Executive Committee Minutes: December 16, 2019

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Executive Committee Minutes FINAL

December 16, 2019 (6:00 p.m.)

Madison Campus – Pr. Chris’ office

 

 

Attendance – Andrew Seaborg (President), Tom Golden (VP), Wade Huseth (Treas.), Sara McCormack (Sec.), Pr. Chris Enstad.  Guest – Bob Beggs

 

Andrew called the meeting to order at 6:01.

Rick went through a power point presentation of the preliminary 2020 budget.  The good news is that Beyond…. pledges are now at $2,016k.  Unfortunately, the current general fund intentions for 2020 are only $1,104k vs. $1,391.5k in 2019.  This reduction could be attributed to the RIC vote and to a major donor shifting a pledge from the general fund to Beyond….

Rick offered several formulas for estimating where the 2020 intentions would be on 12/31/19.  Based on these, he believes we’ll end up at $1,487k in 2020 intentions, plus $111k from the Nemec estate, revenue from Little Blessings, and a few other small revenue sources.  This totals $1,972k for 2020 revenue.

A flat 2020 expense budget would be $2,220k, including a 2.8% staff raise.

We discussed a variety of ways to bridge this gap, either by increasing revenue or decreasing expenses.  It was agreed that we do not want to operate a deficit budget.  Rick has identified $120k in budget cuts that can be made without cutting staff, by cutting a Verona music director, synod contributions, staff raises and all continuing education.

Other ideas, such as mortgage amortization and a six-month budget, were also discussed.

Andrew wants us to think strategically for the long term and make cuts in a more planned fashion.  And, we need to be transparent in communicating to the congregation.

There was discussion of having the board consider changing the fiscal year to line up with our program year instead of the calendar year.  A number of churches are going to this model of a July through June fiscal year.

• Programs are funded for an entire year, instead of being split over two budget years.
• It relieves time pressure on the pastors and staff during Advent by moving the budgeting process to summer.

The general consensus of the group is that this would be a positive move, but more information would be needed, including what month to do a stewardship campaign.

Respectfully submitted,

Sara McCormack

Secretary

 

Good Shepherd Mission: In response to God’s love and grace we…Welcome as we have been welcomed, forgive as we have been forgiven, serve as we have been served.

Good Shepherd’s Vision:  By the grace of God and the love of Jesus Christ, we will meet each person where they are, and invite them into transformative relationships with God, each other, and the communities in which we live and serve. We will cultivate and empower lay leaders to support this life-changing work at Good Shepherd and beyond.