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Board No Longer
Dec. 20th, 2004 12:33 pmAs some of you know, I joined my shul's board of directors this year. I got the post first by running for the job, and then by being first runner-up in the election. See, I lost, but when someone left the board unexpectedly, I was in line to finish out his term.
I attended about six meetings in this capacity. It was not fun work. We debated the shul budget; the future of the house the shul owns (with hopes of using it to expand our facilities someday); the tenant in the house who lost his job and couldn't pay rent; the rabbi's salary; and general issues about the future of a small centrist Orthodox shul in a neighborhood drifting fast to the right. We were also the first to learn that our rabbi has decided to seek another pulpit, as he feels (with much justification) that it's time for a new challenge. (I had to keep this a secret for several weeks.) The meetings were long, and often on nights when I had better things to do.
But I felt that I was starting to get the hang of it. So with my temproary term as a board member done, I put my name in nomination, again. Like last year, I wasn't sure that I wanted to win. Or so I thought.
See, I didn't win. To my shock, I lost not only to a longtime member who everyone knows well but also to a new member, in the shul less than a year. (Two board members are elected a year, for three-year terms, in rotation.) I was convinced that he had no chance of winning so soon, that I had a really good chance of winning. And to my surprise, it really hurt that I lost.
My first thought was that all the work I had done for the shul, as a member of the kiddush committee and as the shul's ad hoc press officer, was going unnoticed. My second thought was that I simply just don't make myself known in the shul, whereas this new member clearly did. FWIW, a new member won last year as well, and has been a huge asset to the shul, so it's not like I don't think the new member is qualified. I just thought that I had earned my place on the board.
It's funny. I ran for the board initially out of a sense of responsibility. I was not too unhappy that I lost last year. But in the year since then, I think I've started to take pride in what I do for the shul. And I certainly started to feel like people noticed how often I was down in the kitchen with the rest of the committee, especially since we ran the show for two full meals.
But obviously, I didn't stand out. I guess my belief that good work speaks for itself doesn't help if you are modest and also not the more likely to schmooze at the kiddush.
So my time on the board is over. And I am not going to run again any time soon. Clearly, I am not the right kind of person to run for even this minor elective office.
Which doesn't mean I won't keep working for the shul. But I won't expect my work - or the very hard work of my friends on the kiddush committe - to be noticed.
I attended about six meetings in this capacity. It was not fun work. We debated the shul budget; the future of the house the shul owns (with hopes of using it to expand our facilities someday); the tenant in the house who lost his job and couldn't pay rent; the rabbi's salary; and general issues about the future of a small centrist Orthodox shul in a neighborhood drifting fast to the right. We were also the first to learn that our rabbi has decided to seek another pulpit, as he feels (with much justification) that it's time for a new challenge. (I had to keep this a secret for several weeks.) The meetings were long, and often on nights when I had better things to do.
But I felt that I was starting to get the hang of it. So with my temproary term as a board member done, I put my name in nomination, again. Like last year, I wasn't sure that I wanted to win. Or so I thought.
See, I didn't win. To my shock, I lost not only to a longtime member who everyone knows well but also to a new member, in the shul less than a year. (Two board members are elected a year, for three-year terms, in rotation.) I was convinced that he had no chance of winning so soon, that I had a really good chance of winning. And to my surprise, it really hurt that I lost.
My first thought was that all the work I had done for the shul, as a member of the kiddush committee and as the shul's ad hoc press officer, was going unnoticed. My second thought was that I simply just don't make myself known in the shul, whereas this new member clearly did. FWIW, a new member won last year as well, and has been a huge asset to the shul, so it's not like I don't think the new member is qualified. I just thought that I had earned my place on the board.
It's funny. I ran for the board initially out of a sense of responsibility. I was not too unhappy that I lost last year. But in the year since then, I think I've started to take pride in what I do for the shul. And I certainly started to feel like people noticed how often I was down in the kitchen with the rest of the committee, especially since we ran the show for two full meals.
But obviously, I didn't stand out. I guess my belief that good work speaks for itself doesn't help if you are modest and also not the more likely to schmooze at the kiddush.
So my time on the board is over. And I am not going to run again any time soon. Clearly, I am not the right kind of person to run for even this minor elective office.
Which doesn't mean I won't keep working for the shul. But I won't expect my work - or the very hard work of my friends on the kiddush committe - to be noticed.
