A Letter on Finance, to our Monthly Meetings

September 12, 2014

Greetings, Friends:

I write today on behalf of the newly-established Support Committee, our Treasurer and Finance Committee, with a request to all Monthly Meetings in Western Quarter.

We are asking each Monthly Meeting to consider an increase in its financial commitment to the Quarter when it develops its next annual budget.

We ask this in light of the FY15 Operating Budget recently approved by the Support Committee. This budget shows an increase in an annual operating deficit as a result of our continued commitment to maintain a Coordinator (3/4 Full-Time) in the midst of increasing operating costs. The Support Committee approved this budget understanding that any deficit would be funded by drawing from our reserves. [Note: This decision to draw from our reserves is intended only for the current year. We recognize that drawing funds from our reserves is not a sustainable fiscal model.]

It is our conclusion that our Quarter will be best-served by having a Coordinator who can continue to provide the level of support that we have received in the last two years. Good work has begun and much has been accomplished in the last two years. To sustain this good work, we need the same level of continued staff support.

We recognize that in opening this conversation in our Monthly Meetings, other issues and questions will be raised. These include:

• What is our capacity as a Meeting to support the needs of the Meeting, Quarter and PYM? How does our capacity to give reflect our current practice of giving?
• What, if any, impact would an increase in support to the Quarter have on the Meeting’s support of PYM?
• How does Western Quarter’s Unified Budgeting Process impact this discussion, potential choices and an ultimate decision?

We also recognize that Meetings will undertake a review of its covenant at different points in time. For those Meetings who operate on a calendar fiscal year, this discussion would likely occur in the coming months. For those Meetings who operate on a different fiscal year, this process may not occur until spring 2015. As such, we recognize that any change in a Meeting’s covenant may not be realized for many months to come.

Various documents are linked below which may be helpful as your Meeting undertakes this discernment process. These documents include the following:

Approved Western Quarter Budget with Narrative / FY15

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding Western Quarter Activities, Programs and Financial Processes, including an explanation of the Unified Budgeting Process

Ariana Langford (Treasurer) and Dick Logan (Clerk, Finance Committee) and I are available to answer any questions you may have. We would also welcome the opportunity to speak to your Meeting about these matters in more detail.

In closing, I offer the following observation: We recognize that we ask for this at a time when your Meeting may be struggling financially. We are aware of the increasing costs that individual Meetings face at a time when individual contributions may have plateaued or are declining. We recognize that PYM is also asking individuals and/or Monthly Meetings to increase their financial support for the work of the Yearly Meeting. It would be easy to view all of this from a lens of scarcity and deprivation.

Yet I am aware that we are a privileged people … with resources and levels of income that put us in the highest income groups in the United States and the world.

I am aware that we are a generous people … who give ourselves each day through the time and talent and treasure that we share with others.

I also believe that our God – the One who binds us one to another – is a God of abundance. We need not look to the future in fear, but with optimism, expectation and gratitude for the world that we are being invited to serve as co-creators.

It is with this sense of generosity, optimism and abundance that I hope each Meeting, and each member or attender of each Meeting, will enter into this process of discernment.

In peace,

Pamela Leland, Clerk, Western Quarter

PS … Please join us on October 4th as we gather together with an opportunity to consider these issues further at our 4th Quarter summit on “Fundraising and Finance.” (Click here for more details)

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