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A special task force will be examining whether to recommend a change in the way that Unitarian Universalist congregations provide financial support to the Unitarian Universalist Association, Moderator Jim Key announced at the UUA Board of Trustees’ monthly meeting, held by videoconference on December 17, 2015.
Currently, most UU congregations calculate their contributions to the Annual Program Fund (APF) based on the number of members in the congregation, a method that critics say encourages the underreporting of membership. Congregations in the Southern Region, however, have been using a percentage-of-congregational-budget figure instead, as have some congregations with more than 550 members.
UUA Financial Advisor Larry Ladd will chair the task force. The task force will make its recommendations to the board no later than June, when the board meets at the UUA General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, said Ladd.
In addition to Ladd, other task force members are the Rev. Leslie Takahashi, minister at Mt. Diablo UU Church in Walnut Creek, California; Denise Rimes, president of the District Presidents’ Association and member of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond, Virginia; the Rev. Sarah Stewart, minister at First Unitarian Church of Worcester, Massachusetts, and a former UUA trustee; and Hank Rauch, a certified financial adviser and member of the UU Area Church at First Parish in Sherborn, Massachusetts. The Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, the UUA’s director of Stewardship and Development, will advise the task force.