Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Meeting — January11, 2018

Diocese of Rhode Island
Commission on Finance
Meeting, January 11, 2018

Present: Robert Batchelor; The Rev. Erik Larsen; The Rev. Peter Tierney.
Also present: Dennis Burton; The Rev. Edwin Hallenbeck.

The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. by Chair Tierney, who offered an opening prayer.

The Minutes of the meeting of December 7, 2017 were approved as distributed.

Finance Report was reviewed by Mr. Batchelor noting that not all December 31, 2017 items were entered at the time of this preliminary yearend report. All bad debt actions have been recognized, and apportionment writeoffs recorded. No significant audit adjustments are anticipated. The statement is fairly accurate, subject to additional adjustments.

Apportionment Aging, December 2017. Four churches were stated as outstanding as of 12/31/17. Two have since paid, the remaining two are due one month and are expected to pay shortly.

CFO Report, Mr. Burton: • ECC projects, both the Solar Farm and Hydroponic Farm projects are preceeding, with difficulty securing three bids for the Hydroponic project, it was agreed that two bids may have to be sufficient for this project. The application for power access to National Grid will be submitted on January 12th. Work continues on full operational proposals.
• Sale of Mobile station land to Global Mobile, the term sheet has been accepted, and a purchase and sale agreement is in preparation. It is anticipated the sale may be completed in late spring.
• Hallworth House. Following the December 2017 (see Minutes) discussion the concerns were fully discussed by Diocesan Council. Council voted to approve the new elevator, they want to give Hallworth House a chance to proceed. A $500k deficit is anticipated for 2018. The Rehab unit located in the Annex building closed as of 1/1/18. The HH Board is managing on its own, with the COF monitoring what is happening.
• St. Peter and Andrew, anticipates operating in 2018 with an $83,000 loss. Work is proceeding on creating a plan for developing and/or restarting the church and its buildings in this strategic location. The question the COF needs to consider with care is: Are there other churches with potential issues.
• Re Apportionment Reduction in 2018. Question, is there a role for COF to encourage churches to reduce and stabilize operations with their reduced apportionment cost? The matter needs careful study.
• Suggested ideas. Would it be helpful to prepare a summary worksheet for a church, for the Bishop before his Visitation. Would it be helpful to prepare a list of churches that are facing issues. Following discussion it was agreed that the CFO will prepare an analytical listing of such churches for the March meeting.

New Business. The lease of Church of the Advent with ENRICHri was reviewed by Mr Burton. It ends on May 1st and will not be renewed because the ENRICHri clients have shifted to northern RI. There was discussion about adjusting the rent for the remaining lease, and Mr Burton was encouraged to work out a reasonable arrangement in view if reduced use of the facility.

February and March meetings both are scheduled for the first day of the month, making statements difficult to be available in a timely manner. The Chair agreed to consider this matter with a view to moving the meeting to the second Thursday.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted
Edwin F Hallenbeck

Secretary

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