Budget Meeting Follow-ups
- David Horst
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Fourteen members attended one of our two budget review meetings last week. We had a good discussion and were able to answer most questions. Thanks to all who took the time to participate! Below are the questions which required some further clarification. Some suggestions were also received. You can find the budget summary here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/146SL6APpblUG15FfrAS9eyuNGmAWRMBf
Questions
Where did the $1000 for outreach go?
The outreach funds in 2025/6 went to the Morristown on the Green day and to one-time expenditures in support of the recent website upgrades. The website costs were one-time and the Morristown on Green cost was moved to a different budget line.
What was the reason for the Other (including interest) income coming in lower this year?
The line for other income includes Matching Gifts. The families that in prior years did matching gifts, did not do so this year.
How much of an increase in custodial hours came with the Gateways project (exclusive of rental support)?
The increase in rental hours is approximately 3 hours per week -- sometimes 4. This does not include any non-recurring rentals or special events such as In Gathering, Annual Picnic, etc. Custodial costs for these are paid by the renter.
Could we have a high-level breakdown of salaries?
It is our policy to keep salaries confidential. We follow the UUA Salary guidelines which can be found here: https://www.uua.org/leaderlab/congregational-salary. Those guidelines provide us with market-based benchmarks for salaries. Jobs are categorized according to impact, responsibilities, and skills rather than simply by title. Churches are categorized by membership and geographic location/ cost of living. For support functions like custodial positions, we also look to living wage information for our region as recommended by the UUA. Over the recent years, we have made a lot of progress in bringing our salaries into alignment with these standards. We fall into Geo index 6 and between congregation size levels B and C.
What is the 2026-2027 allocation for the Fun committee?
Fun receives $600, is categorized as Stewardship, and is part of Congregational Life in the budget summary.
Where does welcoming fit into the summary and what is the amount it receives?
Welcoming is categorized the same as Fun and receives the following allocations for this year: New member gifts $200, Welcome events $300, Pamphlets $100.
Suggestions
It might be helpful to add projected pledge units to the pledge units received as of communication date.
The projected pledge dollars are included in the budget. Projecting units is difficult, as at the time the budget is published, most of our established pledgers have pledged. The newer pledgers are more difficult to predict. We track pledge units and will have the correct number early in the year.
Members departed vs members incoming would be useful information. I.e. More detail than just net value.
This is not part of the budget process. Perhaps membership would be interested in providing this type of detail.
Consider widening the list of people to reach out with pledge reminders.
Pledge requests were sent to 180 pledge units. This includes all members and active visitors and friends. The board members make calls to members whose pledges have not been received as a reminder. This seems to be effective. It would be up to Stewardship to widen the list of callers if they want.
Consider providing a “Basis of Presentation” section to the report that would specify how certain figures were derived. E.g. pledge income projection, pledge units projection, prior year adjustments, etc. Aim for standardization in reporting format.
This year, the Finance committee made adjustments to the report format based on feedback from the congregation. We remain open to suggestions but would also aim to land on a standardized format. We’ll discuss it at our next meeting. It should be noted that our administrator/accountant, Katy Julich, is a constant over many different changes in lay leadership.
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