 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 (XXXXI 1) |
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting faces a significant budget crisis for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2003. The simple reality is that continuing the current level of services and programs requires $246,000 more income that we can reasonably project at this point. Achieving a balanced budget requires the curtailment of certain aspects of the services provided by the Yearly Meeting.
Several factors on both the income and the expense side of the budget are causing this crisis. A considerable reduction in income from investments is a major cause of our difficulties. We project that the investment income that supports our basic operations – other than grant-making – will be down by almost 15% between 2002 and 2004. On the expense side, substantial increases in the costs of both health insurance and pension contributions are having an impact, as is an unanticipated significant increase in our space costs at Friends Center. Because of decisions dating back to the beginning of Friends Center, which reduced the costs to Yearly Meeting and others in this space, the Center is now being hit hard with deferred maintenance which must be paid for through increased rents. A further compounding factor as expenses increase and other sources of income lessen is the reality that we have not yet found a way to interpret to a wide range of our Yearly Meeting members the importance of their participating in the Annual Fund.
At the budget conference in early November monthly and quarterly meetings reported a 4% increase in their financial covenants with PYM. Even with this increase it was clear to those present that a significant budget gap remained to be filled. As Friends settled into worshipful reflection regarding how we can meet this challenge, one person lifted up the importance of seeing this crisis as an opportunity. Other Friends resonated with that message, but what are the things we will need to hold onto if that is not to be mere rhetoric?
First, it is essential that we not allow our necessary attention to the trimming required by this crisis to diminish our awareness of the rich range of services which the Yearly Meeting does, and will continue to offer. The Yearly Meeting provides to its constituent monthly meetings and its individual members valuable services to strengthen religious education programs of all types; to nurture our young people in vital ways; to help clerks, treasurers, pastoral care givers, and others to serve their own Monthly Meetings better so that their Meetings are stronger; and to give many other kinds of spiritual and practical assistance to Meetings and members. PYM also supports and works with other Quaker institutions – for example, schools and those that serve the elderly – to support better education and care for our members. Finally, PYM supports Meetings and members in pursuing many kinds of work and witness for justice and peace that are born of our spiritual convictions, and help “mend the world.”
All of this is made possible by our staff and other Friends working in strong partnership. We are grateful to all who give financial support to make these services possible.
Secondly, if this is to be an opportunity to live more fully into witnessing to the Spirit’s presence in the world, we will need to ask what we truly care most deeply about and most want to do as we shape the future for the Religious Society of Friends in this area. In that context, it is a time to consider where our work may need to be different or done better. We will need to exercise our very best collective spiritual and intellectual judgment – what we call discernment – about what we should do as a Yearly Meeting. It will also be a time of individual and collective discernment regarding the extent to which it is rightly ordered to cut back our services to meet available resources and the extent to which it is rightly ordered to expect Friends to give more, if possible, in order to increase our resources.
Coming to a special called meeting on December 7, the Financial Stewardship Committee (FSC) had to bring into balance a budget for PYM (for 2003/04) that had $246,000 more in project expenses than income. With input from the staff leadership, FSC made cuts in expenses of roughly $214,000 and planned to increase service fees by $10,000. The committee plans to cover the rest of the General Fund deficit this coming year by using income from some designated funds.
The reductions proposed by staff leadership, and those accepted or added by FSC, were viewed with deep regret, because each one means the loss of something of real value to Friends. Each cut may weaken the vitality of our Yearly Meeting, or our ability to serve and witness in the world, in some significant way. The actions proposed in order to get to a balanced budget include:
- Eliminating the residential dimension to our Yearly Meeting Sessions in 2003.
- Ending the staff support for “Interpreting Quakerism to Visitors” at Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia, and for the Nonviolence and Children Program; and reducing the collection and the staffing in the Library. Note: Overall we are eliminating one full-time and two part-time staff positions and cutting one full-time position to half-time.
- Cutting the funds for occasional staff assistants to help with Middle School and Young Friends conferences.
- Drastically reducing funds to support the (volunteer) travel of members of working groups, especially to conferences or events outside the PYM area.
Interim Meeting will see these and other recommendations included in the budget for 2003-04 when it meets on Thursday, January 23. Interim Meeting will be asked to approve the budget for mailing to Monthly Meetings. Approval of the budget is on the agenda for our March sessions of Yearly Meeting. In preparation for those sessions it is important for Friends to know where we are and to understand what we have had to give up to make expenses and income match. A chart detailing the changes in the budget was sent to clerks of Monthly Meetings in December.
In summary, the reality is that we cannot spend money we do not have. Financial Stewardship Committee, in collaboration with the Staff Administrative Team and the Standing Committees, has worked valiantly to build a balanced budget, predicated on estimates of income which are as realistic as possible based on the current market and the experience of past giving. Should there be a significant increase in the income of the Yearly Meeting this certainly will be utilized to restore some of the services which now need to be curtailed.
It would be inappropriate to end this report without acknowledging the distress and pain which these cuts cause. None were made lightly and all were made within the context of the recently approved priorities established by Interim Meeting (see PYM News, September/October 2002). The questions asked in determining the cuts included: What will do the least damage to PYM’s capacity to help strengthen our monthly meetings? What services, resources, or opportunities are or can be provided to our members by others? What are the costs of making specific reductions? How quickly can some be made?
If we are to realize the opportunity inherent in the present crisis, it will be essential for Friends throughout the Yearly Meeting to ask themselves, “What do we really want our Yearly Meeting to be and do?” Talk with others in your Meeting, and more widely, about these questions. We will be richer and stronger as a Yearly Meeting if we emerge from this crisis with greater clarity about what our work as Friends – with one another and in the world – should be. We will also be richer and stronger if we emerge resolved to make a deeper commitment to our community of faith to support that work. Surely that would be a blessing, even if it came to us in a very unexpected way.
Arlene Kelly
Central Philadelphia Meeting
Clerk of Yearly Meeting
Chris Mahon
Woodstown Meeting (NJ)
Clerk of Interim Meeting
Jacqueline Bowers
Falls Meeting (PA)
Clerk of Financial Stewardship Committee
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM