Ward Missionary Underfunding

My Stake President is under the impression that when there is not enough funds in the Ward Missionary accounts that General Missionary funds can be used to cover that. I have not seen this and understand the General Missionary funds are taken directly by Church HQ and don't know of any mechanism to draw on them. As far as I understand, the Ward Missionary funds are the only funds that a ward has to work with and if they go negative they should either ask ward members to rectify this or ask other wards in the stake for assistance. Is my understanding correct?

Thanks.

Cory

I'd point him to Handbook 1: 4.6.2 under "General Missionary Fund". It is possible to draw on the General Missionary Fund if certain criteria is met. However, the very first condition will disqualify most attempts at doing so.

You might also want to read 14.4.3. It says what to do with excess Ward Missionary Funds. I can't find a better section, but if you have wards with excess, you could have them write a check for the excess to the stake. The stake in turn writes a check to the wards needing help. The catch of course is what is "excess". Some members donate the entire amount up front which makes that Ward look like they have an excess. So some investigation will be necessary.

We have used the new MLS feature to transfer missionary funds between the stake and the wards without writing a check. It works quite well, although it requires two passwords.