That is a question my colleagues and I hear more often than you think. In February, the NATA (National Association of Temple Administration) Board approved funding for a small group of NATA members to work with a consultant, Professional Testing, Inc. (PTI), to participate in a Job Task Analysis workgroup.

There were 32 applicants and 11 NATA members were chosen who represent a wide cross-section of demographics relevant to NATA membership - from small, medium, and large congregations, and urban, rural, and suburban areas. I was thrilled to be chosen to take part in this experience!

In mid-July we met in the offices in Denver, Colorado for 3 days of brainstorming what an Executive Director does. Remember that someone who works in a larger congregation might not plan and take part in certain things that I do, but they are still responsible for them even though they have staff to do the heavy lifting. Through this exercise, we identified 9 buckets of overall responsibilities and broke it down further into more than 25 tasks, and well over 100+ specific steps to complete them.

PTI will put together a validation survey that will be sent to all NATA members. The survey will allow members the opportunity to review the findings and let NATA know if they identify with what we came up with.

What is the point of all this? There are a few reasons this work is important. First, it will help NATA with their NATA Institute Classes. NATA Institute is a week-long intensive aimed at enhancing members’ ability to serve and lead congregations. Right now there are 6 courses and exams required for Senior Member status within NATA. I completed this a couple of years back and NATA wants to use the findings to make sure the courses are what they should be and don’t need to be changed.

Secondly, I have many colleagues with titles like Administrators or Engagement Director that are doing the job of an Executive Director. Once we have all this information, they will have something concrete to show to their synagogues that they are doing the work of someone with a different title and most likely, a higher salary.

Here is a short video of our time together below: