The Board of Directors of the Jewish Community of Louisville has announced the establishment of the Strategic Directions Committee (SDC), chaired by Kate Latts, which is working diligently to take the substantive research and groundwork done in the last two years, and synthesize this information into recommendations of options of how the JCL can fulfill its mission in a fiscally responsible way.
The SDC’s charge includes examining “the crisis surrounding the existing facilities and the need to make decisions regarding alternatives to facilities issues.” The committee will consider all options, from maintaining current facilities, renovating, rebuilding, moving, etc.
There is already positive momentum and energy emanating from the SDC, which consists of a dedicated group of lay leaders who have the best interests of the community at heart and have made the commitment to see this process through in the best way possible. The committee includes representatives from the Program Review, Facilities and Finance Committees as well as individuals who represent the demographic and psychographic diversity of our community.
The SDC members are Chair Kate Latts, Greg Davidoff, Debbie Friedman, Harry Geller, Edwin Goldberg, Ayala Golding, Peter Resnik, Alex Rosenberg, Linda Schuster, Jeffrey Tuvlin, Edward Weinberg and Ronald Weisberg.
To ensure the best possible outcome, the committee is also working closely with staff members Alan Engel, Robin Stratton and Sara Wagner, and two nationally known and highly respected consultants, Ted Farber and Dena Farber Schoenfeld, of TBF Consulting. TBF Consulting specializes in management consulting and mediation, and has a long history of helping Jewish nonprofit organizations address a wide range of challenges. They have been working with the JCL for several months.
The SDC will also work closely with appropriate JCL committees.
At its first meeting on February 25, the SDC got off to a great start. The discussions were very open and respectful as committee members were brought up to speed on the current dynamics of the community and national trends. The group also reviewed general program and service areas by level of priority to use as a guide as they take the next steps.
The SDC has established several working subcommittees that are now starting to model what a baseline facility could look like to accommodate the highest priorities and to explore a variety of options for facilities, staffing and funding.
The subcommittees will complete their work by the time the full SDC reconvenes on April 18 for an all day session during which they will work to synthesize the subcommittees’ work and craft their recommendations.
Latts is very excited about the process and committed to moving the JCL forward. “I know everyone would certainly prefer a process that is completely linear in developing our recommendations for the JCL board,” she said. “However, the reality is that we should all be prepared for more of a circuitous path given the complexity and importance of the decisions at hand. As long as we don’t lose sight of our charge as we likely diverge and then converge again, we will succeed.”
With the help of Farber and Schoenfeld, the SDC is committed to working through all these difficult issues and will invest the time, energy, wisdom and patience needed to succeed.