Guten: We need to ‘skate to where puck will be’
“Federation is the community and the community is the federation,” said Judy Segall Guten, the new president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, who was installed at MJF’s annual meeting on July 24. “And all Jews, whether they are active or not, are part of the community.”
As she begins her presidency, Guten would like to make the federation “more attractive” to the unaffiliated by reaching out to them. “We need to be adaptive to the needs of everyone in the community — now and in the future.”
And the future of the community is something she thinks the federation should look at immediately.
“It’s important for the federation to look at what the community will be like five to eight years out. We need to be ready to be there. As [hockey star] Wayne Gretzky said, ‘You have to skate to where the puck will be.’ We have to be in a position to meet the needs,” she said.
She sees the number of young families growing in the Milwaukee area, which she says “will impact the schools, camps, etc.,” and an increasing well-elderly population, “which will generate new needs.”
Also, she believes the Russian and Orthodox communities are the largest growing populations in the area. “We need to do a better job in reaching them. We [the federation] have to reshape ourselves for those who don’t perceive us as a place to go. Personally, any time I have a problem, I think the fix starts with me. I hope to convey that philosophy to the federation,” she said.
Guten has been active in the federation for many years in a variety of leadership roles because, she said, the federation “is so important to the community,” especially in representing those segments that have no spokespersons. “There are pockets of Jews in the community who don’t have any advocates, and without the federation and its annual campaign, their needs won’t be met,” she said.
Guten views capital fundraising and leadership development as her two biggest challenges.
“We have to educate our givers about the capital needs, but not at the sacrifice of the annual community campaign. We should stress our partnership with the Jewish Community Foundation, the federation’s endowment development program, and help some of our donors individualize their giving through it,” she explained.
And, she said, “Succession planning, too, is very important. We need to build a strong core of volunteers whose sense of community will propel them to leadership roles, just as it did for me some 25 years ago. It’s the fedration’s responsibility to lead the community in decision making — so we have to develop leaders who have those skills.”
The role of the volunteer is crucial to the federation’s success, according to Guten. “If volunteers don’t give their talents or their money, there won’t be a community. But it’s the federation’s job to create a reason for their involvement. We have to make the federation relevant and worthwhile to the volunteers because of the work it does.”
Guten said she accepted the top spot “after some careful thought” because “I love this community.”
Noting she has no personal agenda, Guten views her role as a builder. “I’m a good listener —which is what I do for a living. At the end of my term, I want the community to be healthy and for people not to even know what I did. It’s not important what I, Judy, can do, but that the community reaches it potential,” she said.
Her goals include:
• Expanding the donor base.
• Creating a mentoring program for new leaders.
• Instituting a proactive decision-making system.
• Conducting a survey about why people do or don’t volunteer.
• Boosting the number of volunteers at the constituent agencies.
Most recently, she served as an officer of the federation. In addition, she was president of and campaign chair for the Women’s Division; chair of the federation’s Human Resources Committee; and chair of its Agency Relations Committee, which oversees the local allocation of funds raised by the annual community campaign.
In addition to her federation involvement, she is a past president of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, an officer of Jewish Family Services and a board member of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations and the Jewish Home and Care Center/Chai Point.
Professionally, she has been chair of The Executive Committee (TEC), an information sharing and problem solving roundtable of CEOs, presidents and owners of companies, since 1991. She has worked with businesses, non-profits, universities and local government agencies on organizational structure, strategic planning, leadership strategy, skill building, team building and group dynamics.
She and her husband, Dr. Gary Guten, have two married children.
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