Writing this the morning after our annual Jewish Festival, I am proud of the progress we are making and the general direction that I feel our winds are blowing. More than ever, I sense that our Temple and our community are positioned to make changes and move us forward in a positive direction.

First, the Festival. Our Temple had the most booths and greatest participation ever – we were represented by the Sisterhood, the Youth Committee, BJCS, our own TBS promotional table, and of course the centerpiece (Federation’s word, not mine) of the day itself, the Deli. Thank you to leaders, organizers and helpers for all booths, especially to Dee Crouch (the Deli), Flo Flax and Sheila Golden (Sisterhood), Wendy Roy (Youth) and Bertie Vasconi and Dave Bookman (BJCS). I know I left out many, but please know that you all are appreciated.

This year, for the first time, we had a booth just to promote ourselves – with new (homemade, for economy’s sake) brochures. My goal was at least one new member, and it appears we may have 3-5 new members that were generated yesterday. At least. Between selling out all of the deli meat, and this membership success, I believe it was an all-around great day. Fun had by all, and a good job by our local Jewish Federation and their leadership (especially Lisa Pietruszewicz, Jeff Fishkin, and the Kneaplers). And how great were our dancing members? If you saw the dancers, you’d be proud of them too!

Second, and of great relevance to you, our current members, and this publication: As you will notice elsewhere herein, this is our LAST bulk-rate, mailed (to everyone) paper Bulletin. Fear not, we are going to continue publishing an eleven-month newspaper/bulletin. But we are making changes.

This month (April) we are mailing everyone a copy of the Bulletin, and we will also e-mail an experimental version of the online Bulletin to anyone for whom we have an e-mail address. If you do not get that e-mail, call us with your e-mail address so you may be added to our discrete list. The online Bulletin will be mailed by blind-copy to everyone (no fear of mass marketers getting your address). Those without e-mail capability, or a printer to be able to print the Bulletin, may request a paper version be mailed via regular first class U.S. Mail, and others may come by the Temple and pick up a paper version. We hope to accomplish many good things by this acceptance of the 21^st century:

Obviously, a great economic savings
An ability to reach more people, more quickly
A vehicle to inform our members of newsworthy events or programs, in between the bulletin’s regular publishing schedule (i.e. a death or simcha in our TBS family, or a world crisis in which we feel the need to participate).
The ability to have more advertising (no US Postal Service rules) and to integrate the ads within the body of the publication, making it more attractive to our advertisers).
Now we can keep in touch with former members, families and children who have relocated.

I welcome Susan Moser as our Editor, as I have asked her to assume (and she has accepted) the responsibility of gathering material, laying it out in publishing format, and distributing the bulletin. While everyone may submit material to our office, copying Susan would help greatly (smoser5@cfl.rr.com). She will be aggressive about deadlines, as I have suggested, as it is important that the material be distributed timely and consistently. (No one is better at that, than Susan – ask me about the time sat at my office waiting for a $10 check for the Sisterhood’s New Year’s Greeting Book!). Also, we will be running contests through our religious schools in the fall, to pick a name for the publication and perhaps a new logo.

So help us with April’s bulletin by providing e-mail addresses, and by giving feedback if you receive our “test” bulletin. And watch for May’s inaugural online TBS Bulletin!