The Leaders Advisory Committee continues to work on the search for an Interim Leader for our Society. We believe it is important that we are as transparent as possible in updating you, the members, on our process and progress. We have been posting the interim opening on several virtual job bulletin boards, now including idealist.org, which reaches hundreds. We have also reached out personally to some potential applicants in the wider Ethical Culture community.
We would like to make the job description available to any member of our Society who may know a good prospective interim. Please email David Bland at [email protected] to request a copy of the job description. You’re welcome to forward it to a strong potential candidate, if you have one in mind.
We have prepared interview questions and a rubric to evaluate applicants after they provide us with a letter of introduction, a resume, and a video of a presentation. Wes Matsui is receiving completed applications at [email protected]
It is possible that we may not have an interim leader in place by Jan. 1. In that case, we have a back-up plan. We will still have a platform from an Ethical Culture leader on the first Sunday of the month, beginning in February. It would be delivered by Hugh Taft-Morales, clergy leader of both the Philadelphia and Baltimore Ethical Culture societies. Joe was Hugh’s leadership-training mentor and has high regard for him. In the event that we are without our own interim leader, we have arranged to join the Philadelphia Society’s Zoom at 11 am for their platform and then jump to our own Society’s Zoom program at noon to announce birthdays, share our own joys and concerns, and make any Society announcements. As for Joe’s other Society functions, they will be filled by our generous and capable officers, committees, members, and other officiants.
At the same time that we are searching for an interim leader, we are setting up the structure for an exit interview for Joe and for an expanded Search Committee to look for a permanent leader. We are most grateful for our invaluable volunteers who are willing to serve. The Search Committee for a permanent leader, which will have nine members, has eight members confirmed at this time. The committee consists of Paulo Ribeiro, Rob Eigenbrod, Susan Lesh, Dwight Panozzo, Tracey Kelley, Ron Schwartz, Wes Matsui, and me.
Janet Glass