Ask that if you did not sign in when you came in. We are trying to keep a list because it's going to help us with the quorum and the count. So if you didn't sign in, please do sign your name in the table right out front of the sanctuary doors. There were also, I think everyone got a ballot, as well as the, annual report.	
So if you didn't, if you missed it, feel free to pick it up. If there's still a copy or share. But we will get started with the, presentation part of the program. There's ample opportunity to ask questions throughout. There is a microphone up front. And so if you do have a question at some point, you know, raise your hand and come up to the microphone so that everyone can hear you.	
We are also live streaming it. So Brad is monitoring the live stream for anyone who might be participating at home. They were probably very bored for the last 35 minutes. I'm sorry. Perks of coming in person. We're going to begin, the presentation with some opening remarks and our Torah from Rabbi Goldman.	
Thank you. Brad. And I also want to say there are three cards going around. So if you have not yet, signed the card. I actually think that Gary's table needs it. Next. Thank you to for signing those cards. So it is it's a great feeling in here tonight. It's really good to see everybody. And 49 days ago, we were in this very room together because it was the second night of Passover.	
And so we began by counting the number, for night number one. And how fortuitous that our annual meeting is on night 49. So we were going to count the final night together. And thank you, specifically to Rachel has been, a champion of the OMA this year. So thank you so much for keeping us on our P's and Q's.	
This week. In the oma. So it's the seventh week. And as the sun goes down, it will be the seventh day of the seventh week. Motherhood, Shabbat, motherhood, sovereignty. Kingship within kingship. Another way of of saying manhood is Shekinah, which is the feminine divine presence. So the 10th spira in the Kabbalistic system and motherhood refers to the sense of God as presence, a presence that suffuses the world.	
Never was the presence of God felt as deeply as it was at Sinai. We approach the celebration of that revelation as we approach it. We might ask what mitzvah might call to me, call to me with a mysterious force? What special teaching of Torah do I want to concentrate on in the coming year? How do I hear the calling of my soul, the calling of the divine?	
And then a few quotes from pure quote, which is it is also a tradition to, to read at this time of year. Share my taught, set a fixed time for Torah study, speak little but do much, and welcome everyone with good cheer. Bean bag, bag tot. Turn it this way, turn it that for everything is to be found in it.	
And the it here is Torah. So turn it, turn it and turn it again. And then finally, Rabbi Janina been tradition taught. When two people sit and discuss Torah, the Shekinah hovers between them. I have to check my little cheat sheet in here. Now.	
And I'd like to, say a prayer for the community. Now, in closing, so also from our cedar.	
So there are many prayers that we can say on Shabbat. And generally here we say the prayer for the United States, the prayer for Israel, and the prayer for peace. There also, there's also a prayer for the renewal of creation, which we should probably incorporate. And tonight we're going to do the two prayers that are on page 76.	
I will do a prayer now for the congregation. May heaven bestow deliverance on this holy congregation, the adults and their children. May kindness, love and compassion, a long life, abundant provision and sustenance from heaven, bodily health and spiritual enlightenment be their lot. May their children thrive, never ceasing to speak words of Torah, nor ever neglecting them. May the sovereign of the universe bless you according you.	
A full life. Add to your days and grant you a long life. May you be freed of all distress and difficult circumstances now and always. May the master in heaven sustain you at all times and at all seasons. And let us say together I mean.	
Thank you very much, Rabbi. Oh, there's more.	
I forgot to actually count the Omer. I'm sorry. Some people were looking. I may even have my counter here. Okay, so, Ruth, and if you want to stand up, please stand by Ruth a chat. I don't know, I he knew me well, a share, a keychain over mitzvah time with Ivana. I'll city rat. Ha! Oh, mayor.	
Hi, Yom. Tisha. Chava. By Yom Shaham. Sheva Sheva wrote on here. So it's been seven weeks of the Omer. And tomorrow night, when the sun goes down, we will start Shabbat out and we will celebrate it as a community. On Friday morning here for services. And then with TB as the entire Jewish community on Friday night, with some learning in honor of Chanute, and Shabbat services and of course, pizza, because it is the dairy holiday.	
So you may be seated.	
Thank you. Rabbi. I hope everyone is excited about Shavuot. I know Rachel is, It's the pizza and the ice cream. It is the dairy. I'm sorry. If you're lactose intolerant, they may have lactose and, you know, say, pizza. We'll see.	
And Rachel is pointing out that, this coming Shabbat, which is still shovel out, there will be, an extended, a nice kiddush. So don't miss it if you if you cannot. So I want to go through, some recent highlights. I know many people were here for many of these events, but it's useful to go through a quick I don't think it's useful to go through a quick tour of some of our major accomplishments over the past year.	
In life's busy moments, it's easy to lose track of all the things that, despite our relatively small size, we were able to pull off. With aplomb. And I think we all want to, give ourselves a covered, for being able to do so. We are a tight community. We managed to do quite a lot that a lot of other congregations.	
And I know this from the president's listserv, are quite envious. So I think everyone should, should, you know, afterwards, give yourself a pat on the back. So very quickly, and if you can't quite see the screen now, you know, it could be a time to come up or, you know, bring binoculars next time. That's an option, too.	
I want to start off by, giving a mazel tov to some of the major symbols that we have, been able to celebrate in the past year. And that includes the bar mitzvah of Jonah Weiner. Son of Adam and Allison. Last fall. Yep. You can can pass. Absolutely. And keep it going, because just earlier this month, we also celebrated the mitzvah of, Jonah's cousins, Nora and Phoebe, daughters of Rob and Whitney.	
We also thank you. And, we also celebrated in March the other of of of Sydney angel, daughter of Allen Michel to Josh Newman. That is we don't normally get that many, but a mitzvah or for us. So like three in the span of 12 months is pretty good for us. And also, this is very important, for me as president of the congregation and for Rabbi Goldman, she's about to complete her first three years, at the congregation of Moses.	
And normally, that's the time when, we we renegotiate a contract. And I'm pleased to say that we did so successfully. And Rabbi Goldman will be with us for at least the next five years.	
So that is that is very exciting and an excellent news that we will continue to have spiritual leadership. I want to go through quickly some of the other events, that have taken place. One of the major ones that took place last summer, almost a year ago, in this very room, was a tribute to some of our, long term members who have given so much to the synagogue.	
And I have some photos up there that we celebrated because we're Jews. We celebrate with food. So we celebrated with food and kibitzing. And these members include Emily Hoffman, who is here, Phil Rauch was here, and Richard Kirshner, who are here. Lee Kligman and Al Rosenthal, Wilmer Kohn and Judy Davis, Rosenthal, Zichron Utley, Raja.	
So without the contributions of of these members, we would be, a poorer place in all that we do. And it was very nice to come together to celebrate them last year. Not all of it is always good news. For some of you may remember that, Labor Day last year was a period of time of severe thunderstorms.	
You might remember, because you can see it in your yard to this day. We were not unaffected by that. And both our cemetery and the building here were affected by the storms due to falling trees. We lost power briefly. There were some trees falling that caused some damage, both in the cemetery and most notably here, to our building down that wing.	
I'm pleased to say that, we were able to repair all of this damage at relatively low cost, which in this case does not mean nothing. It was still in the four figures, but we were glad that it was in the four figures and not in the five figures. So, we we have had some, crews come out and review and try to make sure that we're not at imminent risk of other trees falling.	
We're going to continue to do that, but it is something to be aware of that severe weather is is definitely affecting us. And that means that we need to keep that in mind for our budget, because stuff happens and we need to be able to repair it. Shifting tone to happier events. We also, thanks to the efforts of of Rachel House, we're able to have a visit from, children's author and illustrator.	
And she's not exclusively a children's author and illustrator, but she mostly is Emily, Bo and Cohen, who came last November. And she both presented to the religious school and to, many adults in the sanctuary behind you. Many of you probably remember, she is both Jewish and a member of of the Muskogee, tribe. And, she talked about her identity, growing up with both of those, roles in her life.	
And it was very fascinating. And a few of us got to have, lunch with her afterwards, and she's just a really fascinating person. Did you want to say any any more about about the event, Rachel? Just that I was so please.	
Reach out for your. I was so here, and, So that, Yes. This year, I'm looking forward to having some other author highlight our need to do this. And some of you work out that, you know, next. Thank you. And I can't emphasize enough that we are able to get these these visits from authors, which gets people into the building from the broader Jewish community.	
And as Rachel said, even from outside the Jewish community, because of a lot of legwork, it takes a lot of legwork. And, and past benefactors, the Rubin Fund helps pay for a lot of these visits. But they're meaningful to a lot of us. And, I think it's highly worthwhile. So thank you, Rachel.	
Hanukkah. It's a recurring thing, obviously. We do a hierarchy of lighting. Generally at least one night that is community wide. A lot of the community rabbis take turns officiating over the blessings of our cliniche, which is actually in the room right behind you, over here in front of you, behind me. That we moved to to Bronson Park every year.	
And this year was it was special. And I want to thank Angie, for and the religious school, board and other staff for, getting, Mr. Roboto, from Chicago. This is the first night you had to be there to really see it. This is a guy on on stilts with flashing lights. There's nothing like Hanukkah celebrating with a guy dressed like a 12ft tall robot.	
So, Yeah, you should see the video. I have video later if you want to see. But but we had. It was a really great turnout. And it was just really fascinating. Thank you again for for pulling that off.	
And back to Rachel. We had, our library book sale, as we have now for several years. This was quite successful. We, we we raised $800 more than $800, which allows us to buy new books in addition to, some money that is dedicated in our budget to making sure that we can keep up with subscriptions and new books.	
This is a prime source for us being able to get new material in, that does circulate. Rachel would be very quick to tell you that you if people can check books out of the library, if you're interested, and the catalog is online. So, collar covered to Rachel again, but we make room for some of the new materials by selling a lot of the old stuff.	
And it's a great opportunity. I stocked up on a lot of stuff for, like, a dollar or two for book, so wait for it. And, it'll come again hopefully later this year. I also, very briefly want to go through so many of the other events that that we actually pulled off this year.	
And this is a, this is a smattering this is a sample of all the things that we pulled off this year. There are more complete, versions in the report you have in front of you. But just recently, we recently had one. I don't think it will be the last rabbi. I think it will be back by popular demand.	
Jewish, Jewish history and culture through food, the cooking classes that we were able to have in our renovated kitchen. We've had, you know, a dozen or so or in some cases, more people come out, each time Rabbi has, hosted those things where we learn about Jewish history through food, often through, nontraditional, which is to say non Ashkenazi food, which is, actually very exciting.	
Another one very recently, laundry. Love. This is a program related to tikkun olam, where we help, conduct laundry. We facilitate laundry for people who cannot do laundry on their own, either because they lack the financial resources. They may not be able to pay for it at a laundromat. They don't have their own washer dryer, no questions asked.	
People come in. It's advertising the community. Various members of the faith community basically pay for everyone's laundry and provide companionship and talking to them. For people who need to get their laundry done. And it's it's a wonderful service. It happens. And as Jerry said, the most recent time, 37 families participated. There it it's held roughly once a month, so, it will continue twice a month.	
Sorry, twice a month. And it will continue. And volunteers are always, requested to participate. It's a few hours. Money is provided or cards for the laundry. And it basically is, an opportunity to talk to people and just make them feel welcome. We also had a couple hours, hour and a half, you know, that's the time for maybe one load, but, every load counts.	
But, in addition to, to to Kunal, events, we also had things that, our musical and cultural, one of the example not too long ago was the listen up acapella group from Chicago. Many of you probably remember that that was a lot of fun. They performed behind you also. Also the Latino singer, Sarah Horowitz.	
So how it's pronounced. Okay. And that she provided music to, so we had that several months ago. I want to thank, Alyssa Kahn for leading, the Mason postcard drive to save snap. As you know, snap is what, a program that used to be called food stamps. It is something that provides food assistance for people in need.	
The program is being cut. It's been defunded with eligibility requirements made more difficult. Consequently, a lot of the food banks, and food pantries in town have been hit very hard. So there is an effort to try to get, the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reconsider, to make sure that an alignment with both chicken alum and Jewish principles of making sure that the hungry, the hungry do not go without food.	
And then another fun event, that Rabbi Goldman helped plan, for some hot Torah, at the end of the High Holy Days last year, we had a brass band, which was also a lot of fun. It's not quite the gospel choir I still want to bring in. Many of you have heard me talk about that, but it is a start to say that we can bring in outside musical groups to celebrate, for, for, some voting.	
Yes. And then, of course, there were the two movies that we, we had, we had movie nights, several nights here at the synagogue in the past, often in the sewing room, through the projector. This was these two were actually a separate thing. We had screenings at CP cinemas downtown taking up the entire theater. And in both cases we had 25 to 40 or so people, come to the synagogue to watch Sabbath Queen.	
And the movie Bad Chavez, which is, you know, a somewhat raunchy comedy, but it's kind of funny, both very Jewish themed, different movies. But, we have a relationship now where we can do this sort of thing. And it's actually not that crazily expensive to lease it from the movie theater. And we work with the distributor of the motion pictures, to get it there.	
But these were very well attended events that actually brought in, lots of people from outside our own community, to, to attend as well. So we managed to pull off a lot of things. And of course, Rabbi, eat, pray, sing. We just happened a few times, but really is a prominent event when it happens in the sukkah.	
That is very well attended. There are people who are not members of Carnation of Moses who have come up to me and become a rabbi. And perhaps many of you, talking about that event and how, spiritual and meaningful it was. So thank you. And again, this is just a sample of all the different events. Many of you are also aware of the Cola fund, which has been around for several years now and was established, by the, the trust of Jean Cola in honor of his parents.	
This is a large sum of money that is invested with the Kalamazoo Community Foundation that is used to benefit people in need and, we're able to give away through a committee, which Joyce Cam he leads after many years of service, also from Caroline Kennedy. We were able to give away almost $400,000 in 2025 to several different organizations throughout the world.	
Some of them are local here in Kalamazoo. Some of them are in Israel. A few of them are elsewhere in the world, including in the United States. And we have a matching program, so that if you have given to a list of organizations that are listed on Cola fund Talk, you can see where the money has gone.	
But we also match the funds up to a certain amount each year to those organizations. Joyce, did you want to say anything else? Okay. Thank you. And there is a picture of Valerie, from her trip to Israel, visiting one of the organizations that was a beneficiary. And that is like a she is sure. Which one is that?	
Valerie.	
Okay. Very good. And also, in the spirit of of giving back to the community and tikkun olam, for the past, since basically, shortly after or since Covid began, we have run a friend's store, a free friend's store in what used to be the youth lounge, I guess in that direction. This has grown in the past several years, and not only in terms of the number of volunteers, the number, how many hours they're putting in, the number of refugees, and other families who get served each year.	
But the number of items and, it started off with just clothing. It is well beyond just clothing now, in terms of all the things that are provided to people in need, many of whom are coming from war torn countries, have not been in a synagogue before, maybe have never met a Jewish person before. And this is their introduction to it for the community.	
And in my personal opinion, there's few better ways to, to combat anti-Semitism than having someone's first exposure to a Jewish community be one of assistance and help. And so, many of those, refugees have still been members of the community. Some of them participate at the Hanukkah bazaar, or the Purim carnival, where they provide food.	
You may have bought food from them without knowing that they are, in fact, a refugee. So they are becoming part of the community, and it makes us feel. It makes me feel. I hope it makes everyone else feel really good that we're able to help them. If you are willing to volunteer, you can contact Rachel, or a few other people, that are leading the, the volunteer organization, including, Janet in the casa, and Colleen Van Slim Brook.	
Yes.	
Correct. Yes.	
That. Yeah. This is also a faith organization. There are many partners with the free store. There are so many partners that, we could not fit in on this slide. Here it is in the report, that many of you have where it details some of the relationships that Joyce was mentioning, including the partnership with, our neighbors next door on the Reformed church, where they have larger items and household items, and we focus more on clothing and household items, smaller household items here.	
So feel free to read up about that special thanks to all the volunteers, who make that happen. They also do continue to take donations. So if you have old clothing or old household items that are still serviceable, please consider donating them. I also want to give a shout out again to Joyce and to Rachel. This happened shortly after last year's meeting or beginning of last summer.	
We have a bathroom, a family bathroom in between the two gender bathrooms. Right over there. And it was getting a little bit dingy and drab and not necessarily the best place to change a baby, which is kind of what its main purpose was. And thanks to their efforts and a few other, as well, it was refurbished, repainted, the changing, crib, table there was changed, made a little bit friendlier.	
It's a more welcoming environment and it was overdue. So thank you to both of you.	
Yes, 99%. Joyce.	
I just painted so much to left. It always takes a village. And speaking of it, always taking a village. I know we talked about this last year. But it's important to emphasize again, sadly, in light of recent events, we renovated our, our doors, not just the front doors that you all came through, but also most of the main entry doors to the building, were original to the building.	
Not conducive to the safety we need. We redid them, last year, and that became the need for that became ever more apparent with what happened at Temple Israel. What with what happened at San Diego just this past week. We know that we need greater security. And so I think it became more evidence that this was definitely the right thing to have done.	
On a slightly happier note, we also renovated our kitchen, which we've discussed a little bit before, that is now complete with all the devices, all the appliances that we need, and we have used it several times. Most notably for the Seder. But in the cooking class it is much easier to use. I went and helped prepare for for Passover and cashiering a lot of the dishes.	
That dishwasher is amazing. I kind of want to wonder, like why we don't have commercial dishwashers at home is that that is that is a really crazy thing. So the hope is, is that more people will use that, and continue to use it. The downside is that the renovations, although both of these were overdue and necessary, they were not cheap.	
And so that comes to the point where I have to do my obligatory duty. It's in the president's manual and in every, association of congregations, or I have to ask for money. Unfortunately. Jerry, I was involved with.	
That.	
Every.	
Once.	
Yeah. And I want to emphasize that even though both of these project costs cost a fair amount of money, they would have cost a lot more without the donations that Jerry just mentioned, but.	
It is, and we were fortunate that we were able to do both of those for the amount that we did it. It's still a chunk of change. We did take out a zero interest loan that we're paying back over three years to help finance both the kitchen and the doors. Many people did give, and I solicited, when we were beginning the project.	
And we did raise a fair amount of money. Many people did give. There's a list of donors again at the last page of the report. We still, were planning when we were doing the financing to help hope that people would continue to give a little bit over the next two years. One of those years is now, passed, just about passed, to continue paying off the loan.	
We are using our asset income to do that, and we can kind of cover it, but it's making things a little bit tight. And that's one of the reasons why our budget has gone up one second. So if if there is a possibility of if you haven't yet given, it's not too late. If you have given and you're able to give a little bit more, everything helps as we pay this off.	
There's not really a price we can put on our own security. I do want to thank everyone who has given and is will give again. As it said, Jerry said it takes a community. We have one. We're very fortunate. Let's keep it going. Yeah. I just want to say that. We also just.	
Put the deal together.	
That's.	
That's. It's very nice of you to say, Jerry, but I did relatively little compared to many other people who are. There are it takes a community like everyone contributed. And yes, there was some oversight and management and trying to, like, put all the pieces together. But so many people contributed to this in terms of either their time or their money.	
And that's kind of why we are a cahal, why we are a Jewish congregation, why we show up even like tonight. Because this is important to all of us, and it makes us feel that we have worsened, that we belong. So I just want to echo what Jerry said in terms of everyone, playing a role. Thank you.	
Yeah. Rachel, I have to have a shout out. Can see. Us without them? Yes. And time to listen. Because if you quietly inspire us to make it happen, sheer man power and innovation and creativity, turning into something else. You also must be so. Yeah.	
And. Yes. Thank you. Brad. And to Rich, who many of you also know in his dedication to doing many things, he unfortunately got injured last fall. He is still recuperating. But he is back to work, and he is able to do many things, but he is in a slow recovery, because it was a bit of an orthopedic injury.	
Part of, of that is that, since we are turning to other services and while he's continuing to recover to make sure things get done, if you look at the floor, below you, it was recently refinished. A few months ago, it was stripped and refinished. It had not been done in, in probably about 15 or so years.	
And so the floor was starting to show its age with a lot of scratch, scratches. It needed to be redone. Crystal's husband, Bill, managed to help out, and because it was a physically demanding job, redid the entire social hall, stripping it and re waxing it. It should be good for close to another decade.	
So, that is also saving us. Thank you. But Rich was another thing you may not have noticed is that the floor and the tile right in the lobby outside that also used to be darker. Do you remember that the grout used to be darker? That's dirt. That was not the natural color of the grout. And so that's the accumulation of, of years of traffic and also not having been cleaned, rich was able to clean that over the past couple of months.	
And so it is now looking lighter. If it looks different, that's because that's how it looked originally. So we have been able to do, it's not quite the renovation scale of like doors in the kitchen. We are still managing to kind of, keep the long overdue maintenance issues done. There is a list still to be done.	
We're well aware of that. But we have been making some progress, so thank you.	
So how many members do we still have to make all of this progress? The, the really amazing thing that despite, some of the sadness in that we've lost a few members and members family recently, we still managed to mostly keep our membership constant over the last few years. It's down to families from 24. We kind of jumped up in 23, but we're kind of at the long term, or the five year average.	
We're hovering just over 100 families. Some of them do live elsewhere. This is true. But, the official count of people participating and continuing to pay some towards their dues has held quite steady. Also holding quite steady, thanks to Angie Saltzman leadership. She just finished her third year as religious school director of the, Oak and Kalamazoo Jewish Community School.	
Which which has 35 students. It's joint with TBI. And, parents are very excited. There is a long list of accomplishments also in the report. They're doing lots of cool things, and having interesting experiences as well as learning Hebrew prayers, Jewish history, all those things. So thank you, Angie.	
And then, because all of this also takes, resources. Neil and I, have basically worked on, gradually teaching him treasurer duties. Neil, as our treasurer, we, have been very fortunate in terms of having bequests made by prior members, that enable us to do what we are able to do as a congregation.	
So this is our a chart of our other overall financial resources. The blue line, which is the lower line, is doing it in nominal dollars dollars of the day. But because there's also been a lot of inflation recently, you may not have noticed, the red line is is adjusting for that. So you can see it an inflation adjusted dollars over time.	
The the series here ends at March. March was not a great month for the stock market. For those of you monitoring your, you know, retirement funds. It's it's back up in April, thankfully. We've done reasonably well. We've done okay. And, we were especially beneficial for a large bequest that was made several years ago, almost a decade ago at this point, without that bequest that was made.	
And I'll get to more to that in a few slides, we would not be able to do what we do. We would not be able to pay for the staff that we have or put on events that we do. We would be a much smaller organization in terms of what we're able to pull off. It is because of, of these bequests, and past generosity of members that we still managed to, keep going the way we have, Neil, did you want to talk a little bit about the slide on, treasurer it's just a few bullets.	
If you want to talk about the budget.	
Okay. As you can see, we're about, 300, $500,000 budget, and we only get 38% for members dues and, additional donations from the, club appeal for about 55% comes from our investments. So, you know, fortunately, as Matt showed in the previous slide, we have good investments. However, you know, I thought it would be nice to, let them grow a little bit and get more donations coming in later through.	
What best is better. Okay. What? Your expenses. We pay. Most of our bigger expenses are our team of the rabbi, Rich, Christo and Rachel. But I don't think she's at their level of receiving. And, but also we do physical, operations program or religious activities. We do donate a large amount to the religious school, supposed to have the Oakham name on it.	
So we do have more money for that. Let's say, as we're lucky, due to our past members, we, who, their members have given up in the past to help us out and, we may need to raise dues next year. I think, given the, inflation we had and something else. And, looking at, our bank account recently, we have this transfer some more money over from our, accounts because, we're paying because we paid out a fair amount so far this year.	
But hopefully we on a sound basis, we're not, you know, we're not going to go under, but we don't, you know, but it'd be nice to, you know, to have more things going. Announcement come coming in.	
Thanks, Neil. And if anyone would like a copy of our budget that is available upon request, that actually shows out, line items for where money is coming from and where it's going. Troy, you had a question. Vestments, dollar cost averaging, and we're. Yeah. So I am against. Is our design right?	
So most of our assets in some of this is, is designed because it was in people's trusts when they passed away is actually invested with the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. So they are, mostly passively investing. We choose like it's a money manager. We choose an investment strategy, which is generally moderate for most of the funds. And so it's balancing growth and income maintenance.	
And so, it's it's heavily tied towards equities, although there are some fixed income securities as well. So we kind of write out some of the storm. We have some separate investment accounts that we have more direct control over. Most of those are geared for growth. Some of them are bonds or investment in government entities, including, an investment in Israel, that we have, over $100,000 in bonds invested there that we get, returns from.	
Any other questions? We can always talk about money. Money is interesting, but, but the point is, is that really we are able to do, again because of these assets that make it happen. And we're going to try to not have to raise dues or keep the increases as little as possible. We raise them in 2024.	
And that was the first time since 2019. And so we generally go several years without raising dues. We are, you know, for our size, we're probably in the middle range of what, what dues get charged. In case anyone is curious.	
So, are there any questions about anything that was talked about, not just, the treasurer reports? Yes. Valerie.	
Yes.	
You want to?	
I'm talking, I'm representing also concerned members of the congregation who, who I've talked to and who feel very much the same way as I do, some some time ago. I can't remember exactly when it happened, but it's, not everyone is aware of this, but we had, we had vandalism in the cemetery. Considerable vandalism.	
It was purposeful. It was done. It was done by vicious anti-Semites. And, where they actually took a truck or a car or something and rolled over and right into the cemetery, knocking down stones and and some trees and things of that nature. But, it has long come to our attention that we need to secure the cemetery, by,	
Building a wall of some nature in the back of the cemetery that, right now we have, metal that often is cut right through as soon as we fix it. And it allows people that are. Whoever to come tramping through the cemetery and sometimes using the back of the cemetery for assignations of all sorts, but, so we've talked about possibly, putting in some kind of a gate system in the front of the cemetery that we can all access something similar to what we have at the front door here.	
We also need, I think we need, cameras that will secure, help secure the area. So we and we need to have, an active committee that will finally move on this. We kick the can down the road for a long time. And it's very frustrating to those of us that frequently go to the cemetery and see the situation the way it is right now.	
So we must this we must, must do something about this.	
Thank you. Celery. I do want to clarify that although there was vandalism in the cemetery, it's not clear whether it was anti-Semitic. There were no signs of anti-Semitism left there. It may have just been the normal hooligan vandalism type that has happened in other places as well. I am going to get to future plans in terms of security.	
I also want to emphasize that it was repaired. There were headstones that were knocked over. They have been righted all except one, which is a more recent fall, which we are working to get that one righted, too. There's also cleanup that takes place in the cemetery twice a year. I do some of it. I try to advertise it for, mostly it's it's just trees and detritus and things like that.	
We had a major cleanup of the cemetery, a couple of years ago where, people had been using it, just camping out there. There was just a lot of trash, and several volunteers went through and cleaned it up, and I go through periodically. It's in much better condition now. Which is not to say that it couldn't be improved.	
But I do want to emphasize that we are taking the cemetery very seriously, and, we have Adam, Strauss as our current cemetery chair. He is working to modernize all of the plots. So we have an up to date current system that's synchronized to what the city has, so that we can follow through with anything happens.	
But also working to make sure that, we also have a budget to make sure that it is maintained. We'll get to the security aspect of it, in a few more slides. Do you want to follow up, Valerie?	
No, I agree, and I want to thank Valerie. She was one of the volunteers who helped clean up the cemetery a couple of years ago. You're absolutely right. We do need to actually work on that. Let me get to that slide and see what's proposed. But I agree, like, stuff happens because people actually do it.	
And so that does need to happen.	
Some of the upcoming projects relate towards security upgrades. It's going to be number three. So if you can get through number one and number two, we're almost done. One of the things that we're still working on going forward, and this is going to be a big one, is and Carolyn may want to say a little bit more, but we have joined the organizations, Zosia and the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition, both of which are trying to figure out ways to be more environmentally friendly.	
And in some cases, some of the easy things or straightforward things to do there are to work towards improving our energy efficiency. You may not have noticed, but all of the lights above your head are led. That was replaced, over the past year or so by Brad and Rich, many of the light bulbs had been out.	
They are now all on, on this side and they're all led. We have gradually and in the lobby in the hallways, been replacing all the light fixtures with LEDs. That is both to lower future maintenance costs but also to lower our utility bill. The utility bill for the synagogue, in case you were curious, can be over $2,000 a month.	
It is a lot because it's both a big building, and it was built in the 19 early 1960s, not with energy efficiency in mind. We are doing our best to try to modernize that on the budget. We have lighting is the easiest thing to do. Heating and cooling is where a lot of the money comes from. That's harder because of the walls are insulated, not as well insulated, and that's just a bigger expense.	
We're doing what we can. And one thing that we're going to be talking about, is the possibility of putting solar panels on our roof, which could lower our utility bill considerably. We're exploring different options. But, Carolyn, did you want to say a few more words about anything about the GLC or the solar panels at this point?	
Yeah.	
Well, the is our own internal, like, green team. So, we've been working on the things that Brad's got listed here. We did a lot of metal recycling with the kitchen renovation and the door renovation. I sent you some stats, and I don't remember what they are off the top of my head, but it was a staggering amount of of metal that we've recycled.	
Like. Yeah, it was like four tons, three tons or something like that. What's that? Yeah, we got money for it. Yes, yes. But I mean, it's $5,000. It's like.	
So it's not like. Yeah, it's it's, it's.	
Yeah. You don't have to pay for it to be picked up. You're doing the right thing. You know, and and we get a little bit of money back for it. We've been working on the energy efficiency. Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition is a nationwide organization that we joined about three years ago or four years ago. And it's, designed to have all Jewish organizations work together to lower their carbon footprint as a response to climate change.	
We've been reporting every year on the things that we've done. The biggest thing right now is, the solar panels. And the reason is that, energy costs are rising, as everybody knows, the rising a lot. And, there are government, tax incentives that are going to be expiring at the end of next year. That are available to nonprofits.	
We're trying really hard to hit July 4th deadline of, making a commitment to a contractor for the solar panel project. If we can do that, we'd be able to, take advantage of 30 or 40% reduction in costs. Yeah. Which is very, very significant. So actually when I say we we're trying to do it, we have to do it.	
And that is going to involve some more fundraising. But it will be well worth it because the synagogue is going to save a boatload of money when that project is complete and actually will start saving money right away. So more details are coming. But we've been scrambling to get all of the proposals together and get all the information together because of the size of the building.	
We're looking at, 98 panels going on the roof. So it's a significant project. But I think it's going to be well worthwhile. And I as I said, we can't afford to lose a 30%, credit. And then there's another 10% available for buying, domestic products, which we would do. So and we will have, a few years to get the project done, because once you've committed to it, you have up to, I think it's 2030 to get the project completed.	
So stay tuned for details and hopefully Gary.	
What, what I'm sorry. What do they take? What role do they take? We we would be generating the electricity through the solar panels. And then any excess it goes back to consumers consumers energy grid. Right. And then but overall year round it evens out. We would be producing about 90. Are they installing them. No, no, no they don't have anything to do with that.	
It's we would be going through a contractor. Yeah. Rachel.	
It might be down the road. And so we would probably be looking at making the system a little larger to accommodate that. But we have to. Isn't there still some work to be done with running power out to the. It's really expensive.	
To us there. Yeah. So? So yeah. It's optional.	
So we're not.	
Yeah. Neil.	
Again, that would be down the road. We. Yeah, but you have to purchase that separately. So first we want to pay for the solar panels and then we can add on. We're again looking for, you know, upsizing it a little bit to accommodate that rich, just.	
Right now. I'm sorry. I just surprised. The project right now, we're looking at different quotes for different size systems, but the one that we've been looking at most recently and is, about $140,000 and about 40,000 of that would, you know, be returned in the form of the rebates and incentives. So it would be about $100,000.	
Right. But not storing, not battery storage. Right. So it could end up being a little bit more today. The proposal came through that was a little bit higher, but that was for a bigger system. So we're trying to like figure all that out and talk to the OB in the next few weeks. And then we we have to, you know, get this nailed down by the 4th of July.	
So. But. Yes, yes.	
Yes. No. There's 0% loans through. The organization that Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition is part of. And it's actually a longer payback time than, Hebrew free loan. So we probably go through them. It's a five year payback rather than three year, so. Oh, yeah. Was.	
You know, I have all that, but I don't remember. Truthfully, it's. Not like fracking. Serious?	
That's okay. Thank you. Yeah.	
So, Well, there they are again. Yeah. That's why.	
Yes. Yep. Rich.	
Are great guys.	
I.	
I yeah, I.	
Was. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This, is, Just as much as,	
Working.	
With us.	
So send your figures to twice that number that, You know.	
Yeah. I mean, it was it began as a way to be, environmentally responsible, but it's also a way to allow us to be fiscally responsible. So the, you know, the imperative is really right now, the.	
I can show it to you. We're going to be, you know, talking with the board for the next few weeks. No heat for years. Yeah. They're really, really waiting. Yeah. And then you also play plan. So always. So.	
Everyone will be able to get out of fence.	
Yeah. They have all that data available for us to share. So might want to check.	
Us as well.	
This this.	
Slide.	
Cheaper solutions are cheaper.	
Just more things left in the meeting. I want to make sure we have that. But if you are interested, come in. Bring that more please. Afterwards the keep.	
People to actually volunteer to help them make.	
But wait, there's more. Also and stuff that actually happened very recently, like some matter of hours ago. Joe isn't here. Unfortunately, he would be thrilled to know that we have made we have long had plans to recognize those benefactors, those past congregants who enable us to do what we continue to do. Among them are the pencils, the tokens and the lifts.	
You already heard the name Cliff. Many people remember the name pencil and, oh, can still know people. We are able to do a lot of what we are able to do because of the gifts that those families have given us. And we wanted to pay tribute. And, remember them, memorialize them, through an exhibit describing and, giving more information to people who may not have been so fortunate to know them.	
And the first wave of that is now ready. And so you maybe didn't see it. Maybe you did, because you came through in the lobby. And, you know, you're used to just walking through and it's something new doesn't catch your eye. But in the former gift shop, in one of those windows, there is now this exhibit, created by the Kennedys, talking to a lot of other people, collecting data from many others who contributed, about this case, Mervin and Rosalie Okin.	
The school is named after them, but they did so much more. I encourage everyone to go out and see the exhibit, and read a little bit more about them. More stuff is to come, for the essentials and the gifts. It's overdue. We want to make sure that people know, who these families were.	
So thank you again. Special thanks, to Brad and Carolyn, especially to Brad.	
And then, this was brought up by Valerie and a few other people. As much as we've done the doors, we know that there remains, to be done more things related to security. Part of that is, in front of our driveway and the porch, the portico area, trying to harden that space, by putting a bollard, possibly a removable bollard in front of it so that vehicles cannot get even close to our doors.	
There are options underway that is being studied right now. It is a relatively inexpensive way to harden our security. The emphasis is on relatively, another thing that is actively being done in research right now, also, one might argue is overdue, is putting in a video intercom, by the door so that the person in the office could both see and hear and communicate and let someone in or not someone at the door.	
That prevents someone having to even get out in front. As well as, being able to stay in the office, it's also much more convenient. You don't have to get up in may be, especially if the weather is inclement. So that is long overdue. We are exploring that option. It is possible because of the rewiring work that president Rich did.	
So, thanks again for that. And then last but certainly not least to Valerie's concern, we do need to put more security at the cemetery. That includes fixing a gap in the chain link fence. That is all the way in the back that abuts both a park and the rest of the cemetery. We have tried to repair that to Nick's success.	
But we need to do something besides just chain link, to make it a little bit harder for people to get in from outside, but also to, harden it from the entryway of the driveway into the cemetery. We can't put something permanent there, obviously, because we need to have a vehicle, hearse or other vehicle.	
Get in. We are exploring options again. A bollard is one of them that will prevent vehicles from casually going in. That can be removed when there are official reasons to go. Options like a gate or cameras, are on the table, but they're much more expensive because they would also require a lot of wiring for power and maintenance and Wi-Fi in the case of cameras.	
So, we have some funds in the we have some resources in the cemetery fund. Most of that is paid for general maintenance, mowing, also, water bill, various cleanup things, repairs to the benches or other public areas, depending on what security costs. A bollard is something that we can probably do with our funds readily available, putting up a gate or cameras or wiring it, that's going to also require fundraising.	
So, if you're interested in pursuing that in terms of what options might be, there is going to be a, there is a security subcommittee of operations, and we will be considering that. Please talk to, Nancy if she's here. As well as, Adam, because, we will be coordinated on trying to figure out, security options for the cemetery.	
Did I surprise you, Nancy? Okay.	
Were there any questions on that? And, we are going to try to move as quickly as we can. There is the old joke about, you know, synagogues in time and you know, how long it takes to do things. But I want to point out that for all the things that are overdue, we have done a lot in the last few years.	
There have been a there's been a lot that's been accomplished. We are moving on things, but it relies on volunteers to make it happen. And so thanks to the efforts of some really dedicated folks, many of whom have been named, we've able to get this far. We have a bit further to go.	
Okay. Almost done. We the last thing that I had listed to still do upcoming is an oral history project that I think Rachel is still hoping to lead if she has some time. But in the interest of time, since we're, about 15 minutes left in the allotted time for the meeting, I also want to move on to, a report that Rabbi wants to give before we officially describe the balloting procedure for the, you know, three of you who haven't yet voted.	
I do want to go through the candidates, even though people have voted.	
Thank you. So I, quickly wrote down the most notable things, that I was, deeply involved in in the past year. And Brad mentioned almost all of them. So that was a fantastic slide that included the same hot to raw celebration on the Sabbath, Queen on the big screen movie night, and the Jewish history through food, which I wanted to shout out the dishes that we made because they were wonderful.	
Tilapia and spicy tomato sauce, to bully Moroccan chicken. And then just last week with, community member, Beryl Bessemer, who is in her 30s and lives in Kalamazoo and is also of Yemen, Yemeni and, Israeli and California Ashkenazi stock. She had us making Malala, which is one of 40 I learned, different Yemenite breads.	
We made egg vanilla, which is Hebrew for, a tomato salad, which was excellent. And, and, swag, which you can buy at Trader Joe's. But of course, homemade is better, and it's basically Yemeni hot sauce. Or as people said, spicy, pesto. Oh it does, it does look. Yes. And I wanted to, say a note about, you know, what Brad mentioned when we were talking about the numbers of our membership.	
So, you know, it has been a difficult spring with the loss of several, members who have died, a handful of members who are moving away. I am learning, in my third year, completing my third year in Kalamazoo, that being a university town means that you have a lot of people who, move away, but you also have a lot of people who move here.	
So, you know, you may be still feeling the loss. And that is, you know, real and true. And at the same time, in the last two weeks, a new person came to services and we received from yet another person and application for membership. So people go, but people also come, and as I think about, this coming year, I performed a story at Erev Rosh Hashanah services that was very well received.	
And so I'm thinking about doing that again. I also, have had long had a goal, sometimes achieved sometimes not, but renewing, this goal of hosting Shabbat dinners in my home once a month. So there are people in this room who have been invited to my house. And if you haven't yet had an invitation, you will, hopefully sometime soon or definitely at some point.	
Friday night services have been a little lightly attended. And that is a result of both, conservative congregation being a Shabbat morning congregation and also, the pandemic, I think. But we are, trying again to reinvigorate them. And the theme, my theme for the coming year, is, is song is Prayer. So I'm taking a group of people, to Chicago to study with, Joey Wise and Berg, who's one of the, great Jewish musicians of our time.	
And his whole theory is that, when communities sing together, they build, so that will be incorporated both in Shabbat dinners at my house and singing around the table after, after kiddush and on eggs on Shabbat morning, but also with the monthly Nefesh songs for the soul services on Friday nights. And I'm, I'm already recruiting all the musicians in the congregation, but it's not just for the musicians.	
The musicians are going to ground us, and everybody is welcome to come and pray and sing. And I'm, this summer going to be debuting a monthly Shabbat morning services, for children, families. And I like to say their entourage, which is all of us. So I'm calling it Ruoff, which means energy or spirit ruach, a mini minyan.	
So it's basically going to be Shabbat morning services. But Shabbat morning services, that are, accessible to our younger members. And surprise, surprise, when we, do that with our younger members, it actually gives an interesting spin, for the rest of us. So all are invited. And finally, connected to that, the second day of Rosh Hashanah this year is on a Sunday morning, which is a fantastic opportunity to engage, our families with children who maybe when the High Holidays or during the week, make a, make a different choice about what they're going to do that day.	
So this year, the second day of Rosh Hashanah will be called the Russia China Experience. And I think of the poster of Jimi Hendrix that I had in my, in my room in high school, the The Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Russia China experience. It's again going to be, really imagined, Rosh Hashanah with all of the major prayers and the major themes of the day, but, with a specific, eye towards accessibility to our youngest members.	
And also, Allison, you will know. Now, know now that I'm going to be, recruiting all of our Benny mitzvah to come and recent the name it's for to come and read actually off signs as well. So, that's what I have planned. One, one off sign. One and one the. Okay. Yes, yes. So that's what I got.	
Thank you.	
Thank you, Rabbi. And just emphasize yet again, I'm also contractually bound to do this, according to our bylaws as well as other things. Another appeal, this one for your time. Time or money? Both of them are very valuable to making the synagogue function, so I'll just keep it at that. We have come to the the obviously, it's the oversight board.	
I know almost everyone has voted. Thank you. But I want to emphasize, even before I want to emphasize, I want to clarify, we had worked really hard to have a slate, ready earlier. And due to some unexpected and unforeseen circumstances, it changed, between 4 to 6 weeks ago. And that required a lot of scrambling to try, to, recruit additional people, which we were able to do for the most part.	
And so I want to thank, Rabbi Goldman especially for having some conversations with people and for, additional people volunteering. But I also want to say, if it took a while to get this out to you, we're supposed to get the information out to everyone. 30 days before the annual meeting. It was particularly difficult this year because of, some of these, unforeseen circumstances, which are entirely understandable.	
But we do our best. And just to reiterate what the structure is, in case we're, we're 5 or 6 years into this, but just in case any wasn't people don't know, prior to Covid, we used to have a large board of directors, many committees all reporting back to the board of directors. And it was getting too difficult to maintain all of that.	
There weren't enough people to really pull it off. So we revised our bylaws, and thanks to Charlie and a few other people for helping lead the effort to, revise our bylaws, to turn our, our board of directors from a larger to a somewhat smaller, more executive organization that had three super committees, operations, programs and religious activities, with various subcommittees and a few extant, special committees like the Cola one, to try to simplify, and streamline a lot of the reporting and make sure stuff happened.	
So far, that seems to be working. It's not perfect. I'll be the first to admit that, but we are able to get more done with a slightly smaller or more than slightly smaller group than we used to. So, this is our outgoing, Oversight Board membership list. Right here. Most of these people are in the room.	
So, I want to give, thanks to everyone who has served on the board over the past year or, in some cases, Mr. Tenenbaum over here many, many, many years. We could not do this, without all of you. Please give them a round of applause and thanks.	
And this is the new slate, that we are voting on. And, I want to give, I'm going to embarrass or. I'm sorry. I want to give special, recognition to Elena Tancredi, who I believe is in the back. Many of you, many of you have had the pleasure of meeting Elena. If you haven't, please introduce yourselves afterwards.	
She, is a student at Western. She is graduating. Just graduated.	
So congratulations. And mazel tov for that. She has been, participating in many things. And she graciously was willing to, serve as our programing, chair for this coming year. And we are very, very excited. So please introduce yourself, to, to Elena, afterwards, if you have not yet done so. I also want to say that, good to Duncan.	
This will be my last year as president. I know everyone is heartbroken. It has been. It has been an honorable and wonderful, but also very demanding experience. I'm not going anywhere. It's just there is time to, like, turn over the reins, for for new leadership. And so we will gradually be beginning that transition with this new board, for a new person to take over as as president, roughly a year from now.	
So I want to thank everyone for the privilege and the opportunity to have served. Hopefully, I haven't ticked off too many of you too often. If so, don't tell me about it.	
Thank you. I very much appreciate, if you haven't yet voted, all that's being said and done, the voting boxes in the middle, you can slip it in there. We'll count them afterwards. We have pretty close to a quorum, which is about 30% of the membership. We're going to go ahead and count that in terms of families rather than adult members, because it's easier.	
We will send out, results next week. Back when some people after should vote. We have some time left for any other questions that somehow did not get answered earlier. But I know where you. So I think that that possibility still exists. But if no one has any questions, if you have questions, you can come up front.	
If not, feel free to grab more food or tidbits. Thank you, everyone, for coming out. As I, as I said in many people said, it really does take a tequila, a community, a congregation to make all of this happen. We can't do it without all of you. Thank you.