Sunday May 17, following the service
Please mark your calendars to attend the People’s Church annual congregational meeting on
May 17, following the service. Church members can attend (and vote!) in person and via Zoom on the annual church budget, nominees for the board and nominating committee, and any other church business that arises.
To be eligible to vote at this congregational meeting, People’s Church members must sign a Bond of Union on or before April 5, 2026.
Proposed Budget for the 2026-2027 Church Year
At their May 5 meeting, the People’s Church board of trustees approved the draft budget that will be under consideration by the congregation at the May 17 annual congregational meeting.
You can see the whole line-by-line proposal HERE.
A few things to note:
This is a balanced budget! We are not drawing from our unrestricted reserve fund (the Palmer Fund) to balance this budget for the first time in many years. We are even able to set aside a few thousand dollars to begin saving for the building repairs and upgrades we anticipate in the coming decades. We have achieved this balanced budget through the success of our stewardship campaign and annual fundraisers. Thank you everyone for your continued generosity!
This budget reflects some changes in the church’s staffing over the coming year:
Diane Melvin, our director of religious education, has requested to reduce her position to ¾ time beginning in September. Her reduced compensation reflects that. To maintain our wonderful religious education program, the religious education assistant position will be increased.
Eli Emrich, our church administrator is planning to have surgery this summer and will not be working for roughly six weeks as he recovers. Both our bookkeeper and the religious education assistant will be working increased hours to fill some of the administrator’s essential duties.
We are trying to budget more realistically for our building and grounds related expenses:
Because we now own our solar panels, we will be saving several thousand dollars a year in energy costs.
The costs of snowplowing have been increasing, especially when the winter is snowy. We don’t know what the weather will do this year, but we set this budget line as the average of actual expenses over the last four years.
I included notes in the draft budget where finance committee members and board members had questions. I hope those notes are helpful to you in making sense of it all.
If you have any questions about this budget, please attend our congregational meeting info session at 7:30pm on Wednesday May 13 on Zoom (https://uuma.zoom.us/j/5527667326) or reach out to Rev. Rachel. (She might not have the answer to your questions, but she knows who will.)
With gratitude to everyone who participated in building and fine-tuning the budget – our treasurer, assistant treasurers, finance committee, bookkeeper, administrator, minister, and board of trustees – and everyone whose generosity with their time, talent, treasure, and trust makes what we do here possible. – Rev. Rachel
Click HERE to view the proposed budget for the 2026-2027 church year.