"Plan B is firing whoever was responsible for Plan A"
As we are now on the cusp of another poorly attended and poorly programmed General Assembly and so many of you will be attending (wondering all the while: "why am I here?"), I thought it would be timely to engage in some serious retrospection and introspection. And, if you disagree with mine, please let me know why and how.
My take:
- Under the so-called "leadership" of the past 8+ years, JFNA has become the institutional equivalent of the Black Knight in Monty Python and The Holy Grail -- you remember "no arms, no legs, a stump in the road yelling at people." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno True, JFNA leaders don't yell, they send letters, but they are but a stump.
- JFNA disproves the absolute truth that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
- As the Mayor of San Juan put it in an even more serious context: "You are killing us with indifference." And indifference is exactly what JFNA leadership shows 24/6 to its owners (except the privileged few) and to its own Board. As they think "all is great" there is no need to engage, to disclose, to reflect, to hold accountable.
- In reviewing the disastrous first week of the new NBC show, Megyn Kelly TODAY, one critic observed: "The problem is that this show doesn't just need a renovation, it needs to be torn down to the foundation and rebuilt." AFTER ONE WEEK. And, here we are in the EIGHTH YEAR of this shitstorm and the GA is going to listen to "Words of Wisdom" as the Program describes them -- from the CEO.
- Can anyone point to any evidence of the intellectual or management acuity anywhere at 25 Broadway necessary to turn JFNA around? Rhetorical question. JFNA has been in the process for 8 years of dying by a thousand self-imposed cuts.
- We hear and read so much today about Donald Trump “playing only to his base.” If you think about it, that’s the same game that JFNA is playing — a shrinking “base” of insiders and a few LCE…and nobody else matters, nobody else is engaged, no one else’s voice is sought or, G-d forbid, considered. This has led to the death of engagement and support.
- Remarkably JFNA has achieved anonymity — what it does, other than the excellent work in Washington and on the ground in Houston, unknown beyond a thin veneer of lay and professional leadership; its work, if there is any, hidden from view, often behind a false claim of "confidentiality." I remember a GA in Toronto in 2005 when Howard Rieger, then the CEO, at a Consulting Services Committee meeting, provided the Committee with a brilliant and proud recitation of what was then UJC's annual achievements. I asked Howard to provide the Plenary with that list and, for reasons known only to him, he did not do so. Today, 12 years later, there is no list.
- Why do JFNA's lay leaders and federation CEOs believe that their best practice in light of all of JFNA's problems and issues is to stick their collective head in the sand and leave it there?
- Sadly JFNA is untethered to either purpose or vision. Its leaders, flitting from shiny object to shiny object, never completing a program or a "campaign," have no interest in the building blocks of successful communal organizations, the building blocks on which they built/sustained their home communities.
- Healthy organizations -- for-profit or non-profit -- should operate in an environment of constant reassessment. At JFNA there is none. All of us know that were there, wholesale changes would follow.
Let me leave this topic with this: Do not go where the path may lead; go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have a meaningful General Assembly. Do something. Demand accountability. DEMAND CHANGE.
Rwexler
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14 comments:
Richard, the blood spewing forth from the knight each time a limb was hacked off is what comes to my mind from that Holy Grail scene: in JFNA's case it's the flight of talented professionals that have left JFNA since Jerry took over that has spewed forth from 25 Broadway.
Regarding your last sentence, unfortunately nothing is going to happen, nobody is going to stand up at the board meeting and ask a question and demand accountability, which was Jerry's mantra when he joined the organization. Sorry, but that's a reality.
What will make someone at JFNA take notice is the withholding of dues, plain and simple.
Perhaps there are a few federations, or maybe just one, who will have the courage to speak up and share their frustration with others, and get that snowball rolling down the hill.
Like the National organization, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is without purpose. Everything is "spun" to show the good things rather than the things that aren't getting done. Since the present professional leadership took over, they've accomplished nothing, campaign in decline and professionals coming and going at a record pace. The top level campaign staff barely donate to the annual campaign and in a case or two don't even contribute. The volunteers are clueless about the inner goings on at the JFGP. Philadelphia was never a shining star in the JFNA galaxy but today the light is barely evident.
Sorry,Richard, there's no "Plan B' at JFNA because there was never a "Plan A." Silverman had and has no plan whatsoever; Sandler wouldn't know a Plan if it came up and landed in his lap. If the federations just stopped funding JFNA no one would even notice it was gone. And that's a pity because we need a strong engaged continental entity. Instead we have this shtick dreck.
It's clear from the Comment at 9:54 that what you've identified as "JFNA in microcosm" extends to federations like Philadelphia (and it should be noted that the prior administration, under a CEO who just never had it from Day 1, wasfailure personified). So how could one expect failing federationsn to identify the failure that is JFNA without pointing the spotlight at themselves. So they turn away, send the outrageous Dues, expect nothing of JFNA and receive exactly that.
As comments relate to the current complement of C suite executives in the Federation system, let us remember that you get what you develop. Capable professionals must be trained, gain experience and be nurtured by our Federations so that individuals understand just what Federations are sanctioned to do. Parachuting hasn't and will not work. There is no question that "outside" candidates are bright, caring and exceptional, but do they understand the work of Federation? Is it fair to those individuals and our Federations to have on the job learning? Many federations have gone adrift simply because their leaders do not understand the work. Keep hiring academics, attorneys, real estate developers and individuals from United Ways and that is what you'll get. Federations should fill a certain role but if leadership, both volunteer and professional, don't understand the "job" should we be surprised by the results. Volunteer leadership take note. Our collective relevance depends on it.
Regarding Anon 3:54;
This states another case for JFNA representing nothing perfectly.
They close down Mandel and so the institutional memory of the professional staffs in federations will disappear, and the hiring and on-boarding process will be taken over by other companies.
And although JFNA runs ILead every summer, it wouldn't surprise me if that goes down the tubes next because continuing education of federation professionals will not be part of JFNA's mission statement; which, by the way, is what?
In the end, the federations are getting what they deserve and pay for.
Some of us demanding significant changes in our country had a means to do so yesterday at the ballot box. A start in the right direction.
What are the means by which changes can actually occur to our Federated system and JFNA? The system is not a democratic one and there are no ballot boxes.
What used to be both a Movement and a "system" is now but a shadow of what once was. And it is clear that unlike the days of uja and CJF, JFNA has both no interest in serving the needs of the federated communities nor the ability to do so were it so inclined. So as federation pros are consigned to FedCentral's networking to solve issues (usually the most mundane), there is no lace at JFNA HQ for federation lay and pro leaders to turn for counsel on anything. And, instead of supporting the efforts of a Pro, JFNA offers nothing as in all things. This is the worst of times.
A delegation of lay and professional leaders must organize at the GA and demand a meeting with Sandler and Shapira alone. This actually occurred during the earliest days of whatis now JFNA. Then the federation leaders demanded immediate changes. Thereafter Steve Hoffman succeeded Steve Solender and for acouple of years we actially saw progress. And, now, the continental organization has reached a nadir that no one could have predicted (it's even worse than Wexler predicted it would be). It is time for a "come to Jesus" meeting, past time actually. Stand up and be counted.
Based on the past year, Sandler and Shapira might listen but they're not going to do anything to right the sinking ship.
It has all been said. Now is the time to do something about it.
We need to make this GA in LA a historic event by disrupting it!
Change is not going to happen unless we stop being polite and begin to make it happen.
Nobody will miss anything if the GA program gets scrapped and is replaced by a series of
activities whose ultimate purpose is to save our communal institutions and to reaffirm our commitment to collective responsibility for each other and the Jewish People.
umm...how do so many know the GA won't be valuable before it has happened? Looking at the program there are a lot of sessions that have genuine potential -- they may be awful or useful. I'm sure everyone on the blog will be there to learn and see for themselves, right?
Thank you JFNA team for your impartial insight.
I'd like Anon 10:47 to please share what he/she is smoking with the rest of us who read this blog.
Lay Leaders stand up and demand change? All of a sudden those on the JFNA Board or not, who have sat idly by for 7+ years of Silverman, are now going to find their voices?
You are talking about a different time/culture/leadership back when the Hoffman/Solender thing happened.
As someone has stated recently, the only way something will happen is if enough federations declare that they are withholding their dues until they see some benefit for their communities coming out of 25 Broadway.
That being said, I'm looking forward to that toke.
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