Best of 05 cont.
Here it is! The Forest Foundation Best of 2005, numbers three through one!!
3. Bay Area Expansion - We now have a bonafide Forest Foundation group of UC students working in the Bay Area!
2. Isaac & Aaron - We welcomed two new full-time members this year, Aaron Small in Santa Barbara and Isaac Zones in the Bay Area, and they've both turned out to be valuable additions.
1. Apples & Honey - An international Jewish New Year celebration coordinated by the foundation in nine different cities on three different continents!
What a year 2005 turned out to be. Can't wait to see what 2006 holds.
Logan
Best of 05 cont.
Continuing with the "Best of the Forest Foundation 2005" list that I began in yesterday's blog, I present numbers seven through four.
7. Forest Foundation Website - We had a great student in Richard Sloven build us a tremendous website, and now new web designer Kevin Davis has recreated the site in his design. We've been lucky to have two great sites, and two great designers, over the past year.
6. Foundation Retreats - This year we began holding foundation retreats, for both the students and the full-timers, and beside being a lot of fun, they've produced some great ideas and some great results.
5. Moishe House - With the first recently opening in the Bay Area, we hope to open up to ten more of these resource centers for young Jewish adults in the coming year.
4. Jewish College Night - An unprecedented celebratory event bringing together young Jews from all around Southern California.
Best of 05
With the new year now only a few days away, I've been seeing a lot of "Best of 2005" retrospectives all over the media. So, I thought I'd do a "Best of the Forest Foundation 2005" list over the next couple of days, starting with numbers ten through eight today.
10. Foundation Newsletters - They started on the basis of two per academic quarter this year, and they've just been getting better and better
9. Yashiya - Our very own foundation written, produced, and acted musical.
8. Growth - In 2005 the foundation experienced growth over 500% in membership.
Website
Our new website is up and running right now and we have new features and aspects being added to it every day. If you haven't checked it out already, I recommend that you do. It seems to me that website building is a great skill to have in this technological age and one that I would like to learn. Overseeing the development of our website has helped me gain a better understanding of what goes into website building and maintenance.
Logan
Juliya
We have a new administrative assistant in the office today and her name is Juliya. A good friend of our former assistant Carly, Juliya's already well acquainted with the foundation and taking to her duties very quickly. We are looking forward to her being great in her new position here and we're very glad to have her on board.
Logan
Post-Retreat Work
Today is our first day after the retreat and we've got a lot of work now lined up for us for the next week and beyond. We went over every aspect of the foundation during the retreat and now it's time to shore up any issues that need to be cleaned up. This leaves us with quite a heavy task but one that's not too foreboding. The work should be invigorating and positive.
Logan
Last Retreat Day
Today's the last day of our Forest Foundation retreat with all the full-time staff. Isaac will be heading back up to the Bay Area this afternoon. It's been a jam-packed week full of work, but it hasn't been dull or painfully laborious at all. We've all had a good time getting some important work done for the foundation while keeping the mood light-hearted. Isaac will be missed, but the work of this retreat's been amazing.
Logan
Recharging....
Isaac is back in town. The five us are literally working nonstop on evaluating how all facets of the Foundation are doing, what we need to keep doing, and what we need to stop doing. First off is establishing the fact that the Stuffed Peppers from Trader Joe's are amazing. As well as meetings, trainings, systems, retreats, the NSC, socials, literally EVERYTHING.
Logan and I met yesterday and had a very productive meeting, streamlining office and and Program Director management. I'm excited to put these things into practice! Today I'm meeting with Jordan, then back again with Logan. It's a great feeling when you're using your time wisely and making the best out of each day.
-Aaron :)
Isaac In Town
Isaac Zones arrived at the International Headquarters today from San Francisco, and he'll be staying with us for a little under two weeks. He's out here to learn from us and for us to learn from him, and to make the team a little more cohesive as a whole. Right now he's outside my office window playing guitar with Aaron Small, and I feel like I'm in some kind of dueling banjos scenario. Over the next few days, I look forward to spending time with Isaac. I just have to do it without a guitar.
Logan
Travels
The Forest Foundation full-time staff appear to be a set of unstoppable jet-setters this past week. Jordan just returned late last night from a weekend trip to Louisiana to tour the facilities of the Access 2 teaching project. Today, Dave's down in L.A. for a series of meetings. And arriving early tomorrow morning will be Isaac Zones from San Francisco, where he will be spending the next two weeks here in Santa Barbara. What a savvy bunch of travelers we are.
Logan
