DETROIT
di
Federation Will Prepare
A Communal Strategic Plan
PHIL JACOBS
Assistant Editor
W
hen the Jewish
Welfare Federation
gets together for its
annual meeting 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, at Adat Shalom
Synagogue, you can bet that
they'll talk about the vol-
ume of issues and successes
that confronted the organ-
ization this past year.
There was the B'nai Moshe
building success, the hiring
of executive vice president
Bob Aronson, the demo-
graphic study, the
$27,500,000 raised by the
Allied Jewish Campaign and
the $17,725,000 for Opera-
tion Exodus, and most re-
cently, the decision to seek a
suburban location for the
Federation headquarters.
But what you can also bet
is that the Federation's
leaders and staff won't be
spending much time patting
themselves on the back. In-
stead, according to Mr.
Aronson, they'll be talking
about the future. Only this
time around, the future
won't just be talk; it will in-
volve planning.
Because at this year's
meeting, the Jewish com-
munity will learn that
Detroit will become only the
third federation in the coun-
try to adapt a strategic plan
or a blueprint for the future.
Mr. Aronson said that as a
"We need a game
plan. We have to be
in a position where
we can better
examine our own
operations.
— Bob Aronson
result of the demographic
study, the creation of a stra-
tegic plan was the next most
logical step to take.
Baltimore and Boston are
the other two major federa-
tions who have established
strategic plans.
"We need a game plan,"
Early Re-count Suggests
Schlussel, Dobb Tie
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
E
arly re-count results
from the Republican
primary for 24th
district state representative
show dark horse candidate
Debbie Schlussel tied with
Barbara Dobb. In the initial
count in the Aug. 7 primary,
Ms. Dobb apparently beat
Ms. Schlussel by one vote.
Oakland County election
officials discovered that Ms.
Schlussel picked up another
vote in Commerce Township
when they re-totaled the
votes. Ms. Schlussel re-
quested the recount.
"I'm elated, but it is not
over yet," Ms. Schlussel
said. "My Rosh Hashanah is
really going to be judgment
day. I will pray extra hard."
Ms. Dobb said she still is
confident she will come out
of the race ahead. The
winner will face Democrat
Marcia Fligman, a Hillel
Day School teacher, in the
Nov. 6 general election.
The race won't be closed
until West Bloomfield's
votes are tallied next week.
Election officials said they
would not calculate results
on Rosh Hashanah out of
respect to Jewish politicians.
"In all of my years, I have
never seen a vote so close,"
said Oakland County Direc-
tor of Elections Jan Stickley,
who has worked in the elec-
tions office for 25 years.
The Oakland County
Board of Canvassers ruled
invalid two absentee votes
for Ms. Schlussel that were
"In all of my years
here, I have never
seen a race so
close."
— Jan Stickley
sent back to a Walled Lake
couple for improper postage.
Ms. Schlussel also waged
an unsuccessful challenge for
a vote for Ms. Dobb in Or-
chard Lake. The vote, she
said, should have been
thrown out because there
was writing on the ballot
and the person voted for
candidates from both par-
ties.
Ms. Schlussel said she may
take these issues to court if
the votes would make a dif-
ference in the outcome. 0
Mr. Aronson said. "We have
to be in a position where we
can better examine our own
operations and our effec-
tiveness so that we can pro-
vide the kind of leadership
and direction this commun-
ity will demand from us.
"Basically," he continued,
"federations are incremen-
tal organizations. We make
decisions based on what
happened in the past. By our
nature, we are too reactive
and crisis-oriented. And
frankly, we're not very plan-
ful of the future."
Mr. Aronson added that
federations are now taking a
look at themselves as big
businesses. It is no longer
just a matter, he said, of col-
lecting and dispersing
money.
"When there's enough
money to go around, you
don't have to plan," Mr.
Aronson said. "When you
have hundreds of new Rus-
sians coming to your corn-
munity and you have to set
up programming to help
them settle, and when your
community continues to
move outwardly and you
don't have enough resources,
then you have to change
your strategy. Now we have
to ask ourselves, are we get-
ting enough bang for our
buck? You know there are
people who think that all we
do is take pledges and make
disbursements."
Mr. Aronson said the plan
has to address future ways of
reaching the future com-
munity. It is a mistake, he
said, for the Federation to
think that it has a guar-
anteed "customer base." In-
stead, the Federation is look-
ing at more and more com-
petition for charity dollars.
Then there is the issue of
reaching beyond the older,
more established giver, to
younger adults and their
families. The demographic
study shows they give more
of their monies to charities
outside of the Federation.
"We can't expect the
younger people to behave
like their parents, but we do
have to develop a plan to
reach them as part of our
systematic plan," Mr. Aron-
son said.
Federation President
Mark Schlussel, who will in-
clude the strategic plan in
his president's address,
called its implementation
critical to the future of
Detroit's Jewish community.
"Whether we had coin-
Bob Aronson: Planning the future.
pleted the demographic
study or not, I would still
feel that the plan is of
tremendous importance
right now," Mr. Schlussel
said. "I think the time has
come for the Detroit Jewish
community to take stock of
itself, to look optimistically
to the future and to prepare
a plan and a process that
will allow us to meet the
needs and expectations of
this community."
That is exactly what is
happening in Baltimore
where the Associated Jewish
Charities has been using a
strategic plan for about two
years. The Baltimore plan
was also instituted following
a demographic study.
"Our strategic plan cre-
ated for us a vision for the
1990s," said Darrell D.
Friedman, executive vice
president of the Associated
Jewish Charities. "It was a
strategic roadmap that we
needed to help us move in a
direction in which we needed
to move. Without it, we were
were absolutely reactive in-
stead of progressive. Having
a strategic plan is a mindset
that helps us implement rec-
ommendations and make
decisions. It is like a way of
life for us now."
Mr. Aronson said that it
would take 12 to 16 months
to devise and implement the
plan.
"Again, it's something we
need to get going on," he
said. "We've reached a point
in our community where it is
absolutely essential." At the
meeting Tuesday, the Fed-
eration will also award the
Fred M. Butzel Memorial
Award for Distinguished
Community Service to
Southfield businessman Joel
D. Tauber. Mr. Tauber is a
past president and executive
committee chairman of the
Federation. He sits on the
board of the United Israel
Appeal and is on the exec-
utive committee of the
Council of Jewish Federa-
tions. 0
Detroit Jews Help
Refusenik Leave Russia
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
S
oviet refusnik
Vladimir Tsivkin has
been reunited with his
family in the United States,
thanks in part to the help he
received from Detroit Jews.
Mr. Tsivkin's 11-year
ordeal came to the attention
of the Detroit Jewish com-
munity when his wife, Irina,
asked for help at an Opera-
tion Exodus rally at Con-
gregation Shaarey Zedek in
March.
The family's quest for
freedom began 12 years ago
when Mr. Tsivkin quit his
job at the Ministry of
Defense. A year later, when
the family applied for an exit
visa to America, Soviet offi-
cials refused on the grounds
Mr. Tsivkin had access to
state secrets.
The family applied every
six months, but were denied
each time until March 1989.
"It was all official. We had
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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