BY-LAWS
In late spring of 2019 the Club President Dan Sher, assembled an Hoc By-Laws Committee consisting of Past Presidents, and current Board Members and Officers, to make a complete review of our By- Laws. The goals of this review are as follows:

1. To allow the male spouses of synagogue members who are not of the Jewish faith, to be members of the Club and
participate in leadership.
2. Revise wording to be more consistent with the Synagogue Constitution.
3. Simplify complicated or confusing language.
4. Provide consistency in word usage and structure of the By-Laws.

The An-Hoc By-Laws Committee prepared recommendations, which were then submitted to the 2020 Nominating Committee, chaired by the 2019-2021 Club President, Steven Elisco. The Nominating Committee reviewed and debated the proposals and developed a draft copy of the By-Laws with the revisions as proposed to be submitted to the Club Membership for review.

Then COVID-19 hit, and we began using ZOOM for all meetings and programing. The existing By-Laws stated that participating in a meeting required physical presence and you had to be physically present to vote. The Nominating Committee quickly developed language to allow participation by on-line streaming or phone under certain conditions.

These modifications were then submitted to the Club Membership for review. All proposals were reviewed and debated at our April 2020 Board meeting. Further clarifications and modification were submitted to the Nominating Committee and a final draft wad submitted to the Club, which were then approved at our May 27, 2020 Annual Meeting.

SUCCESSION PLANNING

We take a three-pronged approach to Succession Planning as follows:

1. Long-Term Planning every 4 years
2. Current Day Planning every year
3. Short-Term Planning every two years

The Long-Term Planning is a very detailed and proven approach to succession planning. The immediate Past President and two other Past Presidents met and identified every newer and/or younger Board Member who may be interested in taking on an enhanced role on our Board or Executive Board or may know of any other individuals in our Synagogue who may be interested in participating on the Men’s Club Board.

We then met with each of them individually for approximately 20 minutes and asked them what they like about Men’s Club, what can be done to improve the Men’s Club experience, whether or not they are interested in taking on an increased responsibility on Men’s Club and what positions they would be interested in taking on in the future. We also specifically target a few individuals who are very active that could be potential Presidents.

The result of these interviews is a Past President’s Succession Planning Report of all the discussions, which is submitted to the Nominating Committee assembled in that year. By the time we are done we are usually able to identify the future Presidents of our club for the next 3-4 cycles. This also assists the President in identifying individuals to take on positions on the upcoming Executive Board.

This document is passed from one Nominating Committee to another as time goes on until another committee of past presidents is assembled. It is important to note that this document is for information purposes only and is not binding upon the Nominating Committee. That document is attached for review.

As part of the Past President interview process, they poll the interviewees for other men in the congregation that may want to be considered for service on the Men’s Club Board. Thus, a separate document, Suggested Board Invitees has been developed. That Document is attached for review.

The Short-Term Planning occurs toward the end of the second year of the current President’s term. This is executed by the President and Executive Vice President, who is now the incoming President and who takes the lead in conjunction with the Nominating Committee. They use both Long-Term Summary Document and the Suggested Board Invitees Document to develop the incoming President’s first year Slate and prepare an outline for the second year Slate.

Incoming 2021-2022 Co-Presidents Steve Lessman (a Past President) and Andy Wagner have a plan for the Short-Term Planning, which extends into the Long-Term Planning as follows:

As Co-Presidents of the Congregation Beth Shalom Men’s Club, it will be our first priority to develop a plan of succession for the Club for the next ten years. When we leave office, we want to have five men who will be in line to be president the next ten years. This will be done by working with other Past Presidents identifying future leaders who are currently on exec board and work with them and give them responsibilities to prepare them for the Executive Vice Presidency and Presidency.

We will also work with existing board and identify leaders on Board and elevate them to Executive Committee to begin learning about leadership to eventually becoming a leader in CBS Men’s Club.

Finally, as Co-Presidents, and most important, we need to identify men in the synagogue who are not active in Men’s Club and encourage them to get involved and invite them to participate in programs and activities. We need to show them the benefits of joining and getting active and eventually offer them a position on the board and get them involved to becoming a future leader of CBS Men’s Club.

The current results of this process since late spring of 2019 are as follows:

2019-2020 SLATE
We elected to use this as a rebuilding year making sure all Board Members wanted to be on the Board and take an active role. The result was to reduce the Board from 37 Members to 27, which included 3 new Board Members and the Vice President of Programs position being open.

2020-2021 SLATE
The result of the Nominating Committee’s work was to increase the Board from 27 members to 34, which included 8 new Board Members. All Officer Positions were filled.

2021-2022 SLATE
Building on the growth of the 2020-2021 year, the Board increased from 34 member to 37 members with 7 new Board Members. Of special note is that 4 of the 2020-2021 first year Board Members accepted Officer positions.

The bottom line is that advanced succession plan is key to the success of the Club especially in a re-building year.

NEW BOARD MEMBER AND OFFICER ORIENTATION

Once the Slate has been voted on and approved the current or incoming President in any given year, each new Officer on the Executive Committee and Board Member, receives a welcome email with the By-Laws description and responsibilities of the accepted position.

During the Third week of June, the President organizes and holds a New Board Member and Officer Orientation Meeting. A packet of documents is sent out via email to each new Officer on the Executive Committee and Board member that includes but is not limited to the following:

1. Meeting Agenda
2. Preliminary Board Directory
3. Preliminary Program Calendar
4. Rules for Use of the Kitchen

The goals of the meeting are as follows:

1. Make everyone feel comfortable with the responsibilities of the position they have accepted.
2. Emphasize that the Men’s Club is a Team effort, and no one is expected to do their tasks alone.
3. Clarify issues and answer questions.
4. Document new ideas and suggestions.

The Agenda for the 2020 New Board Member and Officer Orientation is attached.

FINANCIAL PROTOCOLS

The financial protocols we have developed not only ensure the financial well-being of the Club but also provide clear points of responsibility with a high level of fiduciary protections.

Participants

• Financial Secretary – Primary responsibility is depositing funds received
• Treasurer – Primary responsibility is paying bills
• Payment Approvers – President, Executive Vice President, and Immediate Past President
• Vice President – A Vice President will be responsible for a program or event

Incoming Funds

• The applicable Vice President, or his designee, is responsible for collecting funds related to the event and keeping track of
registration and attendance for the event (“Event Chair”)
o Membership Vice President is responsible for dues collections and the opening dinner
o Ways & Means Vice President is responsible for Poker, Lox Box, and any other Ways & Means event
o Program – Ritual Vice President is responsible for World Wide Wrap, Yellow Candle, and Men’s Club Shabbat
o House Vice President is responsible for Sunday breakfasts
o Program Vice President is responsible other events not listed above (bingo, erev Thanksgiving, Bear’s Bash, Sukkah
event, joint Sisterhood event, etc.)
• For events that require registration, a Google document will be created, and the link will be provided to the Event Chair.
• The Event Chair is responsible for the following:
o Collecting registrations forms and funds. This should be done frequently as the event approaches
o Maintaining the information in the Google document
o Collecting checks for the event
 Periodically provide the checks to the Financial Secretary for deposit, completing the deposit form
 Send an email to the Financial Secretary copying the Treasurer. The email should tell the Financial Secretary that
funds are ready for deposit and the amount of funds and the event that the funds apply to.
o Collecting credit card payment for the event
 The Event Chair is responsible for processing the credit cards as they come in
 The processing is on-line here. The card numbers can be typed in prior to an event, or cards can be swiped at an
event.
 Instruction will be given on how to process cards. Please let Howard Freidin know if you have any questions or
issues on credit card processing.
 Every day that you process credit cards, you need to send an email to the Financial Secretary copying the
Treasurer. The email should tell the Financial Secretary that credit cards have been processed and the amount of
funds and the event that the funds apply to.
• The Financial Secretary is responsible for making deposits.
o Prior to making a deposit the checks should be copied or scanned in case of a later question or issue.
o Following each deposit an email should be sent to the Treasurer verifying that the deposit has been made, including
the amount and the events that the deposit applies to.
• The Treasurer will keep the books and add the deposits to QuickBooks.

Outgoing Funds

• Vice President responsible for incurring an expense will provide the bill to the Treasurer for payment, with the accompanying
form.
• Treasurer will send an email to the Payment Approvers, Treasurer, and Howard Freidin. The email should include an
explanation of the bill, as well as a scanned copy of the bill.
• Two payment approvers are required to pay a bill. The Payment Approvers will approve by email, replying to all on the
email.
• If a check is to be cut, the Treasurer will do so, secure signatures of two Payment Approvers, and send the check. It is our
intent that most payment will not require a check to be cut.
• Most check will be sent directly by the bank. Once two Payment Approvers have approved, the Treasure will send an email
to the Treasure with the details of the payment to be made. The Treasure will process that on-line payment through the
bank.

PROGRAM MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Effective marketing and communication are key elements of our club administration, enabling us to effectively promote compelling programming that engages our members and the broader community to participate. In order to do this effectively, marketing and communications are integrated into our event planning process to ensure that the hard work we do to deliver great programs and events has a payoff for our members, club, shul, and our community at large. This requires a clear strategy, well defined objectives, and effective tactics which combine to provide our members with advanced notice of upcoming events while creating excitement and highlighting the value that they will enjoy.

Strategy

Create, implement, and manage a process for delivering regular updates about our club to our members and our community, utilizing an attractive and consistent graphical look and feel across all our channels, that supports and reinforces both the Congregation Beth Shalom and our Men’s Club brands.

Objectives and Tactics

1. Provide timely communications about upcoming events and activities, and enable easy registration and participation

We have created and consistently utilize a standard design template for all program and event flyers which implements a
standard graphical look and feel that supports and reinforces both the CBS and Men’s Club brands.

As each program owner plans the event, they work with our marketing and communications lead to develop the program
descriptions, speaker biographies, and registration details. These are then used to develop the marketing flyers (samples in
Appendix A) which become the primary marketing asset to deploy across all of our channels.

2. Market and promote these events and activities to maximize interest and participation, and synchronize and coordinate the
communication of this information across all communications channels – website, social media, monthly bulletin, weekly
newsletter, and local newspapers

These flyers are immediately posted on the Men’s Club and full synagogue calendars on our website. They are then
distributed through both the print and online versions of the CBS Monthly Bulletin, the weekly CBS Byte email newsletter, our
social media pages, and cross linked to the monthly President’s Corner article within our Men’s Club website. Our
synagogue communications director will also promote programs which are open to the community through the local
newspapers.

3. Make all of this information easily accessible through the Men’s Club section of the CBS website

The Men’s Club section of our CBS website is the go-to resource for information on all Men’s Club activities, events, and
programs. Our very straightforward “2 clicks from the home page” website navigation design enables an easy way to find
any desired Men’s Club information.

We have simplified the registration process for all activities by implementing a simple online registration process that
captures participant information and facilitates easy payment for event tickets and any associated meals that may be offered
for a given event. Website samples are included in Appendix B.

Results

1. Highly effective promotion, enrollment, and member engagement for our diverse program offerings throughout the year.
2. A strongly identifiable, consistent graphical look and feel for our CBS and Men’s Club branding that supports and reinforces
our respective brands to our membership and our community.
3. An easily navigable Men’s Club section of our synagogue website that served as the model for other synagogue arms’
(Sisterhood, Youth, etc.) website sections.

Attached is Appendix ‘A’ that includes all the 2019-2021 Program Flyers and Appendix ‘B’ that includes Men’s Club screen shots and links.