B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community

My One-Year Annual Review
What's My Grade?
By Moishe Smith

Everyone in life gets a review. We are all judged by our performance and graded. Teachers evaluate students and send home report cards. Employers evaluate employees and file performance reviews. Scouts rank players to provide for the team's best.

Clerics counsel parishioners to determine redemption. Peer groups judge peer groups and determine who belongs and who doesn't. Doctors assess patients, who then judge their bedside manner. Companies create focus groups to help determine customer satisfaction.

Who among us hasn't completed a survey to rate performance? No one in life escapes their review; your B'nai B'rith International president included.

In this column, I will attempt to provide you with a realistic one-year self-assessment of my performance; of my strengths and weaknesses; my accomplishments and disappointments; and my short-term and long-term goals for the betterment of the global Jewish community.

Before my one-year anniversary, I was asked to complete a presidential exercise to determine my standing with regard to our organization's agenda and mandate. The exercise was thought-provoking, reflective-at times easy, and at times most difficult, if I was to be honest with my answers, and my conscience, as your volunteer leader.

I humbly share with you my one-year annual review and ask you, the B'nai B'rith reader, to evaluate my performance and give me my grade.

1. What three things over the past 12 months do you consider your greatest accomplishments?

-- Keeping the Best: I was able to help retain B'nai B'rith's most valuable and trusted asset, our Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin. It is no secret that Dan was courted, and indeed enticed, to consider a career move. To our credit and the excellent working and personal relationship that Dan and I have developed over the years (not to mention his 20-year commitment to the B'nai B'rith family), Dan chose to remain with us. He continues to help guide us on the course that he, in consultation with lay leadership, has set for our praiseworthy organization. I am very grateful for Dan's decision to remain as our beacon and I look forward to continue serving the global Jewish community with him.

-- Interaction with Other Organizations: Because of how competitive Jewish organizations are with each other, I have tried diligently to reach out to many of these organizations, developing personal relationships with their key leadership and, wherever appropriate and possible, encouraging joint projects for the benefit of the entire community.

-- The Merging of the B'nai B'rith Political Program: Since serving as chair of the International Council, I developed a fond interest in Latin America. When attending a B'nai B'rith Argentinean conference on antiterrorism, in the wake of the Amia and Israeli embassy bombings in Buenos Aires, I had my first opportunity to make a B'nai B'rith presentation. I witnessed first-hand the work being done in partnership between Latin American volunteers and senior B'nai B'rith lay leadership. It was my dream to duplicate this process, delivering the B'nai B'rith message to Jews around the world. In my opinion, Latin America is the model of B'nai B'rith partnership in the field. Today, I believe I am successfully delivering our message, loud and clear, at the United Nations in New York and the European Union in Geneva. I encourage and applaud the work being done by B'nai B'rith Canada, Australia, New Zealand; at our World Center in Jerusalem; at Mercosur, the Organization of American States, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and now through our newly opened office in Brussels. Together, we are all working to protect human rights and freedoms, human dignities and values.

2. What three things have you not accomplished but still want to?

-- Community Building: To spread the B'nai B'rith message, we need to bring programming back to the individual communities, as this model proved to be our strength for so many years. The concept is a s-l-o-w work in progress; a concept that is shared by our Chairman of the Executive Dennis Glick, and our two senior vice presidents, Harold Steinberg and John Rofel. John serves as inspiration on the community level by the successes he has shown in developing B'nai B'rith in Detroit. Other community examples include Omaha, Youngstown, Seattle, St. Louis, and Denver, just to name a few. The United States is vast and there is much territory to cover to continue to deliver programming at the community level.

-- Marketing & Communications: For whatever the reason, the hardest thing to do in most nonprofits that work with limited budgets is to get their message out to the community. B'nai B'rith is no different. We have improved our communication model by leaps and bounds, and our press coverage has grown immensely. However, we cannot rest on our laurels. We need to continue to build on these media advancements, develop personal relationships with newspaper and magazine personnel, and never be afraid to take on the tough issues in print. In addition, we need to provide our professionals with timely marketing materials to better promote our mission and tell our story.

-- Breakdown the Barrier between Professional and Volunteer: The relationship between professional and volunteer still needs to be better defined to best serve the community. I would like to help forge relationships that have the potential to become real partnerships in delivering and serving our programs to our constituents. We need to create well-defined descriptions of each other's roles and responsibilities, to enhance existing relationships and to develop lasting partnerships.

3. What three words would the staff best use to describe you?

The staff and I have gradually begun to understand each other better to move our agenda forward. Perhaps more time spent in Washington, D.C., will lead to a better rapport and the development of a set of protocols that will make us more mobile and responsive to the ever-increasing needs of the Jewish community. I humbly acknowledge I am not the easiest of individuals with whom to work. Ergo, I believe the staff might find me…

-- Harsh but fair

-- Impatient

-- Demanding

4. What three words would the Board of Governors best use to describe you?

I think some board members may find me a little unresponsive to daily minutia, a little bit too involved in the bigger picture, and a little too focused on fundraising, as I think they are not quite ready to fully embrace the need for a major culture change from the lodge model to the fundraising model. Perhaps the words they would use to best describe me are:

-- Unattached

-- Aloof

-- Motivated

5. What three words would donors best use to describe you?

There is no greater feeling of satisfaction than when I connect with a donor. I truly enjoy every interaction I have had, to date, in meeting with potential donors and our "investors," alike, the result of which has been a tremendous boost to our development and bottom-line fundraising structure. I will continue to develop relationships and fundraise around the globe to help offset the growing expenses of our organization. I have been told that donors find me:

-- Engaging

-- Earnest

-- Committed

6. What three words would you use to best describe yourself?

-- Charismatic

-- Impatient

-- Hard-working

7. If you could change one thing in the last 12 months, what would it be?

I doubt I would make any changes or wish for things to be different. When I come to a fork in the road, I have the option of going left or right. The direction I choose is usually made by what motivated me that particular day. Once decided, I do not retrace my steps, nor will I ever have the opportunity to make that turn again. I am best with a decision made at the moment and I let my decision take me where it may. For me, it's an evolutionary process, always bringing me to the next fork in the road. I rarely second-guess myself. If one continues to second-guess oneself, you end up in a morass of process instead of being on a path to progress.

8. If your term as president ended at midnight tonight, what would you tell the next president his first order of business should be?

-- To continue to build and strengthen the fundraising structure and department because fundraising is the lifeblood, the fuel for the delivery system, for every nonprofit organization.

9. As president, how do you want to be remembered?

I would like to be remembered as the president who helped to change the culture of B'nai B'rith International by making it a respected household name globally; who showed our membership and investors the value of investing in our mission; and who provided an on-the-ground delivery system of programming to communities around the world.

And…let's not forget, was the best-dressed!

10. If you found the bottle with the genie, and she granted you three wishes, what would they be?

-- As much as this is not the reality of the day, I would like B'nai B'rith to become a mass membership organization again, because so many of our members are stuck in that time and, for whatever reason, cannot or will not move forward. Many of our members want to continually lament the changing times instead of rejoicing in them and helping the organization wend its way through the necessary changes that will keep us vibrant, relevant, and state-of-the-art, so we can best serve the needs of today's Jewish community.

-- My second wish (in the interest of not wanting to be greedy) is for B'nai B'rith to become a leader in the fundraising arena, raising an additional $5 million dollars per year. Why only $5 million? Because B'nai B'rith as a non-profit organization knows how to make a ton of impact with a small amount of dynamite.

-- Peace in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians, and, indeed, between Israelis and all of their moderate Arab neighbors. For peace in the Middle East cannot remain an elusive dream forever.

The exercise complete, the hardest thing in the world to do is mark your own scorecard. For it is much easier to have others critique you (as many of you are wont to do on a daily basis). One of the most difficult things a president has to endure is the criticism that comes from his own constituents. Does anyone really have all the answers? I have watched successive presidents undergo this endurance test from their own constituents, and now it is my turn. I know for a fact that no one has all the answers. I certainly do not.

Yet, at day's end, it is my responsibility to guide us through this piece of the B'nai B'rith evolutionary process in preserving and growing our legacy. Three years of our 164 years is miniscule. We need to all get on the same page. We need to all celebrate the positive impact our organization has on the global community. We need to stop lamenting the things we cannot change. We need to embrace, together, the things we can. Along with the next generation, we need to ensure the B'nai B'rith legacy for another 164 years. For no dream is too big or too small to ensure the future of the chosen people.

I am honored to serve as your president and I will continue to do so to the best of my ability every day until my term ends. I welcome your comments and suggestions, and I readily await your grade of my one-year annual review.