Running wards on the cheap
I may be wrong, but I looked at the budget for my ward a ways back, and discovered that just our tithing, while still a resident with a 2nd job + Farrah's job (not too much money), would cover the entire ward discretionary budget.
I was kind of ticked about that for a couple of weeks. Because when I compare the LDS experience of my youth (ward canoeing trips, etc) and my current LDS social experience, it is night and day. How many variations of the ward potluck can you have? |
Local Controls Don't Always Work
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This reminds me of an experience I had when I was a YM president. I got a new counselor assigned to me who was older than my father. He was pretty arrogant when it came to money, always mentioning how much he made etc... One time I was commenting on the small budget we had for a particular activity and he said condescendingly "anyone who serves as YM president should automatically budget in 1500 dollars per year for the kids out of his own pocket." I guess his opinion only held true for presidents though because I never saw him spend a dime of his own money on the YM.
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So... this leads me to ask ... Where does the money go if the LDS Church pushes the 10% tithing expectation? There is not even a professional staff to pay. Of course I expect there are a lot who are not able to comply or choose not to. PS Another church does the finances in a very open, honest and trusting way. They plan their activities and costs and publish the planned budget with items prioritized by committees from the congregation. That is published and the final budget is set each year based on everyone's anonymous pledge of support for the year (known to just your family and the Almighty). Then they track and report the income vs pledges on an aggregate basis in a corner of the weekly bulletin. |
The LDS church uses it to finance operations overseas. American Mormons subsidize efforts in other countries.
As to transparency of budgets, I think it depends on the ward. Some wards do it openly. In others it is a mystery. In my ward it is a mystery. When I was exec. secretrary there was never a single meeting about the budget, and no auxiliary was told how much money they had. They were told, however, when they ran out of money. |
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YW - $2000 RS - $2000 Primary - $1000 YM - $1000 Sunday School - $100 HP - $100 EQ - $100 I always wondered why the auxiliaries run by women dominated the budget. |
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I thought so. Do you really need to ask? If we withhold, they withhold. |
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