I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July. It is hard to believe we are already halfway through summer. I imagine you are gearing up for the fall programming. As you plan for fall, stewardship should be a priority. The treasurer's tip has resources available to help.

The assistant treasurer, Rosa Feeney, is on a well-earned, extended vacation to Europe until August 8. Diana Rubi and I are available to help with any questions you might have. 

Now is the time to start your stewardship planning if you have not already done so. The diocese has a membership with The Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS) which is an organization that provides stewardship resources. Their web address is www.tens.org. The diocesan user name "living" and the password is "generously". We encourage you to login today and use these resources.

Summers are often a difficult time for a church's cash flow. One way that you can make a positive difference is to ask Church Pension Group to change your billing from quarterly to monthly. Since quarterly payments are made in advance, switching to monthly will smooth your cash flow and make payments more closely align with the actual period in which the pension is earned. A few of our churches have taken advantage of this opportunity but many of you have not. To make this change, contact Church Pension Group Client Services: benefits@cpg.org 

Voters passed a proposition in June raising the minimum wage to $10.50 per hour and requiring all employees to receive a minimum of five days of sick leave per year. Note that the sick time accrual must carry over to subsequent years. Read the proposition.

Congregations not up to date on their Common Life Share payments, or who have reduced their pledge to less than 10% are required to submit a waiver request in order to have voice and vote at diocesan convention. Waiver requests are due October 7.