How are how are we going to uh or when are we going to have a tight adjustment if a tight adjustment was coming? Uh but it seems that with inflation and everything else happening in the market and everything uh this is where the economy that that's where our tide has been leading and I'm very glad I'm very glad to be able to see these numbers. Um as you can see if we were to go back to previous years. Uh that would hurt our budget because we have no there has no way of staying behind our unfortunately because of inflation all of our expenses have have also been increasing. Uh now this is just a comparison type to budget. I'm glad you guys are listening to the to the audio now. Um, so we also have a tight budget comparison. So you're able to see here that we finished with a gain of 117. We did had other months that that were keeping us behind. Uh, for example, the month of June, we had a loss of 20%.
If they want to talk to us that we were also office. So it was great to see that we were able to finish the 1.7%. Uh, you know, I got a little ambitious at the end and I said, "God, Can you give me 60?
Okay.
And I said, hey, why why not? You know, why not ask five six million? And he gave me 5.5. But he also reminded me that he had already given me 500,000. Remember, we had reported that we did receive 500,000.
I was going to tell him.
So, so when I remember that, I said, "Okay, so you messed that up and said, "Hey, I did give you the big billion.
So, praise God for that, you know. Praise God because God also has sense of humor. So, so I'm glad that
he did he he did, you know, he did give us the 6 million that we were waiting for. Uh this is that tight comparison. Uh 24 25. Uh last year we were at 37.1. We and this year we finished with 37.5. So that is very good. Now I wanted to show you also how we have been performing. Since we're going to be getting rid of some of the I wanted to create a summary so we could see how much we have been growing in our time. So starting 2020 we were at 32 million and that was a very difficult year that we ended with a loss of 4.22%. But then on the following year we had a gain of 12% 10% and 11%. So these years are the ones that you know these three years are the ones that are helping us um increase our research. Uh they are the ones that provided a caution for the upcoming year. So it is it is a great time for 21 22 23 with uh in terms of our tithe from there. Praise God that we have also been able to maintain small increases in our tithe. So that means that there's continuation of growth. So overall we've been able to re receive uh in the last five years $220 million. Uh praise God for that, you know. Amen. Uh so that has resulted in an increase uh from our budget of 11.3 uh resulting in a gain of 5.42%. So this is amazing. We're going to see our investment account and you know even though we we don't have as much we didn't retain as much as we wanted to We with this 11.3 gain that we had estimated it has multiplied. Why? Because there's multiple debts that we have been able to pay. You know, we we paid camp uh a loan that we had for um ABC. We had another one for Camp Falls. We were able half a million dollars. We were able to pay an outstanding uh invoice that we had for years that it was 900,000. We paid it stuff. Um, we paid like a million to our churches that we have made promises throughout the years and we have not been able to pay. So, you know, this is the jar that keeps on giving oil. This is the neverending um oil supply. So, we praise God for for this blessings that we have been able to see. Um, we're going to take a motion. I would take a motion or I would take questions first. Um, anyone has any questions regarding our Was there any windfall tie? There was any one specific big gift that that you could identify?
Not that we could identify, but during those three years, we did hear a lot of people giving tithe or even giving the full amount of their PPP loan um of their stimulus check. Uh we also heard a lot of unfortunately a lot of people you know were passing away during that time. So a lot of trust, a lot of properties that were being sold and and gifted, you know, and tied in that amount. So, it was not something that we could identify. It was just something as a whole that we were seeing. If no other question, I would take a motion like the
move.
All right. Any second? Thank you. All those in favor say I.
I.
All right. Any other comment or opposers? All right. All right. It's moved in second. Um, so we're going to go to our next section. We are going to go to our accounts receivable and um look All right. Um Um You guys don't have the hand out. Okay. Hand out. Kathleen, I'm going to lo you back in. Um can you help me Uh, can you go to the website and then pull up the AR report off of the website?
Some reason it doesn't Oh, okay. Jeff, if I want to plug it in, then um it just shows my home screen. Bar. Can you make it? Can you Okay, we here in the screen we have screen we have we were pending okay we can get that that get result that we held January 13 specifically to go to academy. So these are the minutes that we also need to approve. Um I would take a motion for this.
Thank you. Any second?
Second.
Thank you. Um any comments? No. All right. All those in favor say I.
Any oppose? All right. It's carried.
All right. So let's go ahead and now we can go to our um accounts receivables.
Okay. So, sorry about the technical difficulties, guys.
Okay, awesome. So, yeah, accounts receivable. I want to go over this really quick. I have a um four points that I want to make. Um first of all, very happy to show you guys that you can see right over here. This right here, negative 5% So, our overall AR went down by 5%. It's great news. Um, so, uh, a lot of the reasons why this happened is because we've been working very closely with our region directors and um, and establishing a a process of escalation. And so, what we would do is we would, you know, we would email out first and then when we get no response or u lack of response, then we kind of go we go up to me And then after that we go up to uh region directors and region directors. You guys have been cracking the whip. You guys have been really uh uh it it's made such a big impact. And you can kind of see it actually more on these numbers right here. So this green section and this purple section here. Um you can see a decrease of 36%. A decrease is a good thing. And decrease of 26%. And I can honestly say that I I do believe this has um a lot to do with the region directors getting involved and um making a very making it very clear this is very important to to the conference.
Excuse me.
Yeah. So sorry. So the 36% this is for all the the church ARS. Yeah. Um and the the last one here the 26% is the payroll AR. Um also we've we've had new processes that we put in place that have made a good impact on on the AR. Um and you know we have a new chief accountant that has also um uh learn how to do this process very well. So um that has helped us help has helped us out a lot too. So although we do have negative 5% um I don't want to deter from the fact that it has also we have areas where we need to improve. Right. So, um I want to point those out right now. So, right here we had an increase of 18%. And this is labeled right here as uh our customers AR. So, what is this customer made made from? It's made from um various things but the significant ones are camped falls and ABC. So, Camper Falls We've had an increase of 13 13% of the uh for the AR. So has increased from last year 13%. Um ABC 51%. Um we were going to hand out those books. Um but in the meantime, you don't have to take my word for it. Uh we are going to handle that a little bit later. But uh I have uh a list of all the the churches that owe ABC uh money. So, if region directors, if you could take a look at that for me and um in the same way that you guys did for the for the other AR, if you could um kind of crack down on them as well, help us out a little bit. Uh we don't actually have the ABC books on our books, all the details of it. We just kind of have the the the overall number. So, um that report will give you the actual uh details of what each church owes. So, So, that's going to be an area where we're going to need help from our region directors to to get the AOR a little bit back on track. Camp Falls, as you guys know, um there was uh some damage to the to to the fall to the to the location. So, um that has affected AR. And then the next area I want to go over because there's no
Yeah. And also, you know, the staff hasn't really been fully staffed, I would I would say. So, um there's been that. And also on on my part, um I need to be better at uh getting those reports to our manager over there so that he can um track down uh the missing AR. That's something I have to work on. um that I will do better at this year. But that that is um that's a that's a good question. Next, um the other significant area where AR has increased, you'll see here 31%. Whereas everything else was a negative right here. And that is our schools. Our schools has been have been struggling and uh we have also been struggling getting uh AR from them. So uh what does this 30% consist of? So it's mainly so they have been really good at at with teacher billing. So like paying for their actual salary of teachers, they have been very good at that. They have been timely on that. But the other kind of the things that are payroll related but not necessarily you would call salary um are the ones where they're struggling with. So that includes uh retirement, healthcare, uh supplemental insurance, so that includes long-term disability, AD and D, supplemental life, um and those kind of things and HSA, um the employees opt into that. And so they have been struggling with that. Um and we've noticed that for them that they have just not been paying. So in December, our answer to this AR, our answer to this is we have been instead of just billing them and kind of waiting for them to give permission for us to to take money. We have been more of a of the mindset or more of the strategy of we're going to tell you how much we're pulling out um and it's up to you guys to either stop us, you know, tell us that you don't have the funds or um if there's no response and we just go ahead and collect it. Uh we started that in December of 2025 and that's been going on um without really any hitch um in till now, but that has been our fix for this problem. Um, also on top of that, we have um hired a uh a financial person in the education realm that's going to help us uh clean up this AR as well. That's part of her duties. Um, finally, I want to go over end with a little bit of a good note here.
Property tax is not part of this presentation. Um yeah, so this is uh fund 10 and fund 10 is more of operations and fund 18 is more of the property side of it. So um yeah, we're not presenting on that at this time. So um the other major AR is of course our remittance. And so I wanted to show you guys that out of all of 2025, we only have 4,000 uh 4,800 85 remaining to collect that represents less than 1% of total AR for uh for remittance. So this is great news. Um so you can see this little graph here. You can't even see the amount that um that is is still outstanding.
Yes.
As of as of today, we still don't have it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All these numbers that I Uh no so for remittance it's specifically for today but for all the other errors it's as of December uh 31 2025 yeah so yeah I just wanted to show you that um our AR remittance is is is going very well um the only church that we have missing we have been reaching out to them um very diligently but uh we just haven't been able to collect it yet. Um, so that concludes my AR report. Any questions? If there's no other questions.
All right. Well,
all right. It's moved and it second.
Um, any other comments regarding this that you would like to explore? If not, all those in favor say I.
Any opposed? All right, it's carried. Thank you, Nick. All right, let's continue with our report. It's 6:45, so you know, we're moving along very well. We need to keep the rhythm flowing. Okay, now we're going to be getting into the difficult part. Now, we're going to be entering in our financial statements. Happy New Year. Happy Chinese New Year.
All right, we're going to go ahead and present our statement of financial position. Um, this is how we perform. Sound is clear now. Great. Thank you so much. So, this is how We ended the year 2025. We have not closed the year. Um we still have some items that are pending from our audit that we have not entered yet. So we're we're still um waiting on some entries there. So we cannot close 2025 yet, but hopefully soon we're going to be able to close. Uh the majority of our entries has they have been done already. Um so this is this is very accurate. on how we ended 2025. So, as we can see, we have a decrease in our cash section. Um, we did had last year more cash available. Unfortunately, we've had some cash needs. So, um, so we've needed to request and withdraw some of the funds that we have are our Morgan Stanley accounts. Um, we do have another investment account. Our investment account, it it keeps on growing. Uh we'll talk a little bit about our investment accounts and what's the strategy that we have been following. Um remittance receivable you know we do have a receivable higher uh because of our tithe gain that we had. Uh we also are seeing an increase in our accounts receivables. Um just so so um to remind this committee that this amount um has some amounts included that are are pending to be cleared out. Um and one of them is um the 2.5, right? 3.1. So that we still have pending on this on this amount. So that amount will come off of the of the receivable once we're able to make that entry. Um inventory and prepaid expense and expenses that we have. Um we're having a total assets of 50,27,000. Uh which is a decrease over last year. And um we also have our liability section that we have been seeing. We also have a liability here for 2.5 that we're pending to clear. Um it's still coming up on our financial statements and other amounts that that we have pending. Um it comes up to total liabilities of 12 million versus last year that we had. I'm sorry I didn't correct the the year. It should be 24 and 25 actual. Uh Um and we have our total net assets. So um total liabilities and net assets are equal to our total assets and we are in balance when it comes to our statement of financial position. Now where it gets more difficult is on our financial statement state uh our statement of changes in net assets. Um we did had an increase in type but there's some things that I want to mention that affected our changes in assets. Um, our income performed well, but there are some items that did not. Two of the items that did not um Yes, that's correct. We did we uh our net assets increase. So, that is that is a great great uh um item to be see to see to to see in our financial statements. Now, as we we are seeing our changes in that asset. Um like I was saying some of the income that we did not receive is our camp falls um our camp falls was not able to operate and had a loss of income. So we ended with a loss of 400,000. So that is impacting uh in uh expenses incurred income not received. So 400,000 uh you can see it on your financial statement that is an item that affected our bottom line. Um, another item that affected our bottom line was um, ABC. Unfortunately, ABC ended up with a loss of 50,000. Um, one of the things that I do have to mention on ABC is that they're paying two two amounts that are well, I would say three amounts that are the the higher expenses that they have. Uh, first of all, they pay for their own general liability insurance. And because of that, um, all of our policies have been seeing an increase in in general liability and and overall all of the policies. So that is affecting the operation of the ABC. Another item that's affecting the ABC is that they also pay for um a retirement amount uh which is part of the old plan for retirement. So they also pay a portion of that amount. Um another item that is also um not helping them is that they are paying a rent a rental fee to us for the space. Why are they paying a rental? Uh the reason they're paying a rental fee is because years ago uh the ABC took a loan to buy it back. Well, the conference took a load on behalf of the ABC to buy it back from Pacific Press. This happened many years ago. I don't even remember how many. I was not here, so it must have been more than 10 years. Um so they bought it back from Pacific Press and and to buy it back. They opened a loan with the union and decided that the ABC was going to be responsible for that amount with with its gains basically. So, a rental amount equivalent to a a payment towards this loan was assessed to the ABC. We're still assessing that amount to the ABC, but the loan is no longer there. You know, praise God, we were able to pay off that loan. We don't have it anymore. So, basically, that is income that should be coming back to the conference, but in reality it's it's not happening because they're incurring with the loss. So, um, at this point, we don't want to we would not like to see us losing our ABC. Uh, we're only two ABC's in our union. Correct.
So, we are almost the last last one standings. Uh, there are some of them that are operating their ABCs only. to fulfill quarterlys and monthly subscriptions and so on, but not a physical store anymore, which we have the ability of having a physical store. So, what we would like to do is we would like to create some kind of rebranding for our ABC store, something that will change the name. It would be kind of like a change of management uh so that we can revamp our ABC. The products are going to be the same, but uh but the name of the ABC would be different. So this is an item that will be coming soon uh to our executive committee and uh those are another item that is um not helping our our changes in net assets is that um we paid um a settlement last year. We paid some settlements uh for uninsured or not covered claims that uh legal claims that we had. Um this is not the first time that we've had to pay an amount like that. Um and it's very unfortunate because it's costing us uh some funds. Um around I would say that somewhere around 300,000 uh we have some settlements that we had to pay. In addition to those settlements, we also had to incur some legal costs. So the combination of all those items that came unexpected last year is it's what's affecting in our bottom line. Now I want to talk a little bit our expenses because our expenses I do recognize that are lower budgeted than the actual. What happened there? Why are we seeing that the amounts? Well, I already um explained a portion of it which is unexpected expenses. Um another item that I evaluated is or analyzed is that normally I don't budget 100% for our employees. I'm always um you know having some kind of a cussion that we are going to have some vacancies in the field. Unfortunately, right now all of our positions are pretty much filled. Uh last year we had 120 FTEs and every position was taken. Maybe like one or two, but uh you know we had an LA metro that was fully staffed. We have a Hispanic region that is fully staffed. So all of these uh you know bigger regions that that we have within the five you know it it was expected. We also have uh pretty much 100% here at the office. Uh normally we have a vacancy, two vacancies here and there and we'll we'll spend some time uh trying to recruit someone, but unfortunately uh when it comes to directors, uh we did had one one position of a director that was vacant, but pretty much all the other ones were taken. So, we're seeing all these items that are coming in as unexpected expenses. Um, so when we finished the year, we ended up with a with a loss of around 1.2 million. Now, why are we seeing here a loss of 735,000? Um, if you uh going back to the previous conversation about the 500,000, uh we did receive those funds that were received at Western Adventist Foundation. Um it is income that came into our conference. Uh it's just income that was placed in a different fund. So we made a decision of allocating that income into our our financial statements because it is income that should be allocated as needed. Basically it it they're funds that are coming unrestricted. So that's why we allocated the income and we're seeing 735,000 as a loss this year. Um now another item that I want to mention about this in the year 2023 uh is the was the conclusion or a five-year term uh before our constituency. So during those years we we presented a combined audited statement and back in 2023 when they were auditing our our information um it came to their attention that we had an open an open uh claim an open lawsuit. At that point, it was assessed that we needed to record an expense of 1.5 million. We did not know what was going to be the total amount, but it had to be expensed in our um financial statements according to GAP. So when the year 2024 happened, we were able to close that. We were able to close that and when we discussed in executive committee and also I believe this committee we discussed um how entities are responsible according to the working policy how every entity is responsible for their own financial obligations. So at that time we transfer out that liability out of the conference and into the institution that was involved in this lawsuit. Um that amount has not been adjusted in our 2024 that is part of some of the audit credited entries that are missing. Now, the amount that is going to be increasing our net assets, it's 1.5. So, why is this something that it's relevant? Because whereas we're here here seeing a loss, uh we are going to be seeing our net assets increasing on the following meeting that we're going to be having. So, it's going to compensate because last year we ended very much our bottom line was balanced. Uh but now with this 1.5 that is coming in, we're going to be ending with a gain, a gain that basically is going to be carried over for for this year. So even though you know we do see a 735 unfortunately it is it is something that uh it's it's something that we did not start spending on things that we didn't need. It was just that we came a year that we had higher expenses than expected. Um Camar Falls um Cam Falls, we did uh end the year with a 400,000 around 400,000 debt uh loss, but that was due to the loss of income of not being able to operate. But in the meantime, God did take care of us. God did supported us because now we have a new road. Now we are able to have our plumbing system, our water system um up and running. So it was minimum the expense that we incurred and that was due to the blessing of God because he he just provided the right people for the right time. Um Cam Ced Falls, we're trying to reopen. Um we already have groups that have scheduled uh and they just call us in that they want to come back, but we are planning on having a work be that is something that is in the in in the plans. Uh we still don't have we have not finalized the details, but we do know that we want to take people that would are willing to help us. Uh people that willing to help us over at Camp Falls clean out, you know, so that we can start seeing what is needed. Uh it doesn't mean that we're going to have people up in the roof or, you know, changing heavy things. We don't want that. We don't want anyone getting hurt, but we want to make sure that uh that are, you know, cleaning, for example. That's something that we can all help with. So, we can do some cleaning. We can do um some um leaves, picking up some leaves, maybe some light painting, you know, some of the things that we can take care of. So, that is something that we're going to be taking care of. Um, any questions about this?
Oh, yes. Go ahead, Steve.
How much of a loss can be attributed to the portion of the 1.5?
Um, so the 1.5 that was an expense that that was incurred but uh but will be reversed. So so we're going to be able to reverse I'm if I'm understanding correctly. Um now how much of the loss can be contributed? Well, we had a loss of 400,000. We had a loss of income uh of 400,000 and the settlement was around 300,000. In addition to that, we also had an increase in our master policy. Uh That was also unexpected. We did had an increase in our master policy for 400 higher than expected. Uh the overall bill had an increase of 46%. Uh half of it was expense in one year and half of it in the in the in the following. But this is something that it's going to be hitting our churches very soon and our ARs might be affected this year because this is something that it's it's going to be very difficult for our churches.
Um did I answer your question? and Steve.
Yeah.
Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.
Let me I don't want to speak about institutions, but ARM is struggling and we and and we're struggling because of it. We'll have great loss down the chain. We only conference that's feeling this pain. I know a conference that was increased 91%. And their master plan we got 49%. Can you imagine what are you going to do? How we going to balance our budget? We we brought this up to 1080 president uh few weeks ago with the president saying we got to address this issue. It cannot go undressed. Uh there are conferences struggling worse than we are. Even though our struggling used to probably used to be worse than it is today, I'm thankful for the relief we have for the good good treasury work, the carefulness being done. But be praying about this. I told tongue and cheek, but it's still true. When arm could not come through for us at Camp Falls, and we're still going to pursue this. We haven't got a dime. Yeah. camps and denied when AR had to come through the armor of the Lord came through with these companies that said hey we'll step in and we'll do this road because we need the road as bad as you do it so we'll do it free of charge and the road's better than it was before
and then when they found out the our insurance hasn't covered anything at the uh uh the water they said we'll we'll do all the work. All you have to do is get the the equip the whatever uh equipment or not equipment but whatever pipes or anything that you need. And we found out the pipes were not totally damaged. Pipes and they they got in there. They hooked it up for us. And all they have to do is do some welding to get the uh the sand trap put on there. But we got the water tested and usable and working. They said, "We'll bring our welder in, weld it for you."
So, I mean, you can't imagine you're talking about a million dollars worth of work they basically did for us.
Amen.
That's the arm of the Lord.
Amen.
Thank you. So, this is what we have for our financial statement. This is how we ended the year. Um, like guys, that it's going to be challenging this coming year. I had already mentioned some of the pending items that we have. Um we are going to be able to retain additional tithe amount which is going to help us for 2026. Um this is something that that is going to be um we're it's going to help us retain additional funds here at the conference. It's interesting that now it doesn't want to present Thanks.
Um, so yes, it's it's great news that we're having uh the 3% retaining our conference that it's going to be equivalent to somewhere around keeping a 1 million somewhere around there. Yeah, depends on how much type we receive this year. Some of the challenges that we're facing, we have an increase in healthcare for 600,000. Um, that is a significant increase in our health care also insurance premiums we are also seeing um we know we just mentioned the 46% that hit us with a master policy uh we also have an increase in salaries 2.7% now um something that unfortunately you know we our employees are experiencing is that yes we're we're going to be seeing a 2.7% in in July but this year it's an adjustment year when comes to payroll, we get paid every two weeks.
So every every 10 years um there's an adjustment of weeks. So this year we have instead of 26 pay periods, we have 27 pay periods. So it's the same salary but stretched out in 27 instead of 26. So a lot of all all of us we're seeing decreases in our in our bi-weekly pay. So un uh there's nothing much we could do uh but we are going to see that increase of 2.7 um in July. So when it's going to actually hit or it's going to be significant to the employee this 2.7 is going to be January of 2027 because that's when they're going to see the adjustment going back to 26 instead of 27. So in 2027 they're going to see a bump in January and in July. So you know Unfortunately, it'll be a tight year for for all of us, but then we're going to be able to recover in 2027. So, if you're planning to buy a car, don't do it this year. You know, wait until the next one and then then you're going to have the space. Um lawsuits that we have open, we still have lawsuits that are open. Unfortunately, one of the lawsuits that we have open, there's a lean against one of our properties. Um that is around 1.6 that we have open. Um that is also running this year's expenses. Uh we are hopeful that that we are that that we can resolve the situation, but it is something that it's hurting us at the moment to have that lawsuit open. We also have another lawsuit that's open that we don't have a settlement amount yet. Uh but it could be it could be also a high value claim. So So those are the things that right now are threatening our 2026 um closure of Camp Cedar Falls. Well, we're slowly trying to bring back Cam Cedar Falls. We're slowly trying the 25 vision committee uh you know, we have a new youth director and he has a great uh set of skills and experience in the area of camp and youth. So, we're working along along with him to be able to prepare something that uh churches will be interested in coming back. The whole purpose of coming uh to open in Camp Falls is to be able to serve our conference. That is the only purpose of why we have a camp. So we we want to make sure that our churches are utilizing this space. Um and ABC we continue seeing you know a loss in the ABC. So we're going to be able to um to further assess how are we going to how are we going to be seeing uh the year 2026. So these are some items and I would like us to vote this section of the financial state. Before we move on to the next item
regarding the
yes
regarding the ABC have we considered a stop arg
yes it can be presented in this body
um because yes we are assessing a a monthly rent I believe it's somewhere around 2,000 a month um we do who treat them as renters. Um we are the ones that are paying um the facility basically maintenance and everything else. Um we take care of that but we do assess an amount um to the ABC.
So by the money we collect from them we give maintenance to the president.
Not quite. It's not quite the exchange because this year unfortunately you know Um it seems that when when something breaks, everything breaks
and all of our properties that that we have parsonage and everything, they're having plumbing issues, you know, roots growing in the plumbing and these type of, you know, services, they're somewhere around 40,000 uh because they have to dig in, replace the whole thing and go back. So unfortunately for the ABC, we had some plumbing issues last year and this year we also had another one. Um, so you know we are we're spending quite some time when it comes to to the ABC to try to So that money is not like something extra we get. It's just money that's being
Yes. But because we we're not presenting any gains basically it's not a true um you know it's not a true transfer
and the amount that that they paid last year um it was 26,760.
So our landlord expenses are much greater than the rent we're getting.
Yes.
And you know we we share the build our in that same building.
So we do share the building and have different so we share that building but uh obviously they're using it much more than we do because they use it only studio. times. So, um, but we see it as a ministry and the reality is we don't operate as a business. We operate as a business that be a totally different model.
We'd have to pay higher taxes. We have to get out of 5.3C. We have to open it up and do advertising and community. We're just operating as a ministry to our our our people,
those who pay with food stuff. So, you know, it's a low advertising stuff because there was no advertising paper. You know, do we do some on applying to a churches stuff, but uh it's really a low price there. It's really a ministry to our members and other people would come by, but it's it's not it's an internal ministry and it it's used a lot, but just hasn't been used enough to use fake money. Um it's a tossup. What to do? Do we We thought we'd go one more month. I won't go here at least before we
Yeah.
Maybe we try the the the hurricane we had a couple years ago blew the sign out. So you might drive by and say there's no sign. You're right. There's no sign. It used to be called the veggie food. I don't know. What was the name?
Christian. I think we could have called it Christian Veggie Dog, but I thought it was So we're gonna rebrand with a different name and a new sign there. They try to if if they accept this by rebranding, maybe draw a few more people to visibility to try to buy it. See if we can make up some of these losses and more sales.
We ever tried to be online store people,
you know, on the online store you could be with uh with uh Pacific Press or a lot of other that are lined you I I the truth is even on veggie much of the Linda projects or Worthington project you can go down to a project or something and buy the but you can't go in one place there
yeah
and this is that convenience but no we haven't tried really anything they order. I need to go to Pacific Press with books or places like that. Amazon if there's books at a store, you know, online and brick and mortar. That's about it.
Yeah. And we used to be at um Pacific Press online because they do have a website that's connected to all the ABCs. The problem that we were having is that we were being forced to give discounts and we were losing money and shipping was very expensive and a lot of the times they would offer free shipping but guess what we were the ones that were paying for the shipping so it didn't make too much sense for us and we said we need to get out of this um we have not explored of doing it on our own because we don't have the infrastructure for us or the funds to allocate for that but yeah like Elder said uh Chris was saying you know it's it's a difficult market when it comes to books.
Now, the good news for us is that our territory is small.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, there are people quite a ways away and stuff, but overall, if you look at other conferences, we have a small footprint and so we can serve a lot of our from that ABC if we if we continue to do it. We want to do it. It's kind of broad, you know, anybody 10 easy, you know, on the side of five. It's very easy to uh come up here. It's a little harder if you're down city, but when you come up for it, it's easy to stop by. But we think we can continue to serve as much as we can if we want to do that. Maybe a suggestion, maybe have the communication department run a u video, something that we could share in our churches.
Sure. Cuz And we have many members that don't you see between families they they don't have a an idea that we have a book store or health store. So if every church you know we promote or we have a video professionally about the services and what we have the books and the children the children ministry book that they have. That's something that we could uh the communication department could put together and share it with us and we have time during our announcements to share the video and you know support our bookstore.
Sure we can do that.
The other way that we support we spend when we go to Pacific to buy book there has some books there that we can use for evangelism.
Yes.
That we can buy it.
Yes.
And we can use that money.
Correct.
And and I believe if we are planning to do evangelist we have to consider part of the value of our value to consider those and try to keep it up in healthy understanding.
Sure. That's the uh what's the customer base? Is it just
Oh, mainly our churches.
This church. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. I would say
money. This is not Let's be honest. It's not
profiting or Yeah.
You're not going to make money. So, it was just to maintain our churches. I just want us to have clarity on this.
Right. As I was saying, we don't have a we don't have a business model.
Okay. There's no studies that have been done that sort of do a demographic study or what's what products do people really want. This is just to supply the local church. Is that mostly the local church? We've had we've had an influencer or big influencer on who's online find the store, advertise it, oh go look what I found.
Yeah.
All this. So we and we do have regular customers that are vegan, vegetarian, it's a popular thing. But to go to that model of a business model, we have to do what the conference does. Yeah.
And we have to we need to store at a location like in a strip mall.
You need to you need to advertise and you need to make a larger footprint. You have to bring in all kinds of food products including bulk food because a lot of people look for bulk
and you'd have to go with uh books of different authors and stuff not just admin authors we do have two of those the model we can go with but that's a significant investment to get there
understood you mentioned earlier that if you wanted to go just to the model of you know being a space where people get you know their quarters and so on we could certainly do that trying to understand like I know for me so I adittedly so as a millennial so I only go to the conference when I come I mean I only go to the ABC when I come to the conference and I remember it's there and I go and I was there a couple times and honestly I'll be honest with you man I
I don't know there just I I I look at Bibles I order Bibles but I always look at the cost there and I'm like there's no way there's no there was one Bible like $20 more and I got on Amazon for $20 less and I'm just like I want to be a good steward. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like I'm gonna order online and um none of my millions are you know I and so maybe They're gonna maybe the ABC is going to be bent to other churches. I I would love to see the numbers like what does that really look like and what numbers for you as CFO would make you go okay this is worth keeping you know even if it's just for our churches. Um I just kind of want to I would love to see the metrics and kind of be honest with that and be like let's make an honest decision. Um I know for a lot of people it's nostalgia. Um that's fine I reckon but I want us to I feel like we need to be good stewards of that. And so what really is the for um this is first year we've actually lost a significant amount. We lost a few thousand here and that's why we've hesitated said is this the time to end it?
Y
or should we will you go try to refine it? Is this the first year we've had a loss like I said
yeah because like you said you know our main purpose is to exist for our churches you know to provide material that's needed for churches um quarterlys um uh Christian material. So that is that is why we exist and you know yeah when it when you come to pricing on Amazon you can't compete with Amazon that's just not not possible but hey people still go to Barnes & Noble
you know they still go to Barnes & Noble
Jones
Jones or building right now.
Yeah,
it's a big market, but we're not trying to compete in the closet.
We can't continue to $6,000 a year or more.
Yeah. Yeah. And and we are going to be reducing the hour of operations. We still haven't settled on on how will that look like because we do see that, you know, we're open very very much six days a week and there are some days that people don't come as often. You know, Sunday is a very heavy day, Friday is a very heavy day. So, we've been analyzing the sale patterns and everything. Uh so, instead of opening at, you know, at 9:00 a.m., maybe some days we're going to open 11 and so on. So, we're we're still trying to come up with something that would help reduce the cost um to continue operating our ABC.
I would say if I could add not I'm not an expert in retail, but the the um the storefront model is being greatly challenged like globally by Amazon and other online retail. has been around for for a few decades. And it it has also challenged traditional storefronts, but now more so with with Amazon and other vendors, the the immediaccy of getting something shipped, you know, almost as the same day is is I mean, it's hard to beat. You can argue that the one of the biggest advantages of Amazon is just how quickly you can get something ordered. How However, um there are still large segments of of our population in particular in our churches of people who do not online shop. Like I I am I'm not one of them. There are people who who still purchase things with check. And we know this because many of our members still contribute through check despite all of the amazing ease of ways that you know that we have made it possible for people who contribute. I have it's been years since I've written a check, but I know that there's people who would not shop with without a check because of just the way that they keep track, right? So, there's different practices. No question. I would say that to a church member that's not within 30 to 40 minutes away from this ABC, this ABC is not going to be a practical choice for them. Um, but I would also say that there is a a large concentration of our churches at church members within a 20 to 30 mile radius of this 80 ft. So maybe for them it's very useful maybe for for for church leaders ministry leaders who want to go into a storefront and sample and visibly check out like children's ministry products, right? Um um you know devotionals like like there are some people who just want to be able to handle something before they actually purchase it. Online doesn't give you that. So, there are certain customers who have been benefiting greatly from it. No question. Is there a way to improve it? Yes, we ought to always be. Is there are there better ways to market it? Absolutely. As every retail retailer is being challenged and being pushed in a new direction, I think we need to be considering new possibilities of marketing and promoting and uh And if we do get to a point where wow this is now costing us more do a costbenefit analysis absolutely we should be open to say wow maybe we're not meeting the need um as and it's not proportional to the benefit that we're getting. We'll make that decision then.
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah thank thank you very much. We'll we'll keep on having this conversation in our upcoming uh budget and finance so we get so we can finalize something and move forward with our AB See,
what what are we voting on?
We're voting right now going back to our financial statement. Uh we just review our financial statements and that is the portion that we're going to be voting on.
Any seconds? All right. Um all those in favor say I.
Any opposed? All right. It's carried. Um we're going to go to another item. This is a an update on a loan that we voted on our last meeting. Um, this loan was for 900,000. Uh, the church had on hand for the total project 700,000. So, they were trying to see if they could buy the property next door, but um, Pastor Granados, why don't you tell us what happened?
What happened? So, we uh presented to the next door neighbor uh 1.6 million. The initial purchase was 2.1. So the board said, you know, if they accept the offer will go on with the purchase, but if they do not accept the offer, then we're not going to continue pursue with a higher price. Uh so they did not accept the offer. Uh they said the minimum amount they would accept is 1 9 and uh the board and the administrative church meeting said we will not uh move to 1.9. So we were uh that was the under uh after they they we had the answer from from them uh I spoke with them and they said okay well we already have plans to build a second uh floor building
very It's no parking. We share. We're very like it's one property almost, but they're figuring to build a second floor, which is kind of crazy, but we're just going to let them do whatever they want because we have, I think, other priorities. So, at this point, we uh we have presented u an option of uh reducing that loan amount because now we have a very serious problems with our roof and our gym. So instead of continuing pursuing with the 900 that we are thinking that the board has decided to go with 350 so we can you know it's pouring inside the gym. So that's something that we cannot allow that to continue. So I think the Lord has spoken. So we're not gonna we're going to stop with pursuing the purchase and now we're redirecting towards the um the gym, which is uh if we continue allow that rain or that water to sink into the uh to the roof, it's going to be a more major, you know, uh investment. So, at this point, I spoke with our maintenance person who that we have at church and the board has decided to present a modification or a change to instead of the 900 do a 350 loan in order to put that gym up to date. roof and we're going to be working on interiors. So, they're fixing the restrooms and kitchen and just having that roof the the whole gym uh you know without any liability problems because right now it's we don't we don't allow people go into the gym because you know liability nowadays is crazy. So, just don't go in but I have to fix it. That's why we have we're now presented this uh change.
Yeah. So, so this is an update you know it had been approved for 900. So now they're reducing the amount. But there's some things on this project that still need to be evaluated. So what I would request from this committee is if if we could vote this item and and approve um and approve myself and the officers to finalize the details uh you know because we still need to review the contractors and and others. Um It could be that this also uh would be able to go to uh asset management but right now we don't have the full scope of the work and you know total cost and still there are things that we need to work out. So I would like to propose um if this committee would see fit on on making this a motion.
So you were asking for an enabling action correct work out the details
to finalize. Exactly. Because right now, you know, I I wanted this process to move forward and our next budget and finance is going to be in a couple of months. So, if we're able to settle, you know, from here on to the next budget and finance that we can move forward with this project. So, I see uh moving um any second. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Oh, wait. I'm sorry.
Yeah, second. But I believe you're an invite.
Yeah, sorry. He's invited.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Second.
Thank you.
Thank you for reminding.
So, it's been moved and second.
All those in favor say I.
I.
The wording of it is to
to give the uh the officer's team enabling act to finalize the Yes.
the details of this um Correct.
Yeah.
With
correct. Now, um so did one second. Did we see everyone? Right.
All right. Um now, in addition to this, you know, this is not part of the vote, but uh we're also going to be working out the details with the union um so we can let them know what the update on this loan and what's going to be the scope of the work. So, we're basically going to have to resubmit the application um to update uh the information now according to this project.
I haven't signed it yet. So, but you you encourage me to still sign the right sign the old
um the the old one.
No, don't sign the old one.
We're gonna we'll we'll do an update.
Okay. So, just
Yeah. So, we'll do an update on that.
Um yes, it would be part of our minutes, not not as an item itself. It would just be part of our minutes.
No.
Correct.
Correct. And they had already been approved for 900,000, but because they're moving the project, then um we need to submit a new application, work out the details. All right. So, it's been moved and second. All right. Um and we already voted for this item. Um, one, uh, investment accounts. Um,
had a question.
We, uh, yes, go ahead.
Will the interest rate likely be the same as the initial rate for 900,000?
Uh, yes. Um, we do have a flat rate, correct, Steve?
Yeah, it could be in in lower if it's% in income fund versus school loan fund. So, it just depends on the characteristics of the project.
Yeah. So, yes, thank you. Thank you for asking that question. Um, all right. Uh, so we're going to now look at the investment accounts. So, our investment accounts, this is we're just going to overview um how they're performing. Uh, the operating reserve, how we have structured our our our accounts is that we have three in our portfol We have three accounts in different entities um and we've stacked them in layers. Immediate needs has been Morgan Stanley and we are already utilizing the majority of that cash. Uh we're going to see in a second the balance is now you know decreasing it has been decreasing over time but that is what the intention was that we were able to have some funds available uh for immediate cash needs. The second layer is western adventure foundation. We also have funds available there. This is an entity where we receive the majority of our trust that are unrestricted. They come through Western Adventist and we and we uh keep them there so they can keep on growing some interest. The last item that the last entity that we have is with the Pacific Union. This account it um it should be our last resource. Uh why? Because this one is the one that has a high balance and we want to make sure that we don't stabil destabilize the account too often. Uh you know we don't want to be withdrawing funds that are not necessary. So this is this is basically our our main reserve if you could call it. So as you can see it has been growing. I didn't uh include it back in 2019 which we had a balance of 400,000 in this account but starting in 21 we had a 2.4 and then in 22 we were inc we were able to increase that amount to 6.5 and current date we currently for December of 2025 we ended with $7.7 million.
So praise God.
Praise God for this because the the gain in tight that we were seeing over the years. This is one of the items that we were able to allocate some cash. Um the other place that we have this is our Morgan Stanley. This is the one that we've been having some funds available and we've needed uh cash. So right now it sits it sits at around 3 point uh 1.1 as of January because we did had some um stock donations that came in in December that were that were high value donations. So I would say that in January that dropped all the way to 1.1, but this we're also seeing great increases. Uh we're not opening uh CD or anything because like I mentioned we do have some pending lawsuits and we want to make sure that um for our immediate expenses we have cash available. So So we have keeping this as as liquid as possible. The third I the third section that we have it's for uh Western Adventist Foundation holding account these are trusts that have been matured and have come unrestricted. So as you can see even though we've utilized some of these funds for 2024 we had 2.6 and current year of 2025 we have 3.3. So praise God for this because we have we we should be down to 2 million but because we have been receiving donations through this account uh or mature trust uh we have been able to stay on target and keep on increasing uh this account. Now another thing that I want to say this 3.3 million that we're seeing it's not part of our operating what does that mean that means that it does it it it's not contributed in our operating uh working capital so our working capital has been decreased increasing. Unfortunately, we were very close to the 3 months, but this last year we dropped all the way to 1.7, but um this account it's not being part of that calculation. So, we still have to consider that we do have this account available 3.3. Um so, total total uh investment accounts that we have available, it's around 12 billion. So, that's a significant amount of funds. It's not what we need because we do have uh $50 million expenses. This is an organization that incurs around 50 51 million. So in terms of that 12 million is not significant, but praise God that we have that 12 million because we were in a very dire situation years ago and right now we get to breathe and we get to say we have something available. So praise God for that.
Exactly.
Um now we're going to get to the last item of our meeting tonight and that is is how are we preparing for 2020? Uh oh, I'm sorry. Let's take a vote on the investment accounts on the presentation of the investment accounts. Um, anyone would like to move this?
Any second?
All right. Thank you. It's been moved and second. All those in favor say I.
I.
Any opposed? All right. It's carried. Okay. Let's go back to our uh budget assumptions for 2026. um our budget assumptions for 2026. Uh I am missing one. Okay, give me a second. Okay. Okay. So, how did we build the budget for 2026? Um, you know, I have nightmares about this and you know, I I don't get rid of them throughout the year. It's like this is always in the back of my head and it's it's quite something. But I've learned to say, you know, God, this belongs to you. Like, you know, I can dis appear from the face of the world any moment and you're still going to continue this ministry so why should I be worried about but it's hard for me to let go how we have been building the budget is we have been taking the average of the last three years um I think it's still very conservative even though it's it is 98% u it is still very conservative taking the three years um now with these three years we have walked away from the 39 million that was pushing our tide up and we are still continuing to grow. So, so it's great to see that um that our tide is being uh it's been performing around that that area. So, this year I budgeted with 37.1 considering that we are going to have that additional retention of type. So, um it's 37.1 our budget amount which is 98% of the previous three-year average. Um I did had to budget with 100% of the positions being taken which is going to be challenging. Um so I hope we have some transfers out soon. So the the 100% of the it does not I know that I know what the increases we have it's taken but he did not include 90% of a threeyear does not include the 3% You're including the 3% this year that come back to us, but you're not including it at 8%.
Correct. Yes. Th this this is actually gross.
Correct. This is gross tight.
And where it comes in is that our expenses are going to decrease.
Right.
But the 3% I coming back to us this year or I should say come back. We don't have to
that we don't have to send up.
Yeah. to continue.
Yes,
that 3% is not part of the calculation at this point.
No, correct.
Correct.
That's important because that's a that gives us a cushion at 98%.
Correct.
For these other things.
Yes. Yeah. Correct.
Um so this is where it comes to personnel. You do have we're going to go through some of the assumptions like how was it built and what are some considerations in our budget. We still have 120 pastors. Uh, as you can see, we were at 118 and we've been able to maintain 120. I don't see how we can have space to keep on growing, but right now we're set at at 120. We still have 64 teachers. That has been uh for a long time now. We have not decreased that. And the office, we do we did added some partial positions. Um, and right now we're currently at 46.83%. Um, or I'm sorry, FTEEs. So, we We did add it some positions. Uh most of the positions are taken um and and that has been a consideration. When it comes to salary, uh we do have a salary increase in the month of July. Um our remuneration factor is going to go from 5,690 to 5,844, which is 2.7% of an increase. We are not able to increase the cost of living. Um it it'll have to remain flat. uh we have not been able to have an increase uh since the last time we did it in 2024. So we hope that we this year will give us the space that we need to find some some some cushion there and be able to grow in 2027. So I don't know it seems a lot of promises for 27. So don't quote me on on any of these things but it seems that 2027 could be very promising. Um so these are some of the the considerations When it comes to salary education, we are having an increase in our education. Uh yes, go ahead.
Backing up as a new member remuneration factor. Can you explain what that is?
Sure. So um as employee as denominational employees, we're all pay on scale. Um all the employees were under the same scale. That scale has percentages. So for example, a pastor will begin its ministry at 80% of the scale and it goes all the way to 102 once it reaches ordination and years of experience it can achieve up to uh 102%. So in addition to that percentage there's a base amount which is this provides the base calculation for those percentages to be applied to. Now these are on a monthly basis we are on a bi-weekly. So we do have a table where we calculate um each one of the percentages that that our employees would be receiving according to their position um and so on. Um let me let me pull that report up uh so we can briefly briefly see it. Okay. So for example, this this is um this is the table that we prepare for this year. Um as you can see these are the years of experience of a pastor that a pastor could have and then keep on uh increasing in percentage throughout the years. So this is what we utilize. Um everyone else that is not a pastor, we do have a a remuneration book of percentages and every position will be assigned a percentage. So when it comes to salary, we have very small room on negotiating a salary because they're pretty much set uh based on year six experience. There is a range in each category, but basically there's a cap on each one of the positions. So yeah, any other questions? All right, let's go ahead and move forward with uh the Next item. So, so now you know how much we make. Don't memorize the amount. Um, so so when it comes to education, teacher billing, um, we do have several increases in healthcare and and and other items, but um, I try to not Last year they receive like an additional 10% somewhere around 10%. Um and this year I'm increasing 5%. Some of the considerations that I take is what was the total cost of added benefits such as retirement moving uh teacher enhancement and and some other items. So I pull them together and kind of evaluate. We have been generous to our schools um that if they pay on time they get a 10% discount. So when it comes to um absorbing the the total cost of a teacher, uh schools are basically picking up somewhere around 70%. But that percentage decreases uh when it comes to their if they pay on time and right now we have all of our schools paying on time because they're on a so it's very rare that a school will fall behind. That has been very helpful. So So we have I have put together a way of increasing only 5% for the schools. Um we're not able to increase the subsidies that have been allocated for our academy and our boarding school. Uh we are very much at a rate that that it's it's high enough uh and we can't continue allocating additional funds. So since 2020 since the school year 2024 25 we came to a halt and we have not been able to keep on increasing Um when it comes to health care this this is our health care this is where our increases are going to be uh coming from the employer side we raised from 770 to 816 and the employee portion uh we we uh increased it to 92.12%. So that way we can see some some increase in because the cost of health care is very high right now. Unfortunately we are a very um a very expensive group and hopefully we can you know become healthier but but that is a reality and the overall you know health care has been increasing everywhere. Um when it comes to employee expense uh in the total cost of an employee we're allocating somewhere around 9% to cover health care benefits out of their 100% pay or 100% cost um travel budget this year. We're having a travel budget of 725. Um that is that's a great great news that we're not going to be able to see it that much, but you know, it's going to be there. Uh 725. Uh this is uh going back to the conversation we were having about the retirement plan. Uh this is where we're going to be able to retain additional funds. We do have a 3% retention. Uh it's not money that it's coming back to us. It's money that we don't have to send up. So, we're able to retain a portion of that in our conference. Uh this is the distribution of retirement the um the retirement DC plan. Um I'm sorry, this one uh it's the um healthc care distribution um and retirement funds, but it's 5.4 and the 3% with a total of 8.4. This is just the breakdown of the 8.4. U appropriations. There's no change in appropriations.
I think that that's the DC plan.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. I'm sorry. This is this is the other one. That's why it's the um the That's why it says employer and employee. These are the amounts that that needs to be affected. The label is correct. Yeah. Thank you very much. So, this one should be eight and 3%. Uh this one is the one that did not get affected by the change. Um And this is just the basic of the match that we contribute to each one of our employees. Um appropriations to SEC uh they remain the same. We we're still Oh, I'm sorry. I missed one. Appropriations coming back. So this is money that it's coming back. Uh this comes back from the NAD and also from the union aortion. So this is calculated based on a 2024 type and that's why we were able to see a decrease because we receive a 39 million. So when we received that 39 million, it affected uh the appropriations basically because they're based on tithe. So now for 2026, we're going to see a decrease in those appropriations coming back for 2,26 uh 45,000. Um appropriations to the union. Um I just want to say that, you know, this 9% that we that we allocate to the union, it it goes a long way. Uh our union works with us in many projects, you know, funds a lot of our evangelism uh projects and, you know, supports many of our projects. One of the initiatives that they had was sharing Jesus and they allocated 200,000 for this conference. So, I want to say thank you. Thank you to the union for for supporting our ministry.
I'll piggy back on that,
but that doesn't hurt. But We you guys I've been in four years this the best union I've been in the union has not forgotten that they're the highest the way the adventure supposed to be operating that the highest level of the locust local work is a union that's why they were created in the first place in the 1950s reorganization they reorganized because the DC could not see the need for the west coast and so they said we need unions that closer to the world organizing a union is supposed to be the highest level of the local this union has not forgotten that they they have initiatives to help the conferences at the in their area and I just I don't know how to say that enough I mean I've been like I said four unions and I won't mention the ones I was in that one of them totally thought the union existed for the North American as I can. We are we're in a great union.
Praise God.
So So yeah, it's it's amazing that uh we get support for as much as we do from our union in many in many ways in our ministry. Uh we also uh allocate some funds to GC that has not been moved. Uh we do receive appropriations that are coming back as well from the NAD uh uh back to us and that's part of the 2 million a portion of the 2 million. It's a combination of both the union and NAD uh sending back. Um we are not allocating um funds from this even though we have uh we have not used from our reserve um but um we have not been budgeting from from trust services. Um another item that I do want to mention is we are also actively making some reductions um here in the office as much as we can. Uh we have not hired someone from the switchboard and I have to say that you know I want to thank our assistants and my assistant is here so thank you very much Misha. uh because it's been helmet.
She she does a great job but but you know all of our assistants are helping us with the switchboard and that has helped us to maintain one position uh down from our total. Um another another item that I want to mention is we are assessing uh traveling to as needed um you know appointments. Uh sometimes They are very valuable um trips that we have to take and receive information, but there's some others that maybe we could restructure and find other ways of receiving the information. And we've presented this to the office today and we're going to be actively uh pursuing this. How can we reduce some of the cost when it comes to traveling? Another area that we're going to be reducing is um budgets to our regions. Um We have nine departments in the office that receive that we're receiving 50,000. Now, this 50,000 used to be 20,000, but we've increased all the way to 50,000, but this year um I believe that we need we need to find that we needed the space for that. So, we try to uh reduce uh 10,000 from each one of those departments. Yes.
But you're not reducing evangelism.
Correct. Correct. Uh we still have funds for evangelism scholarships and some other funds. Uh But when it comes to um the re the regions and the other departments we have nine department in totals in total that received um education the youth senior youth and the five uh five uh regions and children ministry those are the total of our five of our nine departments. So by reducing 10,000 we're you know we're saving 90,000 there which is significant. Um and um another item that we have been trying to do is uh I see unrestricted funds as you know uh free money or money that is floating out there and you never know when they're going it's going to be spent. Uh so I've been trying to reduce those amounts uh so that way we can allocate only from our reserve or for money that we have actually available increase anyone that needs additional funds. But we're going to start tracking a little bit tighter our budgets uh for this year and each one of the departments. So we're actively looking on ways in ways on how can we uh take control of our budget and stay on track. So yes, go ahead.
Just a quick question. This been this my second meeting uh this discussed already but comparing for example on sit on the MBA board academy hearing uh told that the conference is possibly taking over business and manage manager roles ofmies is that and and does that help cut cost as well? Am I hearing that correctly?
So I can I can tell you a portion of that. Um we have been trying to uh centralize several of our operations. The first action that we took was to bring on all elementary teachers into conference payroll. That was the first layer. The Second layer was we absorb payroll for all of themies. Currently we're from our office we handle all of the payroll for all of theirmies. Um the other layer that that we needed is someone in education that is overseeing the financial umbrella. Uh we're still trying to structure that position because it is a new position but the intention is heading towards centralizing. When is that going to happen? I you know I've had this conversation with some of our schools. I don't know when it's going to happen or what's going to be the shape or form of that. Um but yes, there is an idea of centralizing um centralizing accounting for them.
Um any other questions? This is this is how our budget is being structured uh for the year 2026 and this would be the last item that we would just need to approve and and then we're free to go. So we can keep the conversation or or uh if anyone else has any other question we can go through any other question that might be out there.
A quick question you know the healthare
what about the families how does that budget and so
yeah so we have uh they do give us a number of units uh they give us a number of units um we have cap our um our contribution for the employee at three units. So if an employee has three children, they still pay one unit. So we don't have, you know, too many families in that situation, but even a family of two, uh, you know, we're paying for for everyone and charging only three units in Singapore. So yes, that is part of our calculation when it comes to Yes.
Yeah. Regarding school subsidy,
yes,
they're used around that subsidy is 10%. Is that correct? 10%.
So that is managed through the schools and I do know that the department of education has been working on this item uh because it is something that we don't unfortunately we don't have a good structure currently. So we are trying to assess how can we revamp a study has been made already but now we need to find a way of you know placing into action some of the items. So it's it's contingent to the school and the department of education basically.
Yeah. So any other questions? If not any motion would be in order.
All right. Any second?
Second.
Um all right. All those in favor say I. Uh me opposed. All right, it's carried. Well, this is the conclusion of our um of our meeting today. Thank you very much for coming to this meeting and we'll see you again. Maisha, could you remind me? Do you know when is our next meeting?
It's on the book. I'll
just say I've been to four committee meetings on their budget and there's one that got sent to the back to the conference office because they were so far out of balance that the committee couldn't approve it. Um that's in our union and so for you guys to be budgeting on 98% not having to rely on reserves and and trust that may not ever mature. It's uh it's Well, so praise the Lord for you.
So, we'll finalize this u this meeting for tonight. And um Pastor Enoch, it's great seeing you tonight. Why don't you close with a word of prayer?
Sure. Let's bow our heads.
May 19th.
Our heavenly father, we are here and we are here to be be used by your Holy Spirit. Whether it may be the funds, whether it may be our talents, it is all yours. So Lord, bless these people, bless the conference, so that we may be a great stewards for you. Be with us as we travel back to our homes. Help us to serve you better. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Amen. Amen.
All right. Thank you. Have a great night. and we'll see you May 19th.