Meeting - January 12, 2016

Diocese of Rhode Island

Commission on Finance

Meeting, January 12, 2016

St. Luke’s Church, East Greenwich

Present: Robert Batchelor; Sarosh Fenn; The Rev. Eric Larsen; Michael Lofaro; Stephan Sloan; David Terry.

Also present: Dennis Burton; The Rev. Canon Linda Grenz; The Rev. Edwin Hallenbeck; Ben Sibielski.

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Chair Lofaro. An opening prayer was offered by Canon Grenz.

The Minutes of the meeting of December 8, 2015 were approved with two minor additions.

Finance Report for December, was reviewed in some detail by Mr. Batchelor. He noted this is a preliminary year-end statement with a number of details that are not final at this point. DIT adjustments are not yet available and are not entered. This statement reflects a surplus, however when all transactions are entered he anticipates a deficit of about $40,000.

Apportionment Aging. There are three churches outstanding each with one month due. All are expected to be paid in the near term. This is an excellent response for the year.

Time of Meeting. The time of future COF meetings was reviewed, with agreement that in February and forward meetings will be at 5:00 p.m. at St. Luke’s, East Greenwich.

Chief Financial Officer’s Report and agenda matters:

Revolving Loan Fund Structure. Continued discussion of the draft proposal discussed at the December 8 meeting. A number of fine tuning items have been discussed and agreed to with US Trust, The only way the rate will change is when LIBOR rate is changed. Suggested items from COF discussion have been incorporated. It is now necessary to place the plan into a formal “Agreement” for approval. It was agreed that this should have review and approval by an attorney, other than the Bishop’s Chancellor and the Treasurer. It was noted that in preparing guidelines for parish loans that pledges of DIT collateral should be of unrestricted funds.

Major Gifts Policy. Under review, continue to next meeting.

Episcopal Conference Center. A request was received from the Episcopal Conference Center (ECC) to purchase a replacement camp vehicle for use at ECC and for new start City Camp-Woonsocket in summer of 2016. Estimated cost of the vehicle is $5,000. Following discussion it was Moved, Seconded and Voted to authorize payment of up to $6,500 for purchase of a used vehicle for ECC with primary use at City Camp-Woonsocket.  Funds will come from the ECC capital expense account.

Church of the Advent, Coventry. Both boilers in the church have failed. Woods is low bidder on replacement units. Work is in progress for this emergency situation.

Capital Expenditures. Following consideration of the above items and other similar matters that arise from time many of which are urgent situations it was agreed there should a management approval process to address the matters. Following discussion it was Moved, Seconded and Voted to establish an operating practice that the Chief Financial Officer may approve non-budgeted capital expenditures up to $20,000 per case and report the same to the COF at its next meeting.

Financial Forecast Project. Complications in fine tuning how the PlanGuru software will work for the Diocesan system and the holidays has slowed progress. An initial run is expected for discussion at the February meeting.

Fire Code Concerns. Canon Grenz reported that a limited number of churches are experiencing difficulties in managing the new Fire Code requirements. Each situation is different. There was discussion of how the Diocese might assist in a situation where the cost for a church is way beyond what can be realistically budgeted.

Thrivent Marketing Agreement. Ben Sibielski, who has been the staff person working on development of the proposal, reviewed the framework and expectations of what the Agreement will do.  The question at this point is, do we want to enter into this agreement to provide access to Thrivent benefits? There was an extended discussion with several questions raised, some relating to clauses in the agreement which COF members viewed as unacceptable. It was agreed to table the matter to the February meeting and seek additional input especially from the Bishop.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m,

Respectfully Submitted

Edwin F Hallenbeck

Secretary

Next Meeting: February 9, 2016. 5:00 p.m. St. Luke’s Church, East Greenwich.