Review the Past – Look Ahead – Appreciate the Now
It’s been four years since I was first elected as President of our Temple. Then, we could not have anticipated the changes and effects nature has had on our society and our small village here at home. At the same time one could predict the larger scope of Jewish community life in Cedar Rapids, that being the slow demographic waterfall we see with membership.
It is traditional to review these two consecutive terms with a litany of events that took place at temple. My first assignment was to join the Scheidt conference for new temple leaders. This was a valuable source of knowledge and a network for us to continue to find support. Closer to home we welcomed births, celebrated holidays and B’nai Mitzvahs and attended too many funerals. The country faced a virtual life with COVID, and we adapted quite well to this new reality. The derecho was another major force that we had to clean up from. This set the stage for a major landscaping project along with a new concrete parking lot.
The temple got an interior face lift with reinforcement to our wooden folding partition along with the staining and polycoat for all our sanctuary wood surfaces. Most of the lights have been changed to LED’s including the fluorescent fixtures in the Katz Hall. We dimmed these lights and celebrated our 100th anniversary together.
We have become an active member of SCN (Secure Community Network), and conducted ALICE and Stop the Bleed training. We completed an extensive security audit which set us up for a federal grant application for security upgrades. Many of these programs I learned about through active participation in the newly formed Iowa Jewish Professions group.
Temple has been caulked in the most egregious portions of our building and this work will need to continue. We got into the guts of the building with all plumping fixtures getting repaired or replaced. We had heating contractors review our system and will soon get new controls installed to allow us mobile access and temperature setbacks to save fuel.
There are still on-going projects to help protect our building assets and I have committed to seeing these through. None of these events could have taken place without the great work from our rabbi, Board of Directors, and the TSB (Trust Supervisory Board). Additionally, there are the folks that work every week to help ensure temple events are planned. Thank you to all of you.
Looking ahead we will continue to see a temple congregation that is shrinking. This was anticipated. Back in 1997 I was asked to project twenty years ahead to what our financial picture might be. The proforma was based on known demographics and a ten-year look back at the number of new members coming to Cedar Rapids and wanting to associate. That analysis predicted accurately that by 2016 over half our budget would need to come from our trust funds. Today 65% of our budget has been paid by those who gave generously in the past.
My conclusion is that day-to-day events such as clean up after a storm can never be predicted, while large numbers can be forecasted. What changes and why? We can worry or bury our head in the sand. But here is what we know … we have an active temple now! Take a look around and appreciate what you have today.
Robert Becker
President