Stan Walker has asked this his letter to the Board be shared more widely:
To the Board of TJMC-UU,
For the last year, I’ve been giving the best advice I can in matters relating to church finances. Some of my advice has been followed, but the most important piece has so far been rejected. I believe the time has come for the Board to come to terms with the reality of our current situation, and abandon the course that they have been on for the last two years.
In the fiscal year ending in June, 2016, we had a pledge income of over $402,000. For FY 2017, the Board introduced the Program Budget and restricted access to the line-item budget. They also budgeted a $25,000 deficit. After quite a lot of negative feedback about both of those steps, they did reduce the budgeted deficit to $11,000. I still wasn’t happy, even though it was an improvement, and spoke against the proposed budget that year. At that time there were 7 votes against the budget. That year actually ended within a few hundred dollars of the budgeted deficit, but pledge donations were down $31,000 from the prior year.
For FY 2018 there were 35 votes against budget. Five times the number that voted against the FY 17 budget. Preliminary pledge totals from Cathey Polly indicate pledge income for FY 18 was down over $70,000 from 2016.
So, in two years we have collected over $100,000 LESS in pledges than we would have if the 2016 levels had been maintained. While there were some areas of increased revenue this past year, they are nowhere close to making up that difference.
I acknowledge that there have been other issues that have contributed to this trend, but I maintain that what gave a focus to the dissatisfaction within the congregation was the introduction of the Program Budget in concert with much larger deficits. You’ve all heard my arguments before, most recently in my statement sent to the Board for the May 16 meeting, so I won’t repeat them here. I believe that it’s time to recognize that the current path has drastically reduced our income along with sowing a level of discord in the congregation that is unprecedented in my experience.
It is irrelevant what the UUA recommends, or what other churches do. At THIS church, the Program Budget is an abject failure. At THIS church, at THIS time, the deficit is so divisive that it has cost us far more than it was intended to raise.
When I met with Erik back in February, at one point he reminded me that “only” 35 people voted against the FY 18 budget. I pointed out that only 7 had voted against the FY 17 budget. Then I believe my exact words were “This is not a trend you want to continue.” Obviously, it has continued, and the FY 19 proposed budget was rejected.
Whenever I have had any discussion about balancing the budget with a Board member, the response was always that we couldn’t do it without cutting staff expenses. Everything else is already cut to the bone. So, after the initial proposed budget was rejected, the Board decided to ignore that opinion. Instead, you reduced (NOT eliminated) the staff raise, reduced our payment to UUA, made a token gesture of $1000 to those concerned about the state of the building, and then cut $13,000 worth of bone. All of this and the deficit was STILL $19,000. I doubt that would have had any better chance of passing than the earlier budget did.
Given the most recent information from Cathey, the pledge commitment for FY 19 has dropped another $13,500 in just the last month. That raises the newest budget’s deficit to over $30,000. That information also indicates that the pledges are dropping at an even faster rate than before.
The financial trends over the last couple of years are clear, and we most certainly do NOT want them to continue. As Chairman of the Finance Committee, the best advice I can give is that you balance the budget appropriately, and include a full line-item budget by default along with a Program Budget. This will only be a start. There are too many people with too little trust in the Board right now for those steps to be enough. But without them the situation will only get worse.
The numbers are undeniable. You need to decide now which road to take. Continue as you have been, insisting that “it’s the right thing to do” and watch the church crumble around you. Or admit that this experiment has failed, and begin the work of rebuilding what has been lost. The saddest part of all of this for me is that I truly have no idea which choice you will make.
For those of you who think I’m just being too much of a pessimist, I want to leave you with this thought. I honestly believed that the proposed budget was going to pass. I thought it might be close enough to require a recount, but I thought it would pass. I never expected a 2 to 1 “No” vote. The level of disaffection in the church is obviously even worse than I had thought. If anything, I’m being optimistic.
Most Sincerely,
Stan Walker