The weekend experience in St Albans was very rewarding, both personally and professionally. To experience a Shabbat with people from different countries of Europe is a wonderful spiritual experience.
In turn, the simple fact of knowing the operation of the St Albans Masorti organization has given me many tools and new ideas to implement in our organization. Its volunteer coordination, the division of the areas and tasks makes it a worthy example to follow. They are very professional in their work and to all they do they put in a lot of love and commitment, which is reflected in the number of people involved and the appreciation of its members.
The way they carry on religious services is incredible: everyone is involved in performing different parts of the service. And despite having a wonderful Rabbi, members themselves take over the service with great responsibility and enthusiasm. I would like to thank them for inviting me to participate in the service, which was a vote of confidence in my abilities and shows great generosity on their part.
I also had the opportunity to spend a few days living in a family home, which provided a deeper exchange experience. It is very interesting to see how people live in another country, their customs, their schedules, the way they live their Judaism at home.
The Grundtvig sessions have been valuable, enriching us as volunteers and helping us to be more professional in what we do.
What I value most of all in the sessions is the general point of view. All exercises and theories focus on the value of the members of the organization, not of its leaders. The organization is made by its members, not by the executive committee or the president. And the sessions gave us tools to help us learn to listen and interpret the needs and desires of our members.
For example, we were taught to develop active listening through interviews conducted '1 to 1': Meet with key members to just have a quiet conversation, without an agenda, without prior or hidden intentions. Just hear what the other has to say and from it interpret what his needs are, what he expects from the organization. It is the best way to help set the organization's objectives and also to help discover possible future volunteer leaders to help us carry out our activities. I carried out this exercise with great success, and it led to many surprises: I heard things I did not know, which are helping us to adapt and make a better organization, one that is more inclusive and participative.
ST ALBANS MEETING Juli and Ádám, Hungary
On Sunday, a Leadership conference took place, with parallel activities that resembled the structure of Limmud. After registration and an introduction, we discussed Masorti Judaism, then Ádám went to the Masorti Europe Board meeting, while Juli attended the Andy’s 'How to Woo the Press: On Getting Editorial' workshop. This session shed a light on how to communicate contents and activities effectively. We were given tasks to be executed in groups, which also helped us to get to know each other. The other morning sessions we chose to attend were David’s 'Body Language' and Dina’s 'Group Dynamics & Communication'. Among the talks during afternoon, we listened to Charlotte on 'Developing Volunteer Leaders' and Phil on 'Does Change have to be painful?'. The final panel session bore the title 'Zionism, Aliyah and Leadership within the Masorti Movement'.
Charlotte’s lecture demonstrated the characteristics of voluntary management through a live example. She involved the public in the activities with playful tasks, so we could truly appreciate the advantages and the drawbacks of working with voluntaries. Our general local experience with them is that they are an important and organic part of everyday work. The key to the commitment of the participants lies in appropriate communication and the continuous progress of getting to know each other better and better.
The host organization welcomed us most warmly and we observed the work of many volunteers by watching them organize the event. We appreciated particularly that we were given the opportunity to have an insight in the life of a local member by visiting him and his family in their home, sharing a meal there, and celebrating Havdalah together. We were also given a chance to strengthen the friendships we made during the coffee breaks and while attending to the workshops.
In the workshops and sessions, t was very interesting to see what problems people face, and this also gave us the chance to learn from each other. We had a particular discussion with the French organizations in which we learned that both the Hungarian and the French organizations consist mainly of young people, so the problems we face are very similar. We hope that we can continue this exchange in the future.
Like the other leading members of our organization, we also participate in conferences quite often, and we are used to a high standard. An educational module or a workshop gives us much useful information that we will be able to use during our work in the future. However, a personal relationship or a dinner spent together can have a great impact, since personal friendships form rapidly when we are so close to each other. We would like to highlight once more the specialness of the Havdalah that we spent together, which remains a memory that we hold dear. Thank you.