1. If campus ministry is budgeted the same this year as last year, but we have been told that there will still be no program money disbursed to campus ministry, is this due to the lower amount paid of apportionments or what?
Yes, unfortunately, campus ministry was paid in 2010 at both a lower percentage and cash amount. In 2009, $ 505,537 was paid at a rate of 81.8% and in 2010 $ 495,371 was paid at a rate of 80.1%. The overall Conference budget decreased from 2009 to 2010. During the past 10 years the lowest year of percentage payment for campus ministry was in 2004 at a rate of 74.8% and the highest was in 2007 at a rate of 84.9%. Budgets cannot continue to be disbursed at rates higher than received because our Annual Conference has very limited reserves. In the future, the Conference and its agencies need to find creative methods of financing.
2. Did not the amount for Equitable Comp and Congregational Development actually decrease? Rev McDowell said increase.
No, Equitable Comp decreased from 2011 to the 2012 request at a percentage of 25.5%. No raises on the equitable compensation scale were recommended for 2012 and fewer new churches have been started in recent years decreasing requests. The request for Congregational Development decreased 5.9% during the same time period.
3. Why do we support SMC and no other UM colleges?
The Annual Conference supports SMC, Wofford, Columbia and Claflin. The last three receive funds from the Senior College Scholarships apportionment and Claflin receives additional funds from the Black College Fund. Spartanburg Methodist has an unique history and mission to serve the children of disadvantaged persons.
4. Understanding that General Conference Administration and the Episcopal Fund are general apportionments. What is the purpose of the increases?
All General Conference apportionments are voted on every four years during the session of that Conference which meets next in 2012. The Annual Conferences receive these funds directly from General Conference which is the only body which can adjust such requests. The result of these increases may be attributable to insurance and personnel costs which are impacting many budgets of all organizations. The SC Conference remits to the General Conference only the amounts which are received from the local churches for these funds.
5. Where are the explanations for funds which are increasing?
Overall, the total budget requests for 2012 are declining. District Administration is increasing somewhat to address needed repairs for the various district office buildings and parsonages which now have quite a bit of age on them. These are needed and required maintenance matters and repairs. It is more prudent to budget these increased needs in advance rather than being faced with finding funds out of limited reserves when emergencies take place.
6. What is "equitable compensation?"
These are salary support funds for churches in a variety of situations including new church starts, rural areas, economically deprived locations and ethnic minority population concentrations. Equitable Compensation assists greatly in establishing and maintaining ministry in creative ways which support for clergy leadership is not immediately present. The report of this Commission is included in the Pre-Conference materials for everyone’s review and approval.
7. Is there a listing of our investments? Where is it? Or how can we get the list?
The Office of the Treasurer maintains, invests and records all such investments of the Annual Conference with great attention to detail and following all the guidelines of the Book of Discipline and the Conference Council on Finance and Administration. Please contact our Treasurer, Tony Prestipino at aprestipino@umc.sc.org and he will be glad to forward a copy to any Annual Conference member or call him at the United Methodist Center at 1-888-678-6272.
8. How will this budget decrease affect the benefits of the Conference employees?
Annual Conference employees have received no real overall pay raises in five years. The one year in which there was raise, that amount was more than consumed by increases in health insurance. The vitality of the Conference staff is of great concern to the Council on Finance and Administration. Yet, this must also be balanced by the ability of the local congregations to conduct effective ministry as well. Funds need to be freed to other areas of the Conference budget to fairly and in a Christ-like way support the work and devotion of all our Annual Conference employees.
9. If you are trying to sweat down to 15%, what percentage are we currently at?
This percentage is gleaned from the total average net funds of all congregations in the South Carolina Annual Conference. These average net funds are calculated from the annual reports of the local churches and do not include monies raised for missions, apportionment giving or major capital/building projects. In the year 2000, this percentage was 20.51%. In 2012, the percentage is 17.23%. The highest year since 20009 was 2006 at a rate of 24.41% and the lowest is the year 2012. It is the Council on Finance and Administration’s great desire to set a budget in a way that is clear, fair and as sustainable in the long run for the local congregations of South Carolina United Methodism.
10. What is the # of delegates to be elected?
There will be 9 Lay and Clergy delegates for each General and Jurisdictional Conference.
11. Why is there an increase in Methodist Center Trustees?
The increase is primarily due to rising utility, maintenance and general operations cost.
12. Why is district administration responsible to cover the apportionment shortfalls?
In the video there is a reference that we are increasing the District Administration line item so that we don’t have to go to the contingency to cover apportionment shortfalls. All fixed cost of the conference must be met which includes that years items such as salary, benefits, and a minimal level of office operations. District Administration covers fixed cost such as the District Superintendent benefits and some of the cost for operating the District Offices, of which we primarily use to pay the District Secretary. Over the last few years there has been some funds held in balance to cover increased costs (primarily health insurance). In 2012 we are projecting that the carryover balance will not be able to cover all shortfalls and benefit increases. If we don’t receive 100% of these line items then we will likely have a shortfall in the fund, which means we would then have to use money from the contingency to cover the shortfall. The increase in that line is to balance increasing cost and receipts on apportionments.
13. Does each Annual Conference make recommendations for General Conference budgets?
No, however, the delegates to General Conference vote on the budget for the following four years. The actual recommendations for the General Conference Budget come from the various Boards and Commissions of the General Conference through the General Council on Finance and Administration for the delegated to approve. In addition the individuals elected from South Carolina onto General Agencies boards assist in preparing and approving that agency’s budget.
14. Report #3 Contingency Fund: What administrative items are included in this fund?
The actual items are discussed in CFA report 5 Items 10 – 13, however, in general it is the fixed personnel and operations cost of the Conference.
15. Considering that the delegate assembly of several hundred delegates has jurisdiction over a $17 million budget, plus approval of other resolutions, AND that the Standing Rules of Order require that the Annual Conference reports be distributed to the delegates 4 weeks prior to the Annual Conference so that they have ample time to review and digest the reports and resolutions, why, with the exception of saving some postage costs, would the Administrative cabinet not distribute the Conference packets directly to the delegates in the mandated time frame?
With changing economics and technology it is the conferences goal to utilize some new resources or redeploy existing resources to become more efficient and better stewards. That was the main concept behind giving the District Superintendents the pre-conference reports to distribute in their districts. The District Superintendents are generally in Columbia on a regular basis and it seemed that we could potentially be as efficient and save some money by handing out the printed copies than mailing them. The reason this was becoming an issue is because certain Districts have their bulk mail handled outside of the Columbia area which we were noticing delayed the mail. So while we would mail it as early as possible out it was taking three weeks to reach its recipient in certain areas of the State. Last year we distributed the pre-conference materials in three districts in the manner we used for all districts this year with few problems. In addition, the pre-conference material was electronically distributed two months ahead of conference by being posted online at www.umcsc.org. We felt that through both means that the material would reach everyone with adequate time to review the material. As always, we will evaluate that method and listen to any feedback.
16. The largest budget percentage item increase is the 7.9% in the Episcopal Fund, which covers the costs of the Bishop's salary and benefits. What are the line item appropriations for the projected 2012 Bishop's Salary? What are the individual fringe benefits for housing allowances, travel, health insurance, and retirement benefits?
The South Carolina Conference doses not set nor maintain the salary and benefits for the Bishops. This line is a connectional giving line and the funds requested are used to support all episcopal services and offices across the church and not just in South Carolina. The reason for the increase is due to our share of the Episcopal budget as approved by the 2008 General Conference. Similar to how we calculate apportionments for all local churches, line items 13 – 20 in report 1 are apportioned to the South Carolina Annual Conference from the General Council on Finance and Administration. All these items are based on budget that the General Conference approved in 2008 and allocated on a yearly basis to the Annual Conferences.
17.At the Annual Conference registration in June, can the delegates be provided with a complete summary of all the questions and answers that were submitted by the delegates at the twelve Pre-Annual Conference Training Sessions?
We will only have the material up on the website.
18.What does the 15% goal seek to provide?
The 15% goal is an effort by CF&A to provide clarity into the budgeting process. In addition it is a way in which the budget of the Annual Conference will be directly tied to health and economics of the local churches.
19. Page 2 Why are staff housing allowances increasing?
Staff housing allowances are increasing primarily due to a congregational specialist changing their status from a lay employee to clergy. This increase is offset by a decrease in Social Security and Medicare taxes that are no longer paid by the Conference. Overall the Operations Budget in Report 2 is showing a decrease.
20. Do you believe it would be better to base apportionments on what churches are willing to "give" rather than on net funds?
No
21. How is Direct Billing calculated for specific churches? I am confused doesn’t seem to answer the question.
Direct Billing for a local church is broken down in the Board of Pension and Health Benefits Report or can be calculated for calendar year 2011 using the direct billing calculator at http://www.umcsc.org/data/crsp_calculator2011.php. It is calculated based on the clergy status, the salary, and the clergy’s selection of health benefits. Note that the amounts for direct billing are due from the Charge. If a Charge has multiple churches it is up to that charge how the invoices will be split.
22. Why is archives and history increasing 15.6% and 172.7%?
Archives and History is increasing from last year approved amount of $1,100 to $3,000 recommended amount for 2012 due to a declining carryover balance from 2009 to 2010, meaning they had fewer funds they haven’t spent. CF&A tried to balance their request of $8,250 with how much unspent funds they have, and the likely programing needs for 2012.
23. Does salary of top staff equal that of DS's?
As a matter of practice CFA doesn’t discuss particular individuals, but as a matter of practice for the last several years the DS salary is the ceiling for Conference employees.
24. Why was 15% picked as the benchmark?
The 15% benchmark was picked based on CF&As review of the trend of apportionments as a percentage of average net funds (i.e. the four year average of the sum of lines 53 – 62 on Table 2), and the request from many individuals to show some sort of decrease.
25. If there are churches that are not paying apportionments-what can be done to help those churches carry their load?
This is really a case by case basis. CFA would encourage churches with finical difficulties to discuss those issues in an open and honest manner with their District Superintendent.
26. Rev. John Culp has proposed a reduction in the number of districts.
Has CF&A developed projections on the savings this would mean from the SC Conference?
To date CF&A has not completed any projections. This is mainly due to Rev. Culp’s resolution requesting a study committee. If the resolution is passed, CF&A felt it would be better at that time to complete any studies.
27. What reduction(s) in cost in treasurer's office are projected? Was an additional staff person employed since 2010? Why or why not?
The reductions in the treasurer’s office are from lower projected cost for some audit related fees, system maintenance, and general office equipment. For 2011 the budget includes an additional staff person, however, due to apportionment receipts to date and current demands on the contingency fund CF&A and the Treasurer has delayed filling the position.
28. CF&A page 8 under fix assets 30220 Equity on loan. Where is the equality loan?
This relates to the addition to the Conference offices around 2003. At that time debt was secured on the building, which was repaid by the local churches. The accounting for the loan repayments and receipts from churches was booked through the income statement, which required some correcting entries so that assets, liabilities and equity balanced. Those correcting entries were booked to this account. The account really shows what was repaid against the debt.
29. Is the Campus Ministry Fund going to be transferred again to salaries and eliminated again this fall?
The Campus Ministry line item handles two items: salary/benefits for the campus ministers and programing funds. In 2010, we ran projections and noticed that the fund would likely have a shortfall based on apportionment receipts; meaning that all the planned expenditures could not be met by planned receipts. Therefore, programing for the campus ministries was suspended until the end of the year so that the fixed cost of the campus ministers’ salary and benefits could be met. The conference does not guarantee that programing funds will be at 100%. In doing so we were able to make sure there were funds to pay the salaries. We did not eliminate Campus Ministry Funding and transferred it to salaries; we instead made sure that the salary portion of that fund could be met without have to use funds from the contingency fund. If the fund continues to receive 80% - 83% on apportionments it is likely there will be very little funds left for programing.
30. If churches are struggling is it warranted that we increase campus ministries?
The request recommended by CF&A for Campus Ministries is the same as last year and shows no increase. The requested column shows what the Board who operates the line items requested from CF&A, however, the recommended column is what CF&A recommends to the Annual Conference for the 2012 budget.
31. Report 6 if a church pays all asking in one year would it be asking show up in the apportionments the next years?
Yes, until the Jurisdiction stops the request it will be a reoccurring item we request from churches.
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. The People of The United Methodist Church.
