In This Issue:

1. DINING OUT AT RED ROBIN – TU 3/26*
2. UPCOMING MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS*
3. NCAA BASKETBALL SQUARES ON SALE – DEADLINE 4/2*
4. MOTAS ANNUAL APPEAL TIME*
5. MARCH MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES*
6. IN CLOSING

(* indicates updated items)

From the Editor: The goal of the Weekly is to get MoTAS members the information they need on upcoming activities, and then get out of the way. If you have any information on MoTAS activities you need to get out to the membership, please contact the Weekly Editor at cybermaven@tasnorthridge-motas.org.

1. DINING OUT AT RED ROBIN – TU 3/26

“Dining Does Good” has returned. Things have gotten more complicated since the pandemic with all the delivery apps and such, so this is DINE IN or PICK UP only. Let’s support MoTAS, and all show our smiling faces at Red Robin in Northridge on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.

Would you like an easy way to help MoTAS financially? How about taking your family to dinner. The MoTAS “Dining Does Good” allows you to go out to dinner, and have the restaurant donate a portion of your check support the Men of TAS. Our March Dining Does Good” will be Tuesday, March 26 at Red Robin, 9301 Tampa Ave, Northridge, CA 91324. Just present the flyer or mention the fundraiser when you order or pick up your take out order in person. You can even order online: (1) Start your order at order.redrobin.com and select the Northridge location. (2) In the menu, go to the category labeled “Fundraisers (To-Go Only)” and click on that item. (3) Click the “add” button, and then “add to bag.” (4) Add your meal items and check out. (5) Arrive at Red Robin, come in, say hi, grab your food and be on your way! If your location has curbside pick-up, they can bring it to your car too!

How do you get a flyer? You can find a flyer for the event at https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/activities/dining/ (click on the image of the flyer) or download PDF from our Box account . Once you are at the Box version of the flyer:

• If you are on a PC or Mac using a browser: (1) click on the white DOWNLOAD button; (2) there will be a pop-up about logging in to do more — ignore that – just close the popup box; (3) You will be prompted on where to save the download, or it will go into the downloads directory; (4) when the download is complete, open the PDF and print it. DO NOT right click and attempt to print from the Box page.
• If you using a browser on an Android phone: This takes you directly to the PDF. You can download or print from there.
• If you are using some other method, please send it to me and I’ll include it on this list.
• If you can’t figure this out at all: Drop me an email at cybermaven@tasnorthridge-motas.org , and I’ll send you the PDF as an attachment.

P.S.: You can also get scrip for Red Robin from the Temple (double Mitzvah for that and eating out).

We really encourage you to come and support these events: we raise a little extra funds for our work, but more importantly, we come together and break bread as a Temple family on a regular basis. It is a real joy to walk into a neighborhood restaurant and see your Temple friends, to sit down and share a table and talk. This is the heart and goal of MoTAS: Building Relationships.

2. UPCOMING MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS

Here is the schedule for our membership meetings for the remainder of the year:

• Sunday, April 14, 2024 @ 8:45am at Temple Ahavat Shalom. Preparation of Yom HaShoah candles for mailing. Announcement of candidates for office.
• Sunday, May 19, 2024 @ 8:45am at Temple Ahavat Shalom. Alyce Botwinick on transitioning to retirement and dealing with chronic illness in oneself or family members. Elections.
• Sunday, June 2, 2024 @ 8:45am VIA ZOOM. Erin Faigin on Valley Girls, or to be more precise, “Postwar Jewish Suburbanization through the Lens of the Jewish American Princess and Valley Girl.” This is an update to a presentation given to the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati in March 2023.

For our on-site meetings, a full breakfast, including bagels, lox, and eggs, will be available. For ZOOM, we’ll have virtual bagels, lox and eggs, which are much lower in calories.

3. NCAA BASKETBALL SQUARES ON SALE – DEADLINE 4/2

Now that football season is officially over, it’s time for basketball and the craziness known as the Final Four, in early April. Once again, MoTAS is happy to offer you the opportunity to help raise some needed funds for special TAS projects, and maybe you’ll earn some $$ along the way. In other words: NCAA Squares are now on sale. To get all the information (and in some cases, more than you could ever want), go to http://squares.tasnorthridge-motas.org/ where you’ll find the instructions, a sign-up form you can download and then print, and a link if you wish to order your spaces online. Registration closes Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 6pm, unless otherwise announced.

To summarize: each name on the board can have up to 3 spaces. The squares are priced at $36 each. The game is for both the men’s and women’s tournament (semifinal two games each, and final games), so there are 12 opportunities to be a winner, since there is a winner at the half and final score. If the board is fully subscribed at all 100 spaces, the payout is $150 per win. Once again, we’ll use our “tie-breaker” method to determine a winner if a winning square is unsold (If there are unsold squares, the payouts will be adjusted.) The tie-breaker is your prediction of the total number of points both teams will score in any game, for example, if you think the final score will be 82-61, your number = 143. Here’s a hint for those who are unfamiliar (or don’t really care….): the average score for the men’s tournament for the last two years was 147, and the average score for the women’s tournament was 134. You get only one tie-breaker per person, so choose wisely.

4. MOTAS ANNUAL APPEAL TIME

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our annual appeal. We appreciate your support.

If you have not donated yet, there is still time. To contribute online or to print a donation form, just visit support.tasnorthridge-motas.org or go directly to https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/about/support-motas/. The online direct donation page is here; the link to our Box account with the downloadable PDF form is here.

5. MARCH MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom General Meeting Minutes

Date: Sunday, March 10, 2024, TAS Social Hall

Presiding: President Larry Hoffman

Members Present: Larry Hoffman (President), Hal Bass (Secretary), Steve Berlin, Les Birken, Joe Blachman, Daniel Faigin, Scott Gore (VP), Brian Hatkoff, Bob Levine, Joel Lowell, Barry Mann, Howard Miller, Chuck Mondrus, Larry Pfefer (Immediate Past President), Stephen Platt, Russ Rapoport, Bill Shapiro, Bernie Singer, Mike Thornhill, Scott Yollis (VP)

Guests: Dr. John Bescup (JPL), Karen Davis

Coffee & Breakfast: Bob Levine, Stephen Platt, Mike Thornhill, Scott Yollis

Question of the Day: What is your favorite element in the periodic table?

President’s Report:

The men’s only discussion group has been postponed, with a new date to be announced later by Brian Hatkoff.

Per Bob Levine, NCAA basketball squares are now on sale.

The regional MRJ Men of the Year dinner held at TAS Saturday evening, Mar 9, was an enormous success and well attended. Bill Shapiro, our 2023 MoTAS MOY, introduced this year’s honoree, Larry Pfefer. Daniel Faigin, Scott Gore, Howard Miller, Jeff Neiman and Larry Pfefer were on the planning committee.

A sign-up sheet for volunteers to assist with breakfast for the Religious School parents on Mar 17 was sent around. We will be using green tablecloths for St. Patrick’s Day, and Daniel Faigin will provide party games.

Howard Miller is seeking new bids for landscaping in front of the temple offices, but the project is on hold until a water leak in the system can be repaired.

Members are reminded to photograph events in which they participate, such as today’s general membership meeting, and to send the photos to Membership & Engagement Director Brooke Botwinick. All individuals appearing in the photos need to consent to social media posting.

MoTAS has contributed $125 toward the March 22 Oneg Shabbat in conjunction with Purim.

Hal Bass asked MoTAS members to attend services on March 15, when retiring Caring Community Coordinator Abbey Klein will be honored.

2024-25 calendaring is in progress. The annual Pancake Breakfast will take place on Oct 20, the Veterans’ Shabbat on November 8, and the MoTAS Shabbat, at which our 2025 Man of the Year will be introduced, is January 10, 2025.

Howard Miller is chairing the Annual Gala, which will be held at TAS Saturday evening, May 18. This year’s honorees are the Breuer, Pfefer and Solomon families.

Roger Lowe’s Treasurer’s Report as of 03/06/2024

• (see email version)

New Business:

This month’s Dining Does Good venue to dine-in or take-out will be the Red Robin in Northridge on Tuesday, Mar 26. Be sure to present the restaurant with a flyer available in the temple’s weekly bulletin and on the MoTAS website. If you know of other restaurants that might be good candidates for Dining Does Good, let the program coordinator, Barry Mann, know.

January’s MoTAS Shabbat marked the start of our annual appeal. MoTAS does not collect membership dues—we depend on contributions from our membership to do what we do and to help support Temple Ahavat Shalom. To contribute online or to print a donation form, just visit support.tasnorthridge-motas.org or go directly to https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/about/support-motas/.

The Men’s Seder will take place Sunday evening, April 14, at Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village.

Daniel Faigin, Howard Miller and Larry Pfefer have been appointed by President Larry Hoffman to the nominating committee for 2024-25 MoTAS officers

Educational Presentation: Using Computed Tomography (CT) X-ray to Advance Planetary Geology Science.

John Bescup is the Non-Destructive Evaluation team lead for the Analysis and Test Laboratory group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He specializes in processing of CT data using Volume Graphics VGStudioMAX and Object Research Systems Dragonfly software. He has been a speaker at over a dozen failure analysis conferences and was awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Achievement Medal for development of novel techniques for CT X-ray, generating exceptional microstructural imagery to the science of advanced planetary geology.

John’s presentation summarized computed tomography X-ray imaging on a set of hydrothermal vent samples gathered from a site in the mid-Atlantic Ocean called the Lost City. Hydrothermal vents are stalagmite-like structures that precipitate on the seafloor driven by interaction between the water, minerals and heat from within the Earth. It is theorized these locations may be potential origin-of-life sites either here on Earth or on moons of the outer planets established to have sub-surface water oceans, which has driven interest for study by the JPL.

Many good questions were asked, and the members present greatly appreciated the information provided.

Adjournment and Next MoTAS Meeting: The next MoTAS membership meeting will take place at TAS, Sunday, April 14, 2024, at 8:45 am. The main order of business will be preparation of Yom HaShoah candles for mailing.

At our May 19 membership meeting, the speaker will be a psychiatric social worker, Alyce Botwinick. Suggested topics for Ms. Botwinick to address are transitioning to retirement and dealing with chronic illness in oneself or family members.

Respectfully submitted,

Hal Bass/Secretary

IN CLOSING

As always, remember that the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom is *your* organization. Keep up to date on our activities at http://www.tasnorthridge-motas.org/ and participate. Sign up for our action alert list at http://tinyurl.com/motas-action-alert. We want to serve all the men of Temple Ahavat Shalom and welcome new participants from the TAS membership. Join our Facebook group and “follow” our website. Join the MoTAS Google Group at https://groups.google.com/g/tas-motas (you may need to be logged into your Google account, if you have one). Come be part of the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom!