Moishe House Hoboken, June 2009

What  makes a Moishe House event successful?  Is it the amount of people who attended?  No.   Is it the depth of experience for the participants?  Yes.  Is a successful event the Purim party that attracted 40-50 people or a Spiritual Salon that only attracted 10-15 people.  Both are successful events in their own right, but its not the quantity, it’s the quality of the event.   Our job is to create a quality Jewish community where people feel welcome and truly that they are a part of a community.

Our Spiritual Salons that we host on a monthly basis usually gets a smaller , more intimate crowd, with about 10-15 participants.  The spiritual salons have been a great way to discuss issues within the Jewish community and often lead to lively discussions.  By having a smaller crowd we are able to facilitate discussions, rather than a lecture, and people.  People leave the spiritual salons feeling energized and excited to have the opportunity to discuss these issues with other young Jews in their community, whether or not they share the same views.

All of our parties, poker nights, hookah nights, and Shabat dinners draw larger numbers and are in their own right successful events.  It gives people a chance to talk and socialize with one another and meet new people in the community.

 

What's New Moishe House Great Neck

Hello Moishe House Community,

I hope you are all having a good summer. We have experienced a lot of success with a couple of our events. Our poker night is great with a lot of regulars coming to this event every month. Last month was one of the most intense Poker games to date.

We also have had a lot of success with our Moishe House Monthly in theEmpire State Building. Last month we had way more new faces than ever before, and we constantly see how event truly inspires everyone that attends.

This month we are looking forward to another great month, and to Jeremy coming over for another stay.

Wishing you all a great week,

Moishe House Great Neck

MH Warsaw - june stories

In June we had few succeses, which are worth sharing and (hopefully) will be inspiring for someone's else activities. Biggest show-up succes and newcomers attracting was a documentary show and a meeting with the director. We heard about the artistic project considering Polish-Jewish relations - one of its effects was a documentary made by a Grzegorz Brzozowski, young polish director. We managed to get in contact with him and invite him to our MH. He was really enthustiastic about coming here and have a chance to discuss about his film with Jewish youth. Later, we just have to find someone who would lend us a projector - it turned out that it was harder than inviting the director, but fortunately we found one just the same day as the event. After the screening we had a discussion (firstly more formal, but later in a more informal atmosphere) with the director. Feedback that we got (both from visitors and director) was very positive and we are looking forward for the next open screening of some documentary considering jewish topics.
Second success was less 'artistic' - we got some Falafel packages from Israel and made a 'gastro-party'. Preparing it on our own made it even more tasty than usual. Fortunately, we didn't use all of the packs, so we hope to have a tasteful continuation soon.

What Makes a MHSF Event Successful?

Friday, July 03, 2009

First and foremost, an event is successful when everyone involved had a good time. Different people can "have a good time" in a number of ways, and that's why the I believe that a good event requires its creation born from a unique idea. Granted, some repeat events, like Shabbat, are wonderful staples that bring a consistent following, and at times new folks. However, I really think that the more peripheral and experimental events are the ones that make a difference between a good house and a great house. Getting a significant number of people to attend a relatively random idea, like Tuesday night Bowling, is a great accomplishment. The key to getting people to come is feeling out what others might want to attend, not necessarily what you'd like to be doing yourself as a house member. Appealing to your community's interests is difficult, because, at least in San Francisco, the folks coming to our events are quite different. We have people coming who could tell you every player in the major leagues, and folks also come who have no idea of the shape of a baseball. That's a stupid example, but it brings up the important point of the necessity of appealing to your community's interests. That said, while certain general recommendations are an excellent idea to follow, advice taken from another house must be understood with the caveat that everyone's audiences are different. I think everything that's been said in this blog is accurate, especially those emphasizing planning centered on thought and not necessarily action. I'd say think through an event and ask whether this is a realistic idea that at least a few people will want to attend. Good luck everyone...
# posted by Moishe House SF @ 12:07 AM

Moishe House Seattle, July 2009

One factor that seems to make an event work well is choosing some activity that the local Jewish twentysomething community already wants to do, like outdoor activities (this varies seasonally, of course) and eating together. When we discussed the July prompt, it seemed pretty clear to us that while it's wonderful to attract a lot of people to an event, including new people, the number of attendees alone is hardly the reason an event is successful.

Our May and June kayaking trips are good examples of fun, seasonal events that got people out into the city, kept them active, and included a strong social element. (People went out in two-seater kayaks, which allowed for one-on-one bonding, and then we all had dinner together at Agua Verde, the Mexican restaurant that rents out the kayaks.) We had one kayak participant from Orange County who made it clear that we were successful. She was visiting Seattle and wanted to hang out with young Jewish adults, and she said that she wasn't really religious. She thought that kayaking was a great way to be with the community without the “how observant are you?” element.

Some people came just for the dinner, but most of the participants kayaked, and we got a range of people, from the naturally outdoorsy (Nicole) to the stubbornly indoorsy (Neal). While there wasn't anything specifically Jewish about the activity, any event that helps our community bond in such a fun, easy way can only enhance those times, such as the two Moishe House Shabbat dinners each month, when we DO gather Jewishly.

June 2009, MHDC

Hey big dreamers... so the prompt this month was to discuss what makes a moishe event a good event. It's a difficult question because I don't believe there is one answer. We have a number of events with different aims. Our shabbats are very large, ranging from 40 to 75 guests. I have much different goals for large events like these then I do for smaller events. In a large event, I feel it is most important to pace yourself as a host, and to make sure that all of the house stuff is being taken care of. For me, a successful large shabbat has more to do with the successful cooperation of all four of our house members than success has to do with the number of people who show up at our events. Here's the rub, if it feels to one house member that at a large shabbat dinner they are doing more work than other house members, then we build tension in our house. And frankly, that tension effects the way we do business. We often have trouble innitiating house work at large events, which leaves us as a group stressed out. Therefore, as odd as it seems, our ability to handle the work of a large event determines whether I think the event was a success or not.

I am a much bigger fan of our smaller events than i am of our larger events. The main reason for this is that I think the true work of our house is taken care of in our smaller events. One reason is that the community likely to show up at our smaller events are more dedicated to the idea of a Jewish community. The folk that show at our larger events are more likely to care about meeting someone, or even (to be more cynical) to go to a Jewish event in order to satisfy their mother or father's wishes. At smaller events we are able to cultivate actual relationships between ourselves and our community members. We are able to learn more about our members, and figure out what programs they might like to see happen. We also often have people or couples meet other people or couples at our smaller events. For this reason, at a smaller event, say 10-15 non moishe house members, a successful event is one where we have set up an environment in which people can cultivate friendships (and maybe more). For instance, we recently took a trip to Georgetown to go kayaking. It took a lot of organizing. We had to find a place with enough boats, we had to find a place to meet everyone, and we had to do it all at 9:45 in the morning because there weren't any boat houses that had reservations. Anyway, I forget if it was 10 or 12 people who showed up. And it was a whole lot of fun, but the great thing was that people were swapping partners in boats, getting to know people they hadn't ever met before, and having a great time doing it. In turn, as the organizer I could sit back, go boat to boat and say hi, but mostly after the organizing the event ran itself.

"S- U-C-C-E-S-S..! ..Thats the way we spell Success!" ;)

Please take some time to discuss what makes a successful Moishe House event. Is it the amount of people who attended? Is it the depth of experience for the participants? Use a recent event that you feel was a success to illustrate your measure of a successful Moishe House event and the process your house went through that led it to be successful.


Many things play a role when considering what factors make an event successful. Although attendance numbers are important (to a certain degree), we do not feel that it is the most important piece of the "successful" puzzle.
We must consider... Moishe House's purpose is to bring the young-adult Jewish community closer together and get them to truly want to be involved... When comparing an event with 20 people that had an "okay" time but left with no real desire to attend another event... to one with a total of 6 people that had a great time and could not wait for the next MH event... it seems obvious that the 2nd event is the successful one because our main goal/purpose was fulfilled. We try to concentrate on making sure that people take away only the best and most positive experiences/feelings of the actual event, our Moishe House, and the entire organization as a whole. Although the first event had greater attendance, it did not help in reaching our goal and could actually hinder us from doing so. We all know Jewish people love to talk :) so word of mouth is very important.. It is much better to have 6 people saying wonderful things about us, then to have 20 people saying not so wonderful things about us and ultimately hindering other people from attending a future event. For these reasons and many more, we feel that the most important factor of a successful event are the relationships we help build and the experiences we help to create for our Jewish community.
Our Shabbat dinners have been a true success in accomplishing the above criteria. Although it takes a lot of work, preparation, frustration, and concentration :) ,the end result makes everything well worth it. We make sure that everyone is involved in the event in some way, which makes them feel wanted and shows them we care that they are present. Each month, the attendance at our Shabbat dinners increase as more and more people become aware of what we are and what we do...and we hope that this becomes a constant trend!