Vote for me, you'll have honey for tea!

Despite similar levels of passion, shul politics are easily distinguishable from arguments for the sake of Heaven.

But some 'real-life' political conventions can help even the most battle-weary Chairs. This applies regardless of whether their role is contested. By publishing a manifesto, a Chair can make the role itself more manageable. How so?

• Set realistic expectations: success doesn’t have to mean everything for everyone, always.

  • By listing achievable aspirations, one excludes other issues, reducing the likelihood of being swamped. Achievability is key here, not just having aspirations:

    • A candidate for Chair does herself no favours by producing a manifesto promising to “make the shul in Bunbury Village (population 124) into the premier 2,000 seat simcha venue in Bunburyshire”.

    • Her opponent’s manifesto, which aspires to “provide space and time for Bunbury Jews to enjoy meaningful Jewish experiences of tefilla and simcha together”, is less likely to foster unrealistic expectations.

What else?

• Focus: it’s arguably easier to work towards defined goals than just ‘being Chair’;

• Engagement and responsiveness: members will seek to have their aspirations recognised if these will form part of a strategy;

• Momentum: when goals are reached, a sense of shared ‘communal achievement’ can replace ‘shul management’;

• Credit: achievements are recognised as such;

• Achievement: success can be objectively measured;

• Succession: a manageable workload is a more attractive proposition to those who are considering an HO position, than open-ended, sometimes bewildering commitment; and

• Help: goals are likelier to attract sympathetic volunteers than an undifferentiated workload.

This is not an argument for Chairs' ambitions to be abandoned, Heaven forbid. This is an argument for ambition to be elucidated, and through clarity and focus in the form of a manifesto, be made more achievable. And with a more predictable term of office – one can hope – shul politics may even be relegated to become an obscure and fringe pursuit.