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TSND Had An Important Meeting Last Night
NMB, Florida January 24, 2002 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
TSND HAD AN IMPORTANT MEETING LAST NIGHT
Carol met another of her goals and was able to attend most of last night's
Temple Sinai of North Dade Board of Trustee's meeting. I got to go along
because she needed help in holding her chair and things like that.
I was glad to go partly because I got to hear the new Senior Rabbi again
and there was a scrumptious dinner buffet. You could go back as many times
as you want and, I wanted to a lot but capacity and the supervision of Carol
stopped that before it began. The sliced filet was super and the salads
absolutely top quality. The desserts were shamefully perfect and brimming
with calories. But, that is not what I want to talk about in this essay
about TSND's important meeting.
Rabbi Litwak is a personable young man who suffers only from a regional way
of talking. He is "fer" a lot of things most of us are for. But this is
only a little thing and he handled questioning in a flawless fashion and
stands for the "right" things Carol and I stand for.
I was struck by how Board of Trustees arranged for the Board to interview a
"potential" new senior Rabbi the "Search Committee" had found. All the work
was done in that committee. There was an earlier meeting the night before
where other questions were asked and answered. How many and who were the
other Rabbis interviewed was not told. We were told that we were to come to
be "introduced" to the new senior Rabbi and then vote to accept him. The
Board of Trustees meeting was last night and the general Congregational
meeting is tonight. In both of these meetings we are participating in a
fait accompli.
This calls to mind the heady days when I was a leader of the newly won
right to collectively bargain and negotiate with our College Administration.
We had brashly formed and campaigned for a College Faculty Union. We gave it
a catchy name, FAMCO or, the Faculty Association of Monmouth College. We had
a contract that some of us realized was just what the Administration had put
aside for us ahead of time. But, we had the right to go back push for
more - a never before seen thing by this first private college ever to be
subsumed by the NLRB.
Our next big surprise was that we were now part of the process in the
selection of a new president. The old president was a tough engineer who was
approachable but liked to give you five minutes and then the approach was
ended. A new president was definitely in order. The old one wanted to go
down to Florida where it was a lot warmer than the New Jersey Coast in
winter. We made it a lot warmer for the new president - but that is another
story.
The union was informed that we were to interview the candidate on such and
such a date. We were all aflutter. When the day arrived we herded
ourselves into the "Board Room" of all places. This was a first. We were
now close to the apex of power in this institution. But from this time to
the end of the meeting ten minutes later, things did not go according to our
scenario.
We were prepared to ask questions, biting professorial questions, of the
"candidate". What happened was a bit different and brief. We were
introduced to the new President. Each of us was named along with his rank
in the union hierarchy and it was clear that the opening guns of a stormy
relationship were sounded. There was no interview. The deed was done. We
were not part of the process and it was all over - we had a new president
just like that! Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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