Biennial Delegates Have a Blast in Miami

“All of my lay people were thrilled.  They came home excited, motivated and energized about doing more.” Gary Lipman, executive director, Stamford JCC

“Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this extremely well run, well attended and professional event.  We were very impressed and I believe your attendees felt the same.” Richard Ekstrom, Retention Management

“On behalf of the Baltimore contingent, we want to thank you for a great four days.  To a person, our board members couldn't have been more complimentary.  From the changes in the schedule, to the quality of the sessions, to the informative, provocative and entertaining keynote speakers, you all should feel very proud. Our delegation is already sharing with their peers that they can't afford to miss going to Atlanta in two years.” Buddy Sapolsky, executive director, JCC of Greater Baltimore

The compliments streamed in during the weeks right after our JCCs of North America Biennial in Miami, and the consensus of opinion was that this was the best Biennial ever. Dynamic and provocative keynote speakers, a redesigned schedule that allowed more time for delegates to connect with each other and explore Miami, relevant and information-packed seminars—all left delegates feeling that they’d had a great learning and networking experience. One of our goals was to provide JCCs with concrete take-home ideas. All of the session handouts are available to JCC Board members on our password protected website http://resources.jcca.org/.

For the first time, JWB Jewish Chaplains Council scheduled its meeting to coincide with the Biennial, so the halls of the InterContinental were filled with men and women in uniform. In addition to reminding delegates of the long and valued relationship between the JCC Movement and Jewish military personnel, the presence of chaplains and military lay leaders gave deeper meaning to the award presentations to Rabbi Philip Silverstein and Major General Ronald D. Silverman, and to the recognition of the JCCs of Chicago project, which reached out to recruits at the Great Lakes Naval Base. Awards were also presented to former JCC Association Chair Edward H. Kaplan, as well as JCC professionals Avrum Cohen and Solomon Greenfield, which underlined the critical importance of volunteers and staff in successful JCCs.

Delegates from around the world attended the Biennial through the World Confederation of JCCs, giving an international flavor to the events and joining in as we commemorated Yom HaZikaron and celebrated Israel’s sixtieth anniversary. And our “green” efforts were a great start to a movement-wide initiative. Delegates recycled their soda cans and waste paper, and many turned in their binders and lanyards at the end of the meeting for us to reuse in the future. It gave real impetus to our commitment to bal taschit, the injunction to avoid waste and needless destruction.

If you were unable to join the more than 600 JCC leaders in Miami, you can capture some of the excitement by watching video highlights on our website http://biennial.jcca.org/index.htm?pageid=E6534.  See you in Atlanta in 2010!