congregational board

[cellio]

I was chosen for the nominating committee (to choose board members) for my synagogue tonight, for the second year in a row. I'm pleasantly surprised. (I didn't think repeats would be seriously considered, though I knew I had been nominated and they didn't eliminate me then.)

The committee consists of three board members, three non-board congregants, and a few direct appointments. Last year I was chosen as a board member; this year I was chosen as a congregant. To complete the trifecta, next year I need to be directly appointed by someone. :-) (Nah. Not gonna happen.)

I seem to have a reputation there as thoughtful, analytical, and all those other good things you want in leaders. Nifty. It's so easy to go into a new organization and screw up by not knowing the history, politics, and unwritten rules. This time around that didn't happen to me.

Comments

[cellio]

I was nominated for the board in my first year of elligibility (that is, after I'd been a member of the congregation for a year). I was an active member of the worship committee but had never been a committee chair. That kind of surprised me.

What I saw in last year's NomCom discussions was a preference for people who had already had formal leadership positions of some sort (usually committee chairs). There seems to be this notion of working your way up from being on a committee to administering a committee to sitting on the board to holding office. This makes sense in general. I'm not sure what happened in my case. It seems clear that I've got some fans on thb board and executive committee; I presume I did a few years ago too but was too oblivious to notice. :-)

I became chair of my committee during my last year on the board, and will have to pass it on to someone else in May. The next president has already approached me with the "so what next?" question. I said "finish the Sh'liach K'hilah program first", though I'm pretty sure I'll also be on the budget committee because I have the right brand of anal-retentiveness for that.