WMU keeping contributions

by Christy
(Tennessee)

I'm the financial secretary for a small 100 member church so all contributions end up being entered into the accounting system by me.

I just found out by reading a minutes report that the WMU have been collecting contributions in their monthly meetings for a long time now and kept an informal set of hand-written notebooks with income/expenses without reporting any of that to the office.

It is even speculated that the WMU Treasurer (not the official church treasurer) has a private/personal bank account that she is using to deposit this money.

Is this legal or permissible?

Comments for WMU keeping contributions

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Church should be aware
by: Anonymous

The church should know which bank holds the funds and who are the signatories on the account.

It happened at a church I previously attended that the person in charge of the women’s group bank account moved away and no one could locate the account. No one knew which bank up the funds were held at or what happened to them.

All funds should require 2 signatures to access the funds or close the account.
Depends
by: Andrew

I suppose it depends on what your concerns are. I see this as an opportunity for fraud (Don't read too much into that; my job is to see opportunities for fraud). Assuming that is not a concern, is the amount material to your financial statements? To me the biggest concern is if the donors are claim this as a tax deduction. Is the WMU treasurer telling the ladies at the end of the year how much they can deduct for these contributions? This would be a BIG issue. To my knowledge, that is the only LEGAL issue.
WMU???
by: Lewis in NC

Be careful when using initials. People with whom you are communicating may not know what they mean.

In the United Methodist Church the "Book of Discipline" says it is just fine for women of the church, UMW( United Methodist Women)to have a separate checking account for their Christian missions. So your church bylaws may permit this separate account, but I would suggest that the overall church financial accounting records also reflect a summary(at least yearly)of these funds and how they are being spent.

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