The First Narayever Congregation: Long-term strategic options

May, 2010

Background and context

• The last renovation to the shul was completed in 2002
• At that time expansion was done with a view that growth in membership to 350
• It has been identified for some time that space is becoming a constraint to the activities of the shul
• These constraints are limiting the ability of the shul to meet the needs of the community
• The Board charged a Building sub-committee with developing a long-term strategy for the shul to assess the options for managing these constraints
• The sub-committee used a data-driven approach to this problem, consisting of analysis of the downtown community, shul demographics, needs of relevant committees, administration and the rabbi, and data from an online survey of members
• Various options for coping with space constraints exist, each having advantages and drawbacks

The Changing Profile of Toronto's Downtown Jewish Community

Membership

• Membership currently is at 600+ members not including children under 19
• There are approximately 400 households
• There is anecdotal evidence that the number of young children, newborns< and expectant mothers is on the rise.
• The continued development of condominiums in the downtown core is likely to increase membership

Most Narayever members live within 9 km of the shul

Needs Assessment

The subcommittee asked each Board member to express their opinions about how their needs were being met or not. Their comments in some places have undergone minor editing.

Adult Education

• We are ok for most of the programs we have run because they generally run in the sanctuary on weekday evenings.
• It is virtually impossible to run Adult Ed programs on Shabbat parallel to the main service, because there are no breakout rooms, or a separate Rabbi's study. These programs might include special study groups for people who want to learn more about particular aspects of the service or for people who want to learn to follow the siddur more effectively.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah

• The bar /bat mitzvah program - classes on Sundays and tutoring works well within the existing spa, although the rabbi may have a different opinion.
• The bar/bat mitzvah classes on Shabbat during services could use additional space as could the junior congregation, the youth program and the babysitting.
• Increasingly Bar/Bat mitzvah families are concerned about the limitation on the number of guests (120) that they can invite to the shul for the service because of the space constraints.
• Regular attendees may choose not to attend on BBM Shabbatot because of the crowds in the sanctuary.
• The Kiddush on BBM Shabbatot can get very crowded and people with small children get very nervous about their safety.
• There are members and guests on BBM Shabbatot and otherwise that have mobility problems. Regular attendees likely just stop coming if they can't manage stairs.Guests unfamiliar with the building will expect that they will be able to get from the sanctuary to the washrooms and Kiddush.

Celebrations

• Sukkot: Space is an issue during the lunch, especially when there is a bar/bat mitzvah.
• Tu Bishvat: The Tu Bishvat Seder usually attracts between 40-60 people. The social hall can accommodate that number comfortably. We ran a 1 hour program for the young children this year and the space in the solarium felt cramped but parents seem able to manage their young children. In the past, this type of program would have been held in the Social Hall.
• Purim: Because Purim attracts both members and non-members, it is an outlier. The sanctuary and social hall are crowded. When Purim lands on a weekend rather than a weekday, more people show up and stay later. Many of the "traditions" of Purim were transferred to the shul from a time when the congregation used the space at the MNJCC. It might be useful to meet with other committees that help to create the Purim celebration to discuss this issue.
• Of the six holidays run by Celebrations, 4 work comfortably in the space. Space can be an issue if there is a doubling up of events such as a holiday and Shabbat. It can be untenable if a simcha is scheduled to occur at that time. If the holiday falls during the work week, the building can accommodate the numbers of people who show up.

Building

• Safety must be our primary concern.
• The most pressing issue is the contravention of the fire code during bar/bat mitzvahs and other celebrations. The fire department and contravention of the fire code was the impetus for the last renovation.
• Accessibility to the building needs to be addressed.
• The furnace room and electrical rooms are used for storage which presents a fire hazard.
• There is an issue with respect to the lack of security for the contents of the office, particularly the computers and other electronic information.
• We do not have a proper cloak room.

Kiddush

• How do we want to proceed with Kiddush: are we going to continue to serve a lunch as opposed to a snack type of Kiddush?
• What kind of suggestions is the Food Committee going to come up with?
• If we renovate or we move, we need a new oven (with a convection aspect) with adequate ventilation above it.
• If we renovate to accommodate more people then we will need more storage space, more prep space and of course more space to serve and hold all these people.

Administration

• Workstations: We have one workstation for 2 employees and a lap top that one person can use when both employees are in the office. The round table serves both people as a work surface. There is an extra table behind one of the filing cabinets that can be pulled out and used. We need a separate office for the administration with 2 proper workstations that do not have to be closed up on a daily basis. The time we would save by not having to step over each other, organize our day around each other and pack up and unpack our work on a daily basis is substantial. With only 1 main workstation we must constantly organize our time to give each of us the opportunity to get our work done.
• Off-site storage: We have an offsite storage unit that is full. Most of the things that are in the off-site storage unit are for the High Holy Days. As well, we keep old shul records there and do spend time to pack up boxes on a bi-annual basis to take over to the unit. On occasion we have had a need to check the files over at the storage unit and have had to make trips over there. Ideally it would work better if we did not have to have an offsite location for the storage of our HHD material.
• On-site storage: We have built-in cabinet space in the office along the south wall, space above the cupboards on the north wall, a white shelving unit and 2 large filing cabinets. We also use space in the cabinets under the back stairs leading to the social hall when we need to. We pack up all the paperwork that we hope we don't need in July making space for the HHD (High Holy Day) paperwork and items and at the end of October we pack up all the HHD work and bring out the regular paperwork again. This is time consuming if you need to find files that are packed away. We currently have HHD boxes sitting on top of a filing cabinet in the office. Other boxes are kept in the large podium in the social hall with a few others in the storage room next to the handicapped washroom HHD curtains and previous years' financial records, for example).
• Supplies: Currently we have an inadequate white cupboard in the office with our supplies in it. We need to be careful about how much we buy, especially during busy periods, going often to pick up supplies. Often we waste time looking for things that we have as everything is crammed in, we sometimes need to unpack the cabinet to get to something in the back.
• Filing: Historically we have not kept on file a lot of the work that has been done by committees. This historical material has to be organized and kept for future reference. It is clear that we do not have enough space for all this information and more filing space will need to be created.

The Rabbi's point of view

• It would be great to have 3 discrete spaces where we can have children's programming on Shabbat instead of our current two. It'd be terrific if one didn't have to walk through one of the spaces to get to another.
• It would be better to have the rabbi's study at the shul instead of in my home.
• We need proper ventilation in the kitchen.
• We need more space downstairs for Kiddush.
• We need more storage space.
• Especially if we lose seats in the sanctuary b/c of the elevator or any other aspect of the design, more space in the sanctuary so that we end up with at least as many seats as we have now. A few more than we have now would be nice, but I don't think we need a lot more.
• We'll still need the administrative office of course.

Online Survey: The needs of shul members

We conducted an online questionnaire of shul members. The responses were self-selecting (voluntary). We have so far obtained ~90 responses (as of 3/2/2010).

The respondents' demographics are as follows:

• 62% were not born in Toronto
• 75% have been members for more than 5 years
• 50% have at least one child living at home
• 30% come to shul each week
• 60% were female
• The age distribution from 25 to 65 was fairly even: currently 9% of members are 65+. If we look 10 years into future 36% will be 65.

Members are generally satisfied with space; space for youth programming, celebrations and Kiddush present the greatest challenges.

People have had to restrict invitees to an event primarily due to space constraints in the sanctuary and the social hall.

What are our options?