Bob’s Jewish Relationships Journal

At the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) Large Congregations Conference last week, we were discussing Ron Wolfson's book Relational Judaism. We were exploring how to put Wolfson’s strategies into action. This led to some discussions about finding ways to track the level of engagement of our synagogue’s members. How do we understand their passion and interests? How do we track where they are in their Jewish journey? How do we ensure we are ready to support them to take action when they are ready to take a next step?

At USCJ’s Sulam leadership initiative we have been exploring ways to connect with members at key transition points. We created Sulam for Emerging Leaders program to reach out to members ages 35-45 who are involved in some aspect of synagogue life. While these people may not be ready to join synagogue leadership now, we hope to instill a deeper engagement with the community by showing how Judaism speaks to how they live and lead. We are also exploring how to re-engage members of the baby boomer generation (55-70 year-olds).

In speaking with experts on synagogue software we learned that firms are working on adding relationship management programs to synagogue software suites. Client relationship management programs allow organizations to track how often they touch members through programs, in conversation, in philanthropic requests, etc.

Systems may evolve, but there needs to be a growth in the organizational capacity to engage and record conversations. We need to help people reflect on their relationships, to motivate some people to listen and recruit others to turn these stories into trackable and actionable information.

So I thought I would take the first step, adapt Wolfson’s list of relationships (abridge a bit) and create a journal to review and start to track my Jewish relationships.

Personal	Doing Now	Hope to Do	My Next Step- (Support I need).	When
Self	Going to Weight Watchers weekly. Working out a NYSC 3- 4 times a week.	Do better job of tracking meals. Explore some yoga to increase flexibility.	Find schedule of yoga classes at New York Sports Club. Ask Larry for advice. Get a spotter who will help me get off the mat when it’s over.	By March 1, 2014
Family	Doing a better job of calling my sons. Planning a visit for all of them.	Finalize flights for them to come in March 14.		This week
Friends	Go to high school reunion in June	Reach out to old friends that I miss after moving to NYC. Get ready for Valentine’s Day- Carolyn’s cares!	Plan to stop over in Dayton on next trip. Hallmark store below my office- sooo convenient.	April Today
God	Weekly Torah study class, other books	Just ordered two books on Maimonides. One is pretty accessible.	Find a class on Maimonides Study-find out what God wants.	Next 6 months
Community	Doing Now	Hope to Do	My Next Step	When
Congregation	Have people over for Shabbat.	Sign up to host a dinner for congregational members. Invite some of my friend’s children.	Work on my recipe for Brussels sprouts	March
Greater Community	Working with friend of Carolyn’s on Mental Health Care Resource network	Help do some strategic planning with group at no charge.	Set up Meeting	March
Israel- World Jewry	Leading Israel Zionist Reading Group- Reading Like Dreamers with group	Starting I- Engage- Next version of Hartman Institute’s Israel engagement curriculum*. *Share some texts with reading group.	Complete course	March
World	Very little	Find a cause and contribute	Look into Hazon environmental efforts.