I will post here a quick summary, and a copy of an important chart or table, of each blog in this series. I hope it will provide a coherent narrative in the various articles. The "Blog Number" and the "Title" are hot-links and if the summary strikes you as interesting, then you can hop to it by touching it.
This piece lays out the "why" I am doing this. Quite simply, I believe we are not telling the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Methodist Church what is going on with a significant amount of our resources. I do not see this as fraud.
Here are three important thoughts from the Getting Started blog:
- My "so that" is "so that the churches in the Rocky Mountain Conference are better informed on financial matters."
- I believe if that "so that" is accomplished, trust will be enhanced.
- I quite simply 'conscientiously object' to the way we are currently (June, 2017) sharing information.
There are many ways to potentially measure vitality. But traditional means do focus on least Worship Attendance. We have lost 10,000 in Average Worship Attendance since 2001. I frankly consider that an incredible loss given our near total dialogue over that issue over the past four/five years.
I offer that a primary cause of this decline is the failure to continue to start new local churches. We did fairly well here into the 1980s but at some point, we slowed and we are now paying the price for this.
What does this have to do with money? What is our mission again?
The chart to the left is investments and cash available to the RMC. There are multiple sources for these funds, but the primary issue is how much money we have -- which is nearly $13 Million and how it has grown over the last sixteen years.
The chart on Blog 3 is the sum of all of the various elements of investments and cash that are in the possession of the RMC. This chart is that which is earmarked to Health Funding issues. Most of this came to be present for this investment by virtue of rebates on health premiums from Wespath in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Another portion of it was overpayments from local churches for Active Clergy Health Premiums that was paid in 2012 through 2014.
The Rocky Mountain Conference income is more than the budget. The budgeted (Connectional Giving) is about $5.4 M from local churches. However, there is another $10 M that comes in to support our obligations for health, buildings and pension.
This is money which does not have an "owner" designated. The chart to the left shows red (losses) and blue (positive). The losses are bookkeeping and reflect what must be made up should the owners of the designated funds ask for their money. In effect, the red represents a loan we have given to ourselves.
The blue numbers are another matter entirely. They show resources which have not been designated as having a home. To the best of my knowledge, this is real money and represents potential funds for investment elsewhere. When we combine this with resources in a designated account for Conference reserve, we have about $1,500,000 ($1.5M) in cash/investments that are in effect "reserves." Since 2008, this "account" has gone up right at $2,000,000 ($2.0M).
Blog Number 7 -- Unfunded Liability for Retiree Health Care
We have currently one Unfunded Liability in the area of health and retirement. The one we have is Retiree Health.
This blog attempts to lay out in clear text what this liability is all about, and some insight into how it came about.
Topics I am working on are:
Blog Number 7 -- Unfunded Liability for Retiree Health Care
We have currently one Unfunded Liability in the area of health and retirement. The one we have is Retiree Health.
This blog attempts to lay out in clear text what this liability is all about, and some insight into how it came about.
Topics I am working on are:
- Reducing a cost in the budget, doesn't reduce the budget.
- My problems with the Retiree Health Care Unfunded Liability
- Some Budget Issues as well ... some issues here as well.
- We do have a potential Unfunded Liability in Clergy Retirement.
- Pre-82 Thoughts.
- Anxiety versus Urgency
- Petition versus SROP -- I vote Petition ...
Two blogs that provide some background but are not yet part of this narrative are:
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