Friday, September 17, 2021

Weekly Insights into generosity, Conference finances, and being stronger together.

Conference Financial Cleanup Rev. Molly Carlson

Friends,  I try to keep you all up-to-date on the financial cleanup work of the Conference. We’ve hit a couple of landmarks in our progress and are pushing hard to have a comprehensive picture of our full situation in time for our Annual Celebration in November. Here are some highlights of where things are right now:  FAB and Council have now seen a first draft report on our Equity, Liability and Reverted Asset Accounts. Each account with donor restricted funds has now been individually researched to the best of our ability with all the data at hand. In September, FAB will consider all the information and make some recommendations on how to move ahead. The Executive Committee will review these recommendations and make some decisions. In October, FAB will consider a second round of recommendations on how we move ahead. The council will then take action on these recommendations. The full Conference will see a complete report with both numbers and narrative describing these decisions and the implications they have for our ministry.  We are starting work on our 2022 budget. A first draft is due to FAB and executive council in September. We expect there to be robust conversation and compromise. A second draft that incorporates all this feedback will be brought back to FAB and then to Council for approval in October. It will then be made available to the whole Conference for review and conversation in preparation for our Annual Meeting. The new budget and chart of accounts will be created in our new (ACS Financials) accounting system. We will have clear opening balances to load in by January 1, 2022 and will be starting with a well-informed, fresh slate.  We have launched a Financial Policies and Procedures team, chaired by Bob Poor from Hope UCC in Moline and supported by Keith Clark-Hoyos, our Financial Transition Manager. This team has an aggressive goal of producing a draft policies and procedures manual by November 1 of this year. This will be made available to the entire Conference for review and conversation. We will create a variety of opportunities for input to be shared and collected. This input will go back to the committee for integration and then then a revised manual will go to FAB and then Council for approval.  We are pushing hard to get everything ready for our November meeting. My goal is to have a clear picture of our financial position ready to share and discuss. We know that we don’t have all the answers cleared up yet – but we have made MAJOR progress and are committed to having enough information to feel confidence in moving forward.    As always, you can contact me with any questions and I will do my best to reply. Blessings, Molly

And we Celebrate!!!

St. Paul's UCC Palatine 150th Anniversary! On Sunday, September 12th, St. Paul's UCC in Palatine celebrated their 150th anniversary! We celebrate together as a whole Conference St. Paul's 150 years of ministry, both to the members and friends of the congregation and to the wider community. Many blessings to St. Paul's as you continue in sacred ministry and faithful service!

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Who we are The Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ is made up of all of the churches, members, clergy and covenant partners affiliated with the United Church of Christ in the northern half of Illinois.

THE ILLINOIS CONFERENCE UCC Money Matters - a weekly conversation about money and ministry in the Illinois Conference UCC is published by the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ, 1840 Westchester Blvd., Suite 200, Westchester, IL 60154. The Rev. Molly Carlson, Conference Minister; Sarah Lohrbach, Editor. Copy may be sent to: SarahLohrbach@ilucc.org.   This communication is made possible by your contributions to Our Church's Wider Mission

Illinois Conference UCC | Ilucc.org

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