Wednesday, October 31, 2018

UIA ON THE BRINK

A colleague in some degree of shock sent this to me:



"To:         UIA Board of Directors

From:    Andy Groveman, Chair
               David Mallach, Executive Vice chair

RE:         UIA Board of Directors

DATE:    October 12, 2018

Customarily at this time of year, you would be receiving a letter from UIA regarding your future status as a member of the UIA Board of Directors.  As discussed at a number of our meetings over the past 7 months, JFNA established a committee to examine the entire area of its global operations, including the relationship between JFNA, UIA and the Jewish Agency. In the deliberations of the Global Operations Review Committee, many issues have been examined which could have implications for the structure and governance of United Israel Appeal, Inc. The UIA Board will have ample opportunity to review and comment on the report before it is presented to the leadership of JFNA.

In the context of these potential developments, the UIA Nominations Committee met. It recommended that the current Board and Officers of UIA remain in place until the January 2019 meeting of the JFNA Board of Trustees, at which time it is likely that the final recommendations of the committee that are ultimately agreed upon will be presented to the JFNA board for formal action.  At that point or during the few weeks prior, we will have an opportunity to decide on how best to respond to whatever decisions are taken.

At the meeting of the UIA Executive Committee on October 10, 2018, it was unanimously voted to accept the recommendations of the Nominating Committee and leave the current Board members and Officers in place at this time and we hope that you will agree and continue to serve as a member of the UIA Board of Directors until there is a resolution on the governance structure going forward. As stipulated in the UIA Bylaws, if no board members are chosen by the JFNA board and no new officers are selected by the UIA Board, then the current ones remain in place until such time as they are replaced.

We believe that this approach is in the best interests of the UIA, JFNA and the Jewish Agency at this time and hope that you will agree to continue to serve as a member of the UIA Board of Directors..."
There can be little doubt that the UIA Chair is fully familiar with the terms of the "Global Operations Committee Report;" yet, true to JFNA "tradition," it's "confidential" until JFNA determines in its sole discretion that it's not. 

One has to ask: given its abysmal results, whom in their wisdom would willingly permit more power to accrete to JFNA after the secrecy, the waste over the past decade? Well, we'll soon know. Recall that UIA secured and has well-managed the US Refugee Grant that has meant tens of millions to JAFI; that its Israel staff has performed with excellence (both absolutely and in contrast to rest of the bloated, failed JFNA-Israel operation); and, probably unknown to the current group of JFNA leaders, half of the UIA Budget is reimbursed to JFNA-UIA by JAFI. So if this is about UIA's cost, this Global Operations Study thing ought to be spending all of its time studying the stultifying waste of JFNA-Israel.

Both JFNA and UIA have done a terrible job over the past five years at least in explaining the value added provided by UIA -- value-added that far exceeds UIA's "cost" to the federation system. Put this in the same category as JFNA's failed advocacy on behalf of JDC/WorldORT/JAFI -- a failure of responsibility.

Since the merger almost two decades ago, a succession of United Israel Appeal Chairs -- Jane Sherman, yours truly, Bruce Arbit, Rich Bernstein -- had been forced to step forward to defend UIA's role as principal to the JAFI agent and to defend its fiduciary responsibilities under a series of IRS Revenue Rulings against periodic attempts at JFNA usurpation. None of us wished to be in a position adverse to JFNA's. (Before my first meeting as UIA Chair, I was interrogated by JFNA's Chairs seeking assurance that I would "cooperate" in ways that they perceived Jane Sherman had not. I assured Joe Kanfer and Kathy Manning that they would have my support so long as they did not usurp UIA's functions. It took them all of two weeks to violate that assurance. Matters got worse from there.)

If does not take a seer to read between the lines of UIA Chair Andy Groveman's Memo to the UIA Board -- the end result of this "process" will not serve the interests of JAFI, UIA, JFNA, the federations or our donors.

A far more perceptive reader, commenting Anonymously to our Post, Questions Abound, spelled it out perfectly:


"So the task force that was set up to study JFNA operations in Israel and related activity has its recommendations ready, although they are not yet being released for now so as not to spoil the GA (as if it would matter).
One wonders what this document is going to suggest, although there is probably very little room for optimism. 

Since active lay involvement is something that is not appreciated by the powers that be, we can expect yet another attempt to destroy UIA and to make it just another department operationally and to crush its ability to really include any meaningful proactive lay leadership and advocacy functions. Having gotten rid of UJA after the merger, there will almost certainly be an attempt to finish the job by 'merging' UIA into the 'professionally' led wasteland where lay leadership have no real role.

As for the operations of the JFNA 'Global' empire in Israel, they probably won't touch the untouchable and will allow the empire-building trend of the past decade to continue unscathed, wasting our resources and accomplishing nothing at all that could be considered as being a positive contribution to the federations, to Israel or even to JFNA itself. That is unless one takes into account the wonderful feeling and illusion that we are overseeing the Knesset and the Israeli Government, while creating new and innovative programs and alliances to further philanthropic causes in Israel (Gee, that really sounds impressive!). The only important function of an Israel and Overseas department or unit should be advocacy in North America and the providing Israel and Overseas programming resources to federations, not trying to run its own lobbying and programming activities in Israel.

So, after the GA circus we will be seeing the task force report and recommendations (if they decide to really share them). Maybe we will be pleasantly surprised but more likely not. The big question is whether we will stand up and fight or just sit back and watch the continued irreversible destruction of any meaningful collective continental communal organization.  

Then again, maybe it will just be a wonderful report and we can all just say 'aye' to it. Or maybe it will be a disaster and we will all say 'aye' anyway so as not to make waves and rock the boat.

Time will tell."
In the negotiations of the merger that ultimately subjected UIA to subsidiary status, Shoshana Cardin, z'l, UIA Chair  and Danny Allen, then UIA Executive Vice-Chair (for the first time), fought with incredible passion to preserve UIA's critical role as interface between donors, federations and the Jewish Agency. In my role, I helped to force the merger upon UIA -- for which I have constantly apologized and attempted to atone. I am proud of the resistance that my predecessors and successors as UIA Chair* demonstrated in asserting that UIA's role would not be diminished any more than it already had been. 

The question now (and for the past two (is that all) years is whether the current United Israel Appeal leadership has the strength and tenacity to assure that UIA's roles -- those that they have fulfilled so well -- are protected. 

All signs point to "no."

Rwexler

* My own private, then public, "resistance" so offended JFNA's leaders that I was forced out as Chair.













11 comments:

  1. What part of this is "great news"? Sounds like it will be a big disaster to me if they get away with it.

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  2. They cannot get rid of the work and function of UIA because it provides a necessary and important function and an irreplacable service to donors and federations.
    What they can do, unless they are stopped, is to kill the heart of UIA, its activist lay leadership model and its advocacy role. It would indeed be a shame if they are allowed to succeed in this misguided crusade. We shouldn't allow that to happen!

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  3. Anon 3:03 offered an important point. Readers should know that at the time of the merger, we were most sensitive to and most concerned with UIA's work at the interfeace of federations, donors (through IEF) and JAFI and UIA's position under a series of IRS Revene Rulings as the IRS-approved principal to JAFI's agent. We would not place the deductibility of our donors' charitable contributions at risk. Over the last two deqades there have been JFNA lay and professional leaders perfectly willing to place all of this at risk to satisfy nothing more but their greed for more and more and more exclusive power -- powwr which, by the way, these leaders proved time and again they were unable to wield in a transparent manner in the interests of our donors and of JAFI.

    Readers should also know that neither the JFNA Task Force nor it consultants have interviewed any of those of us who have the history and understanding so necessary to a meaningful conclusion. Why am I not surprised?

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  4. It is mind-boggling that the leaders of JFNA would consider themselves capable of absorbing UIA functions in any way when they have proved they cannot manage thir own responsibilities.

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  5. And Richard, therein lies the rub:
    This ridiculous consulting agreement is a scam.
    Were JFNA's leaders serious about figuring out how to articulate JFNA's worth to the federations, this $450,000 project would have been all encompassing, including the relationship of UIA, etc.
    And, their interview schedule would have been much broader.
    It appears that this project was worked out with an assumption of the conclusion as the starting point.
    I have heard that it is being used as a justification for a restructuring of the dues schedule, which I hope is not the case.
    Most telling would be who JFNA recommended to be interviewed, and on what topics.

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  6. Anon. 8:13 a.m. is right on. This consultancy willturn out to be a made as instructed effort. A consuting organization with no background in community or federation, a single Chair of the two Task Forces who has proved to be, in the view of JFNA's "leaders," pliable in all previous leadership roles (and he's already been promoted to Treasurer). This will be an exercise in futility at no small cost.

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  7. The report will no doubt say that UIA needs to be turned into a puppet organization with no independent board and no advocacy role. They will likely say that the regularory, fudiciary and oversight functuons of UIA need to continue but will suggest that JFNA supervise and control them.
    It will also probably leave the bloated Israel office more or less intact and independent, as if we really need to spend so much money to supposedly "monitor" the Knesset and the Prime Minister's Office and to produce important memos and reports that, like Fedworld, simply repeat information that appears in the public media. At least for as long as the current CEO is around, the Israel Empire and its "leader" will certainly remain unsupervised, unmanaged and untouchable.
    Sounds like a hostile takover more than zeroo based budgeting to me!

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  8. The report must be exactly what the powers that be wanted. After all, they have already rewarded the Chair of the committee who allowed them to get this done with a promotion to join them up on high.
    The report has not even been released or presented for consideration and aoproval yet but the general direction has been leaked and the major elements seem to be well known.
    We shouldn't be surprised that JFNA staffers could and would pen such a proposal but it is totally unbelievable that the lay committee members were willing to go along and sign off on this.Their infamous place in history is assured.
    There are enough experienced lay leaders out there that were not consulted and who understand what is at stake. Will anyone stand up and oppose this or will everyone just be "nice" and let them get away with it?
    Richard, please keep looking into this and writing about it. Maybe if enough people are led to understand what is at stake it will be possible to defeat this attempt to get this misguided report approved and implemented.

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  9. United Israel appealing is approaching is 95th birthday of service to the Jewish people and the state of Israel. What the report is suggesting is to put it on hospice care until it can’t be finally laid to rest. One of the greatest mistakes of the merger was The illumination of so many lay leaders In all categories. This was especially the case of the united Israel appeal. Prior to merger it was the only table on the philanthropic side of supporting Israel where federation, Zionist organization’s, and all the religious movements of our people sat on one board. That single fact almost more than anything is what was lost and forcing the merger.

    Truth be told Jewish agency shares and the responsibility for the troubles of the united Israel appeal . The agency should stand up to the JFNA and say clearly united Israel appeal not only has value was so much so that we are going to Enable it full independence.

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  10. richard, does anyone within your readership believe that UIA's current leadership is going tostand up for UIA? Asking for a friend.

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