Thank you, Dr. Doug, for pointing this out. As you suggest, maybe we would be more accurate in saying, “As we follow the intent of the Church Handbook” which notes on several occasions that “Stake and ward budget funds should be used to pay for all activities, programs, and supplies” (13.2.8). Only when there are not enough budget funds, Church leaders are authorized to turn to families for summer camps...and then, if that is not enough, fundraising is allowed. So fundraising should be the last resort.
Interestingly, even without fundraising, almost all the wards in our stake consistently, over the past 6-7 years, have had lots of funds at the end of each year—sometimes as much as $2,000-$3,000 surplus. When we consistently have surpluses like that then we’re not justified in fundraising. That’s what was happening, bishoprics and youth leaders were assuming they wouldn’t have enough money at the end of the year so they turned to fundraising, but it later became obvious there were plenty of budget funds along with family contributions ($50-$100) to cover all summer camp costs.
Maybe the best solution is to avoid any reference to the Handbook. I’ll update the letter accordingly.
Thanks again for sharing your concern.
PrL
P.S. As all of you have seen (in our desire to be totally transparent), we have an annual stake budget of about $38,000 and $30,000 is earmarked for youth/children summer camps. That’s 78% of our annual budget. So we appreciate you budgeting and spending wisely when planning summer camps in our stake. We also appreciate you staying within budget so we don’t have to charge families more or, as a last resort, fundraise.
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