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THE IMPORTANCE OF APPORTIONMENTS

 IN THE NEW YORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE

 

The apportionment contributions made by the churches of the New York Annual Conference fund the ministry of the conference and enable it to contribute to the national and international mission of the United Methodist Church. 

 

The asking from each local church is divided into 7 individual apportionment items.  They are:

· Clergy Support

· World Service and Conference Benevolence

· Ministerial Education Fund

· Black College Fund

· Missional Priority

· Africa University

· Administration

The total receipts from these apportionment items help the conference realize its annual budget, which is $8,570,797 for 2006.

Calculating the Apportionments

Questions are often asked about how a local church’s share of the conference budget is calculated.  The  Vision of September 23, 2005 provides a detailed explanation of this.  The explanation is as follows:

Every congregation is responsible for a portion of the annual conference budget.  Several items in a local church’s expenditures are added together to determine that church’s base for supporting the conference budget.  Those items  include local operating expenses for program and ministry, including staff salaries.  Not included are items in payment  of  conference asking or other mission outreach ministry.  Likewise, capital building expenses and utility expenses are not included in the base figure. The number of members in a  congregation is not a factor in determining the church’s share of the conference budget.

The base amounts from every church are added together.  Then each church’s portion is determined by dividing that church’s base support figure by the total of all the local church base support items.  The resulting figure (or percentage) is multiplied by the total conference budget.  The result is the asking for that particular church.

Many formulas have been developed to determine each church’s asking.  The current one in place in the New York Conference seems to be as fair as possible.  The Council on Finance and Administration regularly examines the formula for fairness and makes recommendations for changes if necessary.