Finance
Council Minutes Vibrant Parish Life Initiative Mark Hembree and Louise Cox are both members of the Vibrant Parish Life Committee for Church of the Resurrection. Because the work of this committee could have financial implications, they attended the meeting to provide an overview of this initiative. The committee has two working subcommittees – a Clustering Subcommittee and an Education Subcommittee (the parish team participates on this subcommittee. Work on the first evaluation and planning phase is expected to take one year and should conclude by April 2007. From this phase will come recommendations followed by an implementation phase. The Vibrant Parish Life initiative was begun under Bishop Pilla’s leadership and is meant to avoid the top-down approach followed by some other dioceses (e.g., Boston) to combining/consolidating parish activities and closing churches. Tough decisions will need to be made as a result of declining enrollment in some parishes and the increasing shortage of priests. Resurrection is clustered with Holy Angels, St. Joan of Arc and St. Rita’s, all of which are already known as healthy, vibrant parishes. Nevertheless, there may be some ways in which these parishes can work more effectively together—possibly sharing programs and staff. Catherine Mazanec will join the Vibrant Parish Life Committee as a representative of Finance Council and will provide ongoing communications about the activities and preliminary recommendations of the two subcommittees and the larger group. A letter is going out to every member of the parish that includes an introduction from the Diocese about the current initiative and a letter from Fr. Mark Hobson
Capital Campaign—Current Status The balance due on pledges is $181,221. No payments were made in the last year on pledges totaling $53,000. Fr. Mark reviewed these pledges and indicated that only two relate to moves out of the parish. Even if the entire $53,000 were eventually written off, total pledge write offs would be at less than 5%. Dennis Bodziony shared a spread sheet provided by the Knights of Columbus which indicated that, as on June 5, 2006, our loan balance totaled $2,049,011. Based on a prior decision of Finance Council, we have been making additional payments of $15,000 per month from the Debt Retirement Fund. These additional payments will continue until the fund reaches $200,000 (there is currently an excess of $119,000 in the fund). At the current time, we are earning 4.6% on the Debt Retirement Fund, and interest on the debt is 5.9%. The additional payment of $15,000 is reviewed each quarter and will consider factors such as the interest rate spread. We hope to hold a debt reduction campaign at some point in the future, and it was pointed out that the additional principal payments to reduce the size of the debt should be viewed favorably by the parish. To date, these additional payments have eliminated eighteen months from the mortgage.
Review of Financial Statements Year to date comparative financial statements through April 30, 2006
and 2005 were reviewed. Revenues increased by $118,230 during this period compared with last year, and expenses increased by $61,692. Factors contributing to the lower than anticipated expenses include the mild winter ($8,000 less in snowplowing expenses this year compared to last year) and the elimination of Sister Jeanette’s salary. Dennis indicated that comparisons of some expenses between the two years may be distorted by the method used to allocate expenses. Year to date, we are operating with a surplus of revenue over expense of $44,811.
Painting the Exterior of the Building The debt reduction fund includes $36,000 to paint the exterior of the building to better match the new facility, as follows: $16,000 – roof; $8,000 – lower portion of the building; $12,000 – tower. Fr. Mark indicated that the Building and Grounds Committee recommended that this painting be done. He is concerned about painting the white brick on the older building, which will have to be done every five to six years. Another concern is that the roof could be damaged when workers are painting it (damage and leakage appears to occur each time there is activity on the roof). More importantly, the esthetics of painting the old building have not been fully considered. Fr. Mark would like to talk to an architect about the artistic implications of painting the building before we make a decision and move forward.
Staff Compensation Adjustment Fr. Mark commented that the supporting staff infrastructure has never
been better. One general concern is that, over time, even with small
increases, salaries could become quite large and that we should consider
a cap on salaries by position. This is not yet a major consideration
but could become so at some point in the future. Annual compensation
increases were reviewed and approved. The compensation increases for
Diane and Chris reflect the fact that Diane received a significant
promotion and compensation increase in January and Chris has only been
here about a half year. Giving them both some increase now, rather
than waiting for the one year anniversary, keeps the timeline for compensation
increases the same for all staff. The next meeting of Finance Council is scheduled for September 6,
2006. |