Congregational Meeting Information

Change of Fiscal Year
The financial committee with support of the church council has decided to change the church fiscal year from January – December to July –June. Listed are the primary reasons:

• The church has three major revenue sources: member contributions, rentals and preschool. By May, the preschool has a solid projection of what the enrollment will be for the new preschool year which begins in fall. The change of fiscal year allows the church council to more accurately create the preschool budget in June as opposed to creating the budget in December when enrollment is only a projection.
• Currently, the finance committee and council are required to create a budget in November and December as the current year is coming to a close. This is a very busy season with Thanksgiving and Christmas. A July to June fiscal year allows budgeting to occur in May and June, a much less busy time of year in the church.
• Currently, the annual budget is approved (at the annual meeting) in late January or February for the fiscal year. This is 4 to 6 weeks after the fiscal year has begun. This causes extra work for the bookkeeper and is not a good practice to approve a budget so late. With a July to June fiscal year, the annual meeting/budget approval could be held in late June, prior to the beginning of the fiscal year.

The plan is to make this change effective July 1. Thus, we are in the process of making a new budget. We don’t anticipate major changes from our current budget. We will present the budget to the congregation on June 20 and have a congregational meeting after church on June 27 to approve the new budget.

Change of Stewardship Year
As mentioned above, member contributions are a major revenue source for the church. Our past stewardship season has been in the fall and members pledge’s are in effect from January to December. With the change of the fiscal year, the church council requests that members continue with their current pledge through June of 2011 (as opposed to December of 2010). Our next stewardship season will be in May of next year. Our stewardship to the church is an essential piece of our relationship with God and our community. We pray that these changes will best serve the work of the Lord.
Please contact Steve Kilgore, Chris Rutter or Suzanne Harris if you have any questions or concerns regarding these changes.