Well here we are. The start of a new fiscal year. With my first year as President behind me I am excited at the prospects for Congregation Beth Am going into the 2019/20 school year. I feel a little more prepared going in to this next year and look forward to working with the new board. I have a few things to mention this month.

First of all, thank you for being a part of the Congregation Beth Am family. We appreciate all of you and we need all of you for us to continue to be the vibrant Jewish community that we strive to be.

Second, there are some opportunities for volunteering listed in this month's digest. I want to talk about one of those. The House Committee. This is the most needed area for assistance for us right now. Right now we do not have a Coordinator/Chairperson for this committee. If you are a take charge type person, not necessarily with superb fix-it skills but just some ability to coordinate we need you to take on the role of House Committee Chair. You would work directly with our most able VP of Facilities Peter Kaufmann to monitor and take care of Congregation Beth Am's infrastructure and coordinate volunteers for various projects. Peter has been doing both jobs for way too long and he needs assistance. So I'm writing to you, the Congregation to provide that assistance. Please contact me via phone or emial (Victoria knows how to reach me) if you would like some additional information or even if you just want to help out once in a while and not necessarily lead it. But sometimes jumping in and taking on the leadership role is the best thing you can do.

Last but certainly not least, please look at the Beth Am Calendar. There are a bunch of Bar/Bat Mitzvah weekends. At least six of them between mid-July and the end of August. Do your best to be there. These are our Beth Am Youth. They have prepared very hard to become a B'nai Mitzvah and they are our future. If you are available, come to a Saturday Morning service and be prepared to be amazed at how much these young men and women have learned. They have skills and they have passion. It will do you good to be here and it will make them (and me) happy to see a bunch of our Congregation at their Bnai Mitzvah service.

I will schedule office hours on Monday July 15 between 6-8 pm and on Thursday July July 25 between 8:00 am-10:00 am. Please contact Victoria if you would like to schedule a time to talk 1 on 1.

Have a great summer everyone.

Cantor Fund

Theresa & Aaron Hochhauser

The sisterhood board is meeting on July 14 to create an interesting and entertaining year of programs, special interest groups, opportunities to deepen our relationships, and social action.

Five of us received a warm welcome at World Refugee Day where we networked with member agencies of the Tampa Bay RefugeeTask Force while enjoying tasty ethnic food, "success stories", and song and dance performances of different countries. The Women's Initiative is building on their "Sew together Project " where women enhance their skills so they can become self supporting. Since they are adding new students, they are asking for donations to purchase new sewing machines.  If you are interested in donating, send your check made out to RAMWI to Sisterhood of Congregation Beth Am.

       Sisterhood now has three successful special interest groups, Chai Mitzvah, Book Club, and Sewing. We would like to add some new groups so we can enjoy each other while honing new skills. Just a few ideas include cooking, Women's Torah Study, movie matinee, and "touring Tampa Bay" ( day trips to interesting local attractions).

      We look forward to sharing our new and existing programs with you at Open House on August 25. See why we are excited about sisterhood 2019-29.