History: How We Got to the Point of Combining Funds

The Remembrance Fund was our endowment. During the later decades of the last century--especially from the 1970's onward--income from the Remembrance Fund was moved over to the Operating accounts annually. While the pledge income often fell short of the actual expenses, the deficit was small. Money brought in from Remembrance more than made up for those shortfalls. The surplus was prudently reinvested. By the year 2000 that operating reserve had grown to about 1.1 million dollars.

Things changed in the 2000's. Budgets grew. Investments continued to perform well in comparison with major index markers. But pledge income was on the decline, and costs kept rising. The Remembrance Fund income was no longer sufficient to cover the deficit--and we could not take from the principal. But that Operating Reserve was there--and it could be used. So we remained in OK fiscal shape. But by the end of the decade it was pretty clear that the reserve only had a limited life. The water was circling the drain.

In 2014 it was first suggested to me (in my capacity on the Investment Committee) that the funds be combined. At the end of 2013 the Remembrance Fund had about 1.7 million. While impressive, the income produced was not sufficient cover the deficit. The once million dollar Operating Reserve was down to $235,000. It was clearly going to run dry in about two years. But the Building Fund had about $449,000; the Churchyard had about $866,000; Organ had $71,000. Pool it all together and we would have over 3.3 million. Perhaps not quite enough for the income generated to cover the deficit, but a lot better than only 1.7 million.

I did not support pooling the funds. While I believed (wrongly it turns out) that we lawfully could do this, I did not think we should do it. Most importantly, I felt the Churchyard Fund should not be touched. In the event the church failed, that fund would still be there and be sufficient to keep the churchyard in good repair. The topic was dropped.

Over the next two years I, along with others, fought to make some painful cuts in the budget which included some personnel cuts. Everyone agreed something needed to be done--but too many wanted it done "next year." Next year arrived and the can got kicked down the road another year. In late 2015 another "next year we do something" budget was passed for 2016, my term was expiring and I chose not to run again. At that meeting we spoke of forming a committee to plan future cuts. That one year plan was a two year plan by the end of the discussion. By the time of the annual meeting the next month (January 2016), a committee to come up with a five year plan was announced . . ..

In the first quarter of 2016 the Operating Reserve was gone. At the May 2016 Vestry meeting a presentation was made to combine the funds "for the sake of simplicity and transparency." I'm told the presentation and discussion took about 15 minutes, and was passed.