Friends, a Federation CEO whom I hold in high regard, recently included this in his Shabbat message to his community: "Change and the unknown are hard. There is definitely risk involved....Will our community...and our Federation have the strength to be able to look at the facts and determine changes that are necessary to move our community forward?"
And, just so, a confident professional challenged his community to confront the need for change. Where, my friends, is the same challenge to the leadership of JFNA? When and from whom will that parallel challenge come?
Ponder the challenges as you read on:
1. The following Comment says so much; it is The Emperor's New Clothes 2018:
"Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "CHICKENS ROOSTING -- AGAIN AND AGAIN":
The education unit is a classic “short con” in which a shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact conspiring with the dealer to cheat the mark. The mark has no chance whatsoever of winning, at any point in the game. In fact, anyone who is observed winning anything in the game can be presumed to be a shill.
Think of three-card monte. A confidence game in which the victim, or "mark", is tricked into betting a sum of money, on the assumption that they can find the "money card" or “Lady” among three face-down playing cards. It is the same as the shell game just cards instead of shells.
When you think about Education, you think about classrooms, youth groups, summer camps and the like. But don’t bet on it. The Con Artist in-chief Jerry knows where the lady card is.
He moves the cards so you just can’t tell where the lady is.
Nobody is paying close enough attention.
Everything he has described in the so called Education Unit — replace the word Education with Campaign and voila - you lost your bet.
He didn’t “lie”in the con artist world of telling the truth. He only lied in our more common vernacular of telling the truth as practiced by most of us.
So, the shills play along, and money is added to the regular budget of JFNA.
So JFNA can at least pay out more money and do nothing.
A great way to cover inflationary costs and wasted money on consultants.
A con game instead of FRD.
A con artist instead of a CEO
And a short con instead of a National Organization.
Rabbi P. T. Barnum taught us two lessons:
Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung.
And
A sucker is born every minute"
I have nothing to add.
2. Some of you have asked offline why I haven't offered what you've callled my "two cents" in response to the ejewishphilanthropy piece "Board Chairs Behaving Badly." I commend the article to you -- http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/board-chairs-behaving-badly/ -- you can reach your own conclusions.
But, I would love to ask the authors: have you ever identified Board Chairs who behave badly in multiple categories?
Rwexler
Not one of the names one hears talked about as JFNA's next board chair has the will to challenge the system. After all, that would mean they would need to work hard. That's not in the job description they agreed to re JFNA board service.
ReplyDeleteTo Anon above, who, pray tell, are the candidates that Jerry is considering to replace Sandler?
ReplyDeleteLike Richard, I'm on Jerry's s*** list. I have no idea who he is considering.
ReplyDeleteIf the next board chair is chosen by Silverman, and not an independent-minded nominating committee, one more nail in the coffin of any national organization claiming to represent, well pretty much anyone. It will also be solid proof the LCEs don't care what happens (even if they still throw tens of millions of dollars at 25 Broadway every year).
ReplyDeletePlease print a list of CEOs you hold in "high regard". We'd love positive news.
ReplyDeleteI hold almost all, with a few notable exceptions, Federation CEO's in the highest regard.
ReplyDeleteOf course Jerry is not going to select the next chair. Anyone who works in a non profit knows that the correct approach is to select members to a nominating committee that will do what you tell them to do. Then after your "chosen" candidate is named you advance the name on behalf of the nominating committee. So, the correct question to ask is "Who is on the nominating committee?"
ReplyDeleteYes, "Anyone who works in a non profit knows..." But based on past actions, one can question whether the members of the board know!!! Or, more importantly, do any of them really care about the future of JFNA or are they serving for pure personal ego gratification?
ReplyDeleteThe JFNA Board members know or are charged with knowledge. They just don't give a damn.
ReplyDelete