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Diocesan Apportionment Review Committee Protocol
Title I Canon 7 Section 3 – Canon for Parish Apportionment

 
The Diocesan Apportionment Review Committee is made up of 2 people (lay and/or ordained)
per deanery, and one staff person.

 
The annual apportionment letter will be sent from the Diocesan Finance office in mid-December.
Every congregation will respond, in writing, to the Diocesan Finance Office within 45 days
(January 30) as stated by the canon. Any congregation late in responding will receive a courtesy
reminder call from a committee member from that deanery.

 
If any congregation pledges less than the apportioned amount, it will reply in writing to the
Diocesan Finance Office stating why that is so. The Diocesan Finance Office will then contact
the Review Committee members in that congregation’s deanery.

 
The Review Committee will meet in February to review any letters sent by congregations who
pledge less than their apportioned amount. Review Committee members from each deanery will
contact the rector (or clergy person in charge) and/or the senior warden from that congregation to
schedule a meeting to discuss the circumstances of the lower pledge.

Review Committee members will ask the rector and senior warden to develop within six months
from the initial meeting (but by no later than September 30 of that year), a five-year plan
(maximum) to live into the canon, listing concrete steps to increase its pledged amount
proportionally each year until the annual apportioned amount is met. This plan will be sent to
the Diocesan Finance Office to distribute to the Review Committee members from that deanery,
as well as the Bishop and Standing Committee, for review and possible suggestions by the entire
Review Committee.

 
To assist in the development of the five-year plan, from 2008 through 2012, Review Committee
members will provide the congregation with a list of possible supportive resources to assist in
developing the five-year plan. Such resources may include the Diocesan Stewardship
Committee, the annual Diocesan Stewardship Conference, the Diocesan Finance Office, the
Diocesan Congregational Development Office, the Diocesan Consulting Team, and the
Congregational Development Commission.

 
Should any congregation fail to meet with members of the Review Committee, or develop within
six months a five-year plan (maximum) to live into the canon, or work with the supportive
resources available, the Review Committee will refer the congregation to the Bishop and
Standing Committee, per Title II Canon 14 – On Restoring Congregational Health.

 
Respectfully submitted,
The Rev. Dan Scheid
Convener, the Diocesan Apportionment Review Committee

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