I am not sure if it is true or not but someone told me that they calculate how much the ward gets as a budget by counting how many people attened sacrament meeting. Does anyone know is that right?
By using sacrament attendance one can rest assured that the figures are always exaggerated and SLC thinks a lot more people are attending than are! Lying is encouraged.
This is true. When I was ward clerk, we would try hard to report attendance numbers on those Sundays when there was a baby blessing or missionary farewell because lots of visitors came.
The budget is determined by Sacrament attendance. Also, they calculate monies allocated to the ward based on YM and YW attendance as well. Each year YM and YW do fundraising for the respective camps. Last year, YM spent over $700 for each scout, and $80 for each young woman. Nuts!
Both Elder's and High Priests only get $200 a year!?? Please archive this thread !! It gives people a glimpse into the morg's financials even though it's a ward!! Thanks!!
Interesting. I remember when ward budgets were open and we had budget meetings with the whole ward every year. I remember being pissed that the young women got something like 10 times what the young men got. Of course, back then we did several fundraisers a year and had plenty to spend on high adventure trips, etc... The young women only did one joint fundraiser with us each year and most of their expenses came from the ward budget.
I know from recent experience that most of the Primary budget goes to Cub Scouts, as this ward's budget shows. The amount spent on Cub Scouts and activity days would be about equal if it wasn't for all the Cub Scout awards. The ward here spends hundreds every year on those stupid awards. That's not including the money the families spend on shirts, books, day camp, etc...
The total ward budget here is ~5% of tithing receipts. Not sure if that's high, low, average...
Well, to play devils advocate, we really have no idea what their numbers are. What if they had 20 ym and only 2 yw, then I would say the yw were better off. Also young men pay more for camp because their money is going to boy scouts who take a cut and have paid staff where for girls camp they rent the facilities (sometimes it's church owned) and have to pay for food and such but no labor costs.
That being said, the ym go on way cooler activities. While the yw are stuck at home cooking and crafting. I don't think it's so much as a financial problem as a leadership problem. My husband has been very involved in ym in a couple wards and in those wards the budgets were divided equally between the girls and boys, yet the boys still got better activities. My husband even has invited the yw to join them on their bigger activities, yet they don't go. In general, men who are more active, outdoorsy or adventurous are called into ym, especially since they have the scout program. Where the leaders in yw, that doesn't seem to be taken into account. I've seen some wards where the yw do high adventure activities but that's because they have a leader in there planning it. Other times the leaders only consist of women who aren't outdoorsy at all (maybe due to age, physical ability, pregnancy...) so the girls don't get those opportunties and as they grow up and become leaders they don't think to give those opportunities to the girls because they never received them. Where as every guy that grew up in the church remembers camping, hiking and all sorts of adventures that he then expects to do with the next generation. Also, unfortunately in the church it's easier for the men to be away from their families to do these big activities as child care falls primarily on the women. I see men all the time to take time off work to go on campouts but I never see them take time off work to be with the kids so their wives can go on campouts. So women being able to go is dependant on them having family or friends to help with their kids.
Basically I think they budgets are unfair because they boys wants and use more, where the girls just don't have activities that cost much. That's why you see relief society using alot of money, because they'll use way more than the elders or high priest ever would.
We need women in the church working hard to fight for better opportunities for the girls, but those some women (myself included) are the ones that leave. I don't see changes happening until the women want it to change.
You are pretty much correct. The budget for YM and YW also varies from year to year depending on the activities planned for that year. For example, once every 4 years the YM go on a high adventure trip, so that year they will have a higher budget. The YW have a nice camp every year, so they often have a higher budget the other 3 years.
I don know in my ward the RS budget was often about $1,000 for all their meetings and activities. The high priests and elders often got about $150 each.
The real travesty is the percentage that stays with a ward. I estimate it is about 1-2% of tithing donated. My ward donates probably $600,000-$800,000 a year in tithing. Yet the budget is about $9,000. That always bothered me a lot ... the amount that had to be sent to Church HQ. What if my ward was allowed to keep $50,000 of the total, with the stipulation it had to be used to improve the community? Make a playground handicapped accessible, provide meals for the homeless etc.
Heavenly Father is a man and its his Kingdom so if he wants to budget more to the boys than the girls then that is how it is and its the message we got to proclaim to the world so they can see how awesomely true and wonderful Mormonism is.
I know we are talking budgets, but since we are also discussing the difference between YM and YW budgets--and the differences in what they can do--I'd like to offer this:
Not only are their budgets different, but their activities are quite different, too. Yes, already noted. But what they are allowed to do and wear while there is a load of crap.
Girls' camp means you can't wear shorts or tank tops. I warned my twelve-year old before she left and she said, "Yeah, I know...I heard. But I'm going to bring those things anyway."
Bravo, good for her!
When she came back, I asked her if she was allowed to wear those items. Her response was, "No." But it was OK, she said. Despite the heat and issues of comfort.
BS. Different rules for boys and girls. The boys can do what they want, and you know why? Not simply because the rules are different, but because the women in the church enforce them.
Again, why? Because they are largely brainwashed, desperate-for-authority beings. It's their chance to give direction and be in charge. And subjugate others to their own misery.
I don't believe women are the weaker sex. I actually believe they are smarter, braver, and stronger than men. The world would be a better place if they were in charge. However, the LDS church makes them into terrible creatures. It only makes these young women suffer more.
When I was a laurel in YW, we hosted an insanely successful bake sale to pay for our trips to girls' camp. Because we all worked so hard and put so much effort into it, we ended up getting a lot more money than we needed, and we were so excited to be able to plan extra fun activities to do together as YW with that money.........
Then when the bishop heard about the extra money we raised, he made us give it to the YM, who had nothing to do with our fundraiser whatsoever. His reasoning was that it would teach us about sharing, and he said it wasn't really our money to decide. Our YW leader was in tears when she told us. All our extra activities were cancelled. I don't even know what the YM did with it.