Temple Beth El Membership Committee

The Membership Committee is being co-chaired by Tracy Goodman and Rhonda Goldberg with staff assistance by Rhoda Peskin. Those who have worked on the committee during the past year are: Sheldon Freedman, Susan Retchin, Irving Skerker, Allison Steinberg and Tatyana Kurbanov.

As we reported in last year’s annual report, we have spend a good deal of time keeping up to date on plans put in place two years ago relative to contacting potential members of the temple and providing a gift and handwritten note to new members. This past year, the supplier for our most attractive candlestick gift went out of business, but we were able to locate a new supplier.

In the past year, we reviewed and revised the materials sent out with the application packet for potential members. We also rewrote a letter from the Membership Committee and added a membership presence to our temple website.

We have been working with the “Try a Synagogue” Committee, a group of clergy and lay leaders of the three synagogues (TBE, Sinai and B’nai Torah) to attract and recruit the unaffiliated to our houses of worship. We have had representation at most of the “Try a Synagogue” committee meetings and have also had a presence at a number of the “Try a Synagogue” social events at neutral cites around the area as well as the Long Meddowe Days this past May.

Over the past couple of years, we have worked with a variety of different lists. This year, we entered all information regarding new members on a color-coded Excel spreadsheet maintained in the temple office. The list provides the names of all potential and new members, their contact information including e-mail, family data, how they joined (thru “Try a Synagogue” for example), and the status of our contact with them. This new database has allowed us the ease of having a central location for all new information.

This past year has been very busy relative to new members, in no small part thanks to the “Try a Synagogue” initiative. From September 2009 to the present, the temple has welcomed 25 full member households, 3 Associate Member households, and 25 households through the “Try a Synagogue” program.

We are again planning a New Member Shabbat scheduled for April 9, 2011. A “Save the Date” went out by e-mail in February and a formal invitation was mailed to all new members since April of 2009 this month (50+ invitations). We will look forward to welcoming all new members next month.