Dear Friends,

We are pleased to send you the "Guiding Principles for Steering Committees and Subcommittees".

The document was developed in response to numerous requests received by our overseas professionals and lay leadership as well as our Partnership Directors asking for a "base" document on Steering Committees.  We have often received what appear to be very fundamental questions such as how many members should there be in a steering committee; how long should a member or chairperson serve; what is the profile of a chair; how often should leadership get up-dated, etc. to which we had no definitive answer.  We therefore view this document as a resource tool for our partnerships - in essence what we view as a "best practice" for steering committees and subcommittees.

Having said this, we understand that many of our steering committees have been in operation for many years and have adopted ways of governance and operation that they are satisfied with. We also recognize that different partnerships have different needs, make-up, character and even tradition.

To date, draft versions of this document have been sent to our Partnerships, Federation/ Community Representatives in Israel and members of the Board of Governors Partnership Subcommittee.  In depth discussion was held with our Partnership Directors; in February, discussion was held at the Partnership Subcommittee; and a special workshop was held at the Partnership Conference held in May in Newark. In response to comments received, the document was duly revised.

We do hope that as we all move forward, you will find the "Guiding Principles" of assistance to your ongoing work. Lastly, we thank you for your ongoing support and involvement in Partnership 2000.

Sincerely,

Raya Strauss and Shoel Silver                      
Co-Chairs
Partnerships Subcommittee