Ward and Stake mission funds

In reviewing some of our stake financial info this evening, my President and I were not quite sure we follow or understand the needs or requirement to transfer funds within the stake.

Question: If a ward mission fund has a negative balance, but the stake as a whole is positive and can cover the ward's negative balance, do we need to transfer money to that negative ward fund to create a positive balance within the unit?

Essentially, should we have one ward that has a large positive balance write a check to the ward with a negative balance?

thank you

colbyj wrote:If a ward mission fund has a negative balance, but the stake as a whole is positive and can cover the ward's negative balance, do we need to transfer money to that negative ward fund to create a positive balance within the unit?

Essentially, should we have one ward that has a large positive balance write a check to the ward with a negative balance?

A ward should not have an ongoing negative balance in any category. So it's good that you are working to address this. First you should understand why the ward has a negative balance. I've seen cases where a missionary moved out of a ward, but the ward didn't transfer responsibility for payments to the new ward (where the parents started making their donations). In such a case, the financial responsibility should be transferred (Local Unit Support can make the change retroactively, once both bishops involved agree when the responsibility changed).

But if it is simply a situation where one ward has more missionaries to support than it has available donors, then it is certainly for the stake president to direct that surplus funds from one or more wards in his stake be moved to the ward with the extra need. The technique for doing this is described in the wiki under Remitting Surplus Missionary Funds.

My first reaction would be to have the stake president contact his area authority seventy for training on this rather than get the question answered in this forum. It could be that for different areas there is a different policy on this matter. This forum tends to turn A solution into THE solution, whether it should be or not.

Just my own 2 cents - Ward missionary is a unit specific fund. You gain interest when your balance is positive, and none when it is negative. That indicates to me that yes, it matters what your ward balance is, regardless of the stake balance. I would therefore say that yes you should transfer funds from the ward with a large balance to the ward with a negative balance.

thank you for the responses. very helpful

One more reply from the MLS help manual (p A-14)

The “Ward Missionary” category of the ward account will be charged the first Thursday of every month. Bishops should make sure there are enough funds in the account by that time.