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Leadership Team: Budget Hearing & Vote
February 3: Budget Hearing
February 10: Congregational VoteThe congregation is invited to a budget hearing on Sunday, February 3, following the worship service, to be followed, a week later, on Sunday February 10, by a congregational meeting to vote for the 2019 budget. We hope you will be able to be there.
Planning for the 2019 church budget began 6 months ago when the Leadership Team set the process in motion. A budget working group was created, led by our treasurer, with representatives from many of our ministries and from the Leadership Team. They were tasked with coming up with a budget that kept income and expenditures aligned. For the 2018 budget, the church had authorized a 6% draw on the endowment, but the Leadership Team had made it clear that we needed to return to a 5% draw that has been the church’s usual practice. Creating a balanced budget was therefore going to be a challenge.
In the ensuing months the budget working group has met several times and talked through many strategic assumptions as well as practical details and is close to having a budget for the Leadership Team to consider for recommendation to the congregation.
We are grateful to many people for their help in getting us to this stage:
- Those in the congregation who have pledged to the church for the 2019 budget. We are awed and grateful for the wonderful response from our community.
- The Financial Resources Ministry who imagined, created, managed and worked tirelessly on this year’s pledge campaign.
- The budget working group who have managed to do what seemed impossible in creating a balanced budget and have worked to balance a vision for the future with a responsible, practical look at the reality of the present.
- Our Treasurer and Associate Treasurer. Bruce Lauterwasser and Anne Hoenicke, who have been flexible, creative, responsive, informative and tireless in working on creating the 2019 budget.
It takes a village church to make a budget!
—With gratitude, from the Leadership Team
