Terms and Composition of Lay Advisory Council

  1. The inaugural Lay Advisory Council, formed in January 2015, was comprised of eight members (“Inaugural Members”).  We added a ninth in January 2016.
  2. LAC members serve two-year terms.  To ensure some continuity of service, half of the Inaugural Members will serve three year terms, ending in December 2017.  (Those will be determined either on a volunteer basis or by lot.)
  3. Moving forward, selection of LAC members will be determined in one of two ways:
    • Each synagogue with a clergymember who is a member of the Vaad will select one LAC member.  The manner of selection will be determined by the synagogue’s lay leadership in consultation with its clergymember(s).   Synagogue-selected members can comprise no more than half of the total LAC.   Hence, should new synagogue clergy join the Vaad, the size of the LAC may expand.
    • Those LAC members not designated for synagogue selection will be selected by the LAC itself.   The then-constituted LAC will solicit expressions of interest from the public and determine whom to select.  The selection process will be confidential.
  4. In order to be eligible for membership in the LAC, the prospective member must be an adult resident of the Greater Washington area and member of a local Orthodox synagogue.  That synagogue need not have clergy who is a member of the Vaad.
  5. In selecting new members, the LAC will strive for gender equity and will encourage synagogues to adopt the same objective and to consider rotating between genders in their selections.