Leaders Assembly 2014
 
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Skill Building Workshops

Increase your knowledge and build upon your success by learning from experts in their fields during the Skill Building Workshops offered on Monday.


SESSION ONE: 11:10 AM - 12:25 PM
    
Retaining Our Teens
Teenagers today are pulled in many different directions, so how do we make sure that they come our way? In this session, we will build effective strategies to attract, engage, and retain teens in our community. Participants will come away with customized action items to prioritize teen engagement at their organization, ensuring continuous participation in Jewish life from childhood into adulthood.

Josh
Miller

Reuben
Posner

Katie
Quinn
Walking the Walk: Building a Mission-Driven Culture
Practice what you preach. Whether you are a camp or community professional, organizational culture comes from the top. It is vital that we take an active role in ensuring that, when it comes to Jewish mission and vision, our organizations are not only “talking the talk” but also “walking the walk.” In this session, we will explore examples of organizations that have successfully and intentionally aligned mission and vision with daily operations, staff training, and programming.

Lou
Bergholz


Fireside Chat with a Digital Marketing Expert
Want to learn more about digital marketing but don't know who to ask? In this session, you’ll have the opportunity to bounce your questions and ideas off Andrew Hazen, entrepreneur and marketing expert. Whether your interests include PPC, social media, domain name strategies, SEO, back-linking or analytics - Andrew has dealt with them all! Come with questions and leave ready to take your digital presence to the next level.

Andrew
Hazen


Making the Case for Jewish Camp
Whether you are a camp director, federation professional, synagogue educator or lay leader, this session will help you take your recruitment to the next level. Utilizing case studies, we will explore not only how to sell Jewish camp to stakeholders, parents, and families, but also positive messaging techniques that will ensure that Jewish camp shines in a crowded summer marketplace.

Renee
Flax

Alan
Friedman

Tracy
Levine
Building an Intentional Community
How can our organizations be more intentional in reflecting the cultural diversity of the Jewish community? Learn from the successful models of engagement of Russian-speaking Jews and Israelis and develop a long-term strategy for organizational and programmatic shifts necessary for building a strong community.

Alina
Bitel

Aya
Schechter

Victor
Vitkin
The Value Proposition of Working at Camp
We know that Camp Works. Research proves campers are more likely to delve into Jewish ritual after a significant Jewish summer camp experience. What is less measured is the impact of camp on staff. Camp has the power to build strong Jewish identity, create communal bonds, and generate powerful professionals. Whether you are a camp or a communal professional, this session will help you guide our young adults to choose to spend a summer building their resumes at camp.

Amy Smyler McFarland


Building a Better Jewish Mission-Driven Board
In this session, two veteran lay leaders of Jewish organizations will work with you to explore practical methods for both building and sustaining a dynamic, engaged leadership board through recruitment, training, and evaluation.

Doris
Feinberg

Terry
Rosenberg

Budgets for Beginners: Maximizing Your Financial Potential
The ability to build an organizational budget that best reflects the needs of an organization is critical to making financial decisions and engaging boards constructively. This workshop will provide basic instruction on how to both build as well as analyze budgets in a way that maximizes profit and impact. Organizations that offer a variety of programs and services will benefit from this session.

Adam
Weiss


Beyond the Gate: Security at Camp
When your camp community is directly threatened, how can you ensure that security is maintained without too much disruption to the camp community? Come join Alan and Alan as they share their experiences and best practices in preparedness and staying nimble to protect your camp and campers.

Alan
Cooper

Alan
Silverman

Creating Successful Partnerships
For any community or camp professional, scanning your environment for potential partnerships and navigating the myriad of resources available can be a daunting task. In this interactive session, we will utilize a four-step approach to collaboration that will help you to take inventory of who you need to network and collaborate with in order to maximize your impact. Participants will walk out with a plan to better engage stakeholders, and in turn, advance your communal agenda.

Elizabeth
Fisher


Recruitment & Retention of LGBTQ & Racially Diverse Groups
While there have been great strides in the engagement of LGBTQ and racially diverse Jews, our community has the potential and responsibility to do more. In this session, facilitators of diverse backgrounds who have successfully made strides toward achieving more inclusive communities will share best practices. Participants will learn how to be more intentional in their outreach, programming, and culture-building initiatives. With the goal of providing the best service to our entire population and increasing enrollment and retention of staff and campers, we will explore strategies to encompass and support the full spectrum of our community.

Tracey
Britton
Jake
Goodman
Kenny
Kahn
Welcoming Children with Disabilities
Sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation, Presenting Sponsor of Disabilities Programming
Learn about the process of welcoming children with disabilities into your community and best practices for working with children with special needs. Aron Hall, the Director of Programs for the National Inclusion Project’s Let’s ALL Play partnership and trainings (an affiliate of the American Camp Association), will provide helpful information as well as a few easy techniques that can lead to a much more inclusive community.

Aron
Hall


Beyond Israel Day: How Israel Education Can Reflect & Reinforce Our Values
Sponsored by the Lillian & Larry Goodman Foundations, Presenting Sponsor of Israel Programming
In this workshop, we will focus on identifying some of the best practices that camps,
as well as other experiential or informal learning settings, use to enable knowledge acquisition that can also be used in the classroom. We will draw examples of individual and collaborative initiatives from the iCenter and Foundation for Jewish Camp that aim to ignite a passion for and understanding of Israel through high-quality, meaningful, and innovative educational approaches.


Aliza
Goodman

Adam
Stewart





SESSION TWO: 1:55 PM - 3:10 PM


Creating Successful Partnerships
For any community or camp professional, scanning your environment for potential partnerships and navigating the myriad of resources available can be a daunting task. In this interactive session, we will utilize a four-step approach to collaboration that will help you to take inventory of who you need to network and collaborate with in order to maximize your impact. Participants will walk out with a plan to better engage stakeholders, and in turn, advance your communal agenda.

Elizabeth
Fisher


Recruitment & Retention of LGBTQ & Racially Diverse Groups
While there have been great strides in the engagement of LGBTQ and racially diverse Jews, our community has the potential and responsibility to do more. In this session, facilitators of diverse backgrounds who have successfully made strides toward achieving more inclusive communities will share best practices. Participants will learn how to be more intentional in their outreach, programming, and culture-building initiatives. With the goal of providing the best service to our entire population and increasing enrollment and retention of staff and campers, we will explore strategies to encompass and support the full spectrum of our community.

Tracey
Britton

Jake
Goodman

Kenny
Kahn
Welcoming Children with Disabilities
Sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation, Presenting Sponsor of Disabilities Programming
Learn about the process of welcoming children with disabilities into your community and best practices for working with children with special needs. Aron Hall, the Director of Programs for the National Inclusion Project’s Let’s ALL Play partnership and trainings (an affiliate of the American Camp Association), will provide helpful information as well as a few easy techniques that can lead to a much more inclusive community.

Aron
Hall


Values-Guided Crisis Communication
Emergencies happen. What protocols have you developed for responding to crises? How do we stay mission-aligned in our communications to our community when the unimaginable happens, while still balancing considerations of legal implications and an organization’s public image? Please bring along your mission statement to use as a resource as we chart these waters together.

Alan
Cooper

Geoff
Menkowitz

Visionary Board Governance for Jewish Organizations
In this session, participants will learn the fundamentals of board governance, paying particular attention to providing effective organizational guidance and distinguishing roles and responsibilities within a Jewish context.


Terry
Rosenberg


Donor Focused Fundraising
What values make Jewish boards unique?  What are the different vehicles available to fundraise on behalf of the Jewish camps in our communities? In this interactive workshop, participants will learn practices for fundraising focused on building donor relationships within the Jewish community as the foundation of all effective philanthropy. This session is relevant to all development professionals.

Doris
Feinberg

Seth
Rosenzweig

Quantifying Impact: Using Financial Information to Make Strategic Decisions
In this high-level, interactive workshop, participants will explore new ways to utilize their budgets in order to shape organizational strategies. Participants will be introduced to a strategic decision-making matrix and a framework for using financial information to assess program impact. This workshop assumes participants already have a basic understanding of how to build a budget and allocate resources, including staff, effectively.  

Adam
Weiss


Retaining Our Teens
Teenagers today are pulled in many different directions, so how do we make sure that they come our way? In this session, we will build effective strategies to attract, engage, and retain teens in our community. Participants will come away with customized action items to prioritize teen engagement at their organization, ensuring continuous participation in Jewish life from childhood into adulthood.
Josh
Miller
Reuben 
Posner
Katie
Quinn
Walking the Walk: Building a Mission-Driven Culture
Practice what you preach. Whether you are a camp or community professional, organizational culture comes from the top. It is vital that we take an active role in ensuring that, when it comes to Jewish mission and vision, our organizations are not only “talking the talk” but also “walking the walk.” In this session, we will explore examples of organizations that have successfully and intentionally aligned mission and vision with daily operations, staff training, and programming.
Lou
Bergholz


Fireside Chat with a Digital Marketing Expert
Want to learn more about digital marketing but don't know who to ask? In this session, you’ll have the opportunity to bounce your questions and ideas off Andrew Hazen, entrepreneur and marketing expert. Whether your interests include PPC, social media, domain name strategies, SEO, back-linking or analytics - Andrew has dealt with them all! Come with questions and leave ready to take your digital presence to the next level.
Andrew
Hazen


Making the Case for Jewish Camp
Whether you are a camp director, federation professional, synagogue educator or lay leader, this session will help you take your recruitment to the next level. Utilizing case studies, we will explore not only how to sell Jewish camp to stakeholders, parents, and families, but also positive messaging techniques that will ensure that Jewish camp shines in a crowded summer marketplace.
Renee
Flax
Alan
Friedman
Tracy
Levine
The Value Proposition of Working at Camp
We know that Camp Works. Research proves campers are more likely to delve into Jewish ritual after a significant Jewish summer camp experience. What is less measured is the impact of camp on staff. Camp has the power to build strong Jewish identity, create communal bonds, and generate powerful professionals. Whether you are a camp or a communal professional, this session will help you guide our young adults to choose to spend a summer building their resumes at camp.
Amy Smyler McFarland


Beyond Israel Day: How Israel Education Can Reflect & Reinforce Our Values
Sponsored by the Lillian & Larry Goodman Foundations, Presenting Sponsor of Israel Programming
In this workshop, we will focus on identifying some of the best practices that camps,
as well as other experiential or informal learning settings, use to enable knowledge acquisition that can also be used in the classroom. We will draw examples of individual and collaborative initiatives from the iCenter and Foundation for Jewish Camp that aim to ignite a passion for and understanding of Israel through high-quality, meaningful, and innovative educational approaches.


Aliza
Goodman

Adam
Stewart