MH Warsaw House Dynamics

We decided to use question-answer form. We hope that using this for our note will be clearer.

How are responsibilities shared and divided?

This is the hardest thing for us. We are trying to rule who will be responsible for which event (inviting guests, uploading photos and receipts, cooking, shopping). In first few months we were taking turns in charge of uploading photos and receipts and updating the calendar. But it wasn’t working. So, each month someone is always responsible for usually 2 events, and they are also permanently duties, for example Zosia- finances, Ania – calendar. They are also household duties – we are trying to take care of them like a team

Do you involve community members in the planning and execution of events?

Of course. Their ideas are very import ant to us. When we hear that someone want to organize something or want to tell us about his vision of next month we are very happy because we are feeling that what we do is important and that it really works! We always ask our community members about the best date for each event – of course we can never choose a date that will be good for everyone, but we are trying to! They is always someone who wants to come earlier and help us with preparing or who wants stay longer and help us with cleaning. We are very glad that we have such great community.

How are each resident's individual strengths used to benefit the house/community?

It comes natural. Ania is a great cook, so she always cooks something delicious for events. Zosia is well organized so she is responsible for finances. Agnieszka is our spokesperson. Kuba is keen on ecology so he is trying to make our house more ecological. He is also a very outspoken person so he is helping us with our first-timers. Together we are working us a great team!

How does your house organize and plan each month?

Usually we are planning next month during the whole ongoing month. We are checking out events’ lists in our city (sometimes also in other cities as well) for movies, Jewish Youth Organization events, Jewish festivals, Jewish Community of Warsaw events. After that we are talking with our friends what they would like to do with MH during the next month. Very often they’re having their own ideas. It’s really nice to hear their ideas. In the end of the month we are organizing a meeting – we talk about our plans for next month, what event each of us wants to organize and we are making our calendar. Sometimes it’s quite hard because we are studying and working so we don’t have lots of free time. On this meeting we are trying to divide duties for next month including for example cleaning, adding events to the calendar and stuff like that. Of course we are talking about our ideas for the whole month – not only on this meeting. But it is important to meet once a month in a more formal way.

Do you set monthly goals for the house?

Sometimes. We are thinking about our last months and trying to draw conclusions – whether we should make more events for the Jewish Community, more tikkun olam, or we should expand our guest list.

Conclusions: Teamwork and Communication, not only between MH members, but between our whole community!

MHSF: How does it all work? (July blog prompt)

"Demystifying the awesome phenomenon of MH San Francisco; A behind the scenes look." How's that for an academic-sounding essay title?

Ok, moving on to the actual answer. Teamwork and communication are essential to having a successful Moishe House, especially one that puts on 7 -8 events a month! No one person could do it all, obviously. It definitely takes a bit of coordination, shopping, emailing, and cooking to set up our events each month, and it really is so much more fun when we all pitch in together. At our house in SF we currently have a mix of students and full-time professionals, who have differing amounts of free time to contribute to event planning and execution, so we have to plan accordingly and respect each other's differing ability to contribute depending on the date/time of the event and what's going on for each individual that week.

The way it usually works is we start with a short, very informal meeting in our living room right at the end of a month -- to plan events for the next month. Usually each person shows up with a short list of event ideas and their dayplanners, and we also have a whiteboard calendar that we use to keep track of events, money we expect to spend, and money actually spent, as well as any dates we are planning on being out of town in the coming month. Half the time this is also our 'us time' so we get some dessert, order take out, or something else to make it a fun and relaxing time together. Sometimes however our schedules honestly don't allow us to all meet up, and we end up having in depth email conversations back and forth as a house to solidify events. I must say though, it's much more fun (and easier to coordinate) when we actually have time to sit down together.

Usually we come up with the events ourselves, and because we each have our own interests, there is usually quite a bit of variety between sports-related activities, arts related ones, volunteering, and Jewish ritual/religious events such as Shabbat potlucks. I know that in the days before a meeting I try and brainstorm a few fun things I'd like to do, and check out event listings in the city for film festivals, free concerts, Jewish events, or other activities that pique my interest. Occasionally however someone else we know emails us about an event going on in town, and if it appeals to us, we add it to the list of events that we've come up with ourselves. It's great to have other people suggesting things, even if we don't always decide to do it, because there is no way as 4 people we could ever keep up with all the things going on in the Jewish (and just overall) San Francisco community!

We take turns each month being the person in charge of uploading photos and reciepts, and updating the calendar. Someone else usually volunteers to write the big monthly email listing all events, and then throughout the month we just sort of spontaneously rotate who sends out reminder emails before upcoming events, and we all just sign on to the MHSF gmail account whenever we have a chance and respond to any emails recieved. Ari and I (Sarah) both work full time and have basically almost constant email access, so we tend to be the ones doing more of the email response from the gmail account. I know I personally tend to log on when things are slow at work and I'm bored... which is at least a few times a week (don't tell my boss please!). Then, usually we just decide who will buy food for the event, although to be honest this task usually falls to Danny since he is a)our master chef in residence with a very discerning taste, b)the only one with a car -- which is great for schlepping groceries in the city, and c)he has a more flexible work schedule than the rest of us and has had more time to actually make it to the store.

Whomever can get home from work before an event all pitches in to set up the house, do any cooking, etc. and during an event we all usually schmooze with everyone, help out, chat with each other, and clean up afterwards as a team. Dave really enjoys leading Shabbat and is great at being our spokesperson (we do a little welcome to anyone new, have a moment for everyone to share anything from their week, light candles, say kiddish and motzi, etc.) so when he is around that's usually a task that falls to him.

And, I'm spent. :)

~Sarah, on behalf of all of us @ MHSF.

Connecting Israel and MHP

I am currently on a little break between graduation my Masters program and starting a real job as a math teacher in Philadelphia so I decided to take a bit of a travel experience this summer. My family was doing a trip to Italy to visit my sister who studied in Milan for the semester, and I expanded the trip to include Slovenia and, since it was in the neighborhood, Israel. From many of the things I have seen and heard so far in the holy land, I can tell you that we are really getting our name out there and I am happy to be a part of the whole experience of Moishe House.

I have only been here for 5 days and yet I have met people who have already heard about Moishe House ahead of me coming here. Also, those who had not heard were excited to learn about the whole prospect of it for their futures. I had Shabbat lunch with some college students (it was funny to go around and share where you were from - in the midst of everyone saying "I'm from Brandeis" etc, I had to say I had actually graduted already. Damn). During lunch my former housemate Shelby and I shared about the concept of the house and what we do and the students were excited about joining in the mission in the future. At dinner the night before more people were excited about it as well.

Basically, I am happy that our name is getting out there and only hope to continue spreading the gospel :)

My final blog post

Thank you to David and Jeremy and Brady and Isaac and Summer and Kevin and all the other MH central staff over the past three years who have supported our work, and who continue to do so with such passion and commitment. Thank you to the funders who have helped make our work possible, and who demonstrate their confidence in Jewish young adults by giving us the freedom to create houses and communities that reflect who we are and who we aspire to be, both as individuals and as the next generation of Jewish leaders, working together.

But, most of all, thank you to my housemates -- Margie and Sarah, Aaron and Joe, Alyson and Ari -- who made living in Boston's Moishe/Kavod House such a rich and meaningful experience, from the summer of 2006 until now. You have been a joy to work with and to learn from, and I am so proud of what we have built together. As I take my own next steps, I know that I will carry this experience with me going forward, and I expect only more brilliance from Boston's Moishe/Kavod House over the next three years, and beyond.

Onward!

St. Louis tells you how we run our house.

Poorly.

Our house is run on a combination of serendipity and the age old adage that, if you save everything until the last minute, it only takes a minute.

Actually, we are very fortunate that Jordan's schedule gives him Friday off, as it means that we no longer have to struggle with finding a time to do Shabbat shopping. Because Jordan's Photoshop Kung-fu is better than ours, he has also been taking over responsibilities for creating facebook events.

By default, I've been the one who handles pictures and blogging, and Ross usually does the cooking, and get's on peoples' cases to RSVP.

Actually one of the biggest issues we have is that we rarely know exactly who is and isn't planning on showing up. Facebook is a saturated medium, and most people just ignore event invitations. Back when we had more time, we would actually call or email people to confirm attendance, but that is really time-intensive.

We have a routine in place that reduces the need for planning. We have a pretty good idea about how much food to buy, when to get it, what time to start cooking etc. for Shabbat dinners. When other opportunities come up, it is usually not hard to make things work.

Which, as much as it sounds sort of lackadaisical, it really the strength of Moishe House. Things don't need to be organized like a Hillel event in which you have to write up a plan, get approved for funding, have the minutes charted out, write a wrap-up and report on the success.

People come to meet other people. The programming is the excuse to get together.

Moishe Nola - Success!!

Successful events should seek to establish solidarity and community
between individuals over various fault lines. These fault lines might
include community, religion, politics, and culture. The best events
engage with these interest areas and have a clearly stated goal or
purpose. Guests at Moishe House events should feel challenged and
comfortable enough to engage with these topics creatively. An example
of an event that satisfied these criterion would be the review of the
New Orleans Master Plan. Individuals were encouraged to rely on their
own specialized and professional knowledge in reviewing the Master
Plan and sketching out a list of steps to its implementation.
Individuals were inspired by their own connection to the city of New
Orleans and were given a comfortable space for free discussion and
self-expression. As each individual had a vested interest in the
rebuilding of the city of New Orleans itself, the event was
self-driven. Members of the Moishe House simply tapped into the
interests of its community of guests and structured a discussion. As
most of the guests at this event were relatively new to the city of
New Orleans, this was also an opportunity to build solidarity with
life-long residents of the city.

In addition, successful events should take time out from the monotony
of the work-week by targeting the individual's needs for relaxation,
socializing, and the spiritual. For example, one particularly
successful event focused on a study of Torah in the context of the
economic crisis. House guests discussed the role and importance of
Torah study in a chaotic world. Considering this period of social and
spiritual malaise caused by an uncertain economy, the Moishe House
served as a free space of study and conversation.



- Esther

What makes a succesful Moishe House event?

A four-part recipe for successful events from the Portland Moishe House.

1) Events must be interesting, fun or both.

Think about whether you would attend the event. If the answer is no, you probably shouldn't expect others to come.

Different people are looking for different things but nobody wants to waste their time on something that is stupid, boring, or at worse both. For your more intellectual crowd, offer them meaningful conversations and opportunities to learn. For the crowd that just wants to kick back, give them an easy opportunity to unwind. Or, as we do, mix the two. For example, we've had a lot of success with our "Torah on Tap" series. We've found that people come because 1) The topic is interesting and the discussion leader is appealing. 2) The "on tap" makes what could be an intimidating topic (Torah) and makes it fun and accessible.

2) Ratio is important.

If you don't have a good ratio of men to women at events, your numbers will fall off over time. Opportunities for mingling with people of the opposite sex is as critical as anything to sustained success. Go out of your way to "engineer" a good ratio.

3) Set goals and evaluate your events

Measure the success of your events on both qualitative and quantitative measures. Ask people what they liked and didn't like and store the information in your brain. Get a good sense of how many people are necessary for different kinds of events and make sure you reach your numbers. Also set goals for the number of new people, because its easy to fall back on your regulars but that won't help grow your community.

4) Use both mass and targeted communications

Since both the quality of a individuals experience and the number of people who come are important measures of success, conduct your recruitment and marketing accordingly. If you don't build a big list of people to tell about your events, you won't consistently get large numbers of people to come out for them. Equally important, however, is reaching out to people on an individual level. Mass emailing gets you a good distance, but there is nothing like a direct conversation to encourage someone to participate and build a relationship.

We hope that this post was instructive for other houses as they consider the ingredients for a successful event. If you you have questions or concerns, send us an email!