Committee for Financial Affairs 2011 Annual Report
Friday, March 09, 2012
ASSEMBLY OF CANONICAL ORTHODOX BISHOPS
OF NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
COMMITTEE FOR FINANCIAL AFFAIRS
2011 Annual Report
Committee Members and Consultants
- Members: Archbishop Antony (Chairman), Bishop Matthias
- Consultants: Fr John Troy Mashburn, Fr Aaron Warwick, Fr Mark Arey, Geofrey Greenleaf, Eric Namee.
- Facilitator: Protodeacon Peter Danilchick
Committee Activities and Accomplishments
- Two teleconferences were held during late 2011 as well as one face-to-face meeting in South Bound Brook, NJ, hosted by Archbishop Antony at St Sophia?s Orthodox Seminary. Monthly teleconferences continued in 2012. The Financial Affairs Committee plans to meet monthly by teleconference for the next six months, then likely less frequently thereafter.
- The Financial Affairs Committee reviewed and modified the Committee Terms of Reference (posted on the ACOB website). The desired Committee accomplishments are:
- Determine the means whereby the Assembly of Bishops and its activities will be financed
- Oversee fund-raising and development
- Create a budget for the Assembly
- Catalog and compare the financial practices of the various jurisdictions, agencies, and organizations attached to the Assembly.
- Study and develop standards related to financial operations and practices of the assembly, jurisdictions, organizations, departments and other entities associated with them.
- The following sub-committees were active in assisting the work of the Committee:
- Fund-Raising/ Development (initial leads - Fr Mark Arey/ Eric Namee): Efforts are underway both (1) to secure initial funding for the Assembly and (2) to locate other individuals with fund raising/development experience to serve on and to lead an active subcommittee. This subcommittee would pursue and oversee annual donations via the website as well as major gifts. In the long term, we would like to have sufficient financial support that the Assembly would need to hire a development person.
- ACOB Activity and Committee Funding (All): Archbishop Antony has sent out to the Committee Chairmen a Budget Questionnaire (developed by the Best Practices subcommittee below) for submission of their desired budgets for the next three years, with the first year anticipated expenditures as the formal budget request, with second and third year numbers for forward planning purposes only. The Secretariat committee liaisons stand ready to assist Committee Chairmen to develop their budgets. In addition, letters will be sent out in the very near future to the heads of the jurisdictions requesting payment of the annual contributions.
- Best Practices (leads - Fr John Troy Mashburn/ Fr Aaron Warwick): One of the responsibilities of this subcommittee is to develop a Delegation of Authority Manual and other procedures for disbursements and other financial transactions. At this time, the near-term objective is to prepare a set of simple procedures for approval and disbursements of advances and reimbursements. A draft of financial ?Policy and Procedures? has been endorsed by the Committee which will now be merged with proposed financial provisions in the Assembly bylaws, now under review. A questionnaire on Member Church Financial Practices will be developed following finalization of the procedures development mentioned above. Efforts continue for the addition of other consultants to this sub-committee.
- Receipt and Investment of Funds (lead - Geofrey Greenleaf): A draft Investment Policy Statement has been developed and is under review (e.g., target earnings objective, place of equities in the investment mix, requirement for liquidity for a certain time period, etc.) Assembly bank accounts have already been established. In addition, a stock brokerage account to receive donations of appreciated stock will be set up in the near future. QuickBooks is being used for the financial accounting and will be considered for recording and organizing the donations that are expected for support of the assembly.
Closing Comments
The Committee would like to thank its Consultants for offering their considerable knowledge and experience in numerous fields (e.g., accounting, auditing, financial and business management, law, fund-raising) to the Assembly. We will continue to work together to provide a firm and disciplined foundation for the financial operations of the Assembly.
In Christ,
Archbishop Antony, Chairman
Committee for Financial Affairs