"Other" catagory

Hi All

Over the past few years our ward has gathered a large collection of "Other" catagories. I would like to get your opinion as how to best do this. It seems that for our youth you should be able to get by with: Young Men, Scouts, and Young Women. Joint activities could be split between Young Men and Young Women and rather than dividing up into many specific categories we just fund other activities from these three main ones.

sfraser wrote:Hi All

Over the past few years our ward has gathered a large collection of "Other" catagories. I would like to get your opinion as how to best do this. It seems that for our youth you should be able to get by with: Young Men, Scouts, and Young Women. Joint activities could be split between Young Men and Young Women and rather than dividing up into many specific categories we just fund other activities from these three main ones.

Do you mean limiting categories under other to just general ones like YM, YW and Scouts? One of the main uses for Other categories is for tracking funds that are turned in and spent for specific purposes. For instance, funds might be turned in that are flagged for Girl's Camp. By having a specific Other category for Girl's Camp, you can more easily report on what has been turned in for that specific purpose.

sfraser wrote:Over the past few years our ward has gathered a large collection of "Other" catagories. I would like to get your opinion as how to best do this. It seems that for our youth you should be able to get by with: Young Men, Scouts, and Young Women. Joint activities could be split between Young Men and Young Women and rather than dividing up into many specific categories we just fund other activities from these three main ones.

This sounds to me like you are using Other funds contrary to policy. You use the term "Joint Activities" (plural) in referring to Other funds. But there are no joint activities that can be funded any way but by using the budget allowance. All activities are to be funded through the budget allowance, with the only exception being one annual camp for youth and cub scouts. Even for that one annual camp, only if budget funds are insufficient can the youth be asked to earn their own money, or hold approved fundraising activities. In those cases, the Other account is appropriately used for tracking the funds received and spent for those specific camps. But the youth camps are separated by gender, so there can be no "joint activities" that involve Other funds in any way. Youth Conference is funded entirely by the Budget Allowance.

Each subcategory of the Other account should be carefully used and monitored so that funds are received only for that purpose, and spent only for that purpose. Any subcategories of the Other account that have surplus funds should be cleared out, and excess funds returned to the person who gave the funds for the purpose and did not receive the intended benefit (or overpaid). If such people cannot be located, surplus funds should be returned to the Church. There's a great lesson included with the Record Keeping Training lessons on lds.org that deals specifically with the Other account -- I highly recommend it.

Ok, I have the following:

In 2005 it appears the ward "overspent" out of the other girls camp fund. This was actually negative spending out of the other Girls Camp account (but not other as a whole). In the ward budget, they also used all their funds, so I can see the need to draw from other. The money was taken out of the general "Other" fund, most likely the Scout Flags fund. Although now, donations have been made into it in 2008, and the fund is positive balance, it was negative balance from 2005 - 2007.

In 2006, the ward appeared to create an "Other: youth conference" fund, which as indicated, is wrong. But that is history I wasn't there for. This also was a negative balance, and continues to exist today. The money for this was taken from the general "Other" fund, but was most likely earmarked for Boy Scout Camp (this other category had a decently large positive balance, and according to the 2nd coun, he remembers that they determined that they use "other" scout fund excess to pay this (I know, bad, but that is what happened).

That year, they also left about the same amount of money in the "budget", ostensibly, they should have paid for the youth camp from the budget, but too late now <sigh>.

So, now I have a negative balance in an "Other: Youth Conference" fund that I want to clear.

I found most of this history out today as I tried to figure out where "Other" had gone wrong.

So, with regard to Other, how do I correct? In theory:

Take the 2008 budget for Youth Conference and write a check against the negative balances in "Other: Youth Conference".

That seems the most "right", but that means no YC this year.

Or, take the Other: Scout Camp: Flags, which the ward thought they were using in previous years, and transfer those amounts to counter the negative balances in this wierd Other: Youth Conference category.

Is that OK to do? That is what 2nd Coun. is hoping to do, I think it isn't the original intent of the donation, but I "think" the Bishop is supposed to be solely responsible for use of those funds, so this might be OK as a 1 time remedy?

Thoughts? thanks,

Esoga S.

I would like to add a slight correction to the above even though this is an old post. While only the 3 camps mentioned are authorized for fund raising, other categories can be used for things members are asked to pay for that are not part of a fund raising activity. For instance, a temple trip out of town may require renting a bus and the members may be asked to contribute a set amount for the trip. This could certainly be a joint activity and the funds would be tracked in an other account.