The major topic of the Budget Review meeting on April 29 was the proposed $2,000 decrease in the Music budget for the 2012-2013 church year. In response to questions raised at that congregational meeting, much work and many staff and volunteer meetings have occurred since then and I’d like to make sure you know that. The bottom line is, following much review, and knowing that more than $2,000 is available to transfer from the Music Fund to the operating budget as needed, the Board has recommended that the same budget that was in last month’s newsletter be presented at the Annual Meeting.
A step-by-step description of how the proposed annual budget gets prepared is below. Click here to find a table of data showing five years of expenses highlighting programs.
Fully 90% of our budget goes to personnel costs (salaries + benefits), facilities operations, governance and office supplies for all. This year, we chose not to provide our employees with full cost-of-living increases. Only hourly employees will get 2% increases rather than the actual 3.5% cost-of-living increase. No salaried employee received any increase at all.
Another 5.4% of the budget goes to pay our Fair Share of UUA and Southeast District costs. The Fair Share is calculated by the UUA and SED and is based on the number of members a congregation certifies the previous January.
With that done, there is no place else to look for ways to balance our budget other than by making program cuts. No matter how we apportion money to our programs, there is no question that all our many high-quality programs are run efficiently on very tight budgets and perform the equivalent of UU miracles through the efforts of paid staff and us (the volunteers).
The changes in program budgets over the past 5 years are illustrated in the accompanying line graph at the bottom of this column. Program budgets have risen and fallen as much as 50% as priorities, programs and most especially available funds have changed.
The point of providing this information is to show that all programs have incurred losses and gains in various budget years. We spend low amounts for all of our programs. There is no line item for FUN! We barely spend any money at all in helping new members connect into the congregation ($500). But we do better than our best with the funds we do have. It is extremely difficult to balance the multiple demands of excellent programs with our limited resources.
The congregation will vote on the budget at the annual meeting on June 3. My fondest desire is that the high trust that you have placed in your Board, Finance Committee and staff will continue and that the proposed 2012-13 budget will be approved. We’ve learned a lot from this year’s budget process and expect next year’s process to be much smoother and better communicated.
See you at the annual meeting!
BUDGET DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
In the ideal world, this is the way we develop our budget:
1. Congregation agrees on Mission.
2. Board, in concert with the congregation as much as possible, creates Ends Statements to aim toward Mission.
3. Ends Statements guide Executive and senior staff (asst. minister, LRE director, administrator) on direction for programs. (Executive and staff set their own priorities.)
4. Senior staff, the people who directly report to them (membership coordinator, music director) and all the program committee volunteers who are essential parts of this system work together, collaborate, communicate to determine what programs they see as being most effective in moving the congregation towards the Ends Statements.
5. The actual proposed budget figures are compiled by the administrator and fully vetted by the Finance Committee while awaiting the results of the Annual Budget Drive (ABD). The senior staff is notified of this budget. Again communication should flow from senior staff members to their respective staff members and committees and back again as needed.
6. Once it is moderately clear what the future year’s income will be (and by May 16, 2012 we are still not totally certain of our income because not all congregants have made their commitments yet), the budget is adjusted to balance.
7. The budget is physically adjusted by the administrator (because SOMEONE has to sit at the computer!) in conjunction with senior staff and is re-vetted by the Finance Committee. Again communication should flow from senior staff members to their respective staff members and committees and back again as needed.
8. At the April board meeting, the Board of Trustees reviews the budget and approves it for distribution to the congregation.
9. Between the April and May board meetings, we hold a budget town hall meeting for all congregants.
10. If the town hall meeting suggests that the proposed budget warrants further review, senior staff members again review the budget. Again communication should flow from senior staff members to their respective staff members and committees and back again as needed. Whether the senior staff changes the budget or not, the Finance Committee reviews it again.
11. This proposed budget then goes to the Board for final approval in May for the annual meeting.
The ideal world eluded us this year, and we made a huge and regrettable error in Step #5 in that part about “communication should flow from senior staff members to their respective staff members.” This was not a systemic problem but one that was inadvertently caused by Rev. Mark Ward’s absence. It should not have happened anyway, but it did. All other steps occurred properly.
PRESSURES ON THE 2012-2013 BUDGET
First, the amazing good news (yes, there is some!). Once again, we have committed more money to the annual budget drive this year than we ever have before. And that is awesome and we need to be proud of that. And yet…..
As I noted in a previous newsletter column, the volunteer leaders of this congregation took a very big chance two years ago to hire a very experienced professional for our lifespan religious education programs and a full-time assistant minister (to help lead our pastoral care, membership and social justice programs) with the congregation-approved plan of using part of a large bequest to “bridge” our operating expenses as the congregation raised its giving levels to meet our operating costs. So, although we HAVE raised our giving levels, we haven’t quite raised them enough.
The unplanned purchase of 23 Edwin has also increased our operating expenses, but thanks to the wildly successful capital fund-raising of last fall, those operating expenses are covered by those funds for three years. You can see the transfer of the money from the Building Fund in the Income section of the “UUCA Mission Budget Proposed for 2012-2013” that you have already received.
WHAT IS THE MUSIC FUND?
A year or two ago, a member of the congregation gave a gift to the congregation and part of that gift was designated for Music. A special fund was set up to hold that gift until the music director decided how it should be spent. Additional funds have recently been similarly gifted. While we do not encourage designated gifts like this since the practice might encourage specific-fund giving to the detriment of both our annual budget drive and sense of community, we do gratefully accept them. To address the problems of this year’s income shortfall, the Finance Committee has suggested that the Music Fund be used as needed for operations. We expect this will be a one-time patch since most of us believe it’s better to use such funds for capital items rather than operations.
DO YOU HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
Please feel free to contact me, directly via email or through this blog, or any Trustee (see the list on the front page of any newsletter). We’ll do what we can to answer you!
