New ward start-up fund?

I'm the new finance clerk for a newly created ward, and the bishop asked me to find out if there is any such thing as a "new ward start-up" fund to buy things like scout tents, some initial office supplies, etc.? I'm guessing the answer is "no" but I thought if anybody would know, it's the LDSTech gurus.

Most wards I know of are created from other wards, so I would hope that in addition to transferring members from other wards, the stake president (or presidents) involved would also direct the transfer of funds to the new ward as well. I suspect this happened all the time "behind the scenes" before the CUBS transition. Now it would have to take the form of wards writing checks to each other.

There's certainly a set of standard equipment, but I know of no "standard funds". As pointed out, the members usually are split off from another ward which should be splitting off some of their funding.

Perhaps the stake and/or the other wards would be willing to have a "housewarming party" to get you started.

cougs wrote:I'm the new finance clerk for a newly created ward, and the bishop asked me to find out if there is any such thing as a "new ward start-up" fund to buy things like scout tents, some initial office supplies, etc.? I'm guessing the answer is "no" but I thought if anybody would know, it's the LDSTech gurus.

Correct. The official answer is no. Funds are allocated based on information provided in your quarterly report. If your first quarterly report is 2010 Q4, then you will not receive any allocations until 2011 Q2. If your first quarterly report isn't until 2011 Q1, then you won't receive a LUBA until Q3.

So while CHQ won't bail you out, the stake(s) should. Your members came from somewhere where their attendance contributed to some ward's budget. It would make sense to me that that contribution should now (and immediately) be redirected to your ward. We recently took two wards and made 3. I therefore reduced the budgets of the original 2 wards accordingly and gave that money to the third ward as their "start-up" budget.

As for start-up supplies, they are sent automatically to the unit and the stake is charged for them so that shouldn't be an issue.