From The Co-Presidents

Dear CBI Community,

Shalom Chaverim! As we welcome the summer season, we offer our thanks to all who attended our May Annual Meeting. We had over 30 participants (mostly in-person but also our intrepid Zoomers as well) and marveled together at all we accomplished this past year. If you haven’t yet taken a moment, please review our Annual Report for a year in review and to catch up on what you missed. Socially, we had fun connecting and reconnecting with community members old and new. Special thanks to new board member Donna Gorson for orchestrating the refreshments, setup, and cleanup!

We were excited the meeting was the first program hosted since our new HVAC system was installed in May! At this time, we await the fences that will be installed to enclose the new units. We hope this new system keeps us comfortably heated and cooled for the next 25 years, and we thank all who so generously donated to cover much of this unbudgeted capital expense. If you have not yet contributed, we welcome any additional gifts.

Participants at the meeting warmly welcomed the news that Rabbi Rachel’s employment agreement has been extended for five more years. We plan to continue to work with Rabbi Jarah Greenfield as our Director of Youth & Family Education. Funding for this position is in a challenge this year as it has been largely underwritten by a single donor in the past, so we will be looking for creative ways to fully fund our youth and family education program.

The business portion of the meeting was completed successfully. We were excited about the unanimous vote to allow the expansion of our board from 11 to 15, and to welcome four new board members: Megan Dopson, Daisy Fischer, Donna Gorson, and Vivienne Jaffe. WOOHOO! The slate of board directors and officers were voted unanimously. We are excited to work with our new, expanded board.

In the coming months, you will see more activity around the building as we install security measures including safety glass, bollards at the entrance, and boulders in back to obstruct any vehicles that may try to ram our building or sanctuary.

We encourage you to attend the upcoming Countering Active Threat and Stop The Bleed® trainings on Tuesday, June 16 from 4pm–6m at CBI; all are welcome, but please remember to sign up in advance. This training is applicable wherever you are as you go about your daily life – sadly, incidents can occur at any time or place.

And please mark your calendars for our annual Tanglewood Concert & Picnic on Sunday, August 23! We invite you to purchase your own tickets (children under 18 are free) and we will have a designated meeting spot on the lawn. Bring a dish to share, or pack your own picnic – whatever works best for you.

As we did at the end of the Annual Meeting, we want to take a moment to offer a round of thank yous: thank you to our wonderful rabbis and service leaders; our board members; our music director, Adam Green, and members of the CBI choir; our ushers; all CBI committee members; Shabbat challah bakers; our office administrator, Oliver Jones; and all those who help make CBI a warm, welcoming community.

B’Shalom,

— Natalie Matus & Wendy Penner