Accotink Unitarian Universalist Church

Congregational Meeting Minutes
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008

A congregational meeting of Accotink Unitarian Universalist Church was convened at 11:40 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008, following the morning service. Accotink UUC President Doug McCusker called the meeting to order to discuss adopting a budget for 2009.

With a current membership of 196, we required a quorum of 20%, or a count of 40, to conduct business. Judy Robison, Board secretary, declared we had 80 members checked in as present or represented with proxies. (The final count by the end of the meeting was 83.)

Ed Cochrane, Finance Committee Chair, reviewed the pledge results to-date. There were some members who hadn’t pledge yet, but those who had have raised their pledges by an average of 5%, he said. In any budget, we allow for pledges from new members but also allow for pledges that are made but not fully paid. So far, he said, we are working with a pledge base of $210,528, and a current pledge commitment of $193,292. The 2009 requirement for a balanced budget would be at least $218,100, after some initiatives were cut, leaving about $24,808 that we need as additional income.

Doug said that 2008 is the second year in a row that we have had a deficit, forcing us to dip into our reserves. Most of our expenses are non-discretionary, such as staffing and overhead, including the mortgage, maintenance and utilities. Programming expenditures by committees is only 3% of the budget. Most of our income, 77%, comes from pledges/contributions, and 16% comes from rentals. About 5% comes from fundraising, and we did not have a major fundraiser this year. Some possible cuts could come from merit pay/COLA given to staff, scaling down the installation for the new minister (set for March 29), eliminating the recycling service or holding off on other proposed initiatives.

Dean Wanderer, the AUUC Financial Advisor, reminded the congregation that we are paying for services that we used to do ourselves, such as the janitorial service and recycling. If we don’t have the volunteers to help with these services in-house, then we should raise our pledges to help cover this.

The congregation was given three alternatives to consider:

1. To adopt the alternative budget that would take us into the new year and then extend the pledge drive to encourage everyone to pledge and perhaps raise their pledges. (We would need an average of $150 more per pledging unit to balance this budget.) The Board would then assess the pledge results at the BOT meeting in February and take the necessary action to achieve a balanced budget.
   
   
2. To accept the current pledge amounts and live with $195,000, making the necessary budget cuts.
   
   
3. To live with the deficit and further dip into the reserves.

Pete Russell moved that we adopt the first proposal, to accept the alternative budget and extend the pledge drive, then allow the Board to reassess in two months. Marsha White seconded; motion carried by a vote of 79 in favor, no opposed, 2 abstentions.

Doug thanked everyone for attending this meeting. We adjourned at 12:25 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Robison, BOT Secretary