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Finance Council
Click here our annual report for fiscal year 2008 The Finance Council of St. Michael in Old Town consists of parishioners selected by the pastor to help oversee the parish's financial well-being. Specifically, the Council's responsibilities include:
The Council invites you to consider the various ways in which you can contribute to the financial well-being of St. Michael in Old Town by clicking on the links below. Finance Council Summer Update September 6-7, 2008 Good morning. I am John Bloniarz from St. Michael’s Finance Council. At the end of the pews you will find a copy of St. Michael’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ended on June 30, 2008. This report was also mailed out to all registered parishioners this week, as well. There is a lot of good information in this report, and I encourage you to take a copy home for further study. I will only point out a few quick highlights now. We had an operating shortfall of almost $16,000 this year. This compares to a surplus of almost $23,000 last year. The main contributor to this shortfall was the poor performance of Celebration 2008. Considering we may have been down as much as $70,000 from our projections for that fundraiser, the fact that we are only short by about $16,000 is relatively good news. It also shows that we are getting closer to running the parish on more traditional operating income rather than depending on the fundraisers which were originally conceived as sources of capital income. If you look at the first line on the table, which is labeled “Sunday and Holy Day Collections”, you can see that the three-year trend has definitely been moving in a positive direction. We increased 12.4% from 2006 to 2007, and another 9.3% in the past year. I cannot thank you enough for this boost to our operating income. It has been a slow climb, but we think the message of ownership and responsibility is finally taking root at St. Michael’s. If you follow the tower graph at the back of church each month, these numbers are a little higher that what is shown on that board, since these include holy days and the Tower Graph does not. As I mentioned, Fundraising is down dramatically this year. While the parish Gala is doing well, we faced stiff competition at Celebration 2008 from the Wells Street Festival, and the event happened to fall on Father’s Day weekend this year, as well. The people responsible for planning these fundraisers are analyzing what went wrong and making adjustments for next year. All aspects are being considered. At this time, we are looking at cutting back on what was not successful and focusing on and enhancing what was. As you look through the rest of this report, please examine all the costs involved in running a parish of this size and of this age. What makes St. Michael’s so charming, so beautiful and so welcoming is also what contributes to making it expensive to maintain. I’d like to highlight the option of automatic donations to you again this morning. St. Michael’s offers the convenience of credit card and direct withdrawal donation. This allows you to plan your support in advance and make it happen each week or each month without fail, even when you cannot be here and even if you do not have any cash in your wallet or purse when you get to Mass. This option is such a great way to solidify your support of St. Michael’s. Please consider switching to it this year during the Stewardship Campaign or by just calling the rectory and asking for our Business Manager, Jeannie. Her number is on the back page of the Bulletin. This year, we accomplished the renovation of the little bathroom in St, Gerard’s chapel. We also performed some serious repairs to the parking lot. We are currently considering what we can do about the problem of water coming in through the west wall and destroying huge sections of the interior plaster wall in the choir loft. The west wall is in serious need of tuck pointing and even rebuilding, but the entire project is more than we can afford without a capital campaign. We are looking at stopgap measures for the time being, even though we know more is urgently required. Most of you have probably heard that the Parish Center was damaged by the violent storm on the evening of August 4. At this time, we are able to use much of the building again, and work is concluding on the remaining repairs. There was a lot of damage from water that forced its way in from the roof, and we were very fortunate that our insurance will be covering the repairs. We are also looking at the root cause for the leak and will repair that, as well. Most of you have also heard that a Capital Campaign is in the works. We are in desperate need of some serious repairs, and we can wait no longer to address them. The Capital Campaign Commission is being formed at this time. They will very soon address the size and scope of our campaign, select projects to be included, and determine the dates for the campaign. You do not have to look far to see reminders of why we need to assume this important work now. Holy Name Cathedral just recently opened its doors again at the end of August after being closed for emergency repairs since February. That is a long time to be out of your house. And St. Hedwig in Bucktown is still closed while recovering from a fire that occurred there in April. Even in our own parish we see reminders of the work we must do to maintain our buildings and be prepared for emergencies when they arise. It is simply not prudent to defer maintenance until things are so far gone that they are beyond repair. We need to keep in mind our obligation to provide a place of worship for the generations to come just as was done for us. You only have to look around at all the magnificent beauty to know what we must do. Looking back to the operating side of our parish again for a minute, the 2009 Stewardship Campaign will take place over the three weekends from November 8 through November 23. This campaign focuses primarily on our weekly Offertory collection, which is the foundation of our operating income – the money we use to turn on the lights and heat the church. You can discover all the other expenses that are part of our operating budget in the annual report. This report is also available online on our parish web site. As we move into fall and begin to consider things we’ve done this year and things we want to do next year, please consider your ongoing commitment to St. Michael’s. Finally, let me mention again the importance of including St. Michael’s in your estate planning. While it did not show up in this year’s annual report, we received another very generous bequest of $100,000 from a former parishioner this summer. This helped soften the blow of a poor performing Celebration and allowed us to breathe a little easier. We are very grateful to this individual, and we ask you to please consider St. Michael’s when you are making plans for your estate. Members of the Finance Council will be at the back of church after Mass today for your comments and questions. You can also send e-mail to us at any time. The address is on the back page of the Bulletin. Thank you very much.
The Finance Council meets monthly and can be contacted at
financecouncil@st-mikes.org,
or (312) 642-2498.
Finance Council Address to Parish: July 15, 2006 |
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