Volunteer Engagement in the 21st Century
By Dr. Amy Alfred, Jewish Learning Venture Organizational Consultant On March 14th, Jewish Learning Venture hosted a workshop on creative ways to engage volunteers in the 21st century. Rabbi Phil Warmflash and Dr. Amy Alfred worked with both professional and lay leaders who came from synagogues both near and far. There was a lot of excitement in the room as a different way of approaching volunteerism was discussed. The central theme was "matterness," and how making volunteers feel that they matter is a central piece to recruiting and retaining volunteers. This concept comes from the book, Matterness: Fearless Leadership for a Social [...]
Curriculum, Actually
By Dr. Gloria Becker, Director, Learning Initiatives in Jewish Education Curriculum. Everyone talks about it. Very few people actually know what it is or how it actually works. To me and to the Education Directors who gathered last week for the first of a series of curriculum "clinics," curriculum is everything, intended or unintended, that happens in the learning environment. It is at the nexus of what we learn, how we learn, who is learning, and where we learn. It is HUGE and it is NEVER finished - it always needs to evolve to take the changing needs of the [...]