FINANCE COUNCIL REPORT TO PARISHIONERS
By Rita Vogt, Chairperson
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In keeping with the spirit of openness and
transparency that has been adopted by the Finance Council, I have prepared a
mid-year report on what is taking place
within the three areas of the Finance Councils responsibility; Administration
& Finance, Facility Management and Stewardship & Development. For those
of you not familiar with the duties of the Finance Council – very briefly, it
acts as an advisory board to the pastor, makes financial and operational
recommendations and prepares the annual parish budget. For the past year, I have had the pleasure of
being part of a very hardworking and diligent group of individuals who truly
have the best interests of this parish at heart. The Finance Council members,
all volunteers, have been meeting over the past eight months once and sometimes
twice a month for three-four hours at a time; putting all their collective
knowledge and experience together to meet the needs of the parish. The
decisions that we had to make were often painful, but necessary to the fiscal
health of St. Stephens. The Council
consists of two Trustees, Rose Davis and Keith Knight. One secretary Mary Ann
Meloni. Additional members; Rick
Taylor, Anthony Leone, Jim Pennestri, Dan Steinmetz and myself. We wish to thank Fr. Lipinski, our first
administrator who suffered through some really tough meetings with us; and
Fr.Vince, as the new kid on the block who found himself in the middle of more
than one heated discussion. And we
would be remiss if we did not acknowledge at this time, Deacon Ernie and Sr.
Bernadette, who are not voting members but who leant their knowledge and
support. We thank them all for their time, their patience and their input, it
was greatly appreciated. Some of the changes that have taken place
within the parish are as follows: the restructuring of our Music Director’s
position, a financial necessity. And I think you will all agree that our choir
and our musicians continue to do a commendable job in providing us with
beautiful liturgical accompaniment. The second necessary change was the
termination of the parish Bookkeepers position, this was strictly a financial
decision, and there were no improprieties. In place of the bookkeeper we now
have a Certified Public Accountant for a limited eight hours per month. She
handles the payroll, accounts payable and produces various Diocesan accounting
reports. Another position that was recently eliminated
is that of Parish Business Finance Director. Again, this position was no longer
viable and the responsibilities of the Business Manager have been assumed by
the Finance Council. We are in the
process of establishing checks and balances as
well as financial controls for the parish as outlined by the Diocese. These
controls will enable future Finance Council members, to be able to smoothly
transition into vacated posts. We have recently hired a part time Facility
Maintenance Tech. An individual with 30 years experience in construction, both
new and existing. He has assumed the responsibility of making repairs and
addressing all deferred maintenance for the Church, Rectory and the Convent. We
have been extremely fortunate to have Ray Costner join us in this capacity and
if you see him working around the parish grounds, please give him a big
welcome. And finally the fiscal health of St. Stephens
Parish. We have heard for many years now that the parish has been unable to
balance its budget. That has been the primary concern of the Finance Council.
You know that we developed two major fund raisers to address the cash shortfall
we had each year. The 50-50 Raffle which is scheduled to begin April 1st
and the Giant Yard Sale to be held again in October. Last year’s proceeds from
these two events were used to balance the budget and I am happy to report we
were also able to fund a small reserve account, which will be needed to
maintain the parish buildings. Something we have not had for approx. nine
years. We have been in debt to the Diocese for the
same amount of time, nine years, but I am happy to report that we have reduced
our debt by 18 % in the last six months and we continue to make payments each
month. We have finally paid off the balance of the roof loan to the Diocese. In
addition for the first time in years we have a positive cash flow. To date we
have reduced our total parish expenses by 10% with four months remaining in our
fiscal year. And we are so very proud to report, St.
Stephens now has a balanced budget. We hope that you are pleased with the job that
your Finance Council is doing on your behalf. We thank you for your continued
generosity through your dedication to tithing and your support of parish
programs. We also ask that you give serious consideration to becoming involved
with your parish through serving on one of our committees. In closing we ask
for your prayers, that God will continue to guide us to make good decisions. |