Brochure a big success!
This past month, our Fundraising Committee finalized our “More Than Just a Building” expansion brochure which was mailed to all of our congregants. Our initial feedback is that everyone loved finally getting their own copy of what the outside and the inside of the building would look like and begin to understand how they can make specific contributions and dedications for our much needed new space. Also, neatly tucked inside the brochure is our Expansion Pledge Form for everyone’s use. We’ve had some requests to mail out to members additional packets and pledge forms as they would like to share them with other family members. Just this past week, one of our families asked for a packet to send to a relative who attended a B’Nai Mitzvah at our building and saw our expansion boards in the lobby!

Our plan is to create a space next to the expansion boards in the lobby where we intend to stock extra packets of our brochures and pledge forms for our family and friends who are visiting us for the first time and have an interest in helping to fund our expansion effort.

Website Updated
With heartfelt thanks to Gordon Pollokoff, our Beth Shalom web site (www.beth-shalom.net) has a brand new page that is fully dedicated to our expansion project. You’ll see the words “Building Expansion” on the left bar of our main page and when you click on that, you’ll be taken to our most current information. Our plan this month will include updating this web page section with additional content, including putting our brochure with the interior layouts and exterior views online so that they can be viewed and even printed out. We also plan to maintain a current listing of the Living Tributes and Memorials online showing what is available and what has already been subscribed to. And yes, we’ll have a downloadable Expansion Pledge Form in case you need another one!

This web page will also include an archive of our Scroll articles and once we start construction, we’ll have photos of our progress! Very exciting stuff yet to come!!


Civil Engineers quietly at work
As we are learning, there is a lot of preparation work that goes on behind the scenes well before we can put a shovel in the ground. This past month, our civil engineers have been busy with developing what are referred to as “site plans.” These documents ultimately have to be filed with Howard County well in advance of our construction so that all of the necessary approvals and permits are obtained. As of this writing, we have now completed the required documents for submission to the County and are in the process of preparing the formal submission. Then we wait for the County to either give us the “thumbs up” or tell us what needs to be modified to comply with code requirements for our resubmission.
We also held a preliminary meeting with the County staff involved in what is referred to as “Storm Water Management”. This includes our collecting pond that you see on the side of the grass area where we erect our High Holiday tents. We were pleased to find out that we should be able to get some additional parking in that area above our planned expansion amount by slightly modifying the collection pond area.

Year End Giving
Remember that our Fundraising group would love to hear from you as we near the end of our tax year with Uncle Sam. All donations are tax-deductible and yes, we also accept stocks, bonds, and other securities in addition to cash, checks and even credit cards.

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