For a long time, our congregation has relied on volunteer treasurers who are appointed by the Stewardship and Finance Commission. These treasurers care for our weekly contributions to the budget, pay our congregation’s bills, manage our employees’ payroll, complete forms required by the government, and in general ensure that our congregation’s finances are in good order.
For many years we have had three volunteer treasurers: one who manages contributions and deposits (jointly fulfilled by Thelma and Dick Ramer), one who pays the bills (Ruth Hathaway), and one who functions as a type of lead treasurer. This lead treasurer has prepared monthly and yearly financial reports for the congregation, created contribution reports for givers, overseen payroll, worked with government forms and requirements, managed our accounting software, and answered questions from the other treasurers.
It has become increasingly clear to the Stewardship and Finance Commission that we can no longer rely on a volunteer for the role of lead treasurer. After John Nussbaum left this role a few years ago when he and Lisa moved to Missouri, Jim Alvarez and Barbara Eichorn have given their best efforts to fulfill the responsibilities of this role. They, along with Aaron Wieand and Simon Smucker (as well as Thelma and Ruth), have also been working hard to complete the transition from our old to our new accounting software–a transition that has taken enormous energy.
We now realize that we need a lead treasurer who thoroughly knows accounting principles, preferably someone who is a CPA. Only a handful of people in our congregation have this qualification, but none of them have the time to take on this role, which is estimated to require an average of at least 3.5 hours a week. Therefore we are recommending that the congregation hire a suitably qualified person from outside the congregation to fill the role of lead treasurer. See a job description and the proposal to add this cost to this year’s budget here. For your convenience we’ve also put paper copies in your church mailbox. If you have any questions, please talk to a member of the Stewardship and Finance Commission (Patrick Buller, Ben Buckwalter, Phil Miller, or Dan Schrock).
~Stewardship and Finance Commission
