United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report

 Sunday, March 3, 2002 - Cincinnati, Ohio

        Sunday’s Council meeting dealt entirely with budgetary matters, both current and proposed.

Budget & Operations – 2001-2002

        Treasurer Tom Kirkpatrick led discussion on the current budget position and its relationship to the Operation Plan. At this point (with the fiscal year roughly 2/3 complete), Mr. Kirkpatrick projects both income and expenses to be just slightly over the $17 million budget in place for the year ending June 30, 2002.

        A few key points he made regarding the current operation were:

• The Church continues to retain the services of Clark, Schaeffer, Hackett and Company as our auditors, and is pleased with their service
• The Texas-based firm of McNeely and McNeely capably manages the Human Resource function for the Church as another outsourced operation
• Mr. Kirkpatrick plans to complete work on the Employees’ handbook during this spring and summer
• One major area of concern is the difficulty still foreseen in obtaining student visas for individuals from international areas to attend the Ambassador Bible Center – Gary Antion and the ABC staff are working with Church legal counsel Larry Darden to try to find a way around the impasse
• A significant trend is the growth in the lists of donors and coworkers being added. Since July 1, 2000, donors have increased 62.6% (from 2,082 to 3,386) and coworkers have increased 82.1% (from 827 to 1,506). While statistically the impact is small (UCGIA members still contribute over 90% of the Church’s income), the trend is most encouraging.

Budget & Operations – 2002-2003

        Mr. Kirkpatrick completed his presentation, with Council members asking questions regarding various details as they moved through the coming fiscal year’s budget in a line by line analysis. Certain particulars required two brief executive session discussions as the Council worked with the treasurer. Some significant changes cooperatively hammered out included:

• Reducing the eastern European subsidy from $8,500 to $4,000 (the higher amount was suggested earlier, but Victor Kubik stated that $4,000 would be sufficient to accomplish the tasks ahead for the next year)
• Reducing the Council of Elders travel budget by $1,500 (Leon Walker stated that his travel is covered by the budget for the Spanish region)
• Reducing the budget for the 2003 General Conference from $129,000 to $85,000, reflecting the Council’s preference for a 2003 GCE similar to those of recent years
• Adding the $50,000 saved by the three changes listed above to the budget for media and communications, to provide for two new hires instead of one – both a home office employee to ease the work load currently on Peter Eddington and Mike Bennett, and a managing editor for Internet operations
• Reducing three new ministerial hires to two, and using the money from the third hire to cover costs of the proposed Ministerial Candidate program if approved
• Reducing the executive reserve (budgeted for unforeseen needs that arise during the course of a budget year) from $280,000 to $230,000, and placing the $50,000 into an account item for local church buildings as required by a December 2001 Council resolution.

        At the end of the day’s meeting, the Council indicated its intent to approve the administration’s $18,240,000 budget proposal for fiscal 2002-2003, in the amended form they agreed upon. The official proposal will be made in Monday’s session and balloted on at that time, giving the Council members time to carefully reflect on the entire day’s lengthy considerations..

-Doug Johnson

© 2002 United Church of God, an International Association