Transient Bishop

The transient Bishop in our Stake has incurred expenses helping transient members and wants to know how to be reimbursed. He thinks it would be unfair to be reimbursed from his ward's fast offerings account since that would make it seem his ward may be over spending in that area.

I would assume that if he identifies those expenditures and notifies the Stake President, the ward would not be considered over spending for it's own members.

I would appreciate any comments.

carlscpa wrote:The transient Bishop in our Stake has incurred expenses helping transient members and wants to know how to be reimbursed. He thinks it would be unfair to be reimbursed from his ward's fast offerings account since that would make it seem his ward may be over spending in that area.

I would assume that if he identifies those expenditures and notifies the Stake President, the ward would not be considered over spending for it's own members.

I would appreciate any comments.

The only person who would even be making any judgment as to whether a ward is "over spending" in the area of fast offering expenditures is the stake president. The only practical way to pay fast offering expenses is from a ward. So my recommendation would be for the bishop to let the stake president know what he is doing. In the process of doing that, the stake president will certainly give him counsel as to how he should get reimbursed, but I'm quite confident that the stake president will simply say to cover the expenses through the ward's fast offering account. When the stake president analyzes fast offering expenditures, he will then know why that ward's expenditures may be unusually high.

There is no such thing as over-spending fast-offering funds. Bishop Burton provided clarification in the 2009 Worldwide Leadership Training. See this post (and accompanying thread) for more.

crislapi wrote:There is no such thing as over-spending fast-offering funds.

I wouldn't interpret Bishop Burton's statement quite that strongly. Although it's true that there should be no correlation between fast offering donations and expenditures, it can be entirely proper for a stake president to examine the fast offering assistance that a bishop has been providing and counsel him that it needs to be reduced -- not because it exceeds any fixed amount, but because of some particular expenses which may be inappropriate. A large increase in spending may be one factor that leads the stake president to do that analysis and discuss the situation with the bishop, making sure that the bishop understands and properly applies the principles behind the welfare program.

Thank you very much. Your replies have been very helpful.

I have a couple sleeping on a church lawn overnight. They do not have transportation and want to get to Georgia where they would have family support. They do not have funds and did not have food. Arrangements were made to get them something to eat. Suggestions

jhorton743 wrote:I have a couple sleeping on a church lawn overnight. They do not have transportation and want to get to Georgia where they would have family support. They do not have funds and did not have food. Arrangements were made to get them something to eat. Suggestions

The forum is for providing support with Church technology and record-keeping. This question falls outside of the scope of what the forum is intended to address.

This question is best resolved by visiting with the bishop or, in your case, with your stake president. Handbook 1 5.1.2 has information on welfare assistance for people who are transient or homeless.