Announcement to Stake Council Members of 2017 Stake Budget

11 November 2016

TO: Stake Council Members

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

First our thanks to all who conducted and participated in the Stake Auxiliary Training this week. It was OUTSTANDING in every way! All of you did a magnificent job!

Hopefully, we’ll have time to report briefly in our Stake Council meeting on Sunday, Nov 20, on how you felt it went and if you have any recommendations to change the format for next year.

You are receiving this email with two attachments:

1. Proposed 2017 Stake Budget: Please review the proposed funds for your organization and reply with any concerns. You’ll notice we made a few comments to give further explanation as to the rationale for certain budget figures.

The 2017 stake budget is a little tighter because the allocation of budget funds (based on average sacrament meeting attendance) from the Church to our stake has been dropping over the past few years due to a reduction in stake membership from 2,835 in 2013 to 2,653 in 2016. Sacrament meeting attendance also has dropped, from 43% in 2013 to 39% in 2016.

2. Proposed 2017 Summer Camp Funding Letter: We hope to distribute next week this letter to all families with children announcing changes to our summer camp funding policy. In short, we have increased the Boy Scout Summer Camp family contribution from $100 to $150 and decreased the summer camp fees for everyone else from $100 to $75).

Despite the reduction in funds available to us as a stake, we continue to feel strongly that the summer camp experiences for the youth and children are among our best “investments” as so many lives are changed and testimonies strengthened at these camps. We hope lightening the financial burden of summer camps will be a blessing to families in our stake.

So please review the attached two documents and reply with any suggestions or corrections, before they become final.

Gratefully,

The Stake Presidency

Announcement of Ward Budget Allocations for 2017

11 November 2016

Bishop Miller,

Due to a number of factors our stake membership is becoming smaller. As a few bishops are now aware, it has caused some staffing concerns for several wards.

We are confident that, in time, the growth will return to our stake.

In the meantime, we are experiencing some budget challenges because both the numbers attending sacrament meeting and the attendance percentage at sacrament meeting have been dropping for the past few years.

For example…

For 1^st Quarter 2013 in our stake:

·   1,169 attended sacrament meeting

·   43% sacrament meeting attendance

Compared to the 3^rd Quarter 2016:

·   1,015 attended sacrament meeting (154 less @ $48/person = $7,398 reduced allocation)

·   39% sacrament meeting attendance (down 4%)

Both dynamics—fewer members and fewer members attending sacrament meeting—affect our budget allocation ($48 per attendee, per year) from Church headquarters. As a consequence, we must make the following changes to your 2017 allocation:

·   Your 2016 Ward Allocation: $5,000 ($1,250 per quarter)

·   Your 2017 Ward Allocation: $3,800 ($950 per quarter, which will vary—see below)

Other funds you currently have to help you make up the difference:

·   Your 2015 Carry Over: $1,725.09

·   Your 2016 Potential Carry Over*: $3,762.00

·   Your Current “Other” Account Balance:  $540.00

Over the years we have not significantly adjusted your allocation even though the allocation to our stake has been dropping. We assumed it would come back, but it didn’t. To avoid this in the future, we will adjust your budget allocation each quarter based on your sacrament meeting attendance. Usually a quarterly adjustment is nominal, but the varying income amount will help you monitor the changes happening in your ward.

Thank you for adjusting your year-end 2016 and your 2017 spending accordingly. We are having to do the same with the stake budget. Together we’ll make it work!

The Stake Presidency

* Current balance in your ward budget as of Nov. 1—what you would carry over if you didn’t spend anything the rest of the year. We recognize it’s not realistic that you’ll just stop spending right now, but hopefully it will give you an incentive to monitor carefully your spending for the balance of 2016.

Explanation of 2017 Summer Camp Funding Policy to Bishops

14 November 2016

Bishops,

Attached you’ll find a DRAFT of the announcement about changes to our stake’s 2017 Summer Camp Funding Policy. 

We are sending you this document for your review and feedback before we ask that you distribute the final approved version to all parents with children in your ward.

Fortunately, the change in policy does not reflect a sizable increase over 2016 in the total stake subsidy. It’s just more equitable way to follow the guidance in the handbook to use church funds to lighten the financial burden on families, in this case to minimize the high cost of summer camps. 

You’ll notice that the new policy raises the family contribution for boys attending the expensive Boy Scout Camp. We’re not against Scout camp, but we cannot continue to subsidize so heavily a camp that appears to increase its registration fee by 10% or more every year. 

While the policy raises the family contribution from $100 to $150, we do not feel it is significant enough to allow youth leaders to conduct fundraising. We feel parents can still help their children learn to earn enough to meet the $150 portion of the registration fee. Hence the importance that you to notify parents far in advance.

Understandably some of you will wonder why we continue to subsidize summer camps at all when we’re having to cut stake and ward budgets—announced last week--due to the decrease in budget allocations from SLC?

While the day may come that we must eliminate or reduce the summer camp subsidies, our feeling is that lightening the financial burden on families is one of the most effective use of these sacred funds….funds that originated with these same members in the form of tithes. 

Our summer camp subsidies are a great benefit to the family’s budget and also we hope the subsidies encourage families to send their youth and children to these spiritually beneficial summer camps. We feel strongly this is a very wise use of the generous allocations received each quarter from the Church.

We also feel, as we have continually seen almost every ward (and the stake, for that matter) carry over more than $1,000 in unused budget funds each year, that there is more we can all do to tighten our belts and refine our budgeting processes before we start eliminating or reducing camp subsidy funds that directly bless the family budget.

Thank you for giving this your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you…prior to the Bishop’s Training tomorrow.

Thank you,

The Stake Presidency

By the way, we will no longer require you to receive the family contribution before receiving the reimbursement funds from the stake. Please submit a list immediately after your youth complete each summer camp and we’ll send you a reimbursement check as quickly as possible. As most of you know, by now, if you do not start working with families to submit their family contribution(s) early in the year, it can create a major cash flow problem for you by spring. Please help parents understand the importance of teaching their children how to earn money and to submit their family contribution(s) on time.

Remember, all summer camps are supported by the family contributions and stake funds. NO ward funds are used to support summer camps. However, the cash flow needed to pay for summer camp registration fees, often required in the spring, is the responsibility of the ward. So you have a sizable amount of money that comes in and goes out through your “Other” account. It’s very important that you work with the families and help them to pay on time or you will run the risk of falling short of the money you need to pay the registrations, which will later be reimbursed by the stake.

New 2017 Summer Camp Funding Policy

15 November 2016

TO: All Parents of Youth and Children in the Mount Hood Stake

FROM: The Mount Hood Stake Presidency

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We value greatly the summer camp experiences the youth of our stake enjoy each year, especially when the gospel is taught and testimonies are strengthened around a campfire with other youth who share their beliefs and standards.

Therefore, we have tried to make these camps as accessible and affordable as possible.

The Church discourages fundraising (see Handbook 2, 13.6.8) and suggests ALL youth activities, including summer camps where possible, should be covered by ward budget funds.

While we have not been able to cover all the camp fees with budget funds, we continue to use these funds to minimize the financial burden on families. For several years we were able to reduce the family’s cost for summer camps to only $100 per child or youth.

We are happy to announce that we now have a new, and hopefully more equitable, fee schedule for families beginning in 2017, as follows:

                  • $150 per boy for Boy Scout Camp (regularly $305 to $320 per boy)

                  • $75 per child or youth for other camps, including:  Young Women Camp
                                    (reg. $125), High Adventure (reg. $150), Camp Helaman for Priests-age
                                    young men (reg. $170), and Cub Scout Day Camp (reg. $125)

                  • NO FEE for Church-operated summer camps for Primary-age children, including:

                                    Primary Activity Days (girls ages 8-11) and 11-Year-Old Scout Day Camp

The subsidized fees above are good for only one summer camp per youth except young men, ages 16-18, who may also attend Camp Helaman at the reduced $75 fee because of the value we believe this multi-stake camp provides in preparing YM to serve full-time missions.

Non-member families pay the full or regular camp fee, unless there is a financial need.

We appreciate your support of this policy and urge parents to teach their children the importance of earning the reduced share (either $75 or $150) of their summer camp fee.