“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.”
Susan Lesh
Margaret Mead’s famous quote comes to mind as I think about the annual joint Board and Program Council retreat that was held on Oct.14 this year.
We gathered at member Heidi Finkelberg’s beautiful Pocono Mountain home and enjoyed her gracious hospitality for the day. For those of you who don’t know, Heidi is a gourmet cook and we were treated to a fabulous lunch and then snacks for the road. Thank you, Heidi!
We car-pooled from Teaneck and arrived in the mountains with the trees beginning to change color. Some of us went via the Hawk’s Nest road, a winding cliffside road hovering above the Delaware River that made you feel as though you had been transported to the Amalfi Coast in Italy!
We spent the morning brainstorming (there are many impressive brains in our group) about the state of our Society–what we know and what we wish we knew. A new initiative arose from this session. We will be talking about this more in the coming months and at the Membership Meeting on Nov. 19. “House parties,” however, will be part of the initiative…stay tuned for more information.
We spent the afternoon discussing a PR proposal made by Jim Miller of Momentum; his firm provides PR support to the New York Society for Ethical Culture. As everyone knows, the more you get your message out, the more people will know about you, and hopefully end up in the door. We’ve begun with sticking our toes into social media like Facebook and Meetup, and we certainly have a wonderful presence on the Web with this Web site, Ethicalfocus.org. Member Ed Gross and our leader, Joe Chuman, are beginning to talk about creating a Podcast. Look for us as we begin to expand Ethical Culture’s message in the media of today.
Photo by Ken Karp
Here we are: left to right, standing at the back: Janet Glass, Linda Bennett, Dan Rosenblum, Silvia Acosta, David Bland; middle row: Joe Chuman, Bob Gordon, Lisa Schwartz, Susan Lesh, Jim Norman, Karen Buzzard, Sarah Jack; seated in front: Esther Sandrof, Terri Karp.
