Amended Minutes of Finance Committee Meeting- February 11, 2015
Present were: Church administrator Jennifer Gahnstrom, committee chair Lulu Phillips, members Jan Werness and Carole Megarry. Minutes from the previous meeting were reviewed and approved.
We reviewed the December 31, 2014 financial reports. MSP that certain accounts should be eliminated from the Profit and Loss statements, including: claim, bequest, and Table funds, since there should be no further activity in them. MSP to add a “parsonage” fund with the proceeds of sale of the parsonage, these funds not to be expended without approval by a Church Conference and in accord with the Methodist Discipline.
It was noted that a lender forgave a $42,000 loan which would otherwise have been paid from the proceeds of sale. The result was proceeds of approximately 184,170. From this sum $42,021 (the amount of the forgiven loan) was transferred to the Reserve Fund, and $3,958 (the amount expended in operating the parsonage in 2014-2015) was transferred to the Capital Fund, per previous decision. After these transfers, $138,192 remains available to be placed in a safe investment as the Parsonage Fund
MSP to deposit $138,192 of the proceeds into an RBC “safe” investment account to be designated “parsonage fund”.
January financial reports are still in progress, due to the busyness of the year end, and will be emailed to the committee members when completed.
Jennifer announced her intention to cease work on bookkeeping and financial matters not later than March 31, 2015. Considerable discussion ensued as to options for having this work done, including use of an off-site bookkeeper. It was agreed that Jennifer would prepare a Scope of Work Description and then Walter and/or other committee members would be able to submit a Request for Proposal to potential service providers, several of whom Walter has already identified.
Once it is known what cost would be involved in having an off-site bookkeeper, the issues of whether Jennifer would stay on performing other administrative functions, and if so, what her compensation would be, would be handled by SPPR.
The committee reviewed statements of Financial Information and Financial Procedures prepared by Jennifer in anticipation of her departure from the bookkeeping role. It was noted that these should be very helpful in preparing the Scope of Work Description and aiding the new bookkeeper in the transition.
Jennifer raised concerns over possible problems with the Quick Books reports. She has started a new “business”, Walker 2015 (a year in which there should not be any construction-related income or expenses), and is confident that the income and expenses for previous years are accurate. However, she has some concern about a new bookkeeper attempting to generate a report showing the total building-related income and expenses as an aggregate over three years rather than a year by year review. There was discussion as to whether a consultant should be engaged to rectify possible confusion or misunderstanding that might ensue. The consensus was not to engage a consultant at present and to see if the new bookkeeper might be able to make adjustments to eliminate errors in a cumulative report, and after that to consider whether there is need for a consultant.
It was noted that the lender who made a $250,000 loan to the church related to the rebuilding is planning to forgive that note in January of 2016. However, pending that forgiveness, the interest on the note for this year is due. Lulu and Jennifer will review the amortization schedule to be sure the correct amount of interest is paid.
Amended Minutes prepared by Carole Megarry-March 22, 2015
