"PUTTING LIPSTICK ON A PIG"

It's a phrase that I have been told is often heard in auto dealerships. describing taking a "hunk of junk," throwing on a fresh coat of paint, and selling it for the full price. At our fave organization, it's "taking a hunk of junk," calling it something brand new and selling it to the most willing of buyers.  At JFNA, they are putting lipstick on that pig every day. Examples?

• You take the failed ONAD, put "lipstick" on it (for it was a "pig" if there ever was one), call it the Global Planning Table and pray real hard no "buyer" kicks the tires. 
• JFNA fails miserably at Tribefest 1, attracting few of the unaffiliated to whom it was aimed according to all of JFNA's leaders in their presentations, run a $283,000 deficit, throw on some lipstick and call it Tribefest 2, re-aimed at the affiliated, subsidize it with $1 million from the JFNA Budget, another $100,000 from the JFNA Endowment, attract about the same numbers, stack it with Young Leadership Cabinet members and pitch it as an unequalled success.
• Here's a beaut. You know the fiasco that is the Global Planning Table. At present in one GPT so-called "Work Group," JFNA leadership has rejected the inclusion of the word "Zionism" in the Preamble of the Work Group's work-product. And, why, would the "leaders" reject including the word "Zionism" in our JFNA's document? "Because 'Zionism' is too controversial."  Is this CEO Jerry's verdict? Ms. Manning's? JoAnne Moore's? Some "consultant's?" David Butler's? Where does a conclusion like this one arise -- the phone booth in which this decision was made? They'll need a whole shovel-full of lipstick to paint this pig.

• JFNA puts lipstick on the pig trumpeting the success of the recently completed 2013 Campaign Chairs and Directors Mission when only 32 communities participated and after JFNA cut the Mission subsidy. Instead of asking the seminal question of "why are we down from 85 communities" but a few years ago, JFNA just paints over the beautiful original "lips" with more of its specialties: gloss and ignorance. When you are down from 57% of federations participating to 20%, you had better have a lot of lipstick to cover it up. 

 There are more and more examples, unfortunately. But just remember the rest of the saying: "But you know that when you put lipstick on a pig, at the end of the day, it's still a pig." And one that costs $30.3 million per year, a lot of it the cost of lipstick.

Sooooey!!

Rwexler

My apologies to al those who are offended by the mere thought of traif.