Not including our monthly Board meetings, we held over 35 individual programs and activities this past year.

We started our year off with an annual half-day executive leadership strategy planning meeting of all the officers and key committee chairs in July; this was led by our president and first vice president. At that meeting, we begin discussions around the year’s calendar (see attached), which we presented to the board at our end-of Summer kickoff BBQ/board meeting, which was held at one of our member’s home on a lake in the area.

We regularly have 25-30 members attend our monthly board meetings, which are open to all members, and are held on Sunday mornings over bagels and lox. One of the goals at the meetings is to build camaraderie and fellowship, and a lot of collaboration happens at each meeting. A program launched by our first vice president this year, “Cause Without Applause”, allowed us all to vote on a monthly donation to a meaningful charity – this has helped develop a sense of shared responsibility and charity. Our annual work on a Habitat for Humanity home, support for holiday Meals on Wheels, donation to Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger, and other similar contributions allow our members to participate in acts of tikkun olam. This past year we also helped sponsor two Temple Israel of Sharon youth to go on the March of the Living Holocaust memorial trip to Poland and Israel.

We held many engaging social activities throughout the year, from Paid-Up Supper, which featured NYC-based comedian, Brad Zimmerman, as well as our annual “Lift Your Spirits” Scotch & steak night, Man of the Year honor/roast, Judaic and sports speaker breakfasts, Hearing Men’s Voices series, Jewish Routes discussion series with our Rabbi, Holocaust memorial Yellow Candle drive, participation in the Tour de Shuls charity cycling ride, “Burgers & Beers in the Sukkah”, World Wide Wrap, and more. Our “Combined Charities Golf Tournament” held in August, and our annual online auction, held in late February/March, have become major fundraising events for the club.

Our annual Brotherhood Scholar-in-Residence Shabbat Weekend was also a major weekend for the community, and not only included our famous Gala Kiddush for the community, but also a concert with singer/songwriter Neshama Carlebach and her band, which attracted an audience of over 300 people from the greater Boston community.

All these activities require a significant number of volunteers to help organize and run. We have found that volunteering to work on an individual program or event can often lead to greater engagement and deeper involvement.