Since the Finance team usually in the past, has their meeting a day or so before the Board meeting...I am unable to give you a report from the Finance team until I forward Janet's report on Wednesday hopefully.  I will get Janet to get her report as soon as possible. Our next meeting is on Tuesday September 6 at noon.    
 
Generally there are a lot of people wanting to spend money and we are trying to keep pace,but for the second month in a row we have spent more than taken in.  If there is anything to warrant discussion I will bring up...this month the days fell that the Finance meeting could have not been earlier.
 
No doubt we will be discussing the VanGuard Mid Cap.  I will be present to give a short synopisis if necessary.

September 2011 Finance Committee Report

We met on: Tues., Sept 6th, 2011 at noon

In attendance: Janet Cummings, Carmine Nugent, Arleta Carr, Dale Foreman, Ann Litke, Caroline McDaniel, Connie Dolezal (first part of meeting)

1. Leadership Development Committee – Connie Dolezal shared with us that the Leadership Dev. Committee is interested in learning more about the roles of the members of the Finance Committee. They understand that the Finance Team may take a more specialized skill set than some UUCGV members may feel they have which could be preventing them from volunteering for Finance. The Leadership team is exploring what kinds of training may be needed, and if the church could even assist with personal development of this type for church members, it may make it possible for them to serve on Finance. Janet will work on a document for the Leadership team with information on our duties, the time spent each week, and pertinent information on the skills of our existing committee.
2. Review of August Financial Statements : Year-to-date loss is ($5,186) through Aug. 31st. Note that this includes the “prepaid” pledges that were received in FY11 and have now been moved to FY12. Total Current Assets are $66,151, including $53,410 in the Building Fund, and total Liabilities are $67,763. We have received 12% of budgeted income, and expenses are 19% of budget for the year. Pledges received are 13% of budget (note that 2 months, or 16% of year has elapsed). We believe that fewer people paid large portions of their pledges in July compared to last year, so pledges are running slightly behind schedule.
3. Building Fund –We discussed which Vanguard fund should be used for the Building Fund. Ann had moved approximately $11,000 of this account to the Mid-Cap Fund as we discussed in July, and the remainder is in a much lower-yielding mutual fund. Because of the downward trend in the stock market recently, the $11K has already lost value, to around $9000. However, we feel that now that the market is low it may be an advantageous time to buy. Ann will plan on moving another $10,000 in the coming weeks. Dale suggested that if the value of the money moved does not return to the original amount transferred at the end of the year (Jun), he would be willing to restore the principal. If the money is not going to be used in the short term, the higher risk/higher yielding Mid-Cap Fund seems to us like the right fund to invest in. Caroline also suggested we could “balance” the risk by purchasing a GLD fund (tied to value of Gold). But for now, we will continue with our plan to move money gradually to the Mid-Cap fund.
   
   Ann wondered if the Long Range Planning Team (or new Building Search team?) is still working on a plan to finance a potential new building with UUCGV member investors?
4. Miscellaneous – We appreciated the $325 donation from Creative Chaos in August. We wondered if it would be possible to put coffee cans/ashtrays in the parking lot to prevent cigarette butts from littering the parking lot during these events (assuming this is where they are coming from)? Caroline volunteered, but is about to be out of commission with knee surgery. We could use some of the $325 to purchase an outdoor ashtray?

Arleta suggested we spread our payments to UUA and MDD over 10 months so they are paid in full by May (in time for our congregation to be recognized at General Assembly as being paid in full). Carmine will make this adjustment.

There is still $500 in earmarked funds on the Balance Sheet for Auction Software. We need to know if the auction committee will be interested in buying new software this year? Also, the RE/Youth money on the balance sheet ($2322) should be used this fiscal year as much as possible so that it doesn’t stay there indefinitely. Some of the Outreach Sunday fund ($1030) has been spent recently for a PR committee expense.

Items for next meeting (just realized these were hanging over from our last meeting – sorry about that!): New Fidelity account for Reserve Fund ? Lets discuss. AND we need to finalize the Income from FY11 to determine what amount could be transferred to our Reserve Fund now.

Next meeting will be: Tuesday, Oct. 4th at noon at the church.