Monday, October 5, 2026 - 7 pm

• In-person: Arts & Education Building, Creve Coeur J, 2 Millstone Campus Drive

• Virtual: Zoom link TBA

No meeting in November due to JBF events

Monday, December 7, 2026 - 7 pm

• In-person: Arts & Education Building, Creve Coeur J, 2 Millstone Campus Drive

• Virtual: Zoom link TBA

• Alice Ludmer aludmer@aol.com

• Allison Wisniewski awisniewski789@gmail.com

  • Bookstore chair

• Ann Spector annspector@aol.com

  • Books and Bagels

• Barb Kramer barbyb50@gmail.com

  • Sponsor Reception co-chair

• Barb Raznick razsmiddy@gmail.com

  • Sponsor Reception co-chair, Books and Bagels

• Barb Williams whenpigsfly52@hotmail.com

  • Accessibility, Bookstore

• Betsy Mehlman betsymehlman@att.net

  • Women's Night

• Bonnie Solomon oldpeep@aol.com

  • Women's Night

• Brenda Pereles bupereles@gmail.com

  • Outreach Coordinator

• Carol Canis carolcanis@yahoo.com

• Cathy Dobkin ccdobkin@gmail.com

  • Committee Co-Chair

• David Schneider davidschn@charter.net 

  • Sponsor Hospitality

• Debbi Braunstein debbibraunstein@gmail.com

  • Women's Night co-chair, Accessibility

• Debbie Polinsky debbiepolinsky@gmail.com

  • Women's Night co-chair

• Debbie Levens dllevens@aol.com 

• Diane Bleyer dianejbleyer@gmail.com

  • Missouri's Own chair

• Eunice Reichman e.reichman@sbcglobal.net

  • ad hoc

• Hillary Friedman whfmd1@aol.com

  • Missouri's Own

• Jim Bogart mjamesbogart@aol.com

  • Books and Bagels

• Jontya McKinney jontya.mckinney@gmail.com

  • Young Adult

• Jordan Palmer jpalmer@stljewishlight.org

  • ex-officio

• Josh Neeter jneeter15@gmail.com

  • Bookstore, Young Adult

• Judi Scissors j.scissors3451@gmail.com

  • Sponsor Hospitality co-chair, Accessibility

• Judy Berger judy@ljmier.com

  • Bookstore, Sponsor Reception, Women's Night

• Judy Kramer jkramer234@gmail.com 

• Judy Schwartz Jaffe jlsj5@hotmail.com

  • Sponsor Hospitality co-chair

• Judy Willett will2boutdoors@gmail.com

• Julie Frankel jfrankel@sbcglobal.net

  • Accessibility, Bookstore, Sponsor Reception

• Karol Elias kselias@hotmail.com

  • Books and Bagels, Bookstore, Used Book Sale chair

• Lauren Bayne laurenabayne@gmail.com

• Laurie Chod laurieHchod@gmail.com

  • Committee Co-Chair

• Linda Kusmer tidinc@earthlink.net

  • Missouri's Own

• Linda Shedlofsky lshedlofsky@gmail.com

  • Books and Bagels

• Madelon Scallet tellacs@aol.com

  • Books and Bagels chair, Accessibility, Bookstore, Sponsor Reception

• Marcia Lyons mlyons630@gmail.com

  • Women's Night

• Margaret Israel meisrael@sbcglobal.net

  • ad hoc

• Margy Weisman weismanmargy@gmail.com

  • Accessibility

• Marilen Pitler mpitler@prodigy.net

  • Bookstore, Missouri's Own

• Marlene Sachs sachs500@gmail.com

• Mary Chapman chapmanmary096@gmail.com

  • Bookstore, Day Of

• Myrna Hershman hershmans12@att.net

• Myron Holtzman myholtz@gmail.com

• Rachel Holtzman holtzman.rachel@gmail.com

  • ex-officio

• Randy Steinmeyer leanguy66@gmail.com

  • Day Of

• Regina Shapiro regina_in_paradise@yahoo.com

• Reva Davis revamae1@gmail.com

  • Bookstore, Day Of, Women's Night

• Robin Hoffman robinbailyhoffman@gmail.com

  • Accessibility chair

• Samantha Fomera samantha@unitedhebrew.org

  • Young Adult chair, Accessibility

• Sandy Coblitz stcoblitz@gmail.com

  • ad hoc

• Sharon Tureen GRAMMMMMM@AOL.COM

• Sheri Corman sscorman@gmail.com

  • Day Of chair, Accessibility

• Sheryl Signore slksa@hotmail.com

• Stephanie Henderson stephaniehendrsn@gmail.com

• Valerie "Val" Shapiro readerval@sbcglobal.net

  • Day Of, Women's Night

Improvement 1: A central JBF Committee Hub website (www.jbfcommittee.com)

• Idea Credit: Randy Steinmeyer

• Problem: Committee members struggling to find information about committee meetings, upcoming JBF events, and volunteering needs
  Click here to see "before" image

• Improvement: Creating one central website (www.jbfcommittee.com) where committee members can go at any time to easily see pertinent info
  Click here to see "after" image

• Proposed: 5/1/2026

• Implemented: 5/3/2026 

Have an idea for another improvement? Tell Josiah!

Need help coming up with an idea for improvement? Think about where you encounter struggle in your JBF work, and look for TIMWOODS waste we can eliminate from our work:

• Transportation: unnecessarily moving materials or information

• Inventory: excess products

• Motion: people unnecessarily moving

• Waiting: people standing around waiting for something to do

• Overproducing: producing more of something than what the customer needs

• Overprocessing: doing more work than needed

• Defects: things that have to be redone because they weren't done right the first time

• Skills: underutilizing capabilities and knowledge of staff/volunteers

Tuesday, September 8, 2026 - Sixth meeting of the 2026 season

• Welcome

• Update on Books & Bagels

• Update on Used Book Sale

• Update on captioning improvement progress

• Update on JBF season

• Signing up to take uotreach materials to potential partner organizations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nSQy1wBBvXXTSjCVXNhL0gpvQ80xIpjMwX42XjtZZlA/edit?usp=sharing (Please note that there are multiple tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet, containing the different types of organizations/groups)

• Signing up to deliver Sponsor Welcome packages to sponsors: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lBU8C4IkgzWd5qXVBTyvX7mJ78tceMbh08-FGDkwP-w/edit?usp=sharing 

• Conclusion & Adjournment

Monday, August 3, 2026 - Fifth meeting of the 2026 season

• Welcome

• Sponsorships information from Julie Gibbs, Chief Philanthropy Officer

• Updated on JBF 2026 Lineup

• Reports from Subcommittees

• Note on Accessibility Subcommittee

• Note on Outreach

• Discussion on Young Adults Subcommittee

• Open Discussion

• Conclusion & Adjournment

Monday, July 7, 2026 - Fourth meeting of the 2026 season

• Welcome

• Update on JBF 2026 Lineup

• Request for all committee members to help with outreach and partnership-building for our JBF events, within everyone's own circle of influence (friend/family networks, organizations each member is affiliated with, etc.)

• Updates on subcommittees and subcommittee chair roles

• Conclusion & Adjournment

Monday, June 1, 2026 - Third meeting of the 2026 season

• Welcome (intro, happy birthdays)

• Quote of the Month: "Everyone is already doing their best. Hard work, to be effective, must go in the right direction." -Dr. W. Edwards Deming

• Update on JBF 2026 headliners

• Update on Jewish Book Council authors

• Update on other potential authors (non-headliner and non-JBC)

• Update from Missouri's Own subcommittee

• Update from Women's Night subcommittee

• Update from Books & Bagels subcommittee

• Reminder to sign up for at least one subcommittee if haven't already

  • Virtual link to subcommittee sign-up form: https://forms.gle/xx3EHSGvQhbzpcpR9 

• Open discussion on how to continuously improve JBF

• Conclusion & Adjournment

Monday, May 4, 2026 - Second meeting of the 2026 season

• Welcome (intro, moment of gratitude, happy birthdays)

• Report on the state of JBF

  • Status of Adeena Sussman author event coming up tomorrow, May 5th

  • 2020-2025 JBF financial analysis - click here to view report

• Quote of the Month: "Vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare." -Japanese proverb

• Question of the Month: "Who is the most important person in the JBF system?" (Answer: the customer!)

• Survey #1: What is the thing that JBF does best? Where do we make the biggest positive impact in our corner of the world?

  • Virtual link to survey: https://forms.gle/PBhWzKHCS87fvx4G9 

• Discussion of Process Improvement

• Discussion of Subcommittees and Signing Up for Subcommittees

  • Virtual link to subcommittee sign-up form: https://forms.gle/xx3EHSGvQhbzpcpR9 

• Survey #2: What organizations are you part of, and what is the best way for us to reach you in the future?

  • Virtual link: https://forms.gle/SavbRKF6oU4eVoa8A 

• Conclusion & Adjournemnt

Monday, March 9, 2026 - First meeting of the 2026 season

• Introduction & Ice-breakers

  • Committee members getting to know each other and welcoming new members

• Our Groundwork Principles for 2026:

  • 1. Continuous Improvement - committing to always getting better and better

  • 2. Respect For People - everyone is valuable, everyone is respected

  • 3. Systems & Processes - think about JBF as a system; think about our processes

  • 4. Have A Defined Aim - let's align our processes with the J's mission

• Quick Résumé Activity

  • Committee members recording work/volunteer experience

  • Didn't get a chance to fill out your quick résumé? Click here to fill it out

• Conclusion & Adjournment