Upcoming Conferences

2010 PEJE Assembly for Advancing the Jewish Day School Field:
Harnessing Our Power

Visit our special website to learn more about the 2010 PEJE Assembly.

Past Conferences

Making Admission, Recruitment, and Attrition Prevention Work in Any Economy
August 9-11, 2010 in Boston, MA
With Rheua Stakely and Rebecca Egolf

For new and returning school professionals with responsibilities for admission and marketing/communication.

Whether you are new to your position or have attended previous PEJE Admission Conferences, you will benefit from this intensive opportunity to focus on core skills. Building on proven strategies that work to recruit families to Jewish day schools, this interactive workshop will help you:

• Make the case for Jewish day school
• Bring home tips and techniques for free and inexpensive marketing
• Use technology, social media, and your website as powerful recruiting tools
• Learn outreach strategies to build relationships with partner organizations and schools
• Reduce your school's attrition by applying best practices
• Join the Admission Community of Practice to network with colleagues
• Create and use a comprehensive, proactive admission calendar
• Train admission ambassadors
• Use and analyze data to make informed enrollment projections

Raising Skills, Raising Funds: Innovative Strategies to Use NOW
August 18-19, 2009 in Chicago, IL
With Rae Ringel, Sheila Alexander, and Jennifer Weinstock

PEJE Conference designed to address all levels of development and fundraising experience. Led by PEJE Coach Rae Ringel, and PEJE Financial Resource Development Program Officer Sheila Alexander, and Jennifer Weinstock, a former major gifts officer, the conference featured break-out groups for new-comers and seasoned professionals, as well as post-conference mentoring.

Making Admission, Recruitment, and Attrition Prevention Work in a Challenging Economy
August 10-12, 2009 in Philadelphia, PA
With Rheua Stakely and Rebecca Egolf

Whether you are new to your position or have attended previous PEJE Admission Conferences, the economic climate makes it more important than ever to focus on core skills. Building on proven strategies that work to recruit families to Jewish day schools, this interactive workshop will help you:

• Make the case for Jewish day school in an economic downturn
• Bring home tips and techniques for free and inexpensive marketing
• Use technology, social media, and your website as powerful recruiting tools
• Learn outreach strategies to build relationships with partner organizations and schools
• Reduce your school's attrition by applying best practices
• Join the Admission Community of Practice to network with admission colleagues
• Create and use a comprehensive proactive admission calendar
• Train admission ambassadors
• Learn to use and analyze data to make informed enrollment projections
• Identify your school's particular challenges and learn approaches to addressing them

Participants learn how to improve their schools with the PEJE Day School Peer Yardstick ® Suite of Tools.

Getting the Right People on Your Board
November 16, 2008 in Paramus, NJ
January 11, 2009 in Los Angeles
Speaker: Cheryl Finkel

One of the five key success factors of excellent business organizations Jim Collins cites in Good to Great is "First Who - Getting the Right People on the Bus." PEJE believes the same principle holds true for the board of a Jewish day school. This conference offered practical, hands-on training for the chairs of board committees responsible for attracting and engaging high-performing trustees and for other board and professional leaders who support this success-building work.

A highly interactive day will address actual practice in exemplary board recruitment practices, helping you:

• Identify the specific types of talent your board needs to implement your school's strategic priorities for the next three years.
• Profile your current board to assess what you have and what is missing.
• Figure out where in your community to find board members with the desired characteristics.
• Use a rating template that guides the committee through frank, confidential, and respectful discussions of prospective trustees.
• Match prospects you don't know well to committees and other volunteer roles where you can observe them in action year-round.
• Practice simulated conversations with prospects, such as
  • a getting-to-know-you interview where you learn about the person's interests and connect them to your school's mission
  • a meeting in which you invite a person to join your board, making the expectations of the trustee role clear.
• Develop a year-round calendar to support the recruitment, orientation, engagement, and assessment of your board and its individual members.

Moving Forward in Admission, Recruitment, and Attrition Prevention
August 12-14, 2008 in Providence, RI
Speakers: Rheua Stakely and Rebecca Egolf
For: School professionals whose responsibilities include all aspects of admission.

Whether you are new to your position or have attended previous PEJE Admission Conferences, this is your opportunity to start the new school year with top-level expertise. Building on proven strategies that work to recruit families to Jewish day schools, this interactive workshop will help you:

• Create and use a comprehensive proactive admission calendar
• Train admission ambassadors
• Track and measure your success
• Use technology and your website as powerful recruiting tools
• Reduce your school's attrition by applying best practices
• Integrate learning from the PEJE Assembly and the inaugural PEJE Marketing Awards
• Meet Admission CoP members for in-person networking
• Learn how Yardstick findings will improve your admission office
• Receive a customized report after the conference to understand how your admission marketing materials can communicate most effectively with your target audiences

Participants will have the chance to preview the latest major upgrade to the Admission Tracker, part of PEJE's growing Day School Peer Yardstick(TM) Suite of Tools. The new version will feature an online interface with dynamic reporting capabilities and the ability to service multiple users from one institution. The tool will be user-friendly for those with all levels of technology skills, and will include a user guide and access to user support from Measuring Success.

Strategic Financial Modeling for Day School Stability
March 11-12, 2007 in Parsippany, NJ
June 3-4, 2007 in Scottsdale, AZ
Speakers: Sarah Daignault, National Business Officers Association; Sacha Litman, Measuring Success, Inc.; and Mark Mitchell, National Association of Independent Schools

Teams will work together and with other schools to build strategic financial plans using a financial tool making its debut at these conferences. Topics will include:

• Building and implementing strategic financial plans
• Financial benchmarking
• Board fiduciary responsibility
• Strategic perspectives on financial aid
• How to approach big decisions with a strategic financial mindset
• Allocating additional dollars for educational excellence

Partners in Leadership: The New Board Chair and the Head of School
May 6-7, 2007
Speakers: Marcy Balogh, President of Ba-Lo Consulting, and Cheryl R. Finkel, Senior Consultant, PEJE

This conference was an active learning opportunity to develop the new leadership team most strategically poised to effect school change. Sessions included some theory, but concentrated on developing practical skills participants could take home and implement right away.

• Model for governance - understand the distinct roles and responsibilities of the Board Chair and Head of School and the relationship between the two.
• Leadership Dialogue - experience a facilitated conversation with your new partner about vision, strategies, and day-to-day interaction.
• Best practices - identify key activities of high performing boards and make them work for you.
• Committee on Trustees and Head Support and Evaluation Committee - create a customized action plan to support governance and professional leadership accountability.

PEJE Assembly for Day School Education
April 6-8, 2008 in Boston, MA

Marketing Your Day School: Effective Strategies for Promoting Your School Internally and Externally
Jan. 7-8, 2007 in New York, NY

Presenters: Charles D. Snowden, ISM Senior Consultant
Harry Bloom, Learning Acceleration, LLC

View the       Invitation       NY photo gallery

Beyond the Usual Suspects: Vision, Strategies, and Tactics for Your Annual Campaign
Dec. 10-11, 2006 in Boca Raton, FL
Presenters: Rabbi Josh Elkin, Rae Ringel, Herb Tobin, and Harry Bloom

A special PEJE Development Track at the Solomon Schechter Day School Association Biennial, open to all day schools.

This series of sessions addressed key steps in implementing a successful annual campaign, including:

• Why Day Schools Are Important for the Future of the American Jewish Community Why Are They Worthy of Support?
• Taking the Message and Making the Case for a Day School
• Understanding Who Your Constituencies Are and How to Reach Them
• Using the PEJE Day School Peer Yardstick™ Data to Create a Development Strategy
• Major Gifts Solicitation Training
• Events: Fundraisers or Friendraisers?
• Understanding the Roles of Volunteers and Professionals

Admission, Recruitment, and Attrition Prevention
Sept. 11-13, 2006 in Paramus, NJ
Oct. 23-25, 2006 in Skokie, IL
Presenter: Rheua Stakely

In this conference, participants learned to:

• Create a proactive admission calendar for their school and follow the admission cycle
• Develop an action plan to implement immediately
• Formulate an outreach strategy for targeted market niches
• Train their "admission ambassadors"
• Measure your success
• Develop appropriate acceptance criteria
• Analyze what is absolutely necessary to include in print material and what is less important
• Compare their school's website with others and use the web for effective recruiting
• Cultivate relationships with "feeder" organizations
• Differentiate what to share with their board and what not to share with them

PEJE Assembly for Day School Education
March 19-21, 2006 in Boston, MA

Photo Galleries

• 2008 Assembly for Jewish Day School Education
  Opening Plenary, Sunday Evening, World Cafe, Monday Evening, Sessions, Networking
• Symposium on The Impact of Day School: A Comparative Analysis of Jewish College Students - New York, NY - 05/2007
• Strategic Financial Modeling for Day School Stability - Parsippany, NJ - 03/2007
• Marketing Your Day School: Effective Strategies for Promoting Your School Internally and Externally - New York, NY - 01/2007
• Admission, Recruitment, and Attrition Prevention - Skokie, IL - 10/2006
• Admission, Recruitment, and Attrition Prevention - Paramus, NJ - 9/2006
• 2006 PEJE Assembly for Jewish Day School Education - Boston, MA - 3/2006