Community Update
September 27, 2012
Paul Lantz, Federation President

The JCC, JFS and Federation combined boards are pleased to announce that Stuart Forman has been hired as interim Community Executive Director.
As many of your may remember, Stuart is the consultant engaged by the Boards to help us with the merger process.  The Boards felt that by bringing Stuart in at this time we could:
1)   start the process of uniting the agencies;
2)   become more efficient in our operations; and
3)   allow the search committee the time to find the right full time Director for our community.
Stuart served for 17 years as President and CEO of the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center, Inc. (a Federally Qualified Health Center) and more recently as COO of the “Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment” Project, a combined project of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Partners in Health in Boston, MA. He is a professional management consultant and facilitated the 2010 merger of the Jewish Federation of Greater RI, the JCC of Rhode Island and the Bureau of Jewish Education of RI to become the “Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island”. He is currently the President of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford, MA. and is a member of the Advisory Board to the Center for Jewish Culture at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He is Board certified in healthcare management and a Life Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Stuart holds a Master of Education in Counseling Psychology, a PhD in Psychology and Healthcare Administration, and a Master of Science in Jewish Studies. He has done doctoral studies in Jewish studies at Spertus College in Chicago as well and is a graduate of the “Me’ah” certificate program of Hebrew College in Newton, MA. He is formerly Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and is currently Adjunct Instructor in Philosophy at Bristol Community College.
Stuart will be working in Wilkes-Barre 3 days each week and will be available by phone/internet at all other times.  He will continue in this role until a permanent Community Executive Director is hired.
Please join me in welcoming Stuart to the Community.

Governance Task Force Update
July 26, 2012

In an effort to keep you abreast of the work of the Community Governance Task Force we want to provide the following summary: subsequent to the meeting of July 18, at which the Boards of the Federation, JCC, JFS and UHI unanimously voted to move ahead toward the development of a new organizational structure, the Task Force has organized itself to include the representatives of the Federation, JCC and JFS to work on the main merger between those agencies. Once that merger has been accomplished, the UHI will be engaged to form a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with that newly merged organization. As such, we will implement what has been called the “Blended Model” in which the issues of concern of all of the organizations can be addressed in the new governance format. The Federation, JCC, and JFS will be merged into a “single corporation” and the UHI will affiliate with that organization through a “partnership model”.

The representatives of the merging organizations (Federation, JCC, JFS) met on 7/25 to proceed with the work necessary to effect this program. The Task Force decided on mechanisms to engage legal firms to handle the development of the regulatory documents to initiate the new organization, to conduct the necessary due diligence for the merger and for the development of a structure for the management of the assets of the organizations as they merge to become a single corporation.

The Task force organized three sub-committees to write the new By Laws; manage the Legal aspects of the merger (and later the MOU with the UHI); and to write the job description for the new CEO and begin the recruitment process so that the new organizational leader will be hired co-temporaneous with the regulatory filings to legally initiate the new organization.  Each sub-committee is composed of equal representation of the Federation, JCC and JFS.

The Task Force considered recommendations for a new name for the organization, established domain names, and wrote the proposed Values, Vision and Mission statements for the new organization.

The next steps will include the sub-committees meeting to conduct the work above. They will then report back to the full Task Force. Upon preparation of a final set of recommendations regarding the above, the individual merging organizations will receive the Task Force report and be asked for the votes that will be required to merge (including the termination of individual agencies, and transfer of assets to the new organization).

The Board of the new organization will be formed to represent the three merging organizations as well as the community at large and will be responsible for adopting the By Laws, Values, Vision and Mission statements, new name, and acquisition of properties.

We will continue to inform you as our work continues towards a Fall merger.

 

Wilkes‐Barre Jewish Community Governance Task Force

Jewish Federation, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Service, United Hebrew Institute

This update is following up on the community email blast of July 18 when the Federation’s Governance Task Force updated their progress and recommendation for a new community agency organizational structure.

Recently the Boards of the Federation, JCC, JFS and UHI met together for a presentation by Stuart Forman, the governance consultant working with the Task Force. 

Following this presentation the Boards adjourned to hold separate discussions about community governance.

We are pleased to report that what has resulted is a unanimous decision to merge the Federation, JCC and JFS into a new single organization.  In addition UHI will be undertaking a partnership arrangement with this new organization to share efficiencies in back office operations.

This is step 1.  There is now much work to do to make this a smooth and effective transition.  As we move ahead over the next few months we will provide additional updates.

Everyone present at the meeting was excited about the potential efficiencies and effectiveness that should result from this re-organization.

All aspects of the community were well represented – in fact 63 members of the various Boards were in attendance.
 
Barbara Bell, UHI President
Celia Connor, JFS President
Larry Keiser, JCC President
Paul Lantz, Federation President