Some Thoughts On Required Pledging - by Steven Gilbert, Bylaws and Policies Working Group
As a member of the committee recently charged by the Board to propose changes to the church Bylaws, I was struck by the concerns raised about the (now adopted) requirement that all voting members make and fulfill an annual financial pledge to support the church. The change has generated concern among some of us who favor a more laissez-faire approach to giving; but in truth, this is standard practice in many churches and likely to bode well in the long run for the financial health of our community.
For one thing, the new requirement reminds us that pledging and giving is serious business, not something to be ignored or relegated to the back burner and then forgotten. It is an incurred obligation of membership in the UUCB community. Our annual budget is based upon pledges, and our minister(s) and staff are paid accordingly. Current pledge drives have proven cumbersome and inefficient. Each spring, behind the scenes, staff, board members and volunteers spend considerable time chasing down those who have neglected to renew their pledges, creating uncertainty and disorder in the budgeting process. It need not be this way. The new Bylaws merely require members to fulfill an implicit commitment to the community that they made when assuming membership: to support the community financially in a regularized way.
While some members may resent this approach, it’s difficult to see how the new requirement violates any UU principles, especially since there is an “out” for members unable to make even a token pledge. No one will be punished for poverty. The new rules also will enable the church to get an accurate count of active members: important for determining a quorum at congregational meetings and for tracking growth or decline in membership, among other things.
The mature take on this, in my view, is that requiring able members to make and fulfill a pledge to the church is no different in kind from requiring able citizens to pay taxes in the greater community; but unlike with taxes, you get to choose how much you can and will contribute. When you really stop and think about it, that’s not such a bad deal.
