A previous ward clerk might know the answer to this question.

When wards conduct their own service projects, like collecting supplies or money from ward members (not tithing or fast offerings) to donate to local shelters, schools and the like, does church headquarters require an accounting of that? Do wards have to report service hours?

I'm just curious to know if the service individual wards do is added to the amount that the church claims as humanitarian aid.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2014 04:28PM by want2bx.

When I was in the RS pres. we did count the volunteer hours if we did a service project, I don't know where that information went afterwards though, the ward or stake RS, I'm not sure.

topping

I don't recall our SLC ward ever doing any other kind of service outside their own church.

I was a ward clerk. It all got reported up to the stake level. Not sure from there what went to salt lake in their reports.

It depends how the ward chooses to do the accounting. Usually, that money is supposed to go into an "other" account. All "other" accounts are supposed to be emptied by the end of the year. This is really just accounting. All "donations" get deposited into the ward's checking account, which Salt Lake has complete control of. However, if the ward does not empty the "other" account, meaning writing checks totaling the amount deposited, it gets flagged in the audit (every six months). These "other" accounts are used for gathering funds for things like girls camp, scout camp, and youth conference. Funds cannot be transferred between "other" accounts and the ward budget. As far as I know, the "other" accounts are not included in the church's humanitarian aid numbers. I have been a finance clerk twice, but never worked in the COB.

Back in the 80's I was stationed in the Azores and was the branch clerk. We had a nasty storm roll into the area. Well the BP made a decision to collect blankets to hand out to the locals. We were thrilled to do this service. The BP had to get the CHBI out to find out what had to be accounted for. It said that if volunteer hours had to be accounted for.

Here's what happened to DW and a few of her Relief Society friends: There was a big wild fire on the local Indian reservation (First Nations reserve, in Canadian parlance) in Central Washington. The fire came into a town and destroyed a bunch of homes and rendered some of the poor even poorer, destroying all their belongings. So one of DW's RS friends got a few of them together and they gathered donated clothing and passed them on to a local charity that was working directly with the reservation authorities.

The stake president got wind of this and called them in and angrily denounced what they did, telling them that they were never to do it again without first consulting him. "But we did it privately!," was the one woman's response. He told her that LDS women did not do things like this "privately," but were supposed to amplify the name of the LDS church by always having it be church-sponsored, wearing the yellow T-shirts and smocks, and getting the name out there.

This is LDS "service." It is a simple matter of PR work.