the board meeting of death

Let me first say that I am not a master of my facial reactions-- when I'm shocked, appalled, and utterly confounded, you can usually tell. That being said, you can understand that it took more than a little will power to tone down my reactions to the ridiculous 2 hour board of directors meeting that occurred yesterday. I'm not sure if was a full moon or what, but all these people were seriously out for blood. I know that people generally do like to hear themselves talk, but this was a whole other thing; these people actually refused to listen to anything anybody else had to say. Here's a sample of the debate:

President of the Board: you have all been doing a bad job!
lay leader x: how can you say that? I've always done it this way and I raised this much money and I don't want to do more work.
President of the Board: no, you're supposed to raise money and it's all your fault.
lay leader x: how can you say that? I've always done it this way and I raised this much money and I don't want to do more work.
President of the Board: no, you're supposed to raise money and it's all your fault.

ad infinitum. Seriously.

Besides the annoyingness, I have a few other thoughts:

1. Money really sucks. When people start thinking in terms of numbers, they think, "we spend this much money, this many students come to programs." The only things considered at all are expense. Nobody thinks about the vision of the organization or the quality of experience we offer to students. I understand that a non-profit still has to be run like a business, it obviously can't spend money it doesn't have, BUT the driving purpose of this organization is NOT money. It plays a part, but it cannot be the central focus. At the board meeting, not one single person was interested in the mission of this organization or how it can better reach and serve its student populations. Somebody dared to ask, "if only 5 students show up to a program, is it worth it?" YES! Undeniably yes it is worth it. If I, as an engagement professional, can successfully engage just one student, than yes, the whole damn thing is worth it! How else is the Jewish community ever going to survive? There is a veritable sea of Jews out there who don't self-identify as Jewish and who aren't at all connected, culturally or otherwise. And if one, five, or ten people are able to create connections because of the job that we do, then the expense of it all is absolutely worth it.

2. You MUST invest in the future. If we want to be relevant and pertinent to this generation, then we have to develop programs and strategies to reach them. And that costs money. That's the fact of it. You can't go about charging people for a religious connection-- they'll never ever step foot in the door if that's the case. And frankly, it's completely ridiculous to suggest that. I was talking to JewishGal about this yesterday and she made an excellent argument: at NO point in history has the younger generation been responsible for finding their own religious education or connection. It is the task of the older generations to provide this connection. And for some reason, now, we've sort of just been dumped by the older generations to fend for ourselves. So, seriously, raise some money and support the organizations that will create and foster community. And if you don't, then shut up and deal with the consequences (assimilation, etc).

I'm sure there's more. I'm pretty tired, though. So that's it.