2013 Super Sunday Committee Members: Eric Shapiro, vice-chair Jen Groves, Jennie Hurwitz, Andrew Nusbaum, chair Aaron Goldmeier, Fred Rose, Leah Katz. (Not pictured: Wes Sandler, Aaron Shames, Jeff Kline, Jonathan Rathsam and Shawn Lemke.)
Agenda items that should be listed (in no particular order) for scheduled meetings of the 2013 Super Sunday steering committee: excitement, inspiration, motivation, and innovation.
Gone is the order of previous years’ meetings, when the committee would visit various agencies affiliated with the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, spend a few hours listening to administrators speak, take a tour of the facilities, and end up educated, but with no more leadership skills than when the meeting began.
“We’re definitely doing things differently this year, and for a good reason,” says Amy Weinstein, director of the Young Adult Division of the UJFT. “This committee is made up of young energetic members of our Jewish community who want to get involved, and we want them to stay involved for a long time.
“We realized that we could condense the amount of time they spend learning about the agencies from five or six meetings into a single mini-mission tour, and spend the rest of the time teaching and learning leadership skills that will lay a good foundation for the future.”
Aaron Goldmeier, chair, and Jen Groves, vice-chair, are leading this year’s committee of 10. In the past, the Super Sunday committee was responsible for planning a one-day phone-a-thon that involved about 100 volunteers from a cross-section of the community, who would share the Federation’s message and ask for pledges of financial support.
This year, aware of evolving communication habits, the committee is trying to make Super Sunday more accessible to everyone by considering the use of social media, texting, or web-based personal fundraising pages, in addition to the phone-a-thon. Members are focusing on how they can best share the message of how the Federation makes a difference in Jewish lives, and how community gifts enable that to happen.
“My generation doesn’t typically pick up the phone,” Groves, 28, says. “So just as we’re changing the way we function as a committee, we’re investigating other ways of reaching out and engaging people in a socially comfortable way, so that they don’t think we’re just coming to them for money. This event is a way we can help the community see the value in what the Federation does, and why we do it. It’s a way to realize we’re all in this together.”
Super Sunday is scheduled for Jan. 27; look for news of additional ways to participate, interact and make a gift count in the coming month and a half. Visit www.jewishva.org/ yad to find out more about the Young Adult Division of the UJFT.
by Laine M. Rutherford