January 2017

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Christ Church Christiana Hundred Finance Committee Meeting January 26, 2017 The meeting was called to order at 6:07 PM by Rob Friz. Finance Committee members in attendance: Luke Mette, Jim Kermes, Marissa Stipa, Rob Friz (Chair), Andy Kosinski (Finance Manager), Troy Silliman, Fred Moran, Hardy Drane, Mark Parsells (Treasurer), Joe Zakielarz (Senior Warden), and Ruth Beresford (Rector). Absent: None. Rob opened the meeting with prayer. Committee membership update: Per the Vestry rotations, Fred Moran is coming on the committee, and Beth Falkner is rolling off. Rob thanked Beth for her valuable contributions and dedicated service to the committee and welcomed Fred. Fred, a long-standing member and servant of the Church, will bring a wealth of valued insight, knowledge, and experience to the committee from his roles as Vestry member, Personnel Committee member, and Preschool Founding member. In addition, he also brings 28 years of non-profit accounting and management expertise, mostly in independent schools. The minutes of the December 5, 2016 meeting were reviewed. A motion was made to accept them as written, and it was passed by the committee. Treasurer’s Report: Mark submitted a report that year-to-date parish giving ended at 1.6% more than last year. The Committee’s concern from last month by their call out to the Parish to help reduce the more than $334K pledge outstanding balance at the beginning of December was answered as $294K of pledges were collected. On top of that, $37K of advance 2017 pledge contributions was collected as well. Overall, $1,398,951 of total income was collected in 2016, which consisted of $1,192,721 pledge, $51,735 over-given, $133,910 non-pledge, and $20,585 prior-year pledge. There remained approximately $40,545 of unfulfilled pledge balance at December 31, 2016. A letter will go out to those parishioners asking that they please fulfill their 2016 pledge balance. All pledge dollars received toward 2016 pledges moving forward will be counted in our prior-year pledge line in 2017. The report was unanimously approved. In addition, the report will be shared with the Vestry. Stewardship Report: Andy reviewed with the committee the latest report summary of the 2017 Stewardship Program. Income estimates for 2017 are $1,427,193, which consist of $1,212,569 pledge, $100,000 non-pledge, and $114,624 yet to pledge. With respect to the $1,212,569 of pledge, this was made up from 454 pledges received, broken down as follows: 42.29% or 192 were unchanged, 34.36% or 156 were increase, 11.89% or 54 were decrease, and 11.45% or 52 were new. There are 69 households who have yet to pledge, which are made up of those who pledged in 2016, many of which paid pledges in 2016 but have not yet committed to pledge for 2017. Finance Manager’s Report: Andy reviewed the 2016 actual results of operations with the committee. There are many income line items that make up the Church’s $2.1M Budget, with the largest component coming from Pledge giving of $1.4M. Other line items are Endowment

$390K, Preschool common area costs allocation $120K, and Outreach pass-through’s $109K, i.e. Green Show, UTO, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Conversely, on the expense side, there are line items going out for Parish Programs $203K, Outreach $414K, Administration $1.3M, and Buildings and Property $205K. In follow-up to last month’s concern by the committee of the possibility of there being a year-end deficit of between $40K to $50K, the actual deficit ended up being $6K instead, after the diligent actions of both the Finance Committee and Rector working together to utilize the options at their disposal to reduce the deficit from $48K to $6K for the year ending December 31, 2016. Budget Update: Ruth led a discussion on the Vestry Approved Budget for 2017. Some of the highlights: A new priest for Amy’s departure is a priority item that she expects to be filled shortly. Cuts made to bring in the third clergy were letting a sexton member go at the end of January, reducing the Music Program by an additional $5K, and making other various reductions throughout the remaining Program Ministries to support a third clergy position. In Outreach, the United Nations Millennial Development Goals line item was eliminated, while $3K was reallocated to Undesignated Outreach agencies. In addition, Theological Education and Clergy Discretionary Fund line items were reduced as well. Parish giving was increased by $25K, from $1.427M to $1.452M. There was a renewed commitment to fund $60K to Buildings and Grounds capital projects fund. Lastly, the common area cost allocation for the Preschool will be reexamined, and redone so that it reflects fairly those costs as per the standards and guidelines issued by the National Association of Episcopal Schools (NAES). Other Business: Rob handed out the Finance Committee Charter to members for their review, information, and reference. Second, an updated timeline was provided for the remainder of the Committee meeting schedule for 2017, with the request that members please review the revised schedule for possible conflicts and to return to him with suggested changes, which he will hand out at next month’s meeting. Third, Luke submitted to the committee that the start time for Finance Committee meetings be changed from 6 to 7 PM. The members agreed to change the start time of meetings to 7 PM, commencing with next month’s meeting. Fourth, the members agreed to take turns leading the committee members giving its opening and closing meeting prayers. Lastly, there will be a meeting with the Preschool on Tuesday, February 7 at 7 PM to start discussions on reexamining the common area costs allocation as per the standards and guidelines of the NAES. Ruth closed with prayer. She also asked members to please keep Bishop Wayne Wright in their prayers, as 19 years of dedicated service to the Diocese comes to a close and his new life begins. The meeting adjourned at 7:10 PM. The next meeting will be Thursday, February 22 at 7 PM. Respectfully submitted, Andrew E. Kosinski