More Knowledgeable Minds than Mine

More Knowledgeable

Minds than Mine 

 

Since each parish maintains its own properties, debts and assets, each parish continues to have its own Parish Finance Council (PFC) to monitor, advise, and sign off on their parish's fiscal management. The members of St. Martha PFC are: Kathy Parker (chair), Tom Morris, Dave Medeiros, and Deacon Tom Hines. The members of the St. Mary PFC are: Charlie Weiblen (chair), Dan O’Connell, and Tim Saunders. I am looking for a new member or two for each PFC, so if you have a financial, legal, or business background please consider speaking with me or one of the members. Thank you to every one of these members for sharing their business acumen and love for our parishes!

 

In addition to the two Parish Finance Councils, until recently we have been blessed to have Bill Nash as our Collaborative Business & Finance Manager to expertly run our finances on a regular basis. As announced previously, Bill retired this spring and handed over this role to Renee Wassersug, an accomplished accountant who left the corporate world a couple years ago and began putting her gifts to work for our parishes. Already familiar with our operations from her administrative role on our Pastoral Team, Renee can bring her financial acumen together with our mission as collaborative parishes, and we are very grateful to have her in this new role. Renee manages each parish's accounts separately, and she allocates expenses shared by both parishes (e.g., some salaries, collaborative events) according to the percentages recommended by both finance councils and approved by the pastor. Based on the size of our parishes, these shared expenses are allocated roughly 30% to St. Martha Parish and 70% to St. Mary Parish.

 

Like the Collaborative Pastoral Council (a separate body comprised of members of both parishes), each Parish Finance Council shares in leadership of their parish as a standing Council with consultative voice. They have a right to the financial information necessary to provide meaningful advice, which I must listen to with an open mind. Because significant expenses are shared by both parishes, each PFC is kept aware of the financial status of both parishes, and they prefer to hold most of their meetings together. I am especially grateful for the PFC members who are speaking at each of the Masses this weekend to provide you a parishioner's viewpoint on the practical status of each parish. Our annual report to parishioners is on our website and in the mail - if you are not registered or if you do not receive it by the end of this week, please take one by the doors of the church and register with your parish on our website. Please pray for each of our PFCs and all parishioner efforts to work together, using our varied gifts and perspectives in complementary ways for the good of the Church and our mission!