ACC E-Note #76: Business of the Conference-News from San Francisco

Chevre,
I am writing to report to you on our terrific convention in San Francisco. The atmosphere was collegial, the study was tremendous, and the concerts were amazing. We accomplished some very important work during our plenary sessions and we are beginning to take some steps toward goals that we set for ourselves last summer in the Hudson Valley.
We have accomplished so much this year
Once again, we are in excellent financial shape, ending the year in the black. Our robust infrastructure continues to serve us well, as we experienced a very smooth transition in our Chicago office under the care and direction of our Managing Director, Rachel Turry. Our Director of Placement, Barbara Ostfeld and our Director of Member Support, Gail Hirschenfang continue to serve the Conference with dignity and skill.
In San Francisco, we welcomed Cantor Jodi Schechtman as our new Director of Organizational Partnerships (formerly titled Director of Advocacy). Jodi will serve as our liaison and representative to the URJ, the CCAR and the College-Institute. Jodi has served her own region with distinction, and we look forward to her active participation with the organizations listed above as we move into our new fiscal year.
In addition to our continuing financial security and our strong infrastructure, we have begun brass-tacks planning based on the dreams we dreamed in Kerhonkson. Look for more information on our Strategic Development planning in the body of the note below. Be sure to keep reading to find out more about the important business of the Conference that was conducted in San Francisco, as well as what our future holds in store.
Welcome to our New Members
During our plenary sessions we welcomed as new members the most recent investees of the School of Sacred Music: Joanna Alexander, Rebecca Elliston Goren, Daniel Mutlu, Rebecca Robins, Darcie Naomi Sharlein, and Emily Wigod. We also welcomed those who successfully completed the certification process over this last year: Dorothy Goldberg and Donna M. Gordon. Finally, at the Thursday Board meeting we voted into membership through our reciprocity agreement with the Jewish Theological Seminary, Arnold Saltzman.
Special Simchas
We celebrated with our colleagues who have reached milestone years in their Cantorate. For fifty years: Morris Chotin, Martin Feldman, Martin Rosen, and Irving Shulkes. For forty years: David Axelrad, Robert Bloch, Ramon Gilbert, Charles Julian, Benjamin Maissner, and Richard Silverman. And for twenty five years: Vicki Axe, Roy Einhorn, Robert Gerber, Jan Mahler, Martha Novick, Jodi Sufrin, Ellen Sussman, and Alan Weiner. We are honored and privileged to count these cantors as colleagues-may they continue from strength to strength!
In order to further celebrate the love and dedication that goes into making a successful life in the Cantorate, Ellen Sussman and the Vatikim Committee kicked off a new film project this year. The first film, which showed interviews with six of our Vatikim was premiered on the Tuesday evening during convention. It was extremely well received and we look forward to furthering this project in years to come as we continue to interview our Vatikim and to archive the film footage we take. You can look forward to watching these films-which are not only interesting, but also inspiring-at conventions in the years ahead.

In addition to all of these simchas, the first President's Award for Volunteerism was presented to Andy Bernard for his tireless work on behalf of the ACC as co-chair of the Joint Commission on Worship, Music and Religious Living. Andy is a mensch and a credit to us all-please offer him your sincerest congratulations.
Dues changes
During the plenary sessions we reminded everyone of the dues increase that will begin August 1st. In addition, we passed a constitutional amendment changing the date that dues are due from December 31st to October 31st.
Constitution
In June you received the list of proposed amendments to our Constitution and By-Laws. Following good attendance and discussion at the plenary meetings, all of the proposed amendments passed. Highlights include:
• Clarifications of membership categories to ensure accuracy of dues obligations in relationship to the categories of membership.
• Revisions to our elections processes for Board members and Officers of the Conference in order to allow elections to be scheduled each year relative to our annual convention. This change will better allow for conventions at times of the year other than the end of June.
• Further clarification to processes involved in calling a special meeting of the General Assembly.
• As mentioned above, change to the date when dues are payable to October 31 of each year.
Please see our website for an up to date version of our Constitution and By-Laws!
Continuing Pathways into the Next Era of the ACC
Last year in the Hudson Valley those of you who were there participated in a brainstorm session about the future of the ACC. We visioned together in three areas: 1) Maintaining High Professional Standards and Continuing Education for our membership; 2) Lay Education and furthering Jewish Music in the larger community; 3) Identity/Naming or Branding of the ACC, including the hiring of a Fundraising and Development Consultant.
Over the course of this year, a Strategic Development Task Force, chaired by Tracey Scher, developed a set of plans to further the goals outlined in Kerhonkson. This Task Force created four projects which they felt would best suit the needs of our organization and further our development. The four project areas are:
• Sustaining Education and Professional Development with an emphasis on technology and web based learning
• An ACC Composers' Workshop to which Jewish music students from around the country will be invited in order to mentor with established Jewish composers from the ACC and GTM
• ACC Kallot for lay leaders so that they may learn and participate in Jewish music of a variety of styles
• An ACC CD as a publicity and branding vehicle
These four projects are well on their way to being further developed. We have identified the goals, timeline, costs, methods of implementation, and the next steps for each project.

Furthermore, we have hired a part-time Development Consultant to work with us on these and other Fundraising and Development projects. Alicia Kuranda will be joining our team in August bringing her energy and expertise to our fledgling efforts.

Our next big step for each of these projects, will be to form committees to oversee and implement action steps. Working alongside Alicia, these committees will continue the journey to support the mission of the ACC as well as to further our efforts to make the ACC the "go to" organization for all things Jewish Music.
New Executive Board Members
During our Wednesday evening tefillah we installed our new Executive Board Members: Nancy Ginsburg (in abstentia), Shira Nafshi and Kerith Spencer- Shapiro. Please join me in welcoming them, as well as welcoming back into service Roz Barak, Penny Kessler and Sharon Kohn.
All of us on the Executive Board have been elected as your representatives. We want to hear from you -your ideas, thoughts, and feedback. Please do not hesitate to be in contact with any of us.
Minutes of the plenary sessions will be posted in the coming weeks. Please check the ACC website for details on all of the business and news enumerated above.

May we all go from strength to strength!

Kol tuv,

Kay

Kay Greenwald
ACC President
kgreenwald@accantors.org