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Publisher's Notebook
t
r
If
.,
I
he current financial and struc
Bloomfield
tural
a
challenges facing the
Jewish Community Center of
and potential
Metropolitan Detroit
closing of its Jimmy Prentis Morris
(JPM) facility in Oak Park as a way to
mostly eliminate an agency-wide $1.2
deficit
by the JCC
purported state-of
design would provide
flexibility to accommodate
the-art
Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit and
widely reported
in the area's
Jewish and
future needs.
What
secular media.
deficits of more
than $1 million for much of
the past decade. They arch
higher when the organization's control
ler and CEO head for the exits, leaving
the organization and the community to
once
again
sort
through
a
and attempt to restore the
credibility and integrity.
financial
mess
organization's
With the
equivalent of an emergency
and
manager
oversight board operat
the
the
current fix-it effort is
JCC,
ing
earnest and
lenges
recognizes
associated with
running it.
potential JPM closing as the
the JCC and Federation
rod,
lightning
convened
know
-
public
raison detre falls to the soon-to
Jewish
be selected CEO.
forums that
generated
range of ideas and opinions about how
to save JPM, close the Maple-Drake JCC,
a
retirement to lead the
again,
him for
The October 2014
The JCC CEO is the most important
employee of the Board of Directors. But
posting for the Detroit
position through the Jewish
Community Centers Association (www.
JCC CEO
jccworks.com) provides
a
window into
what the Board of Directors wants in its
leader.
based
a
second interview.
detailed aspects of the job
posting, the Board cedes to
on more
description
responsibility for "board admin
istration," including planning board
the CEO
rial talent.
about the JCC focused on the agency
being "more than just a building;' the
Core Questions
very first sentence of the job opportunity
suggests bricks and mortar are being
munity lay
keys
to the JCC to its Board of Directors,
handful of core questions need to be
addressed to avoid the inevitable return to
used
Board
a
CEO. It reads: "The
financial distress:
is the second
JCC model rooted in bricks
and mortar
or any JCC model- meet
and the
•
Can
the
oversight board returns the
a
-
the
anticipated needs of Detroit's aging
and shrinking Jewish community in a
financially responsible way?
While much of the recent discussion
as
Center
the
primary allure for a future
Jewish Community
of Metropolitan Detroit (JCC)
largest JCC in the world
largest JCC facility in North
America:'
The scope and range of responsibili
as contained in the job
ties for the CEO,
description,
are
truly staggering but
the long-standing strong
Will the JCC Board of Directors cre
ate a new paradigm for how it shares
consistent with
responsibility with
nonprofits, including the JCc.
The CEO, according to the summary of
responsibilities, must be "a skilled leader
•
•
Will the
its next CEO?
The
changes
Maple-Drake JCC facility in
68 January
29
•
2015
CEO/weak board model that
can
be found
at many
JCC's Board make the need
ed structural and governance
hold itself more accountable?
to
with
West
qualify
A New CEO
professional
once
its Board
I doubt his skill set would
grow revenue, expand membership,
enhance facilities and upgrade manage
But
JCC and
of Directors to the Promised Land? Then
the chronic chal
With the
.
today but Closure of the Oak Park JCC is on the table
still have trouble admitting
is a JCC for 21st-century
Detroit wouldn't look anything
excels at strategic plan development. He/
like Maple- Drake. Eliminating
she also will be a confident executive
the JPM as a JCC facility doesn't
who always leads with integrity. While
reverse this fact. To fix the
overseeing the day-to-day operations and
core problems of the JCC still
execution of all programs at the JCC, the
a
with
CEO must maximize revenue-generating
massive,
requires dealing
inefficient Maple-Drake facility
opportunities; ensure fiscal transparency
for
a
era.
and accountability; develop and main
designed
long-gone
And with the community unready or
tain a 'Best Place to Work' culture; work
unwilling to wield the wrecking ball to
successfully with lay leaders and volun
of
the
the
teers,
any part
Maple-Drake facility,
manage donor relationships; and
for
out
how
heavy responsibility
figuring
integrate a customer-centric philosophy
to operate it in a way that keeps its bud
into the JCC'
balanced
without
more
of
its
I wonder if Moses would come out of
get
losing
we
to eliminate
an
annual
$1
million deficit.
-
Eyebrows are raised when
ever a nonprofit organiza
tion acknowledges that it has
been accumulating annual
operating
a
And its
operating
and the
on
facility and its programmatic offer
ings would mean everyone within the
Jewish community would be served.
have been shared
-
constructed based
was
1970s vision that it would be
destination for Jews from Flint to Ann
Arbor. The breadth and depth of the
-
million annual
grand
a
vision for the
operational
JCC,
manager and
a
successful
someone
who
meetings that "will
bers
ensure
Board
mem
engaged" with JCC programs
and services and "for recruiting top com
are
leaders to the JCC Board
"
...
Responsibilities
Following the latest JCC meltdown, it
is disappointing that the JCC Board of
Directors isn't taking more responsibility
for its own governance. It is telling when
responsibility for ensuring board member
engagement falls
to the CEO. And even
though the Board of Directors is the CEO's
employer, responsibility for identifying
candidates for the board of the employer
falls to the employee it is supposed to be
holding accountable.
The oversight committee should retain
the keys for the JCC until its Board of
Directors accepts more responsibility for
its
own
governance and fashions
model that
it
jointly holds
the CEO
and
-
successes
and
relating to
gov
accountable for the
-
failures of the JCc.
A
good place
ernance
is
a
to start
review of the
JCC Board of
Directors structure.
The Detroit JCC website shows there
currently 54 members of the Board
are
of Directors. Fourteen of these comprise
the executive committee, with five board
members for life and two liaisons with
Federation's NextGen and Institute for
Retired Professionals
sic, old school,
board, leave-it
-
tee model.
(IRP).
largely
It is the clas
ceremonial
big
to- the-executive-commit
Having
served
on
JCC boards
and/or executive boards in New Haven,
Conn., Baltimore and Detroit, I can attest
to it
were
being symptomatic of how boards
built for the 1970s and 1980s.
I also recall my service on the Sinai
Hospital of Detroit Board of Directors
during its darkest financial days in the
early 1990s. An outside entity, the Hunter
Group, was brought in to run the place.
One of its initial steps was to split Sinai's
a small, nimble,
large board in two
fully engaged operating board and a
Foundation board that would keep many
of the community's leading members and
philanthropists connected to Sinai.
Given the chronic operational chal
lenges faced by the JCC, perhaps a split
of the large JCC Board into a similar con
figuration ''.'0uld have merit?
-
Another step should be for the Board
(not the CEO)
regardless
own
to recruit
of where it
top talent,
be found,
can
to its
ranks.
Gerard
van
Grinsven is the former
Ritz-Carlton Hotel star senior executive
who
was
recruited in 2006 to become
CEO of the
Bloomfield
expanding Henry Ford West
Hospital. Van Grinsven,
a new
JCC
on
page 69