In the second week of March the Boards of Trustees of all three congregations voted to approve the Letter of Intent to finalize a merger of our Congregations, effective July 1, 2017.
We still have considerable work to do to prepare for the merger, which will include drafting the formal Merger Agreement and setting up six Task Forces.
A new Board of Trustees must be seated. We will have 7 members on the 23 member Board. Each Congregation will have 3 members on the Executive Board. We are forming our nominating committee and will have a slate of candidates for our Board’s approval at our April meeting.
We are in agreement that the High Holy Days services will be at TAS. Rabbi Harari, Rabbi Caplan will be officiating along with Cantor Bard. The choir will be directed by Lisa Kristina.
The religious school will continue to operate at TAS for the 2017-2018 school year. TAS is seeking to have its tenant, Homewood Christian Academy, to continue renting classrooms for the coming year.
TAS has a committee to market its property. The first step of the committee is to have a discussion with the local Olympia Fields governmental authorities to assess their interest. If they are interested, further discussions will begin as soon as possible. If not, the newly formed Real Estate committee will identify a real estate agent, determine a listing price, and begin the marketing the TAS property.
The Task Forces referred to above and listed below need your assistance. If any of them interest you, please let Carole Fefferman know asap. We need to hit the ground running. We expect to have a congregational meeting to vote on the merger on June 4. It is not expected that the work of the Task Forces will be completed in that short time.
Ritual Artifacts
Governance and Leadership
Personnel
Real Estate
Finance
Facilities (including remodeling and consolidation)