2020 – only 11 years away. 

Where We’ve Been 

Over the past year, so many of our OZ members have engaged in Tikvah 2020 activity.  To recap: 

• 1st quarter 2008:  we created the Tikvah 2020 steering committee of nearly 30 members who meet monthly and have worked with the OZ community to craft a work plan for our process
• 2nd quarter 2008:  we hired Bob Leventhal of the Alban Institute as our consultant and developed our research process
• 3rd quarter 2008:  we undertook nine (9) community-wide Parlor Groups (10-12 person discussion meetings) to understand our strengths, weaknesses and opportunities
• 4th quarter 2008:  we developed core strategic discussion topics and asked groups to work on defining a vision and action items to address the vision at what we called our “vision to action” congregational working meeting
• 1st quarter 2009:  we reviewed our list of OZ members who had volunteered for parlor meetings, attended the vision to action working meeting and expressed their interest in actively engaging in this process and invited them to join one of the core strategic discussions at our “action planning” congregational working meeting, where we began the development of both short- and long-term goals for specific issue areas and created task groups to explore each of the seven (7) areas:
  

• Worship:  led by Joy Livingston, 482-3115; focusing on how to enhance out worship opportunities
• Lifelong Learning:  led by Deb Lashman, 658-8223; looking at overall learning needs of our congregation, from early childhood to adult education
• Social Action:  led by Jeff Potash, 862-0917; continuing our call and activities for social justice
• Campus and Facilities:  task group led by Jeff Alpert, 985-8895; looking at both short-term facility needs, such as upgrading our kitchen and classrooms, and long-term opportunities available to us through our back acreage and Fern Hill
• Membership Engagement:  co-led by Deb Lichtenfeld, 658-8371 and Jonathan Cohen, 860-5123; focusing on increasing membership and engagement opportunities for members
• Financial & Fundraising:  led by Leon Urbaitel, 862-8360; reviewing our present financial environment and building a long-term financial plan to guide us through the future
• Leadership:  led by Paul Growald, 985-9028; focusing on our lay and professional leadership needs and structure

• 2nd quarter 2009:  our task groups met many times, as individual groups and together, to dig deeper into the action planning process and created draft action plans
  

Emerging Themes & Strategies 

As we continue our Tikvah 2020 journey, many themes and strategies are emerging.  Some may impact particular critical issues more than others, and we are finding a host of ways in which one emerging theme or strategy from a task group impacts the work of other task groups.  We plan to leverage this collaboration opportunity to produce a synergy of leadership efforts at OZ.  The emerging themes and strategies include:  

• Create joyful worship experiences that meet the diverse needs of our community
• Develop learning opportunities that allow our Hebrew School students, their parents and all our member families to develop love for and commitment to lifelong Jewish practice and communal identification
• Elevate the place of social justice, including tikkun olam, on our synagogue communal agenda
• Create a campus and facilities that make OZ a more central address for Jewish living, a place that works with all Jewish organizations to develop the social, educational and spiritual programs that bring our community together
• Engage our current members more fully and attract new members by demonstrating our values of spiritual growth, social justice, education, caring and connectedness
• Provide the financial and institutional support necessary to secure our current and future fiscal needs
• Create a vibrant, passionate, connected, inspiring, accessible and synergistic leadership that will result in achieving our overall short- and long-term goals
  

Where We’re Going

• As we move into the second half of 2009, Tikvah 2020 will continue to build on the vision and mission developed in the 1995 Long Range Plan
• On June 18, we will convene a joint working meeting of the Tikvah 2020 Steering Committee, Board of Directors, Committee Chairs, other lay leaders and OZ staff to review and provide input to all seven action plans 
• Our task groups will finalize their action plans
• We will combine these plans into one, comprehensive strategic plan, a roadmap that will carry OZ into the future
  

Implementing the resulting Tikvah 2020 initiatives will be a multi-year process that will require support from as many of our members as possible.  We plan to understand our members’ interests, skills and passions to match them up with meaningful volunteer opportunities. 

As we stated in our 1995 Plan, Ohavi Zedek’s vision is to be a vibrant Jewish community in Vermont, embracing our traditions while actively participating in our changing Jewish world.  Tikvah 2020 continues to be an opportunity for each of us to embrace and build upon this vision through participation in our planning efforts for the future.   

Our current vision reaches out into the Jewish community of Vermont, the United States and Klal Yisrael.  We are deeply engaged in the Vermont community and work with community partners on shared concerns.  We seek to ensure an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable OZ in a sustainable Vermont.  Please come join us! 

Thank you very much!   

Yoram Samets Co-Chair	Mike Kanarick Co-Chair