{"id":4295,"date":"2013-05-07T17:08:26","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T00:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=4295"},"modified":"2013-05-07T17:09:27","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T00:09:27","slug":"my-life-as-a-conference-treasurer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/my-life-as-a-conference-treasurer\/","title":{"rendered":"My life as a Conference Treasurer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rev. Dr. Craig Parrish enjoying a lighter moment as a delegate at General Conference 2012 in Tampa, Florida last April. To his left is the Rev. Gloria Kymn. Photo by Patrick Scriven.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The Rev. Dr. Craig Parrish, PNW Conference Treasurer\u00a0<\/i>
\nInterviewed by Rev. David Valera,\u00a0Executive Director of Connectional Ministries<\/i><\/p>\n

David Valera:<\/strong> Craig, take us back to the time you started in this role.<\/i>
\nCraig Parrish:<\/strong> I became the Conference Treasurer October 2000, so I\u2019ll be completing 13 years in the role. \u00a0This ministry of administration has been a great match for my skill and personality.\u00a0 There have been times of great challenge and times of great accomplishment.\u00a0 The challenges have been the most formative.<\/p>\n

DV:<\/strong> What have been your key learnings?<\/i>
\nCP:<\/strong> It has been important for me to remember that the Conference Treasurer is an employee of the Annual Conference, hired and supervised by the Council on Finance and Administration.\u00a0 In that role the Treasurer sometimes stands between the Bishop and what the Bishop wants to do financially in the life of the Annual Conference.\u00a0\u00a0 In its wisdom, General Conference has created a separation of power that has worked very well in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference with the three Bishops who have been assigned here during my tenure.<\/p>\n

\"Parrish<\/a>
Parrish offers a welcoming gift to Bishop Hagiya at the 2012 Western Jurisdictional Conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DV:<\/strong> Tell us more about \u201cworking with Bishops\u201d.<\/i>
\nCP:<\/strong> Working with Bishops can be interesting.\u00a0 During one of our transitions of episcopal leadership, the departing Bishop said, there are a couple of things at the house that you probably should know.\u00a0\u00a0 OH!\u00a0 He goes on to say, none of the kitchen appliances work but it has not been a problem because we don\u2019t cook, OH, and someone ran the car through the back of the garage, OH, and we hear noises in the celling and under the house, OH, and the roof leaks, OH, and we don\u2019t get hot water in the master bathroom, OH.\u00a0 Well there is nothing a little time and money cannot fix.\u00a0 Thousands of dollars and weeks later all new appliances, a new roof and water heater were installed, the garage wall was repaired, the birds were out of the attic, the rats were out of the crawl space and a new episcopal family was in residence\u2026 Quite an adventure.<\/p>\n

DV:<\/strong> What is the most significant challenge you\u2019ve met?<\/i>
\nCP:<\/strong> The most significant challenge came in 2003-2004 when the apportionment receipts dropped to 78% and the contingency reserve fund was at an all time low of $4000.\u00a0 We went out into the conference with 25 listening sessions to determine what the people valued in the conference budget.\u00a0 During this process the people not only express their opinions on what should be funded but they learned how the financial system of the conference works.\u00a0 The result of that experience was the reduction of districts from 6 to five and a $100,000 savings. \u00a0In 2004 Retired Bishop Jack Tuell served as the Seattle-Tacoma DS until Rev. (now Bishop) Elaine Stanovsky was available.\u00a0 Bishop Ed Paup reinstated the Tacoma District in September 2007 and for some reason, the money came in.<\/p>\n

DV:<\/strong> Are there aspects of the job you will not miss?<\/i>
\nCP:<\/strong> One aspect of the job I will not miss is answering the same question for the 100th<\/sup> time, like \u201ccan Memorial Funds be in the general fund or must they be a separate account!\u201d (Loud laugher follows). Closing church buildings and property has been a learning experience.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy for one to assume that a closed or abandoned church building automatically represents an asset for Annual Conference. Well that is only true if \u201csomeone\u201d else wants the building. And that \u201csomeone\u201d is a buyer.<\/p>\n

\"Kalavaria<\/a>
Kalavaria UMC is housed in a building that once housed Trinity UMC in Tacoma, WA. Photo from TacomaConnect.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have sold a church on eBay, let one go to the county for unpaid taxes (even the Sheriff’s sale didn\u2019t generate a single $), gave one to the city, sold several for 50 cents on the dollar, and had the marvelous experience of going into the closed building to find that the congregation had stopped using a portion of the building long ago. When entering the unused portion, I discovered that the rainwater had come down the inside of the walls rather than going down the downspouts. The interior walls were on the floor as lumps of goop and plaster.\u00a0 In this building the weight of the pigeon poop in the attic had collapsed the ceilings.\u00a0 What will we need to do?\u00a0 Who will pay for the cleanup of this mess? (Much laughter again.) This particular situation turned out great.\u00a0 The Conference Trustees, the Tacoma District and the Board of Congregational Development came together and rehabilitated the entire building and transferred ownership to Kalevaria UMC.<\/p>\n

DV:<\/strong> What do you see as the future of the PNW, and the church as a whole?<\/i>
\nCP:<\/strong> The future is coming fast.\u00a0 There will be more adventures and challenges in that future as it sweeps over us.\u00a0 The churches of the Annual Conference have been gradually bringing our apportionments receipts back up.\u00a0 In 2012 we received 88.03% of the apportioned budget, the highest percentage since 1998.\u00a0 In the intervening time between 2004 and 2012, the Council on Finance and Administration has been reducing the budget as much as possible. As our churches experience decline, the Council realizes that it will be harder and harder to sustain a static budget.\u00a0 The strategy has been to reduce the apportioned budget in a measured way keeping pace with the rate of decline. In this process we must still tend to the basic services that the Annual Conference provides the churches. The hope is that once the Tuell Center is fully operational, the training and retooling of clergy and laity will begin to affect the life, mission and vitality of local churches and faith communities of the conference – including their finances.<\/p>\n

There it is\u2026the challenge of the future and our life together.\u00a0 The past is gone\u2026only tomorrow holds promise. After 41 \u00bd years of ministry, it is time to retire.\u00a0 My spouse, Sharon, and I are looking forward to the next phase of our live together. We have grandchildren to spoil and sites to see.<\/p>\n

\n

Although Rev. Dr. Craig Parrish will be retiring as PNW Treasurer by December 31, 2013, he will continue to serve as (very part time) Treasurer of the Alaska United Methodist Conference. DV.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rev. Dr. Craig Parrish enjoying a lighter moment as a delegate at General Conference 2012 in Tampa, Florida last April. To his left is the Rev. Gloria Kymn. Photo by Patrick Scriven. The Rev. Dr. Craig Parrish, PNW Conference Treasurer\u00a0 Interviewed by Rev. David Valera,\u00a0Executive Director of Connectional Ministries David Valera: Craig, take us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":4300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[114,32],"tags":[176,74,241,242],"class_list":{"0":"post-4295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"category-news","9":"tag-leadership","10":"tag-parrish","11":"tag-transitions","12":"tag-treasurer"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/parrish-gc2012.jpg?fit=671%2C472&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-17h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4295"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4311,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions\/4311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}