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Genesis Holds Annual Meeting and Joins Tri‑Board Meeting
- Genesis of Ann Arbor
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
On June 1, Genesis held its 2025 Annual Meeting, followed by a Tri‑Board meeting of the Genesis Board, the Temple Board, and the Church Vestry.
With all the anniversary celebrations, lest our members think it's all fun and games, we attended to some very important business at these back‑to‑back meetings.
Genesis Annual Meeting
Outgoing president David Lewis provided an overview of the year's accomplishments, including extensive repairs and significant safety and security upgrades. The installation the new fire alarm system and new solar panels are completed or imminent. Genesis also purchased the Eastover solar panels this year, which will save us even more on utility bills and bring us one step closer to our goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.
David emphasized that we are all well aware that BSRP contributions from the two congregations are no longer sufficient to cover basic building needs let alone improvements. To this end, we commissioned an independent reserve study this year. Our task over the next six months will be to study this report and make crucial decisions about how to fund our capital needs and what to prioritize.
David announced the composition of the new board for the upcoming year beginning July 1. Mark Davis-Craig of STC will take over as president while David Lewis will become vice president. Tom Rich and Loren Ryter will remain as treasurer and secretary respectively, while the rest of the board will maintain its current composition.
David directed attendees to the Genesis Annual Meeting Report 2024-2025 for details. The board also prepared this summary slide deck for this meeting.
Several committees presented accomplishments and challenges of the year. Treasurer Tom Rich sang the praises of our bookkeeper, Wendy Hatem, who makes the job possible. He thanked the staff, the board, and the committees for doing a great job of keeping expenses under control despite our restricted budget and extensive needs, and successfully seeking donations and grants. Yet, he also underscored that the BSRP is no longer sufficient to meet our basic needs, let alone to fund desired improvements.
For the Personnel Committee, Abram Wagner described his new role as Facilities Advocate, reported on compliance with the new Michigan Earned Sick Time Act and on an initiative to track building labor use. He requested assistance with upcoming needs: legal review of the new employee handbook and evaluating health insurance providers in view of a potential switch. Please reach out to Abram if you able to recommend a lawyer who might volunteer to conduct the review pro bono, or can identify someone with recent experience in selecting an institutional health insurance vendor.
Loren Ryter explained the background of formation of the Digital Presence Committee, and updated attendees about its work to rationalize Genesis' digital operations and improve its internal and external communications. He highlighted efforts to synchronize communications such that our congregations each receive the same information from Genesis in their weekly newsletters. He reported that Genesis published 24 Journal posts this year while calling attention to the building calendar on the website.
James Downard focused on the efforts of the Building Committee to maximize efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint, highlighting the immanent installation of a new heat-pump RTU to replace a failing gas-powered RTU.
For the Green Team, Murray Rosenthal announced progress towards adopting a geothermal system. The City of Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor Public Schools have agreed in principle to work together towards installing such a system under the neighboring Pattengill Elementary School's soccer field and provide an easement for Genesis. If that happens, Genesis could reduce it's utility bills to about a third of current levels.
George Brieloff announced the reconstitution of the Genesis Events Committee and its plans to host an annual potluck preceding the Erev Thanksgiving service and a summer picnic.
Sarah Weiss reported on Grounds Committee initiatives this year, highlighting work to establish the Eastover Michigan Native Garden in the area between the two parking lots and to expand the vegetable garden which is now supplying the Back Door Food Pantry with produce. She emphasized how much of the work on our grounds is done by dedicated and tireless volunteers and invited more people to come lend a hand with the biannual cleanups and to meet other needs.
Finally, Ann Putallaz quipped that she has the honor of representing the only committee that will soon be disbanded. No one could have “voluntold” us to serve on the 50th Anniversary Committee if we did not believe the Genesis partnership was very special and worth celebrating, she said. The Genesis Board thanks the 50th Anniversary Committee for doing so much to bring our congregations together to celebrate our partnership this year.
Tri-Board Meeting
This Tri-Board meeting focused on clarifying our values as a necessary foundation to make decisions about how to fund our extensive capital needs and what to prioritize.
It came as no surprise that our two congregations and the Genesis board share so many values such as inclusion, accessibility, and providing sanctuary and a welcoming and inspiring place for worship. However, we needed to get a sense of how much we prioritize each of these values to inform future budgetary decisions. For that purpose, we conducted an exercise where each participant placed themselves on a spectrum of importance for each of these values.
The 2024 Tri-Board meeting resolved to meet more frequently than annually. This year we renewed this commitment. The three boards will meet again in the fall in order to make these challenging budgetary decisions.
