Nathan’s August 2022 Newsletter
"Life is like riding a bicycle; to keep your balance, you must keep moving." Albert Einstein
The sad part of the calendar is over, and it's time to move forward. While we are also getting closer to the high holiday season here in Israel, there is a lot to do before the country shuts down for approximately a month.
I'm happy to announce that we signed an agreement with a contractor, and construction will commence soon. We are so excited to be moving forward with a terrific company and will show you the progress along the way. This has been in the making for a long time, and now that we have a contractor, we will be getting an official opening date shortly. This is probably the most challenging part of my work, putting together a plan without an opening date. Not fun, but moving forward with our goals is what we need to do while planning to the best of our abilities.
I am also blown away by this month's interview with George Stern. I had the pleasure of speaking with George a few weeks ago; what an inspiration. The GCI is all about opportunities for our students; if we can help, we will. I don't want to spoil the interview, but he is both deaf and blind and looking to come to the GCI. I was shocked to hear other schools just ignored his messages, something we could never do. I also learned a lot, including how we can improve our site for individuals with disabilities and how George gets around daily. He is going through our application process and will see where it goes.
We also had our annual board meeting and team meetings with Russell Robinson since he is in Israel for the week. We are preparing for the National Conference, and I look forward to seeing everyone in Boston this November.
Our social media accounts are starting to make significant progress. I've even been recording some video updates, which has been fun; more to come soon. Our podcast, What's Burning, has continued to do great, with over 7500 downloads since we started the podcast in January. Our amazing guests dig deep into essential food topics such as Nutrition and plant-based diets. We learned from many amazing food experts, including the past president's chef, a Washington Post columnist who pushes the boundaries on the realities of farming, and an incredibly successful chef who felt like an outsider in the Kitchen. As usual, the goal of our podcast is to raise awareness about the current culinary scene, touch on food subjects that may be hard to talk about, and educate our future culinarians. Let us know what other topics or individuals we should have on our show at info@gcibyjnf.com.
Besides that, we keep pushing forward on our curriculum, team, and strategy, knowing that we will be racing to prepare for opening once construction is underway. I look forward to sharing all the progress we will be making soon.
L'chaim (To life)
Nathan