By Richard Friedman, Executive Director

With Yom Kippur concluded and the new Jewish year taking hold, we already know that it's going to be a year of growth, innovation and achievement at The Birmingham Jewish Federation. How do we know it? From the feedback that keeps pouring in.

Last Saturday night, I had a piece in Update headlined, "A Standing Room Only Board Meeting." The article highlighted the energy and sense of purpose present at our board meetings and focused in particular on our Sept. 26th board meeting at which we had an overflow turnout and had to bring in more chairs.

In response to the Update story, a great email came from a volunteer leader from one of our neighboring Jewish Federations. "I loved this report!" she wrote. "I wrote down words from the article and will pass them on to our board. Things are good here. If we can raise a little more, it will be wonderful."

"Happy , healthy, sweet and peaceful year to all of you at The BJF," she added. "I would love for someone from Birmingham to come to our community and inspire us in person. Let me know and we will work something out."

Our answer, of course, was "yes." We at The BJF feel a duty to help other Jewish Federations anyway we can, especially those in the South. The stronger our local communities are, the stronger we are regionally; we can act together on behalf of Israel and other Jewish issues of common concern.

Another response to the board meeting story came from a Birmingham reader who is involved in other organizations. "May I share some of the board comments that were featured in the Update story with members of a local board I'm on? Other boards could stand to hear the message that Update communicated, and hopefully be motivated," she wrote.

"Too many boards don't do what they're supposed to do during a meeting, and it's encouraging to learn there's someone out there -- The BJF -- that does," she added.

CREATING CONVERSATION

The Update story also created conversation on our Jewish community campus among two of our 20-something board members and a Levite Jewish Community Center fitness trainer.

"Something happened that was really nice!" one of the two board members told us afterward in an email. "I was talking to another young board member who was at the meeting and also to someone who works at the LJCC. The LJCC person said, 'Y'all must have too many people on your board if people kept coming out to get chairs.' I said, 'The BJF runs it so well though; this agency knows what it's doing.' My fellow board member added, 'OMG, yeah!'"

We also received great emails from two past BJF Campaign Chairs, whose families have been among our most generous supporters for decades.

One of them, who was at the board meeting, was particularly taken by our new Inter-Generational Leadership Model, which allows seasoned volunteers and young emerging leaders to share top BJF volunteer roles. The idea was spawned when BJF President Jimmy Filler took office and made "New Faces, New Ideas" one of his top priorities. "I think the idea of pairing seasoned leaders with younger leaders is genius," this former Campaign Chair told us in an email.

At the meeting, the board officially approved our second Inter-Generational Leadership pairing. In 2013, veteran volunteer leaders Ginger and Jerry Held will chair the campaign. Their son, Brian, his wife, Katie, their daughter, Elisa Nelson, her husband, Aaron, and their son, Layne, will be the co-chairs.

Our first Inter-Generational Leadership model was implemented this summer with longtime volunteer leader Lisa Engel and 26-year-old board member Amanda Weil sharing the chairmanship of The BJF's Jewish Community Relations Coalition.

The other past Campaign Chair who wrote us, who also is a Past President of The BJF, congratulated us on "the infusion of new life and youth and new blood, and revival and renewal in the Federation family," and added, "It is nice to see all the new faces, new names, new families, new enthusiasm and new blood. Good job!"

Thanks everyone for the wonderful feedback. We are moving forward and are going to do great things -- everyday in so many ways.