From the President

I recently finished Thomas Friedman's latest book, The World is Flat. He discusses the rapid change taking place globally, which is leveling the playing field between Western countries and developing countries such as India and China. He refers to this as the flattening of the world. Friedman talks about the need for the West to adapt and change in order to maintain and grow our standard of living.

"Adapt and change" is something that Congregation Albert continues to focus on. Our Youth Initiative Taskforce is working toward making our youth feel more welcome and included in our community. We continue to work toward making the undeveloped portion of our cemetery usable. Our building is a work in progress: in 2003 we refurbished our Social Hall, thanks to Sisterhood; this fiscal year we added the Kalmus Lounge and improved our office spaces. Our sanctuary and school wing could benefit from some updates.

Membership dues only take us so far. While many of you have again stepped up and increased your dues for next year, overall, dues increases are slowing down. We need to grow our endowment fund to ensure that we have the necessary funds annually to do all that we want to do, and all that we should be doing. Your temple leadership is discussing ways to make this happen.

As I conclude my presidency next month, I want to thank you for your support these past two years. It has been a blessing and an honor to have served.

A Special Todah Rabah to Leslie Pivar …

One of the many joys of being your president is observing the scores of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about their particular task. Leslie Pivar has served as the editor of Congregation Albert's Bulletin for five years. In addition to ensuring that our grammar was correct, Leslie was also the epitome of discretion. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, thank you, Leslie, for your gift of time and boundless energy in making our Bulletin the best it could be.

Gary Singer, President