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.