TO: All Bishops
and Branch Presidents
FROM: The Stake
Presidency, Mount Hood Oregon Stake
Dear Brethren,
Thank you for your faithful service and attention to
spending the Lord’s funds wisely. We apologize for the delay in announcing your
budget allocations for 2018.
As you know, our budget allocation from Church headquarters
is based on sacrament meeting attendance.
We receive for operating expenses $12 per person per quarter based for
each person we record in the Quarterly Report attending sacrament meeting.
SACRAMENT MEETING
ATTENDANCE
Our combined sacrament meeting attendance for our stake has
gone from 1,173 in 2013 to 1,042 in 2017 — roughly a 7% decline in four years.
Some of that can be attributed to move-outs, but the stake’s total membership
has only dropped from 2,821 in Sept. 2013 to 2,730 in Sept. 2017—a 3% decline.
We’ve also had a decline in the percentage of members who
attend sacrament meeting—from 43% in 2013 to 39% in 2017. So the revenue we receive
from Church headquarters has been affected by declining numbers in both
membership totals and percentage of attendance.
Still, thanks to the no-fundraising miracle, our allocation
from Salt Lake City continues to provide all we need—and more!
CHANGES TO YOUR 2018
BUDGET ALLOCATION
In consequence of the above, there will be two changes to
the 2018 allocations:
·
We are raising the share that wards and branches
receive of the total revenue from 50% to 60% in hopes of minimizing the impact declining
allocations may have on your individual budgets in 2018.
·
Your allocation will now fluctuate each quarter
based on your sacrament meeting attendance. In the past you were allocated a
set amount for the entire year then when divided by four you received the same
amount each quarter.
Obviously, that made it easy for you to budget—you knew far
in advance exactly how much to expect in your checking account each quarter. It
will also be easy with the new policy to calculate your next allocation in
advance. Simply take your sacrament meeting attendance and multiply it by $7.20
(60% of the $12/person) and that is what you can expect in the following—not
next—quarterly allocation.
BENEFITS TO WARDS AND
BRANCHES
Because our sacrament meeting attendance is changing enough,
we feel there may be benefits in having each of you monitor the fluctuations in
sacrament meeting attendance and see the impact on your budget allocation more
immediately.
For instance, it may help you:
·
Emphasize with your ward or branch council the
importance of planning and training to improve the quality of sacrament meeting
speakers and music;
·
Ensure your clerks take an accurate count each
Sunday;
·
Give your ward leaders an added reason to invite,
accompany and fellowship investigators and less-active members to sacrament
meeting.
HOW IT WILL AFFECT
YOUR WARD OR BRANCH
In a second email you will receive an attached document with
specific details about your 2018 budget allocation, including:
·
Sacrament meeting attendance totals for your
ward or branch over the past four quarters.
·
Total budget allocation or revenue you actually
received in 2017.
·
Total allocation you would have received in 2017
using the formula from the new 2018 Allocation Policy.
Most of you will notice that the new policy does not dramatically
affect your ward or branch budget. In fact, the difference from the total you
received in 2017 and what you would receive in 2018, if attendance remains the
same, averages less than $250 (for the entire year) across the wards in our
stake. Plus, you will still retain your 2017 surpluses up to 50% of your 2017
allocation.
Even with these adjustments, we still feel strongly that one
of the best uses of these sacred funds is to reduce (and simplify) the
financial burden of youth summer camps on families—as per the Handbook. In
fact, we will announce in January yet another decrease in the family
contribution fees, to be subsidized by 2017 surpluses and our own efforts to
reduce and simplify the 2018 stake budget.
The miracle continues even when we are called on to tighten
our belts.
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