Dear Or Chadash Congregants,

We hope you are well and remaining safe during these difficult times. We are looking forward to the time when we can once again meet together for worship and other social events!

Speaking of events, we hope you will join us for our 26th Annual Congregational Meeting. In keeping with current Or Chadash bylaws, we will be voting on the Budget and the slate for the Board of Directors. You will also be asked to review and submit any changes from last year’s Annual Meeting Minutes. Changes should be sent to Secretary@octucson.org no later than noon on Friday, May 21st.

The Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, May 23rd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. via Zoom. Click here to register for the meeting.

The agenda for the meeting will include:

  1. Welcome & Invocation.
  2. Report on our activities during this past year
  3. Announcing recipients of the Ruach award
  4. Results of voting on the proposed
    1. Or Chadash Budget thru December 31, 2021, and
    2. Or Chadash Officers and Board of Directors through December 31, 2021
  5. Updates about plans for High Holy Days and gradual re-opening
  6. Benediction

We discussed the reasons for proposing an extension on our current Budget and our current Board of Directors through December 31st, 2021 at our Town Hall meeting on Sunday, April 18th. We will conduct two Q&A meetings before the May 23rd annual meeting:

  • Thursday, May 13th from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 16 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

You can email questions in advance to Rina Liebeskind.

We understand that asking you to vote on extending our current Budget and Board of Directors is unconventional. There are, however, provisions in the Bylaws for extending the terms of Officers until their successors have been elected. Regarding the attached proposed Budget, you will see that the Budget reflects a deficit. The main reason for this is the extremely conservative projection for dues revenue in the coming months.

Our secretary, Steve Caine, summarized our situation as follows:

What we are experiencing is unprecedented. We are in a pandemic, voted to form a new congregation overwhelmingly and had to place the [consolidation] on hold to ensure we get what we are entitled to [Payroll Protection Program funds]. As a result, we need to extend our individual congregations for an unspecified timeframe. To put the Congregation through a process of nominating and electing a new slate of Officers and Directors for a few months would be confusing at best to explain, and potentially counterproductive. This may not be the ‘perfect’ answer, but I think it is the best one, easiest to explain, and is ethical. We are simply trying to bridge a gap, not enhance our status. The Bylaws never anticipated this.”

As we are still observing COVID-19 precautions, the Annual Meeting will be conducted via Zoom, and voting will be conducted using electionrunner.com. If you prefer to have hard copies of materials, please contact the office M-F, 9:00-1:00 at (520) 512-8500 or email Rina Liebeskind at Admin@octucson.org.

Sincerely,

Elaine Jones, PhD
President		 Thomas A. Louchheim
Rabbi		 Rina Liebeskind
Executive Administrator & Director of Youth Engagement