This report covers financial information in the General Fund for January – July, 2007. As the summer season progressed through July, our offerings did not meet budget needs. This is typical for the summer months, and has resulted in the need to transfer money from our Capital Investment Fund into the General Fund to pay bills and meet cash flow problems for the month of July. Additional information on this topic is summarized in the Capital Investment Account report below. The primary problem for the General Fund is that Pledge Income remains well below budget. In this area, we have received $68,712.91, against our budget of $75,831.00. This deficit has been offset to some degree in the Plate area, where we have received $6,549.29, versus our anticipated budget amount through July of $1,750.00. In the area of Flowers, our income received is $1,245.00 compared to our budget amount of $875.00. For our Investment income, we have received $2,436.32, against our budget amount of $2,916.69. Investment income is received quarterly from our endowments and memorial monies held by the Pooled Investment Fund of the Diocese of Minnesota. Information on this area of the report is also found below. With special and offset income areas, our total Income through July is $88,586.43, compared to our approved budget of $81,372.69. Therefore, we are ahead of our budget of Income for this year by $7,213.74. Although this seems like an overall positive position, we have to remember that the budget approved at the January Annual Meeting was a significant deficit budget. Our expense areas are still larger than our total Income.

The Expense areas of our budget are currently below what we anticipated in the deficit budget. Therefore, this is really a “good news/bad news” report. The good news is that Expenses are being well controlled and are under budget; the bad news is that we still have a deficit budget for the year, and are reducing our Capital Investment Fund to meet monthly needs. Personnel expenses total $64,117.92, compared to our budget of $70,612.43. For the area of the Physical Plant, we have spent $18,230.25, versus our budget of $19,264.56. The Program area has expenses of $16,174.31, against our anticipated budget of $15,739.99. With special and offset expenses, the grand total of Expenses is $101,772.81, compared to our budget through July of $105,618.98.

The approved budget at the Annual Meeting anticipated a deficit of $24,244.29 through July. Our current deficit is $13,186.38, or 54.4% of what was anticipated. Please try and keep Pledges up to date each month as we enter the final four months of the year. Any additional contributions above one’s Pledge will be gratefully received, as we try and keep our deficit manageable and under budget.

CAPITAL INVESTMENT ACCOUNT – POOLED INVESTMENT FUND

Our July balance in the Capital Investment Fund at Voyager Bank is $33,614.59, down from last month’s balance of over $39,000. This includes interest earned and some contributions to the Fund during July. It also includes, however, a transfer of $6,000.00 to the General Fund to pay bills and deal with cash flow problems, as a result of smaller offerings in July. In August, we have larger than normal Payroll expenses, as it is a “three payroll period” month, and we have higher utility costs, a church insurance payment, and a large rector’s pension payment due. Therefore, another transfer from this fund to the General Fund will have to be made in August. I anticipate that our balance in the Capital Investment Account by August 30, will be around $28,000.00. As this balance drops, the Vestry and members of St. John’s will need to consider additional fund raising avenues to strengthen our financial position.

The balance in the Pooled Investment Fund of the Diocese of Minnesota remains at $181,219.39. No activity in terms of contributions or withdrawals occurred during July. This fund holds all the memorial and endowment monies of our church. The money in this account cannot be transferred to the General Fund to pay bills without approval from the Vestry, and no money has been transferred for this purpose since early 2001, when the Capital Fund was established. Contributions and Memorial Gifts are always welcome to these two funds.

On a personal note, I want to acknowledge the many hours spent at the church and the excellence of the work by Beth Davis, before she and Mike moved to Vermont. Beth set up all the individual and family information, and all the financial and pledge information of our new office computer software. This was a very challenging task which she did extremely well, as she had to reconcile financial data over the past three year period. She also wrote a “textbook guide” to producing reports and using the new system. This has allowed me and the new Treasurer to inherit a very well organized and easy to utilize financial system, that has corrected all past errors, and is very accurate and flexible. Thanks to Beth for a job very well done!! We will miss Beth, Mike, and family very much.

Respectfully submitted,

William Gray, Bookkeeper