Plan for Covenantal Giving - Two Little Fork Challenges

This is a continuing series of eNews articles about the Plan for Covenantal Giving, and the questions and responses from the meeting with leaders of the Diocese. To view previous articles please visit Vestry & Financial Health Archive

Question: Please share two challenges your church has faced during the past year.

Little Fork Church Response:

• RURAL INTERNET: As a result of the pandemic, a new function of worship service is to live stream the events taking place in the church, with both quality video and sound capabilities. Despite our efforts to purchase new equipment allowed within our budget, having in-house experts in the field of electrical engineering, seeking support and recommendations from professionals in the field, our main source of issue is simply the lack of available high-speed internet required to support the bandwidth strength needed to live stream video and audio. In addition, the internet router must be moved from the parish hall where it is installed, over to the church across the courtyard. This requires a manual hook and unhook of the modem each Sunday prior to and following church services. Even using such a creative solution, the internet frequently drops, slows, and has trouble connecting at all. It also means that no one can send documents for their computers to the printer after the router is moved. We are currently focusing our efforts on improving our internal infrastructure such as microphones and sound equipment, to continue to improve the streaming experience, while understanding the geographical barriers we face.
  
  
• TREASURER/BOOKKEEPER: As the church continued to organize policies and procedures, documenting past procedures and configuring new processes, it became clear that the position of Treasurer was also in need of remodeling. The Treasurer’s position is served by a volunteer member of the congregation, but was also heavily laden with many bookkeeping duties. When it became time for a transition to a new Treasurer, it was evident that our current structure resulted in too many hours of work each week for our volunteer Treasurer. We were not able to find a new volunteer with the time and needed expertise to continue in our old model.

We did identify a very competent Treasurer in Dave Jones, but for him to be able to serve, we had to cover the bookkeeping duties in another way. We were incredibly fortunate to have a Parish Administrator who has the capacity to cover these duties, so that the next Treasurer elect could serve in a reduced capacity, making the position more appealing to volunteers and more sustainable for a church our size. However, this was a challenge to our already strained budget, as her new duties would require an increase in her weekly hours from 18 to 24 per week.