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by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane
August/September 2005
For the third year in a row, a deficit budget was projected at Annual Meeting, but this year delegates came to the rescue with an amendment to the proposed Dues rate.
The Board of Directors presented the Annual Meeting with a proposed budget for 2006 showing a deficit of $89,000, to be offset in part by a $50,000 transfer from a budget stabilization fund. “We are concerned about repeated deficits,” explains Margery Eramo, member of the Board, “but the Board thought long and hard about the situation and recommended the budget be approved in order to continue the programs that promote the mission of the Conference.”
Referring to the StillSpeaking campaign, the Pastoral Excellence Program, and other initiatives, Eramo said “The good news is that these efforts are working! We have seen much excitement, enthusiasm and new learning on the part of our clergy and lay members. Financial support for Conference ministries has increased significantly in recent years,” she explained. “However, budgeting remains a challenge in our present economy, for the Conference just as for local churches. Many significant costs, such as liability and benefits insurance and utilities, continue to rise at rates far higher than inflation.”
Despite the deficit projection, Assistant Treasurer Walter Kreil assured members that the Conference was in good financial health. Although last year’s financial committee projected a net loss, there was actually a surplus of over $80,000 at the end of the year due to dedicated efforts of local churches to ‘catch-up’ on Fellowship Dues owed from prior years, as well as significant savings realized in both personnel and institutional costs. The budget proposed for 2006 shows level funding of program expenses and a modest increase in costs, and anticipates a gradual improvement in the economy.
Although the financial officers of the Conference were prepared to live with a projected net deficit of $39,000, many delegates were not. The Board’s recommendation that Fellowship Dues for 2006 be set at $13.95 per church member, up from $13.35 in 2005, prompted much discussion. The first delegate to speak, Vicki Hammel, interim pastor at the First Congregational Church in Worcester, suggested that dues be increased substantially more – to $50 per member.
“I think they should be $50 per person. We have justice issues, and we want to pay our staff fairly. We can’t do that by nickel and diming. $50 per person would be a bargain.”
Wendy Vander Hart, pastor of the Melrose Highlands Congregational Church, agreed with voting for an increase: “All this for $13.95? It’s not enough. It’s pitiful. We can ask for more, and should ask for more.”
Others spoke against increases, citing low-income neighborhoods and local church deficit budgets. Marie Bacchiocchi, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Whately, said she supported the increase in theory, but said her small congregation is working with a $17,000 deficit. “A raise like this could make me go from part-time to quarter-time,” she said. “We have to recognize that there are churches that this will hurt.”
A sliding scale payment was also suggested. Ultimately, concerned that the rate proposed by the Board was insufficient to balance the 2006 budget, a majority of delegates approved a Dues rate of $15.00 per member in the hopes of largely eliminating the projected deficit.
The proposed budget numbers were then changed to reflect the augmented income from the new Dues schedule – setting income at $2,346,700 and expenses at $2,354,700, leaving only an $8,000 discrepancy. The new budget proposal was carried by a significant majority.