Finance Committee Report for December 2014

Mission

The Finance Committee consists of Steven Jares, Cindy Pfeiffer and Christine Hempowicz. It was formed to review and provide recommendations on the financial reporting methods of HSA-UWC USA, especially in response to a number of suggestions from the U.S. membership that there be more transparency in reporting the income and the expenses of our National Church.

 

Procedure

All the committee members were requested to sign confidentiality agreements in regard to their receipt and review of HSA-UWC financial statements. The committee was given the 2011 and 2012 audited financial statements. The income and expenses reported in these statements were generated by previous administrations. A draft copy of the HSA-UWC 2013 audited financial statement was presented to the committee in early October 2014. The committee felt that the sharing of this information was an important step toward achieving transparency. The documents themselves are quite complex and require a certain level of financial background to understand accurately. The committee started to review these financial statements but found them hard to penetrate. The result was that the committee could form only a general overview of the Church’s financial situation without a detailed understanding.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

 

The committee also was given the President’s Report for 2013 as a reference document. The Finance Committee did review this document and feels it provides the basis for reporting financial information to the general public.

 

Goal

The committee discussed the desire to reconcile the information given in the President’s Report with the HSA 2013 financial statement. Given the complexity of the 2013 financial statement, the committee was unable to adequately reconcile these two documents.

 

Recommendations

Perhaps in the President’s Report for 2014 Dr. Balcomb could assemble a working group from the National Council to assist in the compilation of the next Financial Committee report.