PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

A DELICIOUS AGM

About 40 TI members attended the AGM on Oct. 13, and those 40 members made some major decisions on behalf of those who couldn’t, wouldn’t or forgot to come. It was a night of great food and a lot of fun and socializing, surrounding a very significant Temple business meeting.

Before the meetingwe had a wine and cheese party, and enjoyed coming up with answers to some Jewish Trivia questions presented by Wally Zimmerman, who was our Emcee for the evening.

During the meetingwe:

· Declared the coming year to be “the Year of the Young Family” and resolved to focus this year on determining and meeting the special needs of our younger families. This idea had emerged as a result of a project done by the 2006-2007 board, under the leadership of Nancy Pazner and Jill Wright.

· Established that future AGMs will take place in late spring rather than autumn.
· Revised the organization of the board and executive and expanded their size
· Altered our membership criteria and the rights of non-Jewish spouses
· Made several other changes to our constitution
· Nominated and elected our Directors and Officers for 2007-2008

After the meeting we demolished a wondrous table of cakes and desserts, and we Oohed and Aahed at the (as always) sensational cake that Dinah Frank had concocted, featuring the new logo that we had adopted for the year (see the front page of this issue of the bulletin). Then we chatted and digested and cleaned up and went home intellectually and epicurically satiated.

HELP WANTEDNEEDED

One of the things I had to announce at the AGM was that Annecke Somann, our Lev HaDavar editor for the last ten years or so, has had to resign, mostly because of the hours and workload of her current job. This edition is the last she will be able to do as editor. She by no means disappears from the scene, but will be available to advise and assist in future issues, and will continue doing all the other things she does for the Temple. Annecke is a good example of the level of dedication of so many of our volunteers.

That leaves us needing more help, and you can consider this a call for volunteers who are good at any or all of writing, editing and layout to serve on a new Lev HaDavar committee that will take responsibility for our monthly bulletin. Linda Zimmerman and Les Kochav, who have been working with Annecke all along will be part of that new committee, but it needs additional help.

Leora Swartzman is also looking for more volunteers, especially in light of the fact that Brenda Donner has also had to give up her role as the Temple Israel Social Action Interfaith Liaison.

So there you have it, two more opportunities to get your feet wet in the massive pool of Temple Israel volunteers. C’mon in, the water’s warm and welcoming!

OTHER MATERIALS FOR THE BULLETIN

DID YOU KNOW THAT…..

· Ailene Wittstein is the President of Orchestra London
· Sara Ellis is President of the Jewish National Fund London
· Harold Sobel has recently been elected to the Board of Governors of Fanshawe College

THANK YOU SO MUCH

To those who helped the AGMbecome the success that it was:

· Gayle Hoover, Nancy Pazner, Linda Zimmerman and Sandra Benjamin who organized the event
· To Wally Zimmerman who served as emcee and put together the Jewish Trivia slides and who, of course, took a zillion pictures
· To Sara Ellis who pulled together the slate for the new board
· To Leon Shanfeld and Ron Marks who worked with the President on the new constitution
· To Pepa Livingstone, Naomi Stambler, Betty Freedman, Sharon Marks, Janet Fridman, Louise Shanfeld, Sandra Benjamin, Gayle Hoover and Penny Lander who provided desserts and refreshments for the event
· To Linda Zimmerman, who designed the new TI Logo for “the Year of the Young Family” and to Dinah Frank who transferred it to a special cake

Thanks also to the following people who have contributed lately to Temple life.

· Jeremy Frank, who helped set up the computer for the Volunteer office support staff
· Keith Sammit for an annual grant that comes to us from his Endowment fund in the London Jewish Community Foundation
· Ron Vine of Hamilton who made a generous donation to the Temple

THE NEW TEMPLE ISRAEL BOARD

Officers

Sara Ellis Immediate Past President
Art Benjamin President
Michael Shmukler VP Communications/ Secretary
Jeremy Frank VP Finance/ Treasurer
Len Silverstein VP Operations
Gayle Hoover VP Programming

Directors

Kandice Brownstone
Susan Dean
Thelma Llewellyn
Diane Nestor
Ellen Okazaki
Nancy Pazner
Jill Wright

THANK YOU TO THOSE NO LONGER SERVING ON THE BOARD

Temple Israel owes a debt of gratitude to the following people whose term on the Board has ended. All of them have put in many hours of work over several years, and this community has been much enhanced thanks to their efforts.

Michael Lander
Ron Marks
Wally Zimmerman

NEW HOURS FOR THE TEMPLE ISRAEL OFFICE, WITH THANKS TO THE V-STAFF

“V-Staff” is our abbreviation for Volunteer Staff, a group of people who have undertaken to greatly increase the amount of service that can be provided by our Temple Israel Office for the members, committees and board, by taking turns coming into the office for a half day or more, covering every day morning of the work-week. This group consists of:

Devorah Elias
Melody Enzel
Mary Gerena
Thelma Llewellyn
Pepa Livingstone
Janet Merrill
Louise Shanfeld

(Gayle Hoover had also volunteered for the V-Staff, but was forced to withdraw when she was nominated to be on the executive of Temple Israel)

As one of the most immediate benefits of this new group, starting on November 1, the Temple Office, which used to be open from 10:30 Monday to Friday, will now be open from 9:00 A.M.