From the Dues Committee - December 1998

In our introductory column last month, we spoke about our obligation and responsibility as Jews to support our chosen Jewish community, Congregation Albert. While this support can and should take many forms, including spiritual, educational and volunteerism, it must of necessity include your strong financial commitment. We call it Fair Share.

It takes a lot of money to meet our collective expectations. Specifically, the current budget is $812,000. This figure excludes money for badly needed capital expenditures, such as a new roof, air conditioner work, landscaping and a computer system upgrade. Generous donations help with some of these extraordinary expenses, of course. But donations don't (and shouldn't) compensate for the fact that general operating expenses exceed collected dues.

While religious school income and direct education expenses pretty much offset one another, this is not the case with dues (income) and administrative expenses. Let's examine the income and outflow of Congregation Albert's finances:

Income	Thousands	Percent	Expenses	Thousands	Percent
Dues	$466.2	57.4%	Salaries/Benefits	$366.8	45.5%
Prog/Fund Raising	104.0	12.8%	Education	244.9	30.3%
Education	241.3	29.8%	Utilities	57.8	7.2%
			UAHC Dues	40.0	5.0%
			Maint/Repairs	27.1	3.4%
			Programs	24.6	3.0%
			Office Expenses	20.2	2.5%
			Communication	15.4	1.9%
			Remaining	14.7	1.2%

1. The cost of running the education program (30.3% of all expenses; mostly for teachers' salaries) is generally offset by education income (29.7% of total income). No attempt has been made to assign building use or other support service related costs to the education program.

2. The single largest expense, as you would expect from a "service" oriented organization, is salaries (45.5%) for our professional and administrative staff. These costs include salaries, employee benefits and payroll taxes.

3. Expenses that should be supported by dues _ all except education and programs _ totals 66.7%; yet dues accounts for only 57.4% of total income. The shortfall is made up by fund raising.

Summary
So, how do we interpret these cold figures? Simply put, we need to be collecting more dues. For those members who are not pledging their Fair Share, these facts should crystallize for you the importance and necessity of meeting your obligation and responsibility to your chosen Jewish community, Congregation Albert. Call Judy Weinstein (883-1818) right now to increase your pledge. We need your Fair Share.