Jews and Traffic Lights (1 of 2)

Our communities often have a variety of demographics within our membership. Even if everyone in a community is of the same age, supports Leyton Orient, lives in the same sort of house and pronounces 'bagel' the same way, there will likely still be a range of engagement.

'Traffic Lights' is a method for distinguishing between members with a modicum of subtlety, while retaining a practical economy of scale.

'Traffic Lights' consists of:

1. categorising members;

2. refining a priority group;

3. prioritising while avoiding division;

4. programming accordingly; and

5. leading.

   
   

Stages 1-2 are addressed in this post, categorising and refining your member groups. Stages 3-5, on using categorisation to better foster the Jewish growth of our members in all their variety, not as a mass, or חַס וְשָׁלוֹם as customers, will be addressed in a follow-up post.

Categorisation: Red, Orange, Green

To begin categorising members, use K2 to create a full list of your community’s members and include:

1. Name;

2. Street address;

3. Postcode;

4. Distance from the Synagogue;

5. Age;

6. Length of membership;

7. Any reasons given for joining; and

8. Any K2 “Group” (e.g. Synagogue Council).

Now sort the members individually or as households, into ‘Red’, ‘Green’ and most importantly, ‘Orange’ groups, using the guidelines below. Note the reasons for each categorisation. This is not judgment and has nothing to do with merit, ‘Jewishness’ or personal favour. It’s not permanent. And it’s a great reminder that your members are individuals, couples, families, friends, acquaintances, bridge fours, neighbours...

Red

If you have members who have said explicitly and repeatedly that they have absolutely no intention of any personal engagement or communication with anyone in the community, then it is legitimate to consider them non-priority members. Colour such people in red. Members who live in Las Vegas or Majorca are probably also non-priority members. NB: the incapacitated, the unknown, the alienated, the widow and the stranger are emphatically not ‘Red’ people. (See instead ‘Orange’ below.)

Green

‘Green people’ are those who are engaged, which will mean different things in different communities, from people who come to shul socials monthly, to someone who attends shacharit daily. The loyalty and engagement of ‘Green people’ must never be taken for granted: communities should aim to keep Green people ‘Green’, permanently. But there is room to focus elsewhere, for a time.

Orange

Again depending on local circumstances, ‘Orange people’ are those whose engagement is somewhere between the extremes. They are not deliberately detached from the community, nor are they keen as mustard. How you decide someone’s ‘Orangeness’, might be ascertained by looking at a combination of attendance, contribution, vocal commentary and sociability. ‘Orange people’ might include:

• someone who only ever comes to Kol Nidre, but who donated the parokhet;

• a young family who have so far just been seen at children’s services during CRP season;

• a man who just needs a phone call and he’s there to make up a minyan;

• a woman who was once heart-and-soul of the children’s service leadership team, but whose engagement has faded as their children aged; or

• an elderly member who struggles to get to shul more than a couple of times a year.

Data craft fun in three stages: refine your ‘Orange’ group through Venn diagrams!

1. Appoint session leaders from your Synagogue Council; and/or the person on your Exec or Synagogue who is responsible for ‘Relationships’; and/or representatives of the targeted group.

2. Get paper, a whiteboard or Canva. Session leaders should note each ‘Orange’ household in a bubble, on paper, a board, or online on Canva. Other ‘Orange’ households should be added, in pictorial relation with each other, and circled round where there are groups, e.g. nursery affiliation; alumni of the same university; known friendship circles; the afore-mentioned Orient affiliation; or just stage of life.

3. Keep redrawing, connecting or overlapping the circles until hopefully you have confirmed groups with significant repeated overlaps. The most-full overlapping circles – the centre of gravity of your imbalanced, messy, Venn-like diagram – should be a main focus of your ‘Orange people’ targeting.

In the next post on the 'Traffic Lights' method, we will look at taking the unearthing of your main body of 'Orange people' and - constructively, fairly, temporarily - prioritising them, for the purposes of catering to them appropriately.

Please do let me know if this was helpful and thanks for reading.