Friday, September 25, 2015

A WELCOME DEPARTURE FROM FANTASYLAND

I congratulate our friends at the wonderful ejewishphilanthropy for another prodigious achievement -- this time publishing a series of interviews by the brilliant professional leader, Misha Galperin, who posed a series of questions  to federation/system leaders. And, it is to Misha's credit that, like any good reporter, he just let these leaders speak in their own words without the necessity of commentary or observation. But...I will offer some...


  • The current JFNA Board Chair, Michael Siegal, is a mensch. And I know that it was not long after he assumed the Board Chair position (yes, my choice of wording here is poor) that he realized that if there were to be any chance of moving JFNA forward during his three year Terms that two actions at a minimum would have to occur: (1) there would have to be a change in the CEO/President position; and (2) the waste that was the Global Planning Table would have to be ended. He began these two processes with all good intentions by first creating professional "bench strength" under Silverman in the persons of Mark Gurvis and Renee Rothstein whom Silverman was told to hire and, then...well, stuff happened. There was organized pushback from Kathy Manning and her claque (after all this hire was all she "accomplished" over her three years; and there were no experienced candidates who would agree to succeed Silverman (and there were those who were asked). As to the GPT: it self-destructed as any top-down dictated mess would have been -- but, on Michael's watch (again over the objections of Manning), it's over. It took too long and wasted millions...but, it's over.
  • But, now, as the end of Siegal's terms are upon us, he appears to be living in some virtual  Alice in Wonderland world -- a place of tiny bubbles and unicorns, the only place where JFNA is successfully leading a whole bunch of successful federations, where all federations are willingly paying their Dues, a place where Jerry Silverman is a successful CEO. In other words....no place on this earth. I mean, Michael, really? When Michael cites that "[L]eadership requires decisions and accountability for those decisions," was he speaking to his own "accountability" for the decision to extend the JFNA CEO's contract? If so, "accountability" would have required Michael to resign, wouldn't it? Then, Siegal writes about that which JFNA and the federations should be without for a second reflecting on the reality that they aren't...and that a major part of the reason they "aren't" is the organization he was elected to lead.
  • Then there is the incoming Board Chair. I have heard so many terrific things about Richard Sandler; I am eagerly awaiting his installation in November. While I have read his narrative, his vision, of a lay leader's and a Federation's responsibilities in ejp, I choose to believe in the Richard Sandler as I and others have come to know him -- as a decisive leader who doesn't suffer fools. To Richard Sandler Federation should be a kinder/gentler place (never a bad idea) that he apparently believes they are not now -- a "partner/convener...touching and working with all other organizations" and,  thereby "...strengthen(ing) the Jewish community based upon Jewish values." He sees federations as "think tanks" identifying the organizations that are best meeting communal needs and funding those. (In my community and yours, isn't that what federation allocations have always done?) While Richard rejects the premise that federations are general "fundraising organizations," he went on to state in response to Misha Galperin that "Federations raise funds for a purpose and that purpose needs to be clearly defined." As the Board Chair of our second largest community, he has demonstrated in deed -- not in word clearly, but in deed -- that he understands and appreciates the strength and value of the lay-professional partnership; he values a strong and thoughtful and creative professional leader. Further, unlike his predecessors as Board Chair, he will not sit idly by and merely pretend that all is well when it isn't.

Holy shit!! Up to the moment of Richard Sandler's election, for the previous three times. the selection of the JFNA Board Chair appeared to have had to be, as The Wall Street Journal's Jason Guy described the selection of the new quarterback(s) of the once woebegone New York Jets football team: "...like pulling a ticket at the deli counter of failure." No, it doesn't have to be that way, of course. It just was; I believe that with Richard Sandler's election, it is no longer.

To this point in time our ultimate leaders have too often been either those parachuted into continental leadership who remain bewildered for the three years of service or they come in like a Manning, with a personal agenda that ends up trumping their responsibilities to the federations -- they exemplify just why our continental organization has sunk like the Titanic. Richard Sandler can be the leader we have been waiting for for so long.

He had better be.


Rwexler

20 comments:

  1. Sandler's response on ejp was disappointing. His notion that lay people should hire a good exec and then get out of her way flys in the face of everything that was once right about lay/professional relations. I fear Richard that you are once again singing the praise of an incoming chair only to be betrayed once again by cluelessness and indifference. Reform will come from the mobilization of the many not some white knight. And while Misha's survey was indeed predictably well structured the most profound responses were the silence of those LCE's too self important and self absorbed to participate in the forum.

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  2. Lay leadership must oversee and guide our professionals - not just select them and then let them call all the shots.
    This requires lay "leaders" - not just lay "people." They must set the objectives, goals, strategies and policy - then oversee implementation. They must set the highest possible standards and demand that they be maintained.
    What we now have and must correct is a situation where too much power is in the hands of the Executive Directors as opposed to Chairpeople and Board Members.
    We need proactive leadership that demands accountability and results at all levels.
    We need for those that care to first believe in themselves and then to get together and change the paradigm, change the rules, change the game.

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  3. I think that Anon 11:56 is 100% correct. When pros started being called President and CEO the wrong messege was sent. I was privileged to work with some of the best and most effective leaders of our day: Shoshana Cardin, Marty Stein, Herschel Blumberg, Norman Lipoff, Frank Lautenberg, Jimmy Baer, to name a few. They are missed.

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  4. Richard, if you read what Richard Sandler wrote responding to the Galperin questions in ejp, then one would presume you to be naive at best. Is Richard Sandler really the lay leader who will stop this clown car from hurdling toward disaster; does he have the will and the interest to rip the steering wheel from the one who has been allowed to drive the car with no sense of where he is going or why? I doubt it.

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  5. Based on the LA experience, the answer to the questions asked in latest comment is NO!

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  6. Clearly those who are critical have no idea what has been happening in LA.

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  7. The ultimate questions: is Richard Sandler the leader who will demand excellence and professionalism to the office of JFNA CEO, something sorely lacking for what? A decade? Or, from a distance of thousands of miles will Jerry be insulated from any scrutiny (other than yours Richard) gifted with another three years of know-nothing, do-nothing nonsense that has doomed JFNA to the dust bin of history? I see nothing in what Sandler said to Galperin to suggest that he's the man to make a difference. I hope I am wrong.

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  8. Change at JFNA is impossible without the buy-in of certain LCE's who are perfectly happy to have a do-nothing, know-nothing CEO at the top of JFNA. And I, for one, don't see Sandler challenging them.

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  9. There is indeed a need to decrease the influence of the LCEs and give JFNA back to lay leadership.
    The new Chair can perhaps lead the charge but will need lots of support to succeed.
    The redefinition of JFNA will require a strong group of deficated lay leaders. They certainly exist and can make us great again if they are willing to stand up and be counted - to rock the boat a little bit!
    No need to fear rocking the boat because if we don't it wil no doubt sink very soon.
    We need to get back into the fundraising campaign business and restore a disciplined UJA model to support overseas needs. This needs to again become the core mission which everything we do serves.
    We need to trust our overseas partners to get the job done just as we trust local agencies in our communities to do what they do - not blindly supporting them but through proper governance and oversight over all beneficiaries that we support.
    .

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  10. The LCE's should be running their own local federations (under the direction and control of local lay leadership). JFNA should free itself of their exaggerated and often biased and conflicted influence and allow a true national lay leadership structurevto take control.

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  11. Wait ... pros can't be President and CEO or they can't be called President or CEO? We don't have any good leaders today? Yes, yes, they were great in the past, they will be missed ... but no one today? Really?

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  12. Anon at 10:50 has a challenge to answer: how do you build a "true national lay leadership structure" without the local federations? That's more than a contradiction, it's an impossibility.

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  13. Has Sandler challenged his President-and-CEO?

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  14. Richard,
    There are a lot of comments about what happened in LA. Might be worth your investigative powers to find out what exactly happened there.

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  15. Putting aside the enjoyable negativity for a moment -- there are some terrific pros out there. Why don't you profile some of them and help restore some pride in those who are coming up after our generation.

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  16. to Anon 3:17:
    no contradiction at all between strong local federations and a strong national lay leadership structure. We need strong local federations with strong lay leadership and these same local federation leaders - past and present - need to get together to steer JFNA.
    to Anon 3:24:
    Of course there are some top notch pros out there. Except perhaps for one of them that might be drafted by national lay leadership to become a pro for the national organization, the rest of them should stay at home and keep doing a great job for their local federations rather than meddling with the national organization. There should be regional and national forums for federation professionals to consult with each other and interact but federation professionals are not needed and should not have seats on national lay committees.
    For the system to function properly we need to remember who should be running the show and who works for who.

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  17. Meddling. That's hilarious. And foolish.

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  18. So layleaders would be steering but pros would be meddling? Shame on you. It's called a lay-pro partnership, not a dictatorship.

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  19. I cannot respond with specificity to those who apparently challenge the notion that the aJewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has progressed in the process of true change...but I do know: the number of donors has increased as has fund-raising for the Annual Campaign; and, more than giving lip service to engagement with young leaders, the JFGLA has elevated a significant number to Federation Board service. These are not minor change but real change.

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  20. Why don't you ask (a) how many were fired and under what circumstances (b) is this valid (c) has the number of donors risen comparative to what was promised (d) what roles do the next gen actually play on the Board and (e) what is the real growth compared to what could be achieved

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