CUC Treasurer's Report for May/June 2018

 

Thank you, Congregation, for inviting me to serve you again as Treasurer.

Introductions
I'm Dwight Rudolph. I was your Treasurer from 1998 thru 2000, during the run-up and fundraising for the previous church remodeling.  I was your business manager from roughly 2003 to 2011.  In both those roles I was also bookkeeper.  This time, Lindsey Stevenson is bookkeeper and business manager.  I'll be representing you to the finance, church property, and stewardship committees, providing an additional sanity check on budgeting and spending, and representing those committees to the church Council.  Lindsey will work far harder than I will, and I'm okay with that.

My education is as an electrical engineer, and I've worked most of my career as a computer analyst / programmer / whatever the stylish title is.  I'm currently in the last few years of my career, working for a local gas exploration and production company.

I alternate between the 8 AM and 10 AM services depending on whether I need to walk the dogs early or late.  I try to sit in whatever section of the sanctuary gives me the best opportunity to annoy the pastors on that particular day.  Find me and tell me what you think about the church, property, and finance.

Purpose
What I want to do in this monthly blog is present to you what the finance and property committees are doing, what's up on the church council, and what in the life of the church is making me happy or worried.  I'm going to provide more depth than there's space for in the weekly e-mail blast.  And yes, of course I will encourage you to keep your giving going.  Would you expect anything else?

 May 2018 Financial Results
 The May 2018 pledge / identified giving was about $38,000.  We had hoped for $54,000.  We need to stop having that kind of month.  We are not in trouble yet, and I am not authorizing a panic attack.  Let's see how the summer goes.  (One reason we keep a reserve fund is to provide for operating cash over the summer.)  If you are going to be traveling or skipping church for an extended time over the summer, please consider automated electronic withdrawals to meet your pledge - we have signup forms all over the church, or call us at 303-798-1845 and we will send you the form.

We did underrun expenses in May by about $7,000, but some of that is building maintenance and it WILL catch up.  We have a lot of maintenance.

Building Maintenance is sort of the mechanical elephant in the building.  The Property Committee and Tag Worley, your staff building engineer, are all over maintenance.  The four urgent maintenance events right now:

1. The parking lot has to be sealed and repaired like right now, or it will develop major potholes next winter.  We put this repair off longer than we should have.  Tag has contracted for the repair the week of July 23, and it's covered by funds already set aside.  Wilder Elementary will pay some of the cost.  We will not be doing anything to the tiny piece of parking lot across from the memorial garden, except where we have to keep it at-all usable, because that strip is likely to be removed in the building remodel.
2. There are spots in the building trim, especially soffits and fascia, that are rotting.  Some of these may get addressed in the remodel program, some may not.  Tag will triage the needs and will get repaired immediately the spots that will cause major building damage if we don't deal with them this summer.  
3. The double-door from the deck into Biel Hall is double-plus broken.  It's been repaired too many times and it's done.  We think we need an entire new framed door set, perhaps made form material that doesn't rot eagerly.
4. And then, there's the rooftop cooling units, the Reznors.  They're worn out to the level of metal fatigue and the metal parts aren't available.  The media (the cardboard that soaks up water for the swamp cooler to evaporate) is no longer manufactured and so we are patching together what we have.  Oh, and the roof leaks under the Reznors, resulting in the water-collecting trash cans you see in the Narthex after a good rainstorm or snow melt.  The maintenance company thinks they can keep this equipment alive for maybe three more years, after which it will have to be replaced (and the roof fixed) for $160K to $200K.  We don't have that lying around.

The  Building Remodel Project is still in the planning stages, with a revision of the architectural concept having been delivered in early June.  The current scope includes a major modernization of the external appearance, a much larger and more functional deck, modernizing the Sanctuary, updating and opening up the Narthex and Biel Hall, and a kitchen makeover.  Not much happens in the office building.  There might be layout changes to the parking lot but the work we're doing this summer isn't impacted.



The estimate I saw with this drawing set is about $1.8 million for the remodel itself, plus perhaps $200K for maintenance as described earlier.  The maintenance has to happen even if we have to borrow for it.  The remodeling committee, led by Dr. Rich Boorom, is working on pledges now for the remodeling cost and hopefully will be able to get most of the cost underwritten.  We need this remodel, and we have to do the maintenance, but I'm not going to be able to recommend a large mortgage to finance them.

I expect the plan and the pledging to evolve over the summer and fall, and jell towards a recommendation in the winter timeframe.