Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We write to tell you of a decision at the Coordinating Council’s meeting in mid-June. As you know, it is the responsibility of the Coordinating Council to recommend to the Annual Meeting a balanced budget for the following year. The budget is developed through a process beginning in the winter that seeks recommendations from each of the programmatic Commissions of our Conference’s life, from the Personnel Committee, and from staff. The Finance Committee prepares the initial draft of the budget and presents it to the Coordinating Council for full discussion and action.

After considerable and prayerful discussion, the Coordinating Council, at its meeting on June 18 at Pilgrim Lodge, took this vote pertaining to the 2005 Conference budget:

VOTED: The Coordinating Council recommends to Annual Meeting 2005 an increase in Fellowship Dues from $7.70 to $10.00, to include the expected Cost of Living increase for 2005. (Each year the budget will reflect the 2001 Annual Meeting vote to increase Fellowship Dues in accordance with the increase in Cost of Living.)
(16 ayes, 0 nays, 1 abstention)

The Coordinating Council looked at all the budget recommendations. We noted the ongoing concern during the last several years that we are substantially underpaying several of our staff. The Personnel Committee has recently completed a comprehensive study of the compensation for all of our staff positions, comparing these to similar positions in other Conferences and in comparable non-profit organizations in our area. This study showed that our total Personnel budget stands over $47,000 behind, based on matters of equity for many of our Conference staff positions. Our Personnel Committee has established a three-year plan to address these equity matters for these positions, toward the end that we live up to our covenantal responsibility to offer just and fair compensation for all Conference staff.

The recommended Fellowship Dues increase will enable us to move forward toward honoring the three-year plan for these equity increases in staff compensation. As well, the increase will enable our Conference to sustain our programs, ministries, and missions at levels requested for 2005 by our Commissions for Community Life, for Spiritual Life, and for Witness Life. We will also be able, after three years of flat-funding, to increase from $137,000 to $154,000 our 2005 Basic Support contribution to the national setting of our beloved United Church of Christ for our ministries and missions in our homeland and abroad, amounting to a 12% total increase in Basic Support since 2001.

We trust that you will prayerfully consider these concerns and share them with your Conference delegates as we all prepare to gather as the Maine Conference at Sunday River at the end of September.