St. John’s Episcopal Church

Treasurer’s Report for The Chronicle

January 23, 2021

 

Please note: This report includes actions taken by the Vestry at its meeting on January 21, 2021.

The Finance Committee remains on hiatus pending the recruitment of additional members. We also need to stand up a small Audit Committee, ideally comprised of three members with a background in finance, which would meet only twice a year, before and after the annual audit. I welcome suggestions from the congregation of individuals I might approach about serving on these committees. Please contact me at bobleroy05@gmail.com.

Our Budget Report for December 2020 is available on our website (click here). We closed the year with an operating deficit of -$70,347.40, a positive variance to budget of $15,736.26. The deficit would have been far greater had we not withdrawn a total of $191,000.00 from our General (Unrestricted) Account with the Diocese of Olympia Master Trust to apply to operating and capital expenses. Our shortfall in pledge payments to budget in 2020 was -$19,512.20 or 7.4%, a tribute to the faithfulness and resilience of our pledging members in a year unlike any other. 

It is also worth noting that we were able to stay current on our assessment payments to the Diocese of Olympia in 2020, creating an opportunity for us to petition for forgiveness of all or part of assessment payments still owing from 2018 and 2019 totaling approximately $77,000.00.

We are still awaiting documents from Bessemer Trust in New York City regarding a $10,000.00 unrestricted cash bequest and hope to receive the funds in February. We have three additional sources of funds for operating expenses: a second round of Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) funds, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) proceeds and our (endowment) account with the Diocese of Olympia Master Trust.

We have just submitted the paperwork to request forgiveness of our first PPP loan in the amount of  $54,577.00. Since we have fully complied with the requirements for the use of the funds, we are confident the loan will be forgiven. Our application for a second PPP loan in an amount not to exceed $63,367.50 has been accepted and is currently in process. We hope to receive approval next week.

One of the conditions for Diocesan approval of our acceptance of the EIDL loan is we would not spend any of the proceeds until completion of an independent audit, currently planned for some time in the first quarter of 2021. However, with Diocesan approval, we withdrew $15,000.00 of the EIDL money and applied it to operating expenses within the guidelines of the loan program. The remaining EIDL funds, $134,900.00, are currently invested in an Investment Advisory Account with Edward Jones. To-date, the market value of the account has increased $6,290.03 to $141,190.03.

To conform to SBA requirements, the Vestry adopted an updated Resolution on the Acceptance and Use of Proceeds from the EIDL Loan. 

As of December 31, 2020, the balance in our General (Unrestricted) Account with the Diocese of Olympia Master Trust was approximately $150,000.00. The Vestry approved the withdrawal of $115,000.00 from this account to apply to anticipated expenses for asbestos abatement.

The Vestry accepted the 2019 Report of Audit prepared by Cynthia Knapp, our Bookkeeper and reviewed in the absence of an Audit Committee by members of the Executive Committee (R.C. Laird, Mark Hampton, Ric Weatherman, and me).

The Vestry approved the 2021 Budget which will be presented at the Annual Meeting on January 31, 2021, following which, it will be posted to our website.

Respectfully submitted…

…Bob Le Roy, Treasurer