CJC New Member Outreach

by Alex Ross, Chair, Membership Outreach Committee

I wanted to take the opportunity to fill you in on some exciting membership outreach efforts. A group of creative and motivated CJC members are looking at ways to engage outside of CJC and let the broader Howard County Jewish Community know about this joyous synagogue and what it has to offer them. Since July, we’ve been involved in a number of important outreach efforts, including:

Information tables at area events – such as the HoCo LGBTQ Pride event this past October, just recently HoCo Purim Palooza, and we have plans to be at Howard County Family Wellness Day in early June.
CJC Menchkins events with Rabbi Michael for Chanukah and – with holiday activities for children age 7 and under. Additionally, our Passover event at Barnes & Noble attracted a few new households.
In collaboration with Rabbi Michael and Robin, the creation of a new CJC 1-pager, available now on the CJC website (CJC-1-pager.pdf) and for your use when anyone speaks with prospective members.

We’ve got plans to host or participate in a number of events in the coming months, including:

Hosting a Meet the Rabbi lunch for prospective members.
A Fall stream clean-up event for members and prospective members.

And there’s more, Rabbi Michael approached the Membership Outreach Committee this past Fall to see if we might develop a CJC Ambassadors Program. What is a CJC Ambassador? When the synagogue gains a new member, the Ambassador Program links the new member (individual or family) to a CJC Ambassador who will reach out to welcome the new member. CJC Ambassadors can act as a guide, introducing new members to the range of CJC activities that may be of interest to them. We currently have participation from 20 new member households and 20 Ambassadors.

Recently, we established a collaboration with the CJC Green Team, to highlight the wonderful Green activities that may be of interest to potential members. At upcoming events we plan to share environmental fun facts for kids as well as seed pots for children to create and take home.

The Membership Outreach Committee wants to share what is great about CJC with others. To keep our wonderful synagogue vibrant and strong we need to continue to engage in new member outreach. Please spread the word about CJC, encourage interested persons to attend a CJC adult ed event, a Friday night or Saturday morning service or one of the many festival/holiday events on the Jewish calendar. We’re here to assist, if you think someone would like more information, we’d be glad to reach-out. Just let Robin Rosenfeld know and she will coordinate with the Membership Outreach team to make an initial contact.

A blog post about new member outreach has to include a shout-out to the CJC Membership Outreach team. Many thanks to: Renee Brimfield, Stacey Freedman, Lisa Pomerantz, Ronee Rothman, Lois Savar-Rock, and Sharon Unger. A special thank you to our Executive Director Robin Rosenfeld and Rabbi Michael.

Interested? Please join us, we welcome new members on the team! Please contact Alex Ross at: Alexande_ross@comcast.net