IF07: Snow Patrol
Like the rest of the East Coast, we've been experiencing unusual weather conditions, alternating between blizardous snows and warmth in the 50s and 60s. Last Friday afternoon I was out shoveling snow, trying to ready the property for 100+ women arriving from B'nai Jeshurun in NYC, and I could hardly tell where I had shoveled only an hour or two before. And I was out again Saturday morning, clearing paths for them to get to breakfast. The temperature was in the 20s. Skip ahead to this afternoon, though, and I was again shoveling snow but in short sleeves. In the sun, the air was at least 60° and it was easing my process of clearing walkways for this weekend's retreat.
Community life has been exciting of late. Two nights ago, the women went to Julie's room for a Rosh Chodesh observance and we four guys were left spontaneously deciding to form a men's group. I expressed my past distaste for these groups, but the context had been men much older than me, whose personal issues didn't appeal to me. This would be different, I figured, given the age similarity and the nature of our existing friendship in the context of Isabella Freedman. So, we moseyed into Bryan's room and spent 10 minutes writing (journalishly) and about four minutes each sharing.
One of the main thoughts I offered about myself was my perspective on many of the tasks I've worked on this last month. Some would consider them menial, but I make only positive, opportunistic conclusions about them. I see how a challenge builds character, deepens my sense of self, and makes me happy simply because of my progress that benefits the community. After our individual sharing, we opened to discussion and I had more than one chance to offer my optimistic wisdom to lead others to greater happiness in light of their present situations.
As I was saying, our community has improved drastically in only the last couple days. There has been wide frustration about a variety of issues, including Passover housing constraints, organizational communication (or lack thereof), and cleaning supplies. A lot of this seems to repeat a root cause of the way Freedman operates and manages staff. However, a Mishpocha (family) meeting Monday evening was an opportunity to speak from the heart and check in personally and communally about our issues/fellings, etc. It resulted in a possibly groundbreaking beginning of new, positive change at Freedman.
In the meantime, I've been hard at work in the Bookstore. Tuesday morning, we started a manual inventory of our entire stock. It's taking far longer than we originally anticipated, but it's necessary to make sure we have what our database says we have before we can order more stuff. Good thing we only have to do this once! We finished the entire "warehouse" (basement of the Synagogue) by Tuesday afternoon and as of this afternoon the audio/video section is done, too. I stayed late today to continue the books, which are probably two-thirds complete and I intend to finish them before guests arrive tomorrow afternoon. That will only leave jewelry, art, and clothing for early next week.
Also tomorrow, besides finishing the walkway scrapage, I have a meeting with Ari and Rose to discuss credit card processing. I've been corresponding with a sales rep from Axia, one of two card processors compatible with LightSpeed, who has helped me understand how the credit card industry works and whose services should help Freedman consolidate its card processing operations rather than complexify them. Rose has been reluctant to open an account with yet another of these companies as she already deals with three. Adding Axia to the mix may actually reduce that number to two, by replacing the systems used for donations and retreat registrations. So we'll discuss in the morning.
So, we had about 18 inches of snow here between last weekend's blizzard and a second storm earlier this week. And Friday evening's Shabbat service practice was really special as six of us stood together in a circle in Brown House Kitchen. The group started in L'cha Dodi and worked backward, selecting Kabbalat Shabbat tunes out of traditional order and enjoying the sparks of creativity and vocal harmony that resulted. And the weekend that followed was not terribly relaxing given the shoveling and other constraints, but still fun nonetheless.
Community life has been exciting of late. Two nights ago, the women went to Julie's room for a Rosh Chodesh observance and we four guys were left spontaneously deciding to form a men's group. I expressed my past distaste for these groups, but the context had been men much older than me, whose personal issues didn't appeal to me. This would be different, I figured, given the age similarity and the nature of our existing friendship in the context of Isabella Freedman. So, we moseyed into Bryan's room and spent 10 minutes writing (journalishly) and about four minutes each sharing.
One of the main thoughts I offered about myself was my perspective on many of the tasks I've worked on this last month. Some would consider them menial, but I make only positive, opportunistic conclusions about them. I see how a challenge builds character, deepens my sense of self, and makes me happy simply because of my progress that benefits the community. After our individual sharing, we opened to discussion and I had more than one chance to offer my optimistic wisdom to lead others to greater happiness in light of their present situations.
As I was saying, our community has improved drastically in only the last couple days. There has been wide frustration about a variety of issues, including Passover housing constraints, organizational communication (or lack thereof), and cleaning supplies. A lot of this seems to repeat a root cause of the way Freedman operates and manages staff. However, a Mishpocha (family) meeting Monday evening was an opportunity to speak from the heart and check in personally and communally about our issues/fellings, etc. It resulted in a possibly groundbreaking beginning of new, positive change at Freedman.
In the meantime, I've been hard at work in the Bookstore. Tuesday morning, we started a manual inventory of our entire stock. It's taking far longer than we originally anticipated, but it's necessary to make sure we have what our database says we have before we can order more stuff. Good thing we only have to do this once! We finished the entire "warehouse" (basement of the Synagogue) by Tuesday afternoon and as of this afternoon the audio/video section is done, too. I stayed late today to continue the books, which are probably two-thirds complete and I intend to finish them before guests arrive tomorrow afternoon. That will only leave jewelry, art, and clothing for early next week.
Also tomorrow, besides finishing the walkway scrapage, I have a meeting with Ari and Rose to discuss credit card processing. I've been corresponding with a sales rep from Axia, one of two card processors compatible with LightSpeed, who has helped me understand how the credit card industry works and whose services should help Freedman consolidate its card processing operations rather than complexify them. Rose has been reluctant to open an account with yet another of these companies as she already deals with three. Adding Axia to the mix may actually reduce that number to two, by replacing the systems used for donations and retreat registrations. So we'll discuss in the morning.
So, we had about 18 inches of snow here between last weekend's blizzard and a second storm earlier this week. And Friday evening's Shabbat service practice was really special as six of us stood together in a circle in Brown House Kitchen. The group started in L'cha Dodi and worked backward, selecting Kabbalat Shabbat tunes out of traditional order and enjoying the sparks of creativity and vocal harmony that resulted. And the weekend that followed was not terribly relaxing given the shoveling and other constraints, but still fun nonetheless.
posted by Ben @ 10:07 PM
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