Dear Unity Church of North Easton Members and Friends,

The members of Unity Church voted at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, May 20, 2012 that the Finance Committee would hold three open meetings at which members of the church could help formulate a plan to bring our aspirations in line with our budget constraints.

The first two meetings will be held on Wednesday, June 27 (Note NEW DATE) and Wednesday, July 11. The Finance Committee intends for these discussions to provide an open-ended opportunity to explore the ministries of the church and the budget constraints under which we must proceed.

At the final meeting on Thursday, August 2 we will recap the prior discussions and try to formulate a sense of the congregation to present to the Executive Committee for further deliberation and action.

Each meeting will be from 7:15 PM to 9:15 PM in the Chaffin Room.

Important: Childcare will be available for these 3 meetings, if needed. Arrangements will be made for child care either at the church or in your home. If you need child care, please contact Cheryl Brigante at 508-409-8386 or cherylbrigante@hotmail.com no later than the Mondays prior to the meetings.     

The following were the five themes which emerged from the budget review meeting held on Tuesday May 15, 2012 prior to the Annual Meeting:

• nearly universal support for continuing to support the Lifespan Religious Education Committee (LREC) and the Religious Education Coordinator position at the current levels and
• to  continue church office and sexton positions at or near current levels to maintain basic support functions for the church.
• making an appeal for increased pledging (most members present felt this was unlikely to generate a significant sum)
• to cease temporarily paying UUA and BCD dues and ask members to make individual contributions
• to re-examine the goal of a full-time minister given the overall cost (currently $81,000) which is well over half the budget. The discussions primarily centered around funding a half- to three-quarter time minister for FY 2012-13 and beyond until we can comfortably improve the fundraising bar to allow the return to full-time ministry.

The projected budget deficits will nearly exhaust the church's checking account by the end of FY 2012 - 2013 leaving only a CD worth $18,000 to support the church. We are starting the FY 2012 - 2013 budget year next month and we are currently on track for the worst case scenario. We need a definitive plan very soon to be able to have our expenses meet our projected income during the coming year.

I have appended below the budget highlights as discussed at the Annual Meeting. As we near year end, little has changed in any of our projections.

Several years ago the congregation voted to pursue several lofty goals:

• Hire and support a full-time minister.
• Fund a robust religious education program with a part-time salaried coordinator
• Become a fair share congregation (pay the UUA and BCD for all voting members of the congregation)

Since then:

• While cost to fund all these endeavors increased significantly, primary stewardship pledge revenue (about 93% of total revenue) has declined steadily for the last 3 years, approximately $10,000 per year.
• The number of folks pledging to support the church decreased by 4 this year and the number of voting members has declined (anecdotally)
• Fundraising activities historically provide only 7% or so of the revenue of the church and have also been declining, significantly.

Year Ending June 30, 2012 significant items:

• Pledge revenue received was about $10,000 less than the prior year and fundraising revenue was about $3,000 below budget as well.
• We project a net loss of about $6,000, which will come out of savings.
• The collection of an additional $15,000 of pledges for FY 2011 - 2012 will continue into the first half of FY 2012 - 2013.
• Utilities and snowplowing were $7,000 less than normal (not likely to happen again in coming years) and had they been "usual" the deficit would have been $13,000.

Forecast for next fiscal year (July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013)

• Projected pledge revenue will be $10,000 less than FY 2011-2012.
• Fundraising is projected to be less than half of FY 2011-2012 (currently there are no major scheduled fund raising activities)
• Church rentals have declined.
• Expenses have been pared down consistent with previously established core goals of the congregation as listed above.
• The projected deficit is still approximately $24,000.

The current deficit of $7,000 and next year's budget deficit of $24,000 would leave less than $5,000 in our checking account at the end of FY 2012 - 2013. The remaining CD worth $18,000 would not fund another year's deficit and leave any margin of safety for unexpected operating shortfalls or emergencies.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Michael Achey at mdamd@aol.com, or Chris Pender at 508-238-9181 or cbpender@comcast.net. 

Thank You,

Unity Church Finance Committee and Executive Committee

Find us at:  www.unity-church.com