Your Apportionment Dollars at Work

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How Apportionments are Calculated

The conference Council on Finance and Administration apportions the amount composing the annual budget among the churches of the Detroit Conference for the fiscal year. These apportionments are based upon the Grade Figure System and in conformity with the requirements of The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church and the rules adopted by the annual conference.
 
The Grade Figure System has been chosen because it allows apportionments to the local church to be based on its relationship to the total of the churches of the conference. Each church is expected to assume its proportional share of the common budget. 
 
Giving in addition to the apportionments, such as designated special day offerings, authorized general and conference Advance Specials, etc., is to be made in keeping with the Discipline affirmation that "payment in full [of the World Service apportionment] by local churches is the first benevolent responsibility of the church (para. 812)."

Apportionment Myth - The number of members of a local church factors into the total amount of apportionments paid by a local church!

The TRUTH is, membership doesn't count - apportionments are calculated using only the operating expenses of each church.

As you will see below, the Grade Figure System incorporates financial data collected in the annual Local Church Report, does not include membership data. 

Common Budget Apportionments

The grade figure is determined by the current operating budget (lines 53-62 of the Local Church Report) plus non-United Methodist benevolent giving (line 49 of the Local Church Report), except that in any year when the apportionments are paid in full, the non-United Methodist benevolent giving amount will be excluded from the calculation.
 
Annual variances in the resulting apportionment will be moderated by using a four-year rolling average of the above numbers.
 
To determine the grade figure:
  1. For each of the four most recent years, find the sum of lines 49 plus 52 through 62 of the Local Church Report. For each year that apportionments were paid in full, exclude the amount from Line 49. Add the four annual sums and find the simple average.
  2. Divide the simple average by the conference total (simple average) for the same lines.

Example

Local church total - 2009 = 89750
Local church total - 2008 = 86317
Local church total - 2007 = 71725
Local church total - 2006 = 75726
Sum of local church total = 323,518
Simple average = 80,879
 
Conference total - 2009 = 57,147,624
Conference total - 2008 = 58,487,020
Conference total - 2007 = 56,025,720
Conference total - 2006 = 51,369,385
Sum of conference total = 223,029,749
Simple average = 55,757,437
 
Local church average (80,879) divided by conference average (55,757,437) = Common Budget grade figure (.001451).
 
Multiply the total common budget by the grade figure to find the local church's portion.
 

Pension Apportionments

The grade figure for the sharing of pension costs is separate from the grade figure for the common budget.
 
The grade figure for pension costs is based on the salary paid by each local church to its pastor/associate pastor(s), as reported in lines 64 and 65 of the Local Church Report. The amount determined as each local church's apportioned share is included on the monthly reminder sent to local churches by the conference treasury staff.  
 
To determine the pension grade figure:
  1. For the local church, find the sum of lines 64 and 65 as reported in the most recent Local Church Report.
  2. Divide that sum by the sum of the Conference totals for those lines.

Example

Local church total, lines 53, 54 = 29,870
Conference total, lines 53, 54 = 12,099,401
 
Local Church total (29,870) divided by conference total (12,099,401) = pension grade figure (.002469).
 
Multiply the total pension budget by the grade figure to find the local church's portion.